recycled « Robin Writes

This week’s adventures will include planting a garden in the mud and trying to mow the pasture, which is something like three feet tall at this point. We’ve borrowed a trailer, and will just take our mower along.

Apologies for the weird tense—I’m writing this before we actually go to the farm this week!

So, back to the garden. The asparagus never got in the ground last time, so that’s a priority. I also picked up some blueberry and raspberry bushes. As an aside, I cannot be trusted at a garden store or nursery . . . I also made up some more verbena baskets for the front porch.

Of course, there will be more rocks ready for harvesting. Ha. And I have a tin of seeds, too: carrots and three kinds of beans and a few other things.

We’re kind of at a crossroads here: we have things now to maintain, things to make nicer and more comfortable for us, and we’re still—and will be for a long time—cleaning up and renovating and working on all kinds of projects. All at the same time.

So here’s what we’ll do, and what any prepper should do:

Animals
Food supply
People

It’s just good common sense that a farmer or homesteader take care of his animals first. They’re relatively helpless, they don’t get to make the decisions, and they generally don’t have thumbs. Fortunately, we don’t yet have animals.

Food supply, aka the garden. In order to harvest, and therefore eat, you have to plant and weed and care for your food. If you don’t get it in the ground, it won’t grow, and you’ll be hungry. Worst-case scenario, of course. Fish, too, are on the agenda—no, I don’t consider them “animals,” they’re fish and they take care of themselves.

And then there’s us. The peeps. Sure, we need shelter and water—we have those. It might not be exactly the way we want it, yet, but it’s there and we can certainly live with it. What else?

Security. Our boundaries are fenced on three sides already, and the fourth side adjoins some pretty rough terrain and woods. Some of the things we’ve found are rolls and rolls of rusted wire, mostly hog-wire but some barbed too. All of that is going behind the fences, in the undergrowth. The fences themselves aren’t livestock-proof, but they don’t need to be; our biggest concern would be someone coming in on foot. The only way in by vehicle is through the gate and down the drive.

Speaking of the gate, we’ll surely have it installed this coming week. The one we ordered is STILL on backorder, seven weeks now, but we found another place that has them in stock. Whew. Besides, those empty gateposts look pretty silly!

And we have Bob and his friends, the .22s and so forth. Just picked up some new targets too, self-sealing rubber that bounce and spin and roll. Fun! And we always make time for target practice . . .

So we’re pretty well set. But then I figured up the time available for the big move next year, and we might have to get our butts in gear. See, we’re splitting time between home and the farm, but that works out to just over a month this summer. Come fall, we’ll have less time, and that works out to about two month, or three total, until we’re living on the farm.

Yikes!

Before that happens, we have some build-outs in the barn for storage, re-doing the lean-to, and adding walls inside the house. Plus a slight kitchen and bathroom remodel—those will be fairly easy, compared to the rest. I do, however, want that done before we move furniture and other stuff.

So, let the games begin! Feel like jumping in the truck and leaving right now!

Between kid activities and my business and a few other things, I’ve barely had a chance to get down to the farm lately; except yesterday, when I took my mom down to see the place. She’s visiting from Colorado, and won’t be back until fall at least, so we took the opportunity while we had it. It was a quick trip, which means I didn’t actually do any work . . .

However, my husband has been on the job—yesterday, he put in a new water heater and last weekend he spotlessly cleaned the bathroom and went over the kitchen again. So we’re kinda civilized now.

The downside of this is that things are getting a little crazy, and by “crazy,” I mean disorganized. Bless his heart, he’s a really hard worker and can do ANYTHING, but he tends to get off-track a little. So my immediate goal is to get a few things finished and organized, like the rest of the trash around the edges of the yard, the interim storage in the closet, and the odds and ends sitting around on the deck and in the kitchen.

THEN I can focus on what needs to be done.

Complicating things a bit is that the kid got a job and it’s mostly weekends. That’s going to slow us down for a few weeks, until school is out for the summer, but after that we can adjust. Of course, it might limit any assistance, as most people I know will be working during the week, but we’ll figure it out. And, too, the coming weekend has a rainy forecast . . . for now.

My short-term goal is to work on the garden area. Trim, pick up junk, mow, plow, plant. In that order, of course. And soon. My cabbage plants are crying for a new home.

And after that, we’ve got to get the campsite built out. No, it’s still not done, but to be fair, we had a heck of a time choosing the location. And then, too, our plans were a little ambitious that first weekend. But, we have the materials, so there’s that. Hmmm. This kind of falls under the “get stuff finished!” headline.

You know, when we started this venture, we’d been thinking about everything for quite some time; and then we figured we’d find a place in a few months and have some time over the winter to get started on improvements. As it turned out, we didn’t close until spring, about 14 months before our targeted moving date, plus we had a head start with the house and barn and utilities already being on site.

But.

There’s a lot of outside stuff to do, and come fall, we’ll be working inside, moving walls and re-doing others, and adding to the kitchen and maybe some work on the bathroom. It’s not critical that these things are done before we move in, but it sure would be easier to have the remodel finished without furniture and other “stuff” in the way.

A year seemed like a long time—but the clock is ticking!