Does anyone else get frustrated with HT?

I'm glad you understand what I meant.... and are able to say it SO MUCH better than I could verbalize. I wasn't complaining. I was really whining, I guess!

Sometimes I miss the "old times" years ago when there were only a handful of forums. I could read all of them and keep up with everyone and it was a nice (albeit huge) family. Now there are so many forums, and SO MANY that I am interested in, that I can't possibly keep up with all of them. Like Clovis, I have way too many interests. So then I feel like I'm missing out on something because I can't read them all.

Did you hear about the person that filed "bankruptcy" on their email one time? They were so overwhelmed with all the emails that they couldn't get to that they sent out a mass email saying they were filing bankruptcy, deleting ALL emails, and starting over. I think that is what I did a couple years ago with HT. Filed bankruptcy. Went cold turkey and quit reading. Tried to get on with life without all the pressures of "I *should* try this", "I really wanna do...", "If I had the time/land/money, I'd....", "everyone else is .....".

Although I found myself going back briefly when I had a problem. LOL. Just like grown kids, huh??

Ok, thanks for letting me ramble again!

Oh, I completely agree with the bankruptcy idea. (never heard it labeled that way). I have to push myself to turn the tv off, turn the computer off, and get to the project in front of me. My mother once got her painting project completed in the laundry room because she was furious with my stepfather. Sometimes you really need a push to get focused and get something done.
I too have too many likes. I was lazy last weekend and really need to complete a number of chores and projects tomorrow and Sunday. It is nice to move forward. I hope to be in a better position come Sunday night.

I try the "bribery" trick. For instance, I can browse HT until noon...then I have to go get the family room cleaned. And once I get the laundry in the washer and supper started after work, I allow myself one game of "spider solitaire" on my computer. (Well, sometimes I cheat and say I can play until I WIN one game! LOL).

I think that February is always my stressful, whining month. I have a HUGE concert the first week of March that I always seem to put off working on. I still have to write a song, learn some others that I promised to teach, and whatever. Happens every year. I usually end up with some mysterious illness - stress induced, I'm sure. I always tell myself that I'll start on New Year's Day. Never happens. Ok, I'm a month away now, and I can tell I'm starting the psychotic whining, etc.

And what am I doing instead of working on music?? Reading HT. LOL.

OK...I'm going to go clean the family room so I can cross that off my list. (My family room is my "mud room", exercise room, unheated breezeway, etc.... not exactly a piece of cake to clean! LOL)

Carry on....

I don't get frustrated with HT. But I do get frustrated with myself and my own situation.

Was within a week or so of starting up an old business in the area we want to settle and ended up falling and badly breaking a leg. So here I sit. Couldn't get up and work if I wanted to. Had plans for my business. Had plans to look at some properties as potential places for market gardens. Plans to just make a small presence at a local farmers market. And here I sit, doctors orders.

Frustrated that I live in an rv with not a square inch of dirt to my name and want to play in the dirt sooooo bad. Frustrated that I won't be physically able to garden even if I did have the place to do it, at least not in the spring. Frustrated that there are so many things that I'm not making any progress towards trying because I have no place to try them. Frustrated that the bank account is going down every month and I'm not physically able to do anything to stop the bleeding because of the leg. Frustrated that things that do need fixing, such as the roof or the washing machine, I physically can't right now.

That said, I don't have time to read every post on HT. I skim down through the thread titles and stop to read when something looks interesting. If someone wanted to actually read every post, I suspect it would take many hours a day. But I still appreciate many that I read, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. Good people come in lots of varieties and there are lots of good people here. And for that I am thankful.

Bellyman, so sorry to hear of your situation!! How long will you be laid up?? Any chance of being able to get out by spring? Where are you staying now (what state)?

I SOOO understand your frustration. I sometimes feel like I have this inner NEED to have a garden and stockpile food. I don't understand it, and I certainly can't explain it to anyone. Anyone outside of HT, anyway. My family thinks I'm crazy that I feel so strongly about it.

Bellyman... I hope things get better for you soon.

