Time Acceleration

It just always seems that once the Calendar says Sept 1, the acceleration of time is most rapid. The daylight grows noticeably shorter with each passing day, but the list of important chores continues to grow.

This is the time of the year when I really crank up getting dog food in for the winter haul. Dog appetites increase and who knows what the roads could be like during the winter or if the cars & trucks will cooperate or break down. After all, we measure the age of our vehicles in decades, and they do show some wear and tear. The Suburban has over 250k miles and the engine is doing great, the body tends to be showing age related signs of decay, oh well.

This time of year it becomes a bit of a frenzy. The dogs notice the shortening days and want to come inside earlier, and wonder why they are still outside after dark. The cooler nights make them peppy and it seems that the full moon lasts forever.

Of course juggling 6 indoor pooches that don't get along makes it more interesting, so when the 3 outside come in and stay until morning, so we keep their schedule by the clock rather than the daylight or darkness.

About 15 tons of hay has to be picked up, unloaded, covered and secured. The round trip drive to and from the hay is about 2 hours and it's within our same zip code! The roads are not paved and traveling is rather slow. Still, it's a great time of the year. Our hay guy's wife is running for the county prosecuting attorney position, so that adds to the mix of excitement in the air.

Besides hay, we needs straw for the dogs, so that means more trips in different directions and no, nobody delivers, we must pick up.

We have 3 dog food trips scheduled for the next week or so, Once to Vancouver, once to Portland, another time to Yakima and another in a couple of weeks to the Ellensburg area. Gosh, that's 4 trips! Lots of driving, but we'll combine it with other chores and with each trip will be a little more thankful for the donated food.

There is just a certain amount of urgency, chaos, and ramping up of everything at this time of the year. At least it's that way here. I start looking around and mentally ticking off the needed repairs that have to be done before winter. Make sure that all hoses are in place to get stored for when we start hauling hoses for winter watering. Making sure things are tarped, Screwing down our pathetic dog roofs and hoping that our sagging kennels make it through another winter of snow load.

This year is going to be a La Nina, so it will bring more moisture of some sort. Warmer we'll be drowning in mud, colder we'll be buried in snow and all of the work that involves.

Oh well, at least we took the time to fix the leaking propane line. It was like dollars vaporizing into the air. As winter kicks in and we have to think about turning on the radiant floor heat, every dollar not wasted is a bonus. I always think that we'll tough it out and not need so much heat this year. We keep it around 62 degrees inside and sweat like demons when we go anywhere that it's warmer inside. Today at least the heat is off, the sun is out, the tomatoes are still mostly green.

The immediate tasks involve finishing several hundred feet of horse fencing and whacking down the weeds that invaded the garlic. Getting the rest of the Russian Sage and Lavender plants in the ground and mulched. Oh yeah, picking up several truck loads of goat compost, another 1 hour trip away in the same zip code.

We did manage to install a new window and a French door, so that has us fully enclosed for the first time ever. Of course, that part of the house is still unfinished.....but it was some progress.

I guess everyone has lists, can't live without them.