Odds and ends

I've made a bunch of trips to town this week and now I finally get a chance to stop in at the library to use the computer (and get books of course). Life has been a mad rush these past couple of weeks but I can't complain because things have been good. I was going nuts trying to be three places at once, zipping from one town to another and then yet another, then fitting a little time in here and there to stop in and do Kyle's chores twice a day and then my other neighbors chores once a day, somehow I managed to remember to do my chores and even fit in some time at a couple of auction sales. At first I was really stressed and worried and up tight about getting everything done that I thought I had to do, which was more than the hours in the day would allow, I was getting tired, forgetting things and , well, I am sure everyone knows how it is. While I was shoveling grain I was thinking about how far behind I was when it dawned on me, why am I worried about all of this? What happens if I don't get everything done? My house was the most incredible disaster it has ever been, the shop was the same and I was so disgusted but who really cares? What is the eternal significance of having the house clean every moment of every day? Well, the answer is that nothing I was worrying about really had any eternal significance, if I was an hour late milking the cow wouldn't die and if the house was trashed I could always clean it later, hopefully before the dirty dishes had mould growing on them. So, after thinking about it I quit worrying, stopped rushing around like a madman and even stopped for a few minutes to play the piano just for fun, and you know, things got done just as fast. No, the house is still a complete disaster but I'll have time to clean it tomorrow I hope, and if not I can try again the next day, it's so small t is really not to big a job to clean the entire place. The night after I decided to quit worrying David called me at 2 AM (not entirely uncommon) but when I answered his phone lost service (they have terrible cell phone service out where he is) so I went to bed. The next morning he called me and asked what to do for a concussion, which was his way of telling me he had a concussion and needed help but was not willing to actually tell me he had one. I asked a few pointed questions and it turns out that when he was calling me at 2 am he was trying to keep awake by talking on the phone while he was driving home from town but he passed out and wrecked. After more pointed questions it turns out he had not slept in going on 4 days/nights and he passed out just in time to drive into a vertical dirt embankment at 60 miles per hour, his pickup is absolutely demolished, which is sad because it was really a nice rig, a Dodge Cummins diesel with very low miles. He made it out with a cut on his head and a bloody nose from the air bag blowing, a some chiropractor adjustments needed and a slight concussion, he also is missing a couple of hours which he didn't know he was missing but I happen to know exactly when he crashed (the phone call) and he told me when he got out of the pickup (through the broken window) and called for help (he had to scramble up a tall hill there to get phone service) and there are several hours there that he doesn't recall, he must have been passed out in the pickup.
Lesson learned: The Lord "...giveth his beloved sleep.' so we should sleep when it is time to do so! Forget the heroics and the idea of being an invincible 20 year old that can work all night and stay awake all day. No thing that we think we have to do is so important that we kill ourselves for it. Now I just need to paste that on the windshield of my car!

Sadly, I am not planning on having a big garden this year, I just will not be home when I need to care for it. On the other hand, I don't think I will be very happy without some sort of garden so I am planting a small one, which will probably be just fine because last year I had WAY too big of a garden and am still flooded with things from it. Yesterday I brought the tractor and tiller down from the other farm and tilled up the 4 1/4 acre plots and a new kitchen garden/herb garden spot. One of the 1/4 acre plots is the strawberry field and is about 1/4 full from last year, the berries came through the winter absolutely beautifully so I am confident enough to add to it this year. The plan is to have the entire 1/4 acre in strawberries within a couple of years, right now dealing with that many berries is absolutely out of the question so I am using cover crops to build the soil as I plant a few rows of berries each year. The plot next to that is for raspberries but I am going to plant one last crop of buckwheat cover crop there this spring before planting any raspberries, it's right next to the pond and the soil needs a little more work on drainage, which the buckwheat should help with along with the calcium I'll spread. The other two plots I am going to plant to alfalfa today or tomorrow if I can fit that project in, I'll hay them for a couple of years and then work the alfalfa in when I am ready to put in other things, by then the other alfalfa field ought to be producing well. The new kitchen garden spot is going to be a bit of work to build because I want it to be permanent raised beds with irrigation and I'll set it up to be a completely enclosed hoop house so I can start things earlier directly in the garden. This summer I'll be getting that finished up and the soil fixed up so that I can have the late fall things in. I guess I'll be hauling a lot of manure in!