Yikes, nearly a month gone by without an update. So much for that New Year’s resolution to post more regularly!
Truth is, I’m out of the habit, and spending an awful lot of time projecting, so free time is truly limited. One habit I have gotten into, though, is working at least an hour a day outside after I get home from work, often by halogen worklight. It has really helped me wrap the big fence project up, but it cuts my evenings short inside, leaving just enough time to cook and eat dinner before I have to drag my old bones to bed.
And of course once enough time passes, it can be difficult to find an entry point back into the journaling stream, so much has gotten done and should be reported on. This fence project, for instance, which none of you’ve heard a thing about but I’ve been working on since mid-October. I wish I would have written about it a little at a time as it was progressing, instead of leaving it to the end to describe start to finish. There’s a trick to that I have yet to learn. It doesn’t help that I’m not a speedy writer, and these days my thoughts are more scattered than ever, so sitting down and capturing a day or two’s worth of happenings seems to be a huge challenge. I doubt I’m alone in this, though.
But, the side fence is finished, glory hallelujia. I learned to pour concrete walls and gained a lot of confidence in my ability to see a major project through from just an idea to completion, the product of my own labor. Yes, I had a little help, but most of the work was mine, and the result delights me to no end. I’ll give a proper rundown of the whole thing start to finish in a separate post, complete with pictures. Tonight, I want to just get back to updating, and move forward.
Most weekends I make a to-do list like the one above, starting it bleary-eyed over a hot cup of Saturday morning coffee and adding to it as the day progresses. I put everything on it I want to get done, whether it seems like too much or not. I find the challenge of lining things out helps me use my time better, keeps me motivated.
I didn’t get everything done on my to-do list this weekend, but I came darned close, as you can see. Last weekend I built a firewood rack and set it up on the New Fence side of the house; this weekend we picked up a half-cord of firewood, two trips in my little truck, which looks to be more like 3/4-cord, so I had to build another rack this morning to unload the second truckload. Got all that done before noon, in time to listen to the 2nd half of Praire Home Companion that I missed yesterday. I just about fell asleep out on the back patio listening to the radio, so I went in and took a 30-minute nap. That wasn’t on my list, but I needed it. Naps are good.
I’ve started a Ladies Fitness Club with the girls at work, more of a support group than anything, prompted by the need to help one of our top Sailors get back within bodyfat standards after her pregnancy. She and her husband just bought a house a few blocks from us, so I’ve talked her into getting together to walk her dogs out on the chapparal trails as often as we can. We started today. It’s good to be out moving my body again like that. And the dogs are great therapy.
Leftover meatloaf-and-home-canned-veggie shepherd’s pie tonight, a fire in the fireplace, blog post nearly done. Good weekend.
Thistledog's Farm 
Congrats on the fence! I do know how long and hard that job is…or rather my hubby does! He’s 64 and feels it too esp after that fence and the barn extension! By the sound of it….sitting out on the patio, building fences in Jan. and walking the Chapparal trails…you must be in sunny CA! or close to it!!! Lucky you! except for the taxes!!! Good to hear from you!!!
Diane, it’s good to hear from you too. You guessed right on my current location – San Diego, to be more specific – and believe me I do appreciate being able to get outside stuff done this time of year. This is my last year here before we split the household and I move to Kentucky to start farming, so all the projects I’ve meant to do over the years must now be tackled, there’s no more putting them off.
Yeah, I know all about taking a break from blogging – it is addictive, isn’t it? I’ve been spending a lot of time researching building systems so that I can at least attempt to hold my own when I talk to a designer soon about the house. I did read on Green Building Advisor that if you have a superinsulated home, about all you need for heat is a wood stove similar to what you bought for the modular in KY. Of course, wood stoves are only for people who have a ready supply of wood.
I’m looking forward to the posts on building a concrete wall – this is a fence, I presume? If so, you might have missed an opportunity to try Tridipanel, which are EPS foam forms with wire mesh that you spray with shotcrete. Supposedly fast and easy to do. More information if you want it.
Jeff, thank goodness you don’t give up on me entirely, in between my scattered entries. My research continues, too; we both have so much ahead to accomplish, and the time spent absorbing information is certainly well spent.
I’m not sure our little farm house is super-insulated, but I’m betting that little stove will do the trick and leave me with cooler rooms to store onions, squash and pumpkins in. And I am so fortunate to have all the wood I could ever use right there on the property.
I’m putting the fence project blog entry together, want to post it soon to share. I went with the standard cedar fence construction atop the retaining wall because I’m familiar with it and materials were readily available, but I’ll look up the Tridipanel, that sounds very interesting. I’ve read about shotcrete in my research on building cisterns.
Kay, So proud of your fence building accomplishment, but then I’m always amazed by the planning and execution of your many projects through the years! Can’t wait to see the finished product as what I saw at Christmas was just beautiful…. very sturdy, artfully crafted.
Lists are wonderful and yellow legal pads should be part of everyone’s “to do” process…there is something magnificent about crossing off the day’s endeavors and I admit to sometimes adding things to a list after the fact (take a nap, for instance) just to see it there and crossed off. I keep many of those lists as a reminder of times when industriousness prevails.
Thanks for helping our Sailors, we need to, in order to keep the good ones around and I’m sure she’ll pay it forward in some way with her juniors. Must leave for the salt mine- you’re always in my thoughts!
Liz! What a lovely surprise to read your comment, so glad to hear your voice! Thank you for the complements my dear, you give me such great support in everything I do and dream to do.
At the risk of sounding like a complete Type-A personality, I have to agree with you on how splendid it is to draft up a list of endeavors and see them finished, lined out, crossed off, done. There are days I despair of finding the needed motivation to do even the simplest things; the visual exercise of putting a group of tasks on paper and aspiring to line them out is usually all the boost I need to shake the doldrums and GET MOVING. Our mothers and grandmothers got so much done in a day; surely we can too.
Leaving this canoe club won’t be hard at all for me come next November, but I will miss my Sailors, miss helping them and inspiring them and doing whatever I can to keep their path cleared like so many people did for me. It has been the most rewarding part of the journey. Thanks for the good thoughts!