Sal and I have to get in the winter’s firewood right now and that means (as it does every year) hunting, catching, corralling, sorting, hauling, cutting, splitting and stacking wood. And it is all OK. It’s good exercise. But every year it becomes a bit more of a chore. That’s kinda what aging means, really….what you used to do easily now takes more effort.
This year we are even older and so the challenge is a bit more daunting but the task is made much harder by NOT finding all the bloody logs we need! We need maybe ten more. There is simply much less floating around this year. In other words; more time needed for more log hunting. We may just get in 3/4 of a woodshed this year and that is the usual amount we burn. Every year prior, we had some of last year’s wood left over – kinda helps kick-start the next season. This year we may not. This year we may burn all we can get and this year we may not get enough.
Oh, well.
We are also about one month behind schedule on all sorts of things. I need to build a ‘warm room’ under the house so that I can re-plumb everything in such a manner as to keep it from freezing. Freezing was not an issue for the first twelve or so years – maybe one or two days of pipe-bursting weather – but we just closed and drained the system and opened it all back up a day or so later. But the last few years have had some longer lasting cold snaps and, well, I do not want to do the water-totes-from-the-cistern routine any more. Easier to build a warm room. Hauling two 50 pound totes at 80 may be a bit more difficult than it is currently.
The great stair-climb that is our front entrance (88 steps from low water to the second floor) needed replacing and two thirds of that is done. The last third has been put on hold. Too much else to do right now. And the bottom ten or twelve sea-stairs may just have to be relegated to history. The sea has reclaimed large portions of them.
All the fire fighting equipment needs servicing and replacement. That’s a big job.
Let’s not talk about the garden. Nor shall we get onto the topic of the boat. Still so many little things to do.
I just built a little back deck and now have to put the stairs on it….
….but we paused after a few hours of building-on-a-45-degree-rock-struggle because the dogs needed clipping. Two hours later we were about one half way through – half a dog each. They seem to have ADHC (attention deficit hair clipping)! They both look a bit lopsided right now but they are not show dogs. They wanna quit about the same time I do so we have a deal.
We intended on running a second water line down the creek this year. If one line plugs up (and it always does), we could just switch over. And, anyway, the current one is getting on in years. It could use a little help (yes, I am projecting). A second line is overdue. But, well, running a second line is a big project and, well, there is enough to do within twenty feet of the house still….I’ll eventually get to it.
Plus a million other little chores that seem to take a great deal more time than ever before. And time is no longer our long suit. And that is what I mean by the real challenge has just begun. We really need to time-manage a lot better.
Sheesh.
“Dave! I thought you got Woofers in to help?”
Yes and No…mostly no….we mostly got woofers in to give them a taste of OTG, to pay back for the kindness we received when we traveled. We got in W’fers for them. They helped out, tho. Some were fabulous. Most W’fers tried hard and did what they did but the balance of our work in getting them, housing them, supervising their work, keeping them safe, entertaining them and feeding them for maybe half a week’s work was not in our favour. We still enjoyed it but that is a chore that now falls under time management. It is quicker, cheaper and easier to do it ourselves. And we are getting slower.
Epilogue: all logs that we had collected in the lagoon are now up the hill. We hauled up the remainder (8) this morning. Also the hardest part of the new stairs is done. Just putting treads and handrails on tomorrow or the next day. Except for this mornings whinging blog, it was a productive day.
Our Off the Grid Home 
Thats a lotta work….
LikeLike
Now THAT sounds like the OTG living that we know!!! For me, despite my age, I’m in better shape now than when we arrived, still, I am older than I wished for this kinda stuff, but DAMN I LOVE it! We both do. Amy it seems has never been happier. The dogs are well and things progress, albeit glacial. Keep pluggin’ away Dave! We’ll never get there but the ride is lush!!! 🙂😊☺️
LikeLike
Oh, yeah….the OTG’ers know what I am talkin’ about. DWL and Amy. And the older OTG’ers know it even better.
Our guys, Scott, John A, John H and Judith, Brenda and Roger get it all, too. We may be Boomers, grey haired boomers, but we ain’t babies no more.
LikeLike
Honestly, that’s just the big stuff. The little stuff adds up to the same. NOT counting clipping the dogs. A lotta work is part of the OTG definition but not enough time or energy is a real challenge. I guess I am just gonna work Sal harder, eh?
LikeLike
I have learned, not that I wanted to, that do it now because the older body doesn’t work as fast, haul as much, takes longer to get essential jobs underway and done. I hit 76 this month and joints hurt more, getting my ‘get this done’ before it becomes too difficult has slipped in to my daily must do’s. What is getting tough is gardening so I know that the flowers in the front yard will still be important to me, hopefully, but the backyard garden is slipping away. Blueberries are still doing their job. I planted kale and tomatoes this year after weeding the nasty long rooted weeds but it was on the edge of more than I can do. I am grateful for the rain June is handing out.
Joy
LikeLike
You are right. The blog implied that this is an OTG issue but it is really an aging issue. OTG does have more physical demands but bringing in the firewood at 75 will be like carrying in the groceries at 85. It’s all relative. Frankly, I am temperamentally unfit for navigating city traffic, lining up at stores and sitting in waiting rooms. Translation: I have a temper and I go mental! At least, out here, I can just get on with it…whatever it is. Napping just came to mind….
LikeLike
Tempermental
I have a temperature, and
I’m Mental.”
I’m stealing that! 🙄😉🤣
LikeLike
Only 69, but body has been abused since I was 15, “work till you drop” mentality. Dragged the landing craft up the beach and flipped it over for hull repairs(took two days), went to town and worked on moho for 4 days then delivered it to a mechanic to fix the work the other mechanic did wrong.
Started grinding the hull Saturday(figured one day), just finished it now(Monday). Everything I do seems to require that extra time. Seems my mind is eager as ever but I’m falling behind! Still we live in Paradise so its not a complaint just a fact that I may someday learn to listen too.
LikeLike
For readers: Scott can do everything from electrics to welding, from plumbing to gas fitting. He’s hardcore OTG. If Sal and I do a hard day’s work, it is about what Scott does in the morning.
Mind you, his garden sucks.
LikeLike
“We are getting slower.” So true. It is all about priorities and how long the energy lasts.
LikeLike
Great job (as described in the epilogue)
What can I say…respect
Now let’s hope for a mild winter
LikeLike
And a drier one! 🙏🤞🙏
LikeLike
Damn right! A warmer winter would solve the issue. Sometimes we burn in October, sometimes not until November. And we stop in May but, sometimes, we can stop in April. November to April, we are likely gonna be fine. But the hunt goes on nevertheless. We still may find a few.
LikeLike
I believe my dog must also have ADHC and perhaps ADNC (nail clipping!)
LikeLike
Our previous dogs just sat there like the royalty they thought they were. These two fuss. Daisy is getting better but Gus is 100+ pounds of muscle and there is simply no stopping him when he wants to leave. Only cheese has the power to hold him.
LikeLike