Yay- it’s raining and I won’t be able to work on the site today! I mean, “oh darn- I was so looking forward to another day of back-breaking labour in the 30 C heat”. I know- it wasn’t that long ago that I was complaining about the rain and how far behind schedule it had set us. But that was when it had been raining for pretty near two solid months. It’s been sunny and blazing hot on the bald-ass prairie for some time now and with the 7 day workweek that I keep, exhaustion has been kicking in. And maybe a wee bit of apathy. Okay, we’ll call it what it is- bad attitude. I’ve developed a nasty little attitude over the last several weeks.
We’re making some really decent progress. One more level and we’ll place the window frames. I’d take pictures but we tarp the areas that aren’t being actively worked on (to prevent the bags from breaking down in the sunlight) so the photos wouldn’t be much to look at. One day when we’re feeling extra ambitious we’ll remove all of the tarps to get some new pictures. It takes a while to place the tarps and secure them with heavy enough rocks that our prairie wind won’t simply pick them up and deliver them somewhere else in the middle of the night so it does take a certain amount of ambition to want to undo and redo it all.
In the meantime, today’s a good day to catch up with everything that I haven’t had time for. Like baking bread and cakes to freeze. And fifty or so loads of laundry. And dishes, and mopping, and sorting through the mounds of paperwork accumulating on the kitchen table (we don’t even eat at the table anymore- that’s how bad it is). And, and, and… This is why I’ve been feeling overwhelmed- I simply haven’t been able to keep up. I go out in the morning to work on the site all day only to come inside in the evening and face all of the work that’s been piling up in my absence. I say “face” because I haven’t been doing much more than looking at it and grumbling. Shane loves it- I do it for him.
I’m particularly looking forward to gardening today. It’s pouring rain and only 7 C with winds gusting to 60 km/hr. I think they’ve got to be stronger than that to have knocked down a tree though. We have an extreme weather warning on but I think they’ve miscalculated- it’s here! I love this kind of weather. Makes me feel alive. Sure, if it lasts more than a day or two I’ll be back to complaining about how it’s interfering with my building schedule but for right now I love it. I’m going to plant a few last things- pretty late in the season and they might not take but if they do we’ll be all the better off come fall. And I need to inspect for cutworms. They’ve been terrible this year and I can’t seem to get a handle on them. We’ve enjoyed lots of butter lettuce but haven’t even had a taste of the Swiss chard because the cutworms keep decimating the crop. (I’m planning on building bat houses for next year.) They’re also after my bell peppers which is ticking me off to no end. I’ve never grown peppers before and was really looking forward to a nice return on the plants. And if the rain lets up a little I’ll move some more earth for gardens I have started for next year. Kind of heavy and sloppy to move mud in the wheelbarrow though so that’s a big “if”.
So today should be a good day. No complaints from me. Mark it in your calendars.
That’s the spirit! Nothing like a downpour to help define your day, maybe put some of your outside projects to the test (have to be able to withstand weather!), and much better than the futility of choosing a negative response to storms.
I hear Alberta has been getting rain this year, unlike the past 3. We’re in Manitoba, now, and it has been very wet; water was the primary reason we came here, and that has been more than fulfilled.
Sweet- you made it to Manitoba! I’m guessing you guys are already busy. Keep in touch and let us know how it’s working out.