Oh yes, the dream vs reality or better yet how the dream grows faster than reality. Yep it gets frustrating.
My dream has always been to have 100-250 acres, fenced & cross-fenced for rotational grazing of enough cows for beef & dairy, pigs, chickens & turkeys with enough acreage to set aside for orchard, garden with grains & hay, and live as the pioneers did being completely self sufficient & only have to buy coffee & sugar & whatever I couldn't produce at home for our needs & enough to sell to pay the rest. That same dream always has & probably always will be tucked away.
My reality? Having grown up in town, never lived on property larger than a city lot. I maybe from 'town' but I'm country heart & soul and married a true 'cityfied'. Currently we live on a large fenced lot approximately 1/4 acre at the edges of town. Over the years I have realized I do like running water & indoor plumbing I can do very well without tv, computer, phone & even electricity, but I really like the idea of not having to haul water buckets to & fro. Now that I'm in my fifties & feel it, I've learned too. That original dream is nice, but there would be no possible way I could accomplish all that on my own without several extra helpers so I have scaled it down to what I can do with what I already have. I do have chickens, garden, a few fruit trees and do alot of our own canning. I make butter and laundry soap & even killed a few chickens for the table.
I also know my limitations & I know I'll probably never make bar soap or cheese on my own. I'm just not that comfortable with those processes by myself, but I would jump in in a heartbeat if I knew of someone else doing it with me. Even here on our little makeshift homestead, if you want to call it that, are alot of projects in the making/waiting. We really need to tear down the coop & get or build a new one that is much more efficient for our birds. I'd like to have a few turkey's here, but what I've learned about them we'd have to have a much better set up all around with an enclosed run to keep them in our yard & not running the neighborhood.
Well, enough rambling about myself and to get back to my original intention, I'd say to just focus on what you can do, right where you're at and then go from there. Learn a new skill that will help you now and would be a great skill to have on that dream farm when you get there. If you don't have much if any hands on farm experience, what would you do if you woke up tomorrow on a farm and were completely responsible for it? You can't go from A to Z without touching bases with B, C, D, etc So just start where you're at & go from there. Before aquiring anymore ideas for new projects, go back & work on the ones already started whether it takes a day or a year, finish it or if it's not really what you want, scrap it altogether & chalk it up to experience. Allow yourself to do that & be willing to admit and accept that it's okay if you don't do everything you see others doing.
Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day by only one person!

I understand completely! There is always another wonderful idea after another wonderful idea that I get from this site. And very few are really followed through on as completely as I would like to. So, yes, I get frustrated too, mainly with myself.

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Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Hi cc-rider, thanks for the kind words.

Starting my third week of being unable to put ANY weight on my left leg. Doc has been reluctant to tell me much about how soon I can even begin to add weight. If it had been just minor cracks, maybe it wouldn't be so bad but both bones were completely severed and at the very least cracked in multiple other places. Had this happened a couple hundred years ago, I'd have probably either become an amputee or would have died of infection, internal bleeding or lead poisoning. It was pretty nasty.

I'm hoping to be able to walk with a cane, maybe, by the 4th of July but that's only speculation. I will probably be in the cast until close to then but that's still speculation.

I get to thinking about running a tiller or digging with a shovel or kneeling in the dirt to put in transplants and realize just how dependent I am upon a working leg to do... almost everything.

We are in Cumberland County TN right now. We LOVE this general area. We have many friends in our church family and are really trying to put down some roots again. We've been fulltime rivers for almost 10 years now and making the transition back to a more standard lifestyle is proving harder than we ever imagined it would be. We should have made that transition years ago.

Along with plans to get a business started, as well as putting my big toe into the market gardening arena, I also had some properties loosely lined up to go have a look at. Can't go trompin through the woods this way, and I'm just not that good on crutches or with a walker.

Yup, frustrated. And every day I ask myself "why". I'm of the opinion that things do happen for a reason. Now whether or not I ever get to know what that reason is, well that remains to be seen.

Sorry for the long answer... I have lots of time on my hands!

