It’s January and I’m already thinking about spring. My seed catalogs are coming in the mail and I’m planning out where things will be planted as well as what kind of chickens I want and what I want to name them. Loretta Hen, a chicken for every member of the Fellowship of the Ring, or something more violent. Chickens are small dinosaurs after all.
I don’t know if I should get four more Orpingtons and rename them the Golden Girls or if that would be disrespectful to the original Golden Girls, our first set of chickens.
Hen Solo, otherwise known as the fifth Golden Girl, was a favorite of mine. She refused to sleep in the coop with the others and instead roosted next to the back door. It didn’t matter what we did. She even tried several times to come inside. She often pecked and scratched your toes until she was picked up and petted.
I love thinking about chickens, but also thinking about my chickens makes me really sad because I miss my chickens. My tiny fluffy velociraptors.
From what we could tell she was picked up by a hawk and carried off. There were feathers that lead into the woods but no signs of a body or mess. One of the downsides to living in the woods is having to learn how to live with the woods.
We may be adding an outdoor farm dog or a rooster for safety to this springs mix. Stay tuned…
As usual my plans are going 5 million directions. I want chickens, a garden, to remodel the house, to maintain this blog, to get healthier mentally and physically, get my family recycling, I want to make time for my fiction writing, as well as a hundred other things that I’m keeping kinda personal for now.
What’s different this year is that I’m forcing myself to map everything out in a more realistic way. I also have about fifteen planners and calendars around the house.
Since it’s cold here now I’m focusing on indoor activities first.
I’ll be honest, when it comes to the remodeling I’m pretty far behind. When we moved here I was finishing up college and the kids were still in that messy play stage. The trailer (I think she needs a name, don’t you) is not in the best of conditions. It wasn’t when we bought it but it wasn’t easy to tell. Trailers aren’t usually made of the best materials to begin with and it doesn’t take much living to wear them out.
I had big ideas on what we could do when we first looked at it but life happened and depression and anxiety and agoraphobia and (TaDa!) here we are!
To get myself to actually accomplish this step on my list of “How To Accomplish Things When You Have Paralyzing Anxiety” I’ve broken it down into steps. Instead of thinking about the entire house, getting overwhelmed and anxious, then depressed and thus giving up entirely before even getting started, I’m focusing on one room at a time.
For now it’s the laundry room. After that I can think about the kitchen. But I’m not letting myself plan the living room until then.
Planning is so much more fun for me than the actual doing.
Does that mean I’m lazy?
Probably.
I’m also putting myself on a work schedule that allows time for walks with the dog which I’ve found are good at getting ideas flowing for writing, not to mention good for that whole physical thing too.
I’m also medicated which is different than last year. Baby steps.
*It should be noted that even with fifteen planners and calendars I wrote down the wrong date for the kids doctors appointment on all EVERY SINGLE ONE and missed the appointment.
*Cue the chorus to Tubthumping by Chumbawamba
A Hermitess 