Our ten days at the Farm in late May/early June were work-filled and blessed with mainly good, clear weather. It is a pity I was not able to cut the pastures, as the ground was fairly dry and we had a week with no rain; it has rained regularly since we left and they may not get mowed until well into July. But we had other things to do, and Bobby can mow when things dry out again.
The folks took the opportunity to drive out to Oklahoma to visit family, meet a new great-grandaughter, and get away from the Farm for a bit. With us there to look after the dogs, it was as simple as jumping in the truck and driving West. We appreciated having the place to ourselves for the week; we enjoy their company but when we’re there to work non-stop on specific tasks, it’s nice to set our own meal times (supper usually waits until after dark, past nine) and not have to explain what we’re doing and make conversation as we fly in and out of the little house. At least for me, that’s the benefit. My type-A dawn-to-dusk work practices are not always easy for laid-back retired folks to understand.
I had every intention and was well-prepared to tackle two projects this visit: building steps for the back door to replace the unsafe stack of cinderblocks that Alene had tumbled down once already, and repainting and moving to storage the rusting corral panels that once served as a stock handling pen. The cinderblock stoop was completely inadequate and the corral, 20 panels or so, is placed too close to the Big Pond and has been weathering unnecessarily, unused since 2002. I will set it up in a better location as a round pen for training the horses, when that time comes.
The back door steps idea morphed into a full-blown porch, a 6′ x 10′ deck with two wide steps and a sturdy railing 
capped with 2 x 8’s, built strong and solid on four posts embedded in concrete footers with a concrete pad at the base of the steps; safe, roomy, useful, enduring. And beautiful, I think. It took me 9 days to finish, from digging the footer holes to putting the last coat of stain on the deck. Halfway through the week I realized my pace was slower than I’d planned, and the corral panels would have to wait another year for their sanding and new coat of green Rustoleum paint. But doing something well is always worth taking your time.
Derril left me alone with my carpentry project and worked on digging out culverts and drainage ditches on the road up to the hill. He also replaced the kitchen faucet and fixed a few problems around the house. Carpentry is not really his thing, and I will admit I work better by myself on projects like this where I am learning and figuring things out as I go. So he worked at his pace and I at mine, and we were both pleased with what we accomplished on this trip.
Thistledog's Farm 
That is quite a deck, Kay! One thing that I have learned is that there is a different kind of time in rural America. What you accomplished in 9 days would take a month (or more) for the locals to accomplish. That isn’t said maliciously, either – it is a fact of life that you have to get used to when you live there. It isn’t laziness – it is a whole different way of looking at life. I think a lot of the reason that projects take so much longer to complete is that there is a network of “mutual help” that is much more important than the task at hand. When a neighbor needs help with his animals or his fields, that ranks higher than the project at hand and so work stops and the neighbor is helped first. It is just a very different way of living that, when you are settled in, you will have to learn to adapt to. In urban America, money is security. In rural America, mutual assistance is security.
Good to hear from you Jeff! I remembered you were heading up to Floyd that last week in June and figured being on the road would keep you off the ethernet for a bit like it did me. Welcome back and thanks for the comments… good points you make, and timely. I’ll be needing some of that rural mutual assistance in the near future, hope there’s a little out there in Bear and Thistle neck of the woods… I’ve laid some groundwork already, just need to follow up and see what level of support I might find.