Bellyman, I am so sorry you will be laid up for so long. Any chance of your confinement being shorter? (I'm an impatient patient myself).

cc-rider, I'm taking this thread and using it as inspiration to get me through this weekend focusing on a list of things I should've finished up last weekend. I'm turning the TV off, backing away from HT, and working my way through a library book I've already renewed three times and haven't finished. (must not be a very exciting story, huh?). I also want to keep moving this whole weekend and not spend the time wrapped up in a blanket on the sofa. I need and want to get things taken care of!

Thank you for the push!!


-Taratunafish

Hi Taratunafish,

I don't know how long the confinement will be. The doc wouldn't give me an answer on that one, at least not yet. In the hospital, his answer was "six weeks to six months". I honestly doubt I'll be that far along at six weeks. I'm starting week three and I'm still pretty worthless.

One thing I really, really, really do NOT want to do is to rush into something and reinjure a break and go all the way back to the beginning. If I were a really small guy, I might think it would all go a little quicker. As it is, I'm probably 265 pounds which is not an insignificant amount of weight on a leg bone. If that were 165 pounds, it would change the dynamics of it all somewhat but I'm not. Gotta work with what I am, not what I'd like to be.

I try to get up and move around numerous times a day, generally with a walker. Still can't do steps well.

Anyway, I'm in week three and relatively pain free so there is some good. The ol' liver didn't need the massive doses of Tylenol anymore.

Fun, fun.

Bellyman, if you can get around decent with a walker, is there a possibility of REALLY raised garden beds? At least SOMETHING being raised? Strawbale gardening maybe (although I tried it and it didn't work well for me because I didn't use enough nutrients).

TaraTunafish - I'm going to check out my messages on HT and FB this morning quickly, respond to what I need to, and then declare it hands-off the rest of the day. At least until I get ONE piece of music tabbed out for students, one song worked on for the concert, and my husband's new shirt cut out and sewn. And lunch and dinner fixed and whatever else I *need* to do today. So, hopefully, I'll be back tonight. Yell at me if you see me on here sooner! LOL

I too feel your pain. A person gets overwhelmed having so many project that need to be completed and others that need to be started that you don't have the energy to do any. I would get depressed about not getting everything on my to do list done.

I have tried to change my attitude from looking at what I didn't get accomplished to what I did. I take more pictures of works in progress, take pride in what I have done and stop beating myself up for not getting all of my wish list accomplished "right now". I have been working on my yard and garden since we moved to our little piece of land for over 15 years. My plans have changed numerous times as I found which plants liked to live in certain areas and not in others. Pinterest has given me ideas which I tweak to make my own. I have a wish list of things I would like to do this year but will only start those projects if the universe drops the supplies in my lap. (I want to make a wine bottle tree and try some projects that require recycled items.)

Try to focus on what you have done, not what you have yet to do. Take pride in it. Everything takes time, sometimes years.

Bellyman since you don't own the ground where you are living, could you at least do some gardening in containers? Just for your own use? Maybe that could satisfy your urge to work in the dirt?

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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring - Carl Sagan

cc-rider, not sure about the raised beds. If I could build some of those, I could probably get down in the dirt and play, too. We'll just have to see. I've got Cadillac plans and a (very used) Yugo budget.

Hey, I noticed the comments about "music tabbed" and "song worked on for the concert". Are you a musician? Composer? Music teacher? Just curious. I took piano lessons from age 6 to 17, mostly classical but got very bored with classical music. Mostly gravitated towards gospel with a leaning towards jazz. (I never could figure out how I was only one step from being placed on a guillotine for playing a note of a Bach improvisation differently because I liked it that way and yet be playing an... improvisation. I suspect Bach had trouble playing the same thing exactly the same thing twice in real life. But enough about that.)

I still play but not like I probably should. Picked up organ as a teenager and am pretty good at that, especially where they are more open to style. (Played at a New Orleans church for a few years and loved it! It was occasionally a "gospel music meets roller skating music" thing but it was a LOT of fun.) I used to do weddings but now pretty much only do funerals as when I play for a funeral, they actually stay dead.

I've done a little arranging here and there for my own use. Did a Christmas program one time with a bunch of Christmas carols and arranged piano, strings, bells, horns, woodwinds and some other goodies on my keyboard specifically for the program. It wasn't as polished as it would need to be for an album but it was fun.

