Two weeks of guests right after three weeks of major family trauma. That was stressful and definitely wears on ya a bit. I feel a bit worn. But we also have all the seasonal chores and they are increasingly pressing……because we haven’t done ’em yet! Wood getting, gardening, rebuilding some stairs, building a warm-room for the plumbing, re-establishing a new fire-fighting station. And, natch, all the day-to-day chores and community obligations that come with living OTG. Here we are, dragging our very cute butts into our mid 70’s and we are as busy as feral pigs.
The truth, of course, is a smidge different. The workload described (only partially) above is not what is SSSOOooooooooo much. It is just that we are getting on. It is our capacity to do what we used to do quickly and easily that has diminished. This is just aging-in-place OTG.
How does one actually do that? Well, firstly, we work little bits at a time. Two straight hours is a ‘shift’. I built a deck that hangs on the side of a huge rocky outcropping so as to allow Sally safe passage over there as she gets older. That deck is less than 10 x 10. It has taken me a week just to frame it in. And then I need to build the stairs for that deck. So a little deck will take a lot of time. More than it should.
We have 30 to 40 logs to still bring up (the engine crapped out and required attention). But we’ll do that in 6 to 8 logs a day….starting soon. No, I really mean it! Soon! That log-haul number is enough work for one day. More than 8 logs-a-day will likely cause one of us an injury.
The warm room is required to get through cold winters without having to shut down the water system. That too-frequent ‘frozen’ week with water totes is getting annoying. And that project starts with more lumber. And that lumber has not even been ordered yet. It’s June already!
A surprise addition to the never-ending chore list came from our community’s increased awareness of forest fire vulnerability. That lead to a community plan-of-sorts. That plan allowed us to do a bulk purchase for some fire-fighting equipment (FFE). That FFE needs to to be housed, insulated, organized, powered and some of it has to be placed around the property. That is a chore and a half.
And so it goes….and I only mentioned maybe 25% of all that we have to get done.
Which actually means: we will be lucky to get 25% of all that needs doing finished.
Sheesh.
Am I complaining? Not really. That stuff is mostly interesting. That stuff keeps us fitter than I would be if still living in the cul-de-sac. That stuff eliminates even a hint of boredom. And that stuff simply NNNEEEEEDDS doing. I mean, there really is no choice, no one to hire, no help coming. This is necessary stuff. Somehow, the demands of the necessary are more tolerable than are the demands of the optional. Yes, grasshopper, you may quote me on that.
I mention all that because, well, I feel a bit inadequate. Joe Biden, who is older than me, managed to pass 350 new laws into place these past two years. And he did that while boosting the US economy, supporting a war by proxy in Ukraine and facing down maniacal Maga morons. Mind you, we both seem to fall down at the same rate. But, otherwise, Joe is showing me up.
I also mention that because, well, the US police force is not highly regarded for their intelligence, education or even their familiarity with their own laws (see Clarence Thomas). Not every authority figure is well read (see Republicans). And Joe just added 350 new laws! I dunno….do they really need a whole lotta new laws now? Or might it be better for everyone if the majority of the people and the police just managed to obey, say, the most important 100? Jus’ sayin….