And the List Gets Longer

Once canning season is over and the garden is cleaned up. Once the chickens stop laying so much and the lambs are sold. Once the days get very short and the temperatures cool. I loose all motivation to do anything, at all. This is the lost time. When we just make sure the animals have food and water and don't worry about other things that needs to be done. Lost time lasts through December. And it's pretty wonderful. We actually have time to do things like go for a walk or sew or knit.

But right about Christmas, just as December is coming to a close, we start to make a list. Not the "making a list and checking twice" kind of list. A all-the-things-that-have-to-get-done list. And it grows daily. Here is the list as of tonight:

1. Clean the chicken coop! Seriously it is getting gross and the poor chickens have to spend a lot of time in there with the cold and dark and rainy.

2. Rake the leaves. All the leaves came down in October and covered the ground. And there they have stayed. If we don't get them up soon the grasses underneath will start to die.

3. Clean out the sheep stall. The straw/poo lasagna is about one foot deep at this point. Getting it all shoveled out leads to ....

4. Put compost on garden. The sheep stall lasagna and all the goodies from the compost bin need to be layered onto the garden. The heat and nutrients will really get the bacteria and worms going.

5. Down a tree or two. We have a couple trees that have gotten big enough to really shade the garden. It's time for those to come down.

The best part of starting the list is that I'm really looking forward to it. My job is all computers and meetings and cubicals and elevators. I have to carve out time to move around. But starting after Christmas home is all about hard labor and using my body for what it was made to do - work, I'm mean really work.