It was another week full of odd jobs and organizing. I had hopes of making progress on some of our bigger projects, but something happened every day to keep us stuck in more mundane maintenance type tasks. As annoying as this can be, I am thankful we got so many little odd jobs done and crossed off of our to-do list.
We deal with most of our garbage on the homestead by composting, recycling, and burning paper products. Every so often, we make a run to the closest landfill with items we can’t dispose of any other way. We needed to make one of these trips to the dump, so we took the opportunity to do some outdoor clean up over the last couple weeks. Grace sorted through all of our sheds. I helped clean out totes of shoes and work clothes. We took apart our outdoor sink and the last vestiges of our camp shower. There is still plenty of actual cleaning needed on our homestead, but everything looks much more tidy than it did a week ago.
I finally started working on our kitchen shelving again, after a months-long hiatus. It felt good to get the first coat of spar urethane on one of our shelving units. I struggled a bit with our paint sprayer, as it didn’t seem to be working the way it had before. Then, right during application, the sprayer quit. It wouldn’t turn back on. I finished the coat of spar urethane with a brush. Then, after some discussion, we ordered another sprayer. It arrived late yesterday afternoon, so I’m hoping to get back to spraying the shelving on Monday.
Our brother Jeremiah poured the first two piers for our covered deck, so that’s exciting. He has been working on digging the piers in his free time after work. He had to take our porch apart in areas, so it’s a little chaotic outside right now. It will be so nice to have a covered spot to sit once its done. The bunkhouse is small, so we will all appreciate the additional living space outdoors.
Bonnie-Jean and Grace have been working on tearing out the garden a bit at a time. They’ve been emptying our squash boxes, clearing off trellises, and stacking tomato cages. One evening, Bonnie-Jean found a last harvest of green beans that none of us had expected, as they had slowed down so much in September. Apparently, the beans have liked the cooler weather, while the pests bothering them have not. Everything else has mostly died back, so it’s been satisfying to move the plants to compost piles, clearing the way for next year’s garden.
We did a big grocery run earlier this week, and since whole turkeys are back in stock at Walmart, we decided to supplement our usual chicken breasts with some additional fowl. We roasted one, and Jeremiah decided to try smoking one in our Kamado Joe grill. The smoked turkey turned out delicious — we were impressed. It’s definitely something we will be trying again.
It was an ordinary week full of busy days. Life has been so crazy, our work has felt a bit more reactionary than purposeful, as we try to handle daily whatever the hardest-hitting need is. I’m hoping to sit down next week and draw up a plan for what we need to do before winter. Having clear goals always helps us focus our energies more efficiently. We all want to make more progress, but we also want to have time to enjoy the holidays. Hallowtide is next weekend. After that, we know our weeks will be peppered with fall festivity, a birthday, and before we know it, Thanksgiving. With God’s help, we want to make choices in the coming days that will help us be present and joyful during the most festive time of the year.
