Busy Busy

 We are scrambling, and trying to make the best of the situation. That seems to be par for the course. 

 If you ever decide to rent your property, you take a risk. We took one, a huge one, and it didn't pan out. I've kinda given in to throwing my hands up in the air and just trying to focus on what is in front of me. Hindsight is always 20/20. So we are going to lose our house due to this tenant. 

 Took a gamble, thought we had our bases covered, thought it was a win-win for the whole arrangement. It happens. It left us financially devastated. I hadn't budgeted to cover a scenario such as this one... and it is a whopper.

 Day to day is how we are handling things. Trying to get all 3 properties + my sister's place taken care of is hard when you can't do anything for your own place. Thankfully my Mom is eating better and is (knock on wood) doing better. My sister with cancer is trying to get into a NJ clinical testing trials. My oldest sister's fiancee HAD pancreatic cancer.. had.. he is a survivor thanks to this very program. He was also late stage. The juicing is keeping her energetic, and keeping the fat content in her blood very very low.. so she qualifies for the trials. They stated it is highly unlikely she will have the same results and she knows this. She also is of the opinion that at least they can learn from this.. and she is going to find some good out of it all. 



 So we did find fiddleheads when we walked the farm. We carefully picked only about 2 cups worth and tossed them in a stir fry. I find this hilarious because that took us several hours.. and then we discovered the grove of trees behind the house in town has TONS. So we picked a bit more making sure not to take more than 1 fiddlehead per plant.

 Still waiting on the morels, but did notice the plethora of gooseberry shrubs were getting ready to send out flowers. I ripped out tons of garlic mustard and barely made a dent. Shagbark hickory and Black Walnuts must have had a bumper crop last year as the nuts are all over the place. Many of them are eaten, and crafty critters have decided to snack on them in all sorts of locations.. like the barn loft, under the old Jeep in the garage, in the tipped over water trough.

 Several big storms have knocked a bit more of the old barn down. The plan is to get the coop built on the small farm's property for the chickens and guinea hens. Now.. just to settle on the coop design...  As I have spotted a lot of slugs already, ducks and probably geese are also slated to join the menu zoo. Rabbits are yet another, but no large livestock yet. We have more than enough room, but hunters, shroom hunters, tree thieves, etc. have obliterated much of the fencing. Cleaning up the farm is a lot of work. 

 Ironic that in this area they are fighting hard to keep a CAFO (contained animal feeding operation) from operation.. because it will cause so much pollution. Irony is that many people around here commonly dump their own trash in the gullies, streams, ravines, etc. Beyond bottles and cans.. we are talking TV sets, old dishwashers, an old furnace, even a burned out car. Yet when you drive through this area it looks like a beautiful farming area. 

 Our larger farm has been treated in such a way by others. It is just something we'll clean up to make it safe before adding livestock. 

 Baby steps... the transplants need to be set out. Just hoping for that break in the weather to till. I think I have made a few dozen notations to remind myself later that the rhubarb has to be divided. 


 Myopic outlook on just day to day things bring a little relief. What do I need to do today? What can I do today? How much can I get done today? Get what you can do, done today. Kinda funny when everything I need to do today is in preparation for tomorrow, but today... today everyone is feeling ok. I am grateful for that.