Wednesday, November 05, 2014

digging in

Split the day in half, right down the middle. Catalog the first part under "intense outdoor clean up, the tail end" and the second part under "let's get back to manuscript work, shall we?" -- and you have my entire day laid out for you.

I know I've been claiming that I'm done with farmette work for a number of days now, but really, with so many beds, trees and who knows what else to tend to, the job is never really done. Not until it gets so cold that you cannot conceive of going out with a shovel and pruning sheers again. From what I hear, that kind of a chill will creep down on us tomorrow, so most likely these are the last photos of cheepers watching as I chop, pull and trim and Ed mulches down all spent growth (and puts away things that should have been stored some weeks ago).


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Perhaps you have noticed that Oreo is still here. Indeed. Just as I stood ready to dance a crazy rooster dance right back at him, he decides to settle down. Yep -- you got it. The rooster has stopped chasing me. And so he has bought himself time. Surely I'm not going to call the knife to him when he is, at the moment, doing nothing more than tending to his girls.


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I do have my eye on the guy, but for several days now, he has held steady.

Oh fine. I should have given a proper introduction to the day. Here we go -- a healthy breakfast. One that prepared us for the physical work outside.


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And one more comment on the outdoors: the prize to the stubbornest bloomer goes to this wonderful girl -- she is awash with white flowers right now. I took a photo of one with the bee still doing her work.


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The afternoon? Well, it's been nearly a month since I did anything to move my book project forward. Sure, I can sit back and hope that the few letters and inquiries will suffice, but frankly, that's an exceptionally dumb strategy, as odds are so not in my favor. I should not place faith in a small  handful of letters, even if the occasional one is warmly received. Warmth does not a contract make.  I have got to keep on plugging away and so this afternoon, I plug away.

And honestly, everything today is about work.  It's as if I had rejoined the world of the employed, only without a paycheck to show for it. (Not yet, anyway.)

I hope you felt equally productive in whatever task you took on today. Success should be measured not by outcomes but by what you attempt to do on any given day, don't you think?