motivation

When I went out to feed the animals, we'd just crossed the freezing mark and the sun was definitely winning the battle against the clouds. Nice day -- I thought to myself and I extended my walk to survey the farmette lands beyond the barn.

When I looked past the photogenic (in my opinion anyway) landscape and focused my attention on what's growing here, I felt, well, overwhelmed. Two trees that fell during storms needed to be chopped up. Ed does this, but the trouble here is that it simply gets added to his list of projects. Apart from the fact that he is working hard to launch a redesign of a machine, he has, right now, a broken car (he worked on that all day yesterday and decided it probably cannot be fixed. Still, he's working away, pausing occasionally to pick up a new tool or part at Harbor Freight), and there is the stove project, which has now morphed into something else -- perhaps not a new stove, but instead an air filtration system. This means that he is reading every scientific publication of air filtration and the presence of particles in the kitchen that are produced by gas cooking. So, there are the felled trees and then there is everything else. 

Much needs to be cut down, raked away and reimagined. That last bit -- that's up to me, but I cannot quite get myself to plan something, when I see that I have a lot of work to do outside before I get to that point. Work that never got finished in the Fall and work that I wont be able to get to once I have my knee surgery. 

In other words, I better get to it now.

I propose, over breakfast, that we work on some of this today. The weather is decent, actually more than decent, considering it's January 15th. 

But the ground's frozen -- he reminds me. 

This is true, but we can snip away and clear some of the land. Like for instance around the baby peach trees. Or in the new orchard. Or around the 65 maples and nut trees that we planted two years ago. Or even in the flower fields by the sheep shed. 

It feels very much like the work is piling on and we are standing still.

Eventually he goes off to get those parts for his busted car (get a new used car! I tell him. There's none out there that appeals to me -- he retorts. A very old, cheap hatchback -- this is his preferred model). So I step out alone to do some small flower field clearing. But I'm not really motivated. January is any farmer's rest time, right? Not for us. We need to make a dent on our projects or else -- well, more will just pile on and we'll become one of those ancient couples, barricaded inside, while the weeds grow so dense that no one will reach us through the front or back doors.

In the evening, the young family is here for dinner. 

(the crackers and cheese station)

(oh, and beets and tomatoes...)

(wait, are three of you wearing Lilo & Stitch sweatsuits??)

(dinner)

(trying out a new look)

(just like mommy!)

(what she tries, he likes to try too...)

(too young to understand the importance of a fashion statement...)

Another January day... Low on gardening motivation, but high on so much that's good right now!