Departing with Stuff

This post is as a result of being reminded of a previous post of mine. Much More Mulch posted recently regarding my post Take What the Day Gives that I did some time ago. In fact, I vividly remember writing it and was absolutely amazed to discover that it was written back in May. It seemed like only a short time ago, not six months!

Time is moving on. In some ways there appears very little progress, but in other ways I can see that progress is being made. During this past week whilst I had the Little Fellas in my keep, the opportunity arose to sit for about twenty minutes and have a hot chocolate with a neighbour that we bumped into whilst out in town. This is a rare opportunity for me and I relished it for the brief time it lasted before the Little Fellas got listless again and we moved on to other things.

Our neighbour brought up the subject of raising kids and the time involved and how plans become very slowed down and almost grind to a stand still. I’m acutely aware of this of course and I realise that even big plans still need incremental progress in order to get accomplished whilst the busyness of life is happening.

Recently I have been on leave and I must say that according to the current way of things, despite the BIG plans to get certain projects accomplished, very little has been done. I have managed to progress things however and that is the point of this post. That having been reminded of where we were six months ago (captured in the post) on the surface things don’t appear to have evolved much. However, when I think back about certain little projects that have been ticked off the list, I can get a sense of moving in the right direction. Having said that, I have managed to spend some quality time with the Little Fellas. So there is the trade-off.

There are pro’s and con’s for using lists, but I myself have found that a list works to get my thoughts out of my head and to refer to when I have 15 minutes here or  there where I may be able to tick something off the list.

We’ve been in the renovated house nearly ten months now and there are lots of small, inside jobs to do still and these are gradually being ticked off (ie hanging pictures!). Generally they are not as high a priority as some of the outside stuff is becoming.

So for example, looking at my list I can see we have managed to sell the old farm trailer recently, take a couple of boot loads of stuff to the Tip Shop, fill the ute full of more stuff for the tip itself, re-organise our garage and seal the garage floor so that I can easily get to more stuff to take to the Tip Shop. We have also taken items to the local auction, thrown plenty more away that are just no good and filled many more boxes of paperwork and ‘organic’ waste. This is stuff like old cotton clothing and  rags, newspapers, cardboard boxes and rolls, and anything that can be buried in the garden to increase the soil building that is required on such a sandy site. This was all made into another temporary garden bed in between some swales where I plan to grow corn during the summer. Then topped off with more cardboard boxes that had weathered in the backyard and were nice and wet and heavy.

I will also not be backward in saying that I have had the ‘space’ to do this during the week as my wife was away interstate and Gran was enjoying some space of her own in respite care for the week. This has allowed me to get a heap of extra stuff out to ‘air’ and decide what to do with it. I can’t do this when Gran is home because, for example, the moth-eaten playing card set that she hasn’t used (or set eyes upon) since 1967 suddenly becomes an item of immeasurable significance and simply cannot be parted with. So it gets whisked away for a time.

So, this week, there has been some ‘ parting with stuff ‘ going on. And a whole heap of utilising the resources that had been collected during the renovation and move. I just about have the garden ready for the hot summer that I think lies ahead.