Anyway, I kinda wondered what sort of music you were into by your comments. None of my business, but just curious.

I'm probably getting anxious way ahead of when I'd need to. It's still the middle of the winter here in north central TN. It's not going to be time to plant anything outside for several more months.

What would be nice, and something I think I could do pretty well, would be a greenhouse. That would very likely have some raised beds and potting setups and such that would allow for copious amounts of puttering in the dirt.

Trying to do anything much in containers right now wouldn't be practical where we are. Extremely limited space. (Our home is less than 400 sq ft.) And all of our windows are heavily tinted. Not saying it couldn't be done but would certainly be a challenge.

Bellyman, I SOOO understand your frustration. When I was building TisaWee, I didn't have a garden because I was building and didn't have time. For seven years. And the reason I was building TisaWee was so I could have a garden! Frustrating!

I've seen some cute "campers" that are built on trailer frames and look like old sheds or cabins. They have wash tubs full of plants on them. I'm sure, when it gets warm enough outside, you'll be able to figure out a way to get your hands in the dirt. Do you stay where you are all the time, or do you move around? If you stay where you are, you could certainly do some container gardening.

Music... I teach and perform old-time and bluegrass. Mostly hammered dulcimer and upright bass. LOVE bluegrass gospel. I, too, lean towards the improvisation side, but that's OK in old-time and bluegrass. I play bass in a jazz and blues band, too. One of my favorite songs to teach is Pachabel's Canon in D. I picture him as creating a chord structure, and then just improvising....so that's what we do. Love it. I always wished I could play piano, however. I love listening to the old rags.

Pachabel's Canon in D. Now I have something else on my plate...or uhh...my violin...my fiddle.

Like others, I choose one task and finish it. Otherwise, no way would I be able to accomplish anything. An example? Canning a deer takes a lot of work, but I will can the whole thing in two days (3 pressure canners...). When that job is done? I don't need to do it again for a whole year. I think of every single task like this. As a self-motivated type A, I literally must operate this way or NOTHING gets done (many years ago, I used to start a ton of different projects...hardly finished any of them). Recently, I had a meeting with my boss, and one of our topics was managing our lives. The point was reaching a balance of life. That leads to more success in everything done. I walk every day, since I place high priority. Anything that I must do daily, is a high priority. There are blocks of time in my daily schedule for different types of work. I also don't schedule real estate showings or appointments in the morning, unless it is the only day that week (I can shift my walk for the afternoons, but prefer late mornings). DH just works all day long, one task after another. He finishes each one before starting another.

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Christie Acres
www.SequimForLife.com
http://www.irealtyvirtualbrokers.com...lori-christie/
http://luxurywaterviewhomes.com/
SequimLiving@gmail.com

over and over like spelling "hear".

A person just never knows what's coming...

We've been looking in this area for several years. And we've watched properties come and go. Yesterday, I was online, just poking around Zillow to see what shows up. Big surprise. One that we looked at in 2013 that sold just after we looked at it just came back on the market. (Being sold because of a divorce.) It's not our ideal homestead but might be a place to dig in the dirt for a while. It's a little over 6 acres. Lots of good tillable garden space plus some springs and a pond. Old mobile with an addition, not much but it is livable. Fruit trees. Lots of berry bushes. I think there's a drilled water well but don't know for sure. We kinda don't like it because it's not very private and no woods, actually a corner property, but the other side of that coin is that a roadside stand would be a real possibility and not in a bad spot. We're exploring whether we can make it happen. It's not priced much above just what the land would probably go for but I know what the current owner paid for it. (Some people pay more for a car.) The timing is awful with my broken leg and not even having gotten all of the hospital / doctor bills yet. But hey, there's hope of scratchin' in the dirt after all. Talked to the realtor (actually a friend) this morning and we're going to, over the next couple of weeks, see if we can make it happen. Not going to get my hopes up too far but I can't imagine it could be any more expensive than parking this rv in an rv park.

We'll see. Wish me luck!