Tick tock

Once again, I can wander into the front yard without being overwhelmed by the noxious smell of goat piss.  It's only been two days since Pan left the homestead (again) and I am already enjoying the one less bastardofagoat goat chore I have to do.

It's not like it took that much time.  Walk over to this pen, dump some fresh hay in the corner, a small scoop of grain and top off the water bucket every few days.  But my daily barn chore burden has been lightened, if even ever so slightly.  And then I think to myself, Myself, if not having to care for this one animal feels so good, how wonderful would it feel if there were NO animals to take care of?

What would I do with all that extra time during the day?  Well, besides blog (which I really should do a lot less of anyhow).  I mean, think of all the possibilities.  I'd say that routine barn chores take up about ninety minutes a day.  That's over ten hours a week, forty-two hours a month or twenty-two days a year that I've spent doing animal chores.  There are a million things that need to be done to the house.  There are a thousand books that I still want to read and hundreds more I want to read to Rhiannon.  There are new garden beds to plan & dig, hoop houses & high tunnels to construct.

But I know exactly what would end up happening with that time.  I'd just fill it with some other "chore" and still be in the same situation I am in now.  The bathroom would still need the closet put in, the floors would still be unfinished, the outdoor kitchen still in the planning stage.  I'd still have Moby Dick sitting in my nightstand with the bookmark on page 24 (where it's been for the past two years).  That afghan that I was supposed to finish for my sister's best friend son (who is now 3 1/2 years old and has a baby sister) would still be rolled up in the closet, half finished.  And all the garlic that I bought and planned on putting in the ground a month ago will have been pilfered to be used in scrambled eggs or an alfredo sauce.

Exactly where am I going with this post?  I don't know.  I guess that I'm always complaining that there is not enough time in the day/week/month/year to do things, but there is plenty of time.  If it is that important, then I will make that time for myself and that project.  Notice I say this as I'm blogging away.  But technically, I really wouldn't be doing much more than sleeping as it's three thirty in the morning anyhow and it's not like I could start hammering away at the floor or dig up sod to make room for a garden bed.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

It's time to whip my slothness (and rear end) into shape.  My idle hands may not exactly be working for Satan, but they sure could be used to do something more constructive with the time I choose to give them.

"Time is a created thing.  To say 'I don't have time' is like saying, 'I don't want to." - Lao Tzu