Lady Henevere: Year in review

[Farmfresh]

As far as hauling bales, my DH uses a wheelchair so that makes things interesting as far as how he accommodates chores. The best thing he has found is a hand truck. Rather than having to lift the bale into the wheelbarrow, you just lay the hand truck on the ground, roll the bale onto it. Then he picks up the handle end and puts it on his knee and pushes it where he wants it. Much easier and more ergonomic than a wheel barrow. Of course wheel barrows have so many other uses for the garden it may make a better investment if you don't already have a hand truck.

GREAT suggestion!! I am getting more and more useless with this arthritis/neuropathy all of the time, so I really appreciate ANY work suggestions that your hubby has to give.

I am not wheel chair bound (yet :/ ) but I can only stand for limited amounts of time and most days walking far is difficult. It is always encouraging to me to see other SSers that have overcome disabilities and are still getting the job done!

 

[Lady Henevere]

I'm impressed that your hubby hauls around bales of hay! It is good to know different ways of doing things, knowing that we can make things work even if we aren't Superman. Love it.

A hand truck is a great idea! So much more useful than a wheelbarrow, since it can be used for so many different things. I already haul my stuff around in trash cans or bins, I could just put those on the hand truck and go. Thanks!

 

[Denim Deb]

I have a one of those mesh wagons w/no sides. They're great for pulling around hay. I've also used them to take bags of feed to my tack shed if it's too wet to get into the parking area w/my truck. Plus, I can stick a bucket on it, fill that w/whatever (normally horse poo) then dump it.

 

[framing fowl]

Well, glad you found the ideas useful! The only other things I can think of off the top of my head that he uses all the time are wheeled dollys that he makes himself (think furniture moving dolly), bottle jacks and blocking to hold stuff up, handyman jacks, and levers.

 

[Lady Henevere]

Lost, between sunrise and sunset,
One golden hour, set with sixty diamond minutes.
No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

This is from Little Town on the Prairie (apparently a misquote from Horace Mann). I always thought it was kind of harsh that a valuable "lost" hour would be gone forever. Life shouldn't be all work. I kind of like losing hours here and there; I like losing them in books, great movies that challenge my mind, learning new things on the internet.

But those kinds of "lost" hours aren't really lost. The hour passes, but you get something in return -- new ideas, new perspectives, new knowledge. But for "lost" hours to result in a gain, the quality of what you do for that hour has to be something decent.

My hours lately have simply been lost.

I have been spending too much time on silly internet sites, reading fluffy news that I don't really care about, paying attention to political nitpicking I don't like, and researching details that have no impact of my life.

No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

How true.

Today I resolve to myself to stop. Stop reading internet crap I don't care about. Stop reading about political silliness I can't fix. Stop procrastinating. I need to find my self-discipline, break the time-wasting cycle, and work on being more productive.

I'm off to do some work....

 

[Kala]

Lost, between sunrise and sunset,
One golden hour, set with sixty diamond minutes.
No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

This is from Little Town on the Prairie (apparently a misquote from Horace Mann). I always thought it was kind of harsh that a valuable "lost" hour would be gone forever. Life shouldn't be all work. I kind of like losing hours here and there; I like losing them in books, great movies that challenge my mind, learning new things on the internet.

But those kinds of "lost" hours aren't really lost. The hour passes, but you get something in return -- new ideas, new perspectives, new knowledge. But for "lost" hours to result in a gain, the quality of what you do for that hour has to be something decent.

My hours lately have simply been lost.

I have been spending too much time on silly internet sites, reading fluffy news that I don't really care about, paying attention to political nitpicking I don't like, and researching details that have no impact of my life.

No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

How true.

Today I resolve to myself to stop. Stop reading internet crap I don't care about. Stop reading about political silliness I can't fix. Stop procrastinating. I need to find my self-discipline, break the time-wasting cycle, and work on being more productive.

I'm off to do some work....

I hear ya! I usually start off good, getting online to try and find some new SS ideas etc. (a good "lost hour" lol) But then I end up on facebook playing all of those stupid games, for hours. I've gotten a lot better lately tho by just not even turning on the computer in the morning. Start chores and don't sit down or give myself time to get distracted. I try not to get online during the day. Just at night when I can't get anything else done outside.

I agree about all of the silly reading you can get into. It's everywhere!!

 

[Denim Deb]

I try to just get on here at nights. And, I don't always make it thru all the posts. This is my time to wind down and relax.

 

[framing fowl]

Here's to properly losing time!

More time watching the chickens
More time digging in dirt
More time sitting in the shade of a tree sipping ice cold unsweet tea and reading a good book
More time with people you care about
More time daydreaming and doodling
More time creatively cooking
More time meditating
More time volunteering
.
.
.

 

[Lady Henevere]

Great list, ff. I need to print that out and post it on the border of my computer screen to remind myself how I really want to spend my time.

 

[Lady Henevere]

Sheesh. Be careful what you wish for.

I have been so busy I can't even see straight. Actually, I think I can't see straight because of the insomnia. But I have been busy. No time to waste, which is a good thing.

Work is crazy, which is also good - it has been slow for a long time and I really needed more work. But when it rains it pours, and now suddenly there's too much. I'm glad I had some slow time because now I appreciate the work more.

In the meantime--because things always happen at the most inconvenient times--my personal life is busy as heck. DD is in summer school, so she's only there half-days, and DH is working a lot so he's not around to pick her up and take her home. The poor kid keeps getting dragged into my office to spend the afternoons. Nice summer, huh? My lease is up soon so I'm supposed to be shopping for a new car and I don't have time. The brakes went out on my current car and I had to have them done which is a bummer since I will barely even use them. (I'm not leasing next time.) DD's birthday is next weekend, all her friends will be gone--the downside of a holiday birthday--and I can't think of what to do to make her birthday special. (We might go camping...?) My cousin, who is a couple years older than DD, has come to live with us for the summer (and beyond?) and adding a new kid to the mix is an adjustment. I'm her "learning coach" for her online school, and I keep forgetting to monitor her progress in summer school. Which reminds me.... *opens new tab*

And meanwhile the garden has a lot of failures. My squash seedlings still have four little leaves, two of my six tomato plants are yellowed and dying, I had to take out a brussels sprout plant because it was so covered in little gray bugs I couldn't get them off, one bin of potato plants had all the leaves eaten by caterpillars I could never find to eradicate, and another bin has plants about five feet tall which makes me wonder if the plant has put any effort whatsoever into creating tubers rather than just shooting up greenery. The two tomatoes, squash, and some pathetic-looking basil are in an area where I have been trying to amend the soil, and although there are now lots of worms there and the soil looks much better than it did, I wonder what I have done to it to make it so unpalatable to the squash and tomatoes. I really need to get that soil testing kit I've been meaning to buy...

In good garden news, the peach tree was so over-ambitious this year that I had to thin a bunch of fruit off of it. I probably should have done that earlier, but oh well. If I get anything edible from the tree this year I will be happy. I have a single avocado growing -- the first from that tree. Lots of blackberries and boysenberries are growing, and there is a single tiny apple on one of the apple trees. That apple tree had aphids, and I sprayed it with soap spray last weekend, and I haven't been out to check it since. I hope I haven't killed it or something.

I need sleep. Or coffee.