Spring Projects

Speaking of real-man's work, the snow has melted and I hear the call to duty. That means resuming and initiating various projects that require power tools, blaring rock music, Budweiser, and a lot of blood sweat and tears... except for the tears, of course. The kind of work that would make my role models proud, which would include my Mentor, JH and His Magic Bag of Tools, and of course, the Amazing PR Man.

As you can imagine, there are a lot of projects in the pipeline. That's why they call it real-man work, it takes a real man to get it done, or at least a real-man in training. In addition to finishing the barn, the main house needs some attention, and then there is garden, the yard, the firewood, and plenty of other fun things. And as always, there is so much to be done that it inspires me to kick into my default mode, which is to shut down and do nothing, whining (of course) about how much there is to do, and how none of it is getting done. How's that for a self-feeding loop?

Over the course of my real man training, however, I have learned that the key is not to be too ambitious and to set reasonable and realistic goals. One step at a time, as the saying goes, and most of all, don't be a whiny baby. The last part is the hardest for me. Whatever be the case, yesterday I figured the time had come to break out my cutoff jean shorts and get to work. I wanted to get three things done - stack some of the wood that I split last year but didn't get to (it was covered with snow by December), start painting the house (a job that will take all summer), and deal with the compost. If I had to prioritize, I would put the last one first, because with spring kicking into full gear, we have to be wary of bears eating the compost. We have been visited by a black bear the past two years, and my understanding is that once they find a source of food, they will continue to come back. What a bummer.

I therefore need to take care of that before Yogi Bear shows up, which could be any day now. Personally I don't care if they eat the stuff, but I don't want big black bears hanging around our house. They're still dangerous animals and best left to mother nature. Dealing with the compost is more involved than it should be because I didn't plan properly over winter, but what else is new? More on this later, but suffice it to say that I did manage to at least touch on all three of my goals, albeit with different levels of success.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Larry for the pic.