Snowing Again

It's still snowing lightly and thankfully it is covering all the ice and crust and crud. Alan is off to a county finance meeting, hopefully to begin the long process for this year of putting the brakes on spending at the county. Looking at the federal government, spending money is not a problem - just print more! What I never realized before seeing Zeitgeist is that the federal reserve is a private organization that charges the country interest on the money it prints as soon as it prints it!! No wonder the deficit never goes away!! We are in a credit crisis and the answer is to take on more credit at the national level?? I guess I don't get it (and have also run away topic-wise and rambling about my concerns)! They say - think globally, act locally, so Alan has been in town and county politics now for 17 years and is constantly working to keep a handle on the growth of the local governments. Luckily the Town of Jackson is tiny, with no center, no church, very few businesses besides farms and lots of rural families. The biggest part of the budget is the town highway department with our 50 miles of roads.

Our juggling acts between farm business, gardens and fruits, town and county political business, Alan's real estate business, our rental houses, friends, family, and fun has been a part of our life for many years. Alan has been doing this for 40 years! At one time he also had a bustling home building and restoration business. I have been here at the farm since 1998 and was taken up in the swirl of priorities then, coming from a quiet single life of work, friends and family and travel. One of our CSA members, Helen, suggested that I add to the mix of topics about the farm with how to work all these projects and remain fairly sane and still have fun!

It definitely took me a while to get used to the jumble of projects, activities, and priorities to all the various aspects of things going on here. The beauty of not having to start each day leaving and "going" to work allows you to start each day with some planning. Certainly there are overall daily responsibilities for the week such as feeding the animals or the farmers markets on Saturday and Sunday, but the preparation for them can be done anytime beforehand and mixed in with any absolute priority activities. Each day can be vastly different, from packing for the CSA delivery to a cattle herd roundup! We do have helpers thankfully, so we do have others to rely on for some tasks. The four seasons certainly have an impact on the activity and also dictate certain projects during certain seasons. This topic is a whole chapter - not just a single post! Since a few years have given me some experience now, I am more adaptable to the process - although there are certainly some months when I feel quite overwhelmed! Mid Spring and Fall are the busiest times of year for me as the number of things to do is incredible. I have determined that the more things you are trying to do and think about, the faster time goes because as you get older and have way more "things of interest" that you would like to explore or try to fit in, that the time feels like it is going by faster since you are trying to fit so much in. On the other hand, I am beginning to learn that once in a while you just need to sit down and do nothing for a few minutes to make sure you are on the "right" track of your goals. More about this another day - as i have things to do now besides writing!

Take Care and Enjoy