I've been staying pretty busy on the place lately, and I think it's showing. Of course, one might say that it's hard for it not to show if I do much of anything given the state of things here lately. Some of you might recall a post I made from a few years ago, three actually, about my partner getting pretty bad burnt and the healing process of getting it taken care of. Some of the fall out from that experience was a bout of depression, at least that would be my self diagnosis. My grandpa might have called it a case of the “can't help it's” or something along those lines. At any rate, I can attest that it's hard to pull one's self up by the boot straps despite what others might suggest. The bare necessities were getting done around the place, but mainly out of habit and going through the motions. I knew more needed to be done, but somehow never quite managed to get “a round to it” as I envisioned. Finally, I had sat down one day and made a list of things that needed doing. On the face of it, that sounds like a good thing, but actually all it made me want to do was run away and join the circus. My list was pretty darn overwhelming and would probably have staggered anyone who looked at it and thought “I'm alone to do all this!?” So, my solution, and I think it is helping with the feelings of depression as much as the list, is to have the mind set that I will go out and do something every day, even if it isn't on the list, but do something. Some days, I work on fence, or nail up barn siding, or cut wood, or other things that are on the list. Other days, I go out on the hill side with a bucket and pick rocks to fill pot holes in the farm road. It don't take a lot of thought, but allows a lot of time for thinking and when the days done, I may not have accomplished much, but I have a smoother ride going up the hill to work. One of my big tasks has been a hillside that goes along my road frontage. It's about a half mile long and takes in about 15 or 20 acres. We used to mow it twice a year with scythes. It's fairly steep, but I'm thinking now it ain't as steep as I thought and I should be able to mow it with a team and sickle bar mower. The trouble is, the brush and briers are now too thick. I wouldn't put my mowing machine in it and I doubt you could really drive a pair of mules through it without hanging rawhide from the collars to turn the thorns. It's mostly covered in honey locusts and blackberries that are now over my head. I've had four people say they would come look at it to quote me on bush hogging it but no one has been here yet. So, rather than continue to wait, I mow an acre a day with a weed eater and brush blade. I'm getting an acre to the gallon and I figure that's about as cheap as I could ever get it done. Cutting brush also gives me plenty of time to think, mainly about things like how if I had kept this hill mowed I wouldn't be out here swinging a weed eater right now. Anyway, these are some of the things going on at my place right now. I'm also struggling with the tractor I bought two years ago to help me catch up. I'm thinking real hard about selling it and all the equipment and buying a ground drive pto cart and two more mules, but that's another story. I can say for sure it's a heck of a lot easier to fall in a hole than it is to dig your way back out.