Time and Money

Chairs at Monet's Pond by J. Binford-Bell

It has been one of those weeks. One of those weeks when I would like to be lounging by a pond just spending time doing nothing. But I have been busy. Busy can be good especially when their is money attached to it. I have this "day job" I do in the "slow times." I pet and property sit. And even work as an odds job woman.

April, which is a dead time for art and tourism, is a a busy time for pet sitting and property watching. Those that can afford it leave town. April can be a rather dismal month in the mountains. Not warm enough to do summer projects and not cold enough to enjoy winter sports. Us locals call it mud and flood season only this year there has not been much of that. But there have been spring snows putting a kabash on spring projects for gardening.

But all those little jobs that have been preventing me from just sitting in a chair and being lazy are going to make it possible to build myself a tunnel green house and stash away some money for leaner times. Or just higher gas prices. Or more art supplies. But when you are so tired you just want to go back to bed and curl up in a ball it can be hard to focus on why you are working this hard.

You find yourself wishing for a different pacing. Spread things out just a bit. But that is one of the things that is so different about life in the high country. It seems to come in spurts. You work yourself to a frazzle and then sit around and wait until the snow melts. Then jump to your list of to do's to take advantage of the short growing season, or art tourism season, then wait till the snow comes and . . .

You take it when you can get it. Try to save it for when you don't have it. Horde for the lean times. Make hay while the sun shines.

Never a dull moment. Though I admit to wishing for a day or two of totally dull with sunshine so I can sit in a lawn chair and watch the grass grow.

Comments

  1. Ien in the KootenaysJanuary 12, 2015 at 7:54 AM

    I know I read this before but somehow did not let you know that. Nice glimpse of the rhythm of your year. A bit like ours but more extreme. Pet and house sitters are valuable people! The last time we went away we had a friend stay here. Such peace of mind!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Polyethylene Packaging - a Dark Times Journal entry

Image
I was in the fourth grade when our family moved from El Paso, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We moved because I could not breathe the air there. I want to say they cracked petroleum there. But what did I know beyond the sky was sometimes yellow and I could not breathe. Mom was pregnant with Debbie, and Gary and I rode in the backseat separated by a round tank full of Dad's tropical fish. Dad had a job with Sealright, Inc which made paper milk cartons. Sealright was a polyethylene packing subsidiary of Phillips 66. The petroleum company. I was rather proud of myself for learning to say that, and to not laugh when adults would stare at me not knowing what to ask about that. Albuquerque smelled better. Then. Before all the freeways were built and the shape of the valley trapped the exhaust down near the ground in the winter months. We lived in the foothills. I could breathe. I learned that if I could see the air I could not. Still it was better than El Paso though I missed our trip...
Read more

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r...
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f...
Read more