This photo was taken about a year ago when we rode our bikes to the farmer's market in North Carolina to buy pumpkins. Now this is the bike that I ride to work when I can. My how things change in a year!How many people do you know who get to Friday and start to feel the stress setting in? Seriously, what does that mean? That I try and do too much on the weekends? That I set my standards too high? That I perhaps should stop trying to work a full time job and a farm? UGH.
So yes, it's Friday and I'm already stressing about everything I need to get done this weekend. The list is too long for two days, but here it is anyway:
Paint the house - we should have decent weather, so we need to get more painting done. This means hand painting the trim and then covering it and the windows and renting a sprayer to spray the walls.
Trim hooves - both goats are in need of a hoof trim. This should be about a quarterly task and we've had Sass for about 3 months now. We have instructions and the tools...but neither of us have done this before. It should be an interesting experience.
Build 'green house' - The weather has warmed a little, so we've been able to put this off, but I have the materials necessary to build a green house of sorts over one of our garden boxes. The plan is to build it and then plant lettuce, spinach and other colder weather items in it. This is definitely an experiment, but it's one we have to start very, very soon!
Process grapes and apples - we are still up to our ears in grapes and apples. I got a neat grape preserve recipe that I'm going to try - and we are going to juice as many as we can. I also need to keep working on putting up apples. My goal is to fill two dehydrators full of red delicious and to do at least one (if not two) canner loads of apple pie apples.
There are lots of other little things (like buying dog food), but these are the BIG ones. Let's hope that we can knock a few things off this list!!
3 comments:
Cat! I totally know how you feel. We renovated our entire condo mostly ourselves including two complete marble bathrooms at night and on weekends while we worked 6 1/2 days! Of course, we didn't have any livestock to contend with! Just prioritize the best you can.
Can you enlist the help of someone who already knows how to do the goats' hooves? I find seeing someone do it makes it much easier - I'm sure that the goats can wait until next week, as can the greenhouse.
Did I post a photo of Lou's greenhouse at the ya yas? He made it out of rebar and pvc pipes from Home Depot. So far, so good!
I sure wish I lived closer, I'd love to help you!
Tomorrow I will be experimenting on our new cookstove (it uses any kind of leaf material or wood for fuel - it's like a canister) making flat bread. I figure that if we lose electricity, it will be nice to know how to cook bread outdoors. I mean, how long can we exist on beans and oatmeal! LOL!
Have a great and productive weekend. Once you get the house painted, you won't have to think about it again for years! You'll get through this and learn so many new skills. Jobs that take a while now because you're learning, will fly by in the future!
Take care- Barbara
Hi Cat, maybe you could think of doing only one or two big things each weekend, plus all the little things.
I agree with Barbara about having someone trim the goats' hooves--at least this one time so you can watch how it's done. So that would be the painting this weekend, and putting up apples and grapes. Then do the greenhouse next weekend. The goats can get done by someone next weekend.
I can't imagine doing what you are doing and working full-time. Any chance you could scale back to 3/4 time? Just a thought! Hang in there--you are doing more than most people dream about.
-Juliellen
Hi Barbara -
I didn't know who to ask about the hooves and since it seemed like something we could figure out, I figured it was worth a shot. As it is, we are going to have to find someone who can show us how to do injections for the goats before too long!
What kind of cookstove do you have? It sounds very interesting! Do you have pictures?
Hi Juliellen -
I wish I could do 3/4 time. Hell, I'd be happy with 1/2 time, at least in the fall around 'harvest' time. I don't really have that option though... I just have to remind myself that my job pays me the kind of $ that I could never make doing my own little enterprises around the farm. :-) And right now, that's important. If we didn't have a mortgage, it would be very different. Maybe we should buy lottery tickets?!
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