I have been busy with so many things around here that it’s hard to guess where to begin with telling about it all. The kids are a handful as always, and keeping them fed and clothed and clean and educated, and everything they need is a full time job all by itself, before even getting to home maintenance, the farm with its chores and animals, and the older boys and their need and rides to and from, my own hobbies, and my requirements as an admin on a Facebook group, any hope of social time, which is always restricted to Facebook, budgeting and finance, house cleaning, and about an hundred other roles I have to fill every week.
I have been working in the woodshop when I can, starting to build crates for toting things around in, or storage. I have also been running my own baseboards for the house, so that I can use the same router bit to make the crates, keeping my accent pieces in style with the house. I have also built my own break-away box as a soap mold, using the same box joints I used on the crates. Then I made an olive oil soap with sand as an exfoliate. The soap has two more weeks to cure before it is on the close end of ready to use. It could take another five, depending on conditions.
I have also been perfecting my seasoning and care of the cast iron pans, which is not a lot of work or time, but the method of oiling after a wash, and leaving it to set till next use, then cooking it to a polymer seems to be working the best. Also, heating the pan fully before cooking is contributing to not sticking with pancakes and eggs.
We are up to five llamas on the farm now, and I have sheared three of them, missus has sheared one, and I have one more to do. I can mark that off my bucket list now! I didn’t even know it was on it!
I think the most exciting part of farming is that I am gaining new experiences every week and sometimes daily. That is building my confidence and makes me feel like I have actually accomplished something. I am no expert in anything. But I am a fair hat at writing, photography, basic car maintenance, cooking, woodworking, basic irrigation setup and maintenance, mixing my owl laundry detergent powders, computer repair, animal husbandry, plumbing, electrical work, and many more. I can build and keep an electric fence, install gates, have a fair understanding of what the weather is up to, and most things around me, except maybe some of my kids. I am not afraid to handle my saws, my chainsaw, or other power tools and equipment, or even lye. Yes, lye, as in acid. I am at a point where I am comfortable in most things that need doing around here. I have built a leach field for our septic system, and nasty plugs in the plumbing. I have also cleared everything from scorpions to dead cows, although there are no scorpions here in Idaho. Go back to the Nevada days for that. I have not done everything yet. but I am happy to roll up the sleeves and put on the gloves if necessary, and give most things a try. Maybe this is what they meant when they say life begins at 40.
The best part is that there is still so much to do! I know some people look forward to the day when everything is done and they can just sit back and manage. I am not one of those folks. If it is all done, then what am I going to do? I look forward to the next challenge. I welcome the next untried task. I cannot do it all now, but when I have the tools and I have the material, I revel in the opportunity! Coming soon is the rest of the pantry, and a lot of other shelving and cabinetry. I have a lot of work planned! But it is material hungry work! I have a small seat for the bathroom. The pantry requires shelving, can storage, a sink, a seat, shoe rack, coat rack, and much more, the living room needs bookshelves, the linen closet need shelves, the upstairs has walls that shelves and drawers could easily be built right into, the little pantry needs food container storage, and the basement entry hole set for easier entry there, as well as a safe cover.
I need fencing around the south pasture, three acres in size, as well as the west pasture, and gates put in on all, then permanent paddocks set up. We have raised beds to build in the garden, two out buildings that need painting, doors to rebuild and install on thee out buildings. an orchard that wants more trees, a fence to build in front of the house to keep the little ones out of the road, and the neighbor’s dogs out of the yard, window boxes and arbors and trellises to make, a path to redo, lighting to install… There is no point. I have so many more things to list here that I am not going to for the fact I am going to go to sleep soon. There is a pile of laundry to wash tomorrow.
So, let me leave you with this. Put something in your hands and do it, pick up the tools and get to it.
Kelsey J Bacon