Good Morning. Happy New Year. Been a long time since I've been in this space. Too busy, too overwhelmed physically and mentally. Hopefully this year will be a bit slower and a little less crazy.

While the inside of the house looks as bad or worse than the outside, I've been working out there as much as I can. I figure I can work on the inside when the weather is too bad to be outside.

Because I have so much going on I just commit to 15 minutes at a time. Sometimes it doesn't seem like I'm making any real progress but if I just get a little trash gone at a time at some point it will all be done.

And then days like today, I had momentum going and actually did an hour.

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

My Studio February 12, 2022

 And not much better in August of 2023

I've been drowning in everything. Grief from multiple deaths of family and 4 legged friends, too much to do, not enough hours or space to get it done.

I've recently learned that my chronic procrstination and disorganization are symptoms of childhood trauma and C-PTSD. Whew. Who knew! That knowledge alone made me feel better about myself. 

And one day I determined that wasn't going to let my crappy childhood hold me hostage anymore. I determined I was going to make my life better. It's slow going, slogging through all the crap. Still too busy with too much to do but I'm making headway.

There are three things I try to work on everyday;

Dishes, Laundry, Trash. 

Because those things pile up and become overwhelming. Because if I get behind in those areas there is no way I can work on anything else because those things are taking up all the space, time and energy to get caught up. 

So here I am just trying to do a little bit every day or two, to get ahead, to get things out of the way. My studio room is the first room I'm working on  hard because I need to get some projects out of the kitchen and into this space. It would be nice if I could use the kitchen just for food.

Still a long way to go but making progress.

6/10/19 some progress

I have been trying to get this mess cleaned up. I really need to be able to get my truck in here!  I spent most of Sunday morning working on it and I do make some major progress. 

A lot of thing sorted and shifted. Then it got too hot. Perhaps I can get some more done this evening. I have to work this morning.  

5/19/19 progress

front door before

Getting so I can hardly get from the car into the house, especially if I have to carry anything big or bulky. So I focused here today.

front door during

Took out a bag of garbage and several buckets of leaves and such for the compost.

front door after

Looking much better. Stuff piled on the pink table is keeper stuff that won't get hurt outside, mostly for  some projects I want to get to.

new plants

Later I went back and filled the pots with snap dragons and a couple of chile tepin plants.

Rhubarb

garlic

I planted out 2 rhubarb plants I'd bought. Not sure if they will grow well here so this is experimental. Some garlic was ready to come out of where the rhubarb was going in.

driveway before

Then I started on the driveway. It's been awhile since I could get the truck up into the back.

driveway after

No where near finished, but better. Took out a couple bags of trash, hauled a wheelbarrow load of leaves, bags of manure and shredded paper to the compost pile. Pulled out a bunch of weed trees. Moved empty pots and other things up into the back, closer to where they should be.

5/14/19 and that’s how life goes!

Fixed the gate post

Sooo I have a 100 pound Maremma (an Italian breed of livestock guardian dog) that is terrified of thunder and is getting worse with age. Now when I built this pen the gate latched just fine and I didn't think about bracing it. I also had no clue that in less than 6 months the chickens would manage to scratch down over two feet of dirt and rocks, causing the fence to bulge out and the Tpost to move sideways. So there was a gap, which I plugged temporarily with plastic box lid to help keep the chickens from slipping out. And my dog Giotto has been living here since December just fine. Well the other day there was a sudden small storm that came through with some pretty close lightening strikes. Now just before the rain started I was unloading the car and left the back open. When the rain let up I went out to close it and there was Giotto hiding in the car. He refused to come out and spent the night in the car. The next day I fixed the gate. Put Giotto back in and in about 10 minutes he was gone. I think he got out somewhere else this time because that gate was really tight.

Giotto hiding from thunder

So I put him in the big chicken house, well constructed, with some solid wood walls and some that are solid on the bottom 3-4 feet with fencing from there up. Just at dark another thunderstorm came through and an extremely close lightening strike followed with very loud thunder. In about 90 seconds Giotto was at my front door. He had managed to unlatch the pop door and squeeze his 102 pound self through a 12x12 inch opening. So he spent the night hiding in my bedroom.

loose fence

I went up on my hill and tightened up fence, staking down the bottom and such trying to eliminate any places he could get out.

front door jamb

But I wasn't finished, so I locked him in a 10x10 chainlink kennel. I came home to my front door open and he was hiding in the bedroom. There had been a tiny black cloud go over with some thunder. So he's spending the night in the house again. Apparently he hit the kennel gate hard enough to twist the whole latch assembly about 90 degrees from where it's supposed to be. The door jamb really isn't too much worse for wear, needs replaced anyway. So aside from basic chicken chores I have not accomplished much of anything for several days now. Tomorrow will be spent on working on the fence of the pen where he's supposed to be, after I fix the latch on the kennel and put him in. I will add a chain for security.

Hopefully I am not derailed too long....

5/12/19 happy Mother’s Day

before

So Happy Mothers Day. Couldn't tell you how many of these holidays I've spent doing a lot of what I've done to day, cleaning up! Which is OK, because I'm enjoying seeing the progress around here and I know when I have the crap under control it will actually be easy to *clean* the house, you know like normal people do, things like vacum and dust and stuff. So I didn't set my timer, just worked at this pile until I was tired of it.

after

The shoe boxes are full of receipts and things I need to input into QuickBooks, sorted by years. I'm still finding paperwork in odd places, especially the older stuff, from 2015 when mom was in the hospital and I was going back and forth to the valley daily. After this I took some things out of the house, some are good enough to sell and went to the consignment shop. And a couple of bags of trash to the cans.

my bedroom before

and after

Yes that is a quilt hanging on the bathroom door. It was outside and got a bit damp so I draped it there to dry because it's trying to rain again. A lot of stuff in front of the dresser was winter clothes because they don't fit in the dresser, they are too bulky. And then some summer clothes because I couldn't get the dresser drawers open to put them away. So now they are all in the dresser. I also rolled a can of change and packed up some more winter clothes. There are still a few things in the laundry basket to be washed and packed away.

I also sorted out more receipts I found and deleted over 2,000 emails. 

5/9/19 To Dos

before

after

Todays main project was cleaning out the brooder coop. Needed somewhere to put the manure, trying not to attract flies. So got out this old composter but needed space to set it up. These roses needed pruned anyway.

Breakfast

Chores

Plant: planted out some sunflower seedlings, this time of year I have to start them in the house because the birds pull them up just as they sprout.

Water plants

Kitchen  15 min washing up dishes

Laundry: nope

Clean brooder coop got a good amount done, but there is more to do

1 thing car

1 thing truck

1 thing living room