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Since moving to my daughter’s, I’ve pushed my physical limits nearly daily.

 

We didn’t want a goat, but he showed up one day and nudged his way into our hearts.  I don’t know how to build a fence that’ll contain a goat, so he’s tethered during the day.  He gets to be in the barn at night, but when the cold and rain come the cow will want to be cozy in there too, and she won’t tolerate a pesky little goat in her business, so we needed a stall to contain Eustace the goat.

This is the original barn of an old homestead that has gone through a century of tenants and layers of deferred maintenance, so there was the clearing of trash, patching of walls, sinking of a solid post.  Among the debris scattered across this acreage is wood boards of various kinds, sizes and condition.  Projects like this start with a scavenger hunt, assessing the best use for each board.  Then there’s cleaning, removing old nails and screws, and cutting to the desired size. Old wood can be incredibly hard.  I regularly break drill bits and need to stop and recharge the batteries just pre-drilling screw holes!

Wait- why am I going on about a goat, wood and a barn?

Because the reality of my life right now is that most of my time and energy have been going into transforming this dilapidated old homestead into a functional little farm for my grandchildren to grow up on.

The goat pen is one of my projects.  After several days I finally succeeded in containing him by screwing boards across the top, so it’s essentially a crate with a door.

Once I sawed an old deck in two and skooched it downhill to my place, it only took a day to retrofit the pieces into decks for my front and back doors.

My daughter helped me gather cement blocks to form the base of what will be a sturdy coop for chickens, ducks and a goose to live securely under one roof.  It was a challenge to cut the foundation level into a slope.  I’ll be using up a lot more salvaged boards for this coop.

If you hire contractors, or have a shop with all the tools, it’ll be hard for you to imagine my experience.  I’m guessing that it takes 3 times as long for an untrained DIYer with repurposed materials to do a project, that will hopefully last as long as it’s needed.

Necessity is the mother of invention.  I am untrained, for sure, and not especially good at figuring things out.  I’m slow, and I mess up a lot.  But I have been figuring out how to do what needs to be done my whole adult life, so I do have some experience, and I do enjoy the challenges of visualizing, planning and execution.  I guess it’s a way of applying my creativity to the practical matters of life.

Now it’s Autumn.  The rain and chill have arrived.  The Studio Tour begins next weekend, plus 3 exhibits I’m involved with, and a couple more in the works.  I’d like to have as many sales as shows. I’d like to be further along with projects,  and have more fresh paintings, but it’s fine. We’re getting by.

I’m where I’m meant to be.  My body’s holding up.  My children are well, my parents are well. I am loved. I have drive, vision and optimism.

Autumnal blessings to ya, lovies~
Jayne