Life Gets In The Way Sometimes
Why there’s no update on the chicken painting.
So I have been stranded at the farm for the last couple of days. It was heaven. (Insert angelic chorus here) Perhaps I should explain.
After a summer of 70 hour weeks followed by a few months leading up to Christmas of 50 hours weeks, I am feeling the need for some serious downtime. It sounds odd because I am a fairly outgoing person, but all the hard work and dealing with thousands of people takes it out of me by the end of the year. Without a proper rest I tend to shy away from talking to people and slowly get more and more antisocial. Eventually all I want to do is curl up into the fetal position, pull a blanket over my head, and mutter to myself about finding my happy place.
Eventually all I want to do is curl up into the fetal position, pull a blanket over my head, and mutter to myself about finding my happy place.
Anyway, back to being stranded. Three days back we had a small blizzard followed by some seriously bitter cold. To give you an idea, yesterdays high was -15 (thats in degrees, not celsius) The low was -25 and I won’t even mention wind chill factors. So the problem was, we have a very long lane (about 1/4 mile) and the tractor won’t start at anything under 0 (even though it is plugged in.) So there you go . . . stranded!
I spent two and a half days doing what I do on my “me” days, which are sleeping in late, eating too much, drinking too much diet cola and playing way too much PS2. On top of that, I wore nothing but sweats and slippers and deigned to go braless the whole time as well. (Yeah I know, my husband is a lucky, lucky man.)
After all this self indulgent R&R I am now ready to go back to work with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. I think to myself “I feel like I can now actually talk with people in a conversational manner and perhaps I may even work on my chicken painting.”
Into the frenzy
Well . . . that was the plan. I swear it was moments after thinking this I got a phone call saying “so and so from such and such magazine wants to interview you. Will tomorrow morning at 9 be okay?” My business mind kicks in even though I’ve not had any caffeine yet and I say “Sure.” (Quite convincingly I might add.) All the while my mind is silently screaming “Nine! Nine in the morning!” I am so not a morning person.
After hubby spends an hour plowing out the yard and lane (today we had a heat wave of 5,) I dash to the gallery and begin cleaning and putting the place back together because in preparation for the storm we had completely cat proofed the place. So Budda could run wild, completely unsupervised with the exception of a once daily check by our critter sitter.
And what do I find? Well the usual destruction of at least one broken item, and it appears Budda broke into the food storage room (he has learned how to turn the doorknob) and horked up like 2 weeks worth of food in two days. (AND yes, he looks like he ate that much.)
But the actual thing that was the kick in the butt, was the gallery’s water pipes are frozen. UGH!!!!!
So after my interview in the wee early hours tomorrow morning, I think I may well need another few days of being stranded to recouperate. Maybe I should take a blanket along, just in case I need an emergency trip to my happy place.
Hope the interview went well and that you have gotten back to being stranded for a couple more days. You deserve a break after a work schedule like that. We all do better in getting back in the saddle after a little R&R.
It is similiarly cold here right now, not usually quite this cold. Do you have to pound out horse buckets? We have insulated buckets which I bought several years ago, but the stop working when the barn gets to 20 degrees (which means it is 0 or less out side.) So they are all frozen and much worse than conventional buckets to bang — can break. Have to tote milk jugs of hot water down for five horses. Also the saw dust is freezing into hard balls — hard on the horses and next to impossible to clean w/o stripping the stall. Do you bed with straw out there?
Hope we get a little bit of a thaw next week, but that you keep taking R&R at regular intervals!
Hey Angela,
Yes, I think the interview went well enough with the exception of a few customer interruptions. Tom Atwood the writer for Today magazine was quite nice and easy to talk to. The article won’t be out until March but when that happens I’ll put in a link.
We have an automatic waterer, where the bowl is heated, but it freezes over solid on the surface on really cold days. Then we bust out the ice 4-5x a day. I think it has to get around 10 degrees before it freezes, or unless it is windy as it is located outside. Chicory is bedded with straw as that is one of the things we baled for sale in the past.
Mostly I worry about the barn cats. One of my cats got a frost bit ear. (I even pulled her into the house before the real cold hit. She is anti social and doesn’t bed down in the barn with the other cats, so she sleeps out in the cold. At any rate all the bacon and pork fat seemed to do the trick ’cause everyone survived that cold nasty snap.
Tomorrow is Sunday so will goof off some more then. I think Mike is beginning to worry that I may never work again. He is so used to seeing me as driven, that when I suddenly stop, it unnerves him a bit. But I keep thinking just a couple more days.
I put my two barn cats in the basement the last couple of days. Have built little structures for them to snuggle in the in the garage in the past, but they seemed to be pretty cold. I put a litter box down there, but I don’t think they are using it. The basement is a mess anyway. New Year’s resoloution.
Have another relaxing day!!!!!
LOL Budda and the food storage. Your fat cat is entertaining. Everyone needs some downtime even if your life is joyous and intense… it’s that intensity that results in the need for deep rest.
With a fat cat cuddling you of course.
Budda’s a trip. I can just see the havoc. They’re smart, cats are very bright when it comes to getting what they want and talking themselves out of trouble.
Budda is a joy and . . . well maybe I’ll let it at that. My previous gallery cat only broke 1 item his entire life. Budda is into everything. (Sigh) But yes, after being gone for a couple of days we have loads of good cuddles.
Have you done any portraits of your cats Robert?
Oh, this post could have been written by me - well, apart from the minus temperatures and being stranded. Oh, and apart from the PS2. Actually I suppose it doesn’t sound like me at all!
I’m talking about the need for down time and becoming anti-social. I don’t really understand it, because I used to be such a sociable person who needed to see people every day! But these days if I see the same person more than once in one week they start getting on my nerves! And I definitely need people free days! It’s not good. I’m definitely getting worse as I get older!
I’m glad your interview went well and that you have been able to enjoy some much deserved rest.