Now that summer has arrived, dragging with her all her luggage - heat, humidity, Japanese beetles...I find that my pace has slowed. Working into a summer routine means taking my ever-present list and cutting it up into bite-sized pieces.
I get into a nice rhythm - go outside and weed my way to project number one. Complete project and weed my way back into the house. Do inside project. Repeat process. I used to curse the heat and humidity for showing me down. Now I am trying to be open to the moment. Not an easy task for someone who measures a day's worth in how many items get checked off her list! There are definitely upsides to this heat. The sheep and lambs are flopped out under the trees with half-closed eyes, chewing their cud. Other than a cursory bleat here and there, I am not assailed every time I appear within view. Peace!
Progress made this weekend: Sage is coming around and I was able to scratch her ears yesterday! Chickie (aka Butterball) is very affectionate, but I'm going to have to work out a different feeding system. The two surprise chicks who where rapidly outgrowing their brooder have been moved out of my laundry room and into the nursery coop! This has meant the shifting of the teenagers into the big-girl coop. I was surprised at how smoothly that went (oops - jinxed myself!) I got the laundry room cleaned up and washed my bigger rugs. It's so hot out that it's perfect for drying them out on the deck. I put up the electronet so the sheep get a bigger grazing area, although they're limited to grazing in the late afternoon/early evening. Flora gets so easily overheated, I limit their exposure. Even though there is shade available, she will just stand out and eat and not take advantage of it.
My parents were with me this weekend, having come down for a friend's annual birthday bash. Her mother comes up from the city and they are all around the same age and get along famously. It was a lot of fun for all of us. They stay overnight and it's a nice visit, even with the unexpected cat visits during the night. My mom is not a cat person and my cats, being the perverse things that they are, lurk outside the guest room door, waiting for an opportunity to dart inside. Things can get pretty lively in the middle of the night.
All in all, a very satisfactory weekend.
7 comments:
I am wondering how you have japanese Beetles with your chickens and ducks. I think you need to have a talk with them. Thank goodness everyone got a haircut recently. This heat is awful on the critters.
You tell your mom I sympathize with her on the cat thing LOL! I am amazed at all you are able to get done in the heat. Nothing about me agrees with these 100 heat indexes we've had daily, last night we went out at 7:30 just to pull a few weeds and were eaten alive by mosquitoes! You are superwoman!
Do your cats bother the chickens? We don't keep cats, so I was wondering.
You are such a busy gal. Sometimes the lists make me realize how much I don't accomplish, so I hide them under scraps of other paper. my bad
Jane - Unfortunately, the Japanese beetles favor my garden and fruit trees - which are in the front, safely fenced off from the bug eaters!
Erin - I got started early on cats - living in apts. limited my options. Everyone in my family EXCEPT for my mother likes cats. Thank god we don't have skeeters like you do! That kind of heat index would melt me into a puddle.
APG - Nope because they (cats) never go outside. Too many cat-eating things out there. Here's a great list trick - use a blackboard and just erase them!
I don't like heat at all--add in humidity and I lay (lie?) around like a slug.
I try and get all my outdoor things done early in the morning, then we do "siesta" in the afternoon. Nothing like sleeping away the hottest part of the day under the ceiling fan!
:)
Yikes,I'm starting to resemble you gals in one way. You all talk about this list that has to get accomplished. Here,that's what I've been doing all along. Next thing ya know I will have moved to a real farm,and I will start to buy lambs and chickens---oh-that was a dream ! lol [ A good one tho ]
You needed a weekend that was on the stress-less side so I'm glad (it sounds like) you got it. Sometimes having company MAKES you stop pushing so hard so if your parents visiting did that, good show! We are so fortunate that the inside of our house almost always stays cool so we can duck in for a cool-down break when working outside in the heat.
Post a Comment