Showing posts with label plans. clearing brush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plans. clearing brush. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Starting fresh

Each month bill day is so traumatic for me, that having the wretched task done gives a feeling akin to rebirth. It's a new beginning, a fresh start. Then my mind turns to how can I do something so INCREDIBLY spectacular this month that I will never have to face bill day again. This usually sets me off in a flurry of activity that is physically impossible to maintain. But this month... ahh, this month will be different.

I have pledged that this month I will work smarter not just harder. The goal this month is to video tape everything that we do here. Some of it will be used to give us a more impartial look at what we are trying to do. Some of it will go to YouTube. Some of it, I really, really hope, will be used to create a video library to teach different skills. Some of it will just be a diary of the progress that we are making.

I have so many plans!! I would , of course, like to start with the hobbit playhouse. After all, I'm a grandma, and grandmas are suppose to be good for things like that. Then I have to get on top of the horse fencing. The outdoor kitchen and the shop have to fall in line next. After that will be the wedding site. I'm especially excited about the wedding site!!! We've got a place in the woods that is fairly accessible and very pretty. The plan is to doll it up and build a rustic fireplace in and rent it for small weddings. Hopefully it will end up making a few mortgage payments.

The thing is this.... whenever I say I'm going to accomplish something here, I DO accomplish it!! It's kind of a little miracle, I think. So today I am making my declaration for turning my dreams into reality. Today is going to be a good day! Today I will make a good start.

So, yesterday was the once a month bill trauma. Today, is hopes and dreams and plans.... lots of plans! Tomorrow is Mac's visit back to Iowa City to see the Dr. It will be a gut wrencher, because it always is. If things go as usual, he will sleep on the way over. We will be sitting and waiting in one place or another for two hours. We will talk to Dr.s for about fifteen minutes, Then we will leave with another appointment for next month. On the way out Mac will ask me if I want to stop and eat. I will say no that I want to get the hell out of Dodge first. I never feel safe as long as we remain in Iowa City. I have to get some miles under me. Then we stop and eat in Des Moines on the way home. Mac will order food and then spend the next hour talking about all of the food that he misses and how much he wished stuff would start tasting good. Then we will get back in the truck and head home. Eventually we will pull onto our road. It is so small, and it's shaded. The trees reach over the road and touch and you feel like you are driving into different world. That will be the first moment when the stress starts to fall away. We will pull up the incredibly steep drive and see the lights in our wee house, and Mac will say, "We're home!" Then, only then, will we really feel safe and out of their reach.

The day after tomorrow I will make plans.

louie

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

plans for today

It is just gorgeous out today!! I've already been out to feed the horses. It was light but the sun wasn't totally out. Shades of pink and purple streaming across the east. It's pretty breezy but the air felt nice. The horse lot is finally drying out a bit but their hooves have churned everything up so the ground looks as if it has been rough plowed.

This beautiful weather makes me want to do a lot. Then I get to thinking. Then I shoot myself in the foot by making a list. I am the queen of all list makers. I have been known to make a list that filled a page and a half of typing paper and then been depressed because I didn't get it all done. I try to be smarter then that now, what with my advancing years and all. Now I have a little tiny tablet. It's about two inches by three and a half inches. Even then I have to be careful. I just keep writing smaller! Then I write up the side. Then I try to squeeze small one word commands in and on occasion a symbol that I think means something but latter just leaves me saying ,"What the h.....!!"

But today, I hope to keep it simple and not make my brains explode. Some computer work this morning until it warms up a bit more. Then some brush clearing. Then some erosion control. This afternoon will be indoors. Indoors work can be so HARD on days like this. It is just too nice to be indoors. If I make myself be indoors I get really cranky and say bad words and then it works up to a bit of rage. Then I HAVE to go outdoors to diffuse my anger with physical labor.

Of course, the hard part of the day will be shutting down my brains from trying to continue planning. After awhile, you don't even see the place as it is.... you see it according to the plan. My plan (and my brain) is more complicated. I can click my vision between phase one, phase two or phase three pretty easily and in the whole course of the event never perceive reality at all. It's kind of cool, like living in a video game.... a video game where no one gets shot, but you fall in the mud a lot and where you go for very long periods of time with nothing happening. But it's cool anyway. Phase one is having the woods cleaned from all of the dead elm and the weird underbrush that has taken over. Trust me... in my head it looks very nice. Then phase two has the plantings. I can see the new hardwoods coming up. The sugar maples and oaks and some areas with some groupings of spruces. There is also a more diversified under growth with more food sources for pheasant and quail. Phase three is the hardscaping. There will be little fire rings scattered about with log seats here and there. Then there will a few bridges over small ravines, you know, for the trolls. A St. Patrick"s shrine next to a path for the travelers. There are some really good natural trails that need to be developed a little , probably mulch. I keep hoping for some sort of divine intervention that will cause a really nice chipper shredder to miraculously come into my possession. There will be little grassy glades sprinkled throughout the woods. These serve an important purpose....THEY KEEP THE DAMN DEER OFF MY TREES!!

Then there will be a happy little path that leads to a very special pretty cabin. Smoke will rise from the chimney and the sun will shine on it's roof. The window will be cracked a little and the smells of good food will waft out and then you will hear a voice coming from the small cabin..... it'll be the voice of an old broad cussing and then she will say," I told you not to get me distracted with planning and making lists! I only have time for clearing brush and some erosion control!"

louie