Projects, New Chicks and Old Memories

 Hey, 2025 self - this is for you.  I'm not really in the mood to write, but I know that you're going to be checking back to see how I'm handling things this year.  I wonder if it will be any easier for you.  The idea of starting Year 5 is a little daunting.

I was going to say a bit more about the barn, now that it's pretty much empty (not really - there's still a lot in there, but it's about 10% of what it used to be.)

We were both fans of Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame).  Adam still does videos from his workroom, aka "The Cave."  He has a *lot* of stuff.  He loves having everything around - he finds it energizing and  inspirational.  His term for it is "visual cacophony."  While I would jump at the chance to visit the cave, I don't think I could work in there.  The cacophony would drown out any thoughts.

Adam Savage's Cave

Whether I like it or not, the barn and everything in it is mine now.  And I couldn't stand the visual noise - not knowing what was in there, or where it was.  Stuff spread everywhere.  Hence, The Great Barn Cleanout.

I can work in there now.  When I was repairing the chicken yard, I could walk in, grab the wood I needed, walk straight to the chop saw, grab a pencil, whatever.  It works for me know.  It's just that it's so damned empty.  My footsteps echo in it.

The sensation of walking around in it felt somehow familiar.  I finally recognized it.  It's that feeling you get when you're moving to a new house, and have the final walkthrough of the old one before you leave.  Empty, but with the echoes of the life and the memories and the life lived there.

And maybe because of this, my mind has been flooding with small memories.  I needed to shorten a board just a little, and thought "just a skoshi" - a Japanese term brought back from WWII.  And I could hear Bob's little singsong of "if your privates are quite skoshi, you can wear a small fundoshi"

I drive into work and pass by a small house that we used to love checking out, because it was loaded with yard art - flamingos, whirligigs, gnomes - you name it.  And quite often we would see a woman out there, adding to it or rearranging.  She was the archetypal "granny" - fluffy white hair, wearing a flowered house dress.  We tagged her "GrannyMutter" (this needs an umlaut over the "u" so it would be prounced "Mooter.")  The yard was "GrannyMutter Land."  It was just fun, driving in, to look over to see any new additions squeezed in there.

I also drive past a housing area that used to be an open field, with goats, and remember "Power Goat."  He was a little gray dwarf goat, but looked totally musclebound and would stomp along like he would walk through anything that got in his path.  We liked Power Goat so much that when we found this little goat statue at a yard sale we had to have it (and I still do)

Even something as simple as having a bowl of ramen for lunch brought memories.  A lot of the guys in Bob's office would go out to lunch together several days a week.  Bob preferred to have some quiet time to himself and would bring his lunch from home.  Sometimes he would fix ramen in a wide-mouth thermos.  He told me one day that they harassed him for that - for being "cheap" and bringing lunch in, while they went out.  He just smiled benignly and said "I'm retiring early - how about you? Guess you'll enjoy your lunches out for a long time."

Just simple memories.

But back to the barn.  I don't think he was against the idea of having the barn a bit more organized; he just didn't know how to do it (because it would involve getting rid of stuff).  As well as inside, things that were more weatherproof ended up getting put outside against the walls.  I didn't so much mind the stuff behind the barn, but it was also piled up between the barn and the cottage (they're just about 15 feet apart).  I asked if we could move that around to the back, because working in the cottage I didn't like looking out the window at "Sanford and Son."  So we did, and then I took leftover house paint and painted it, and we put in an orange tree, and then he put up several of his green man plaques that he had painted, and it all looked much nicer and he liked it.

My favorite - it looks a bit like Bob

I've had a busy couple of days.  Suzie and Ashlyn from the museum came over yesterday to inspect the chicken coop.  Not only did they make suggestions, but got to work with hammers and fence staples and screwdrivers to make the changes.  Afterwards we went to a Mexican food truck that Suzie likes.  I was happy because it wasn't just Mexican, but specifically Oaxacan, that beautiful part of Mexico that I've visited several times.  Out of nostalgia, I ordered tlayuda - a sort of Mexican pizza made of a tortilla covered with black beans, cheese, chorizo, tomatoes, avocados, thinly sliced cabbage.  We ate it during our backwoods trip for the Day of the Dead.  I got the impression that it's not something that gringos get often, because the owner came out to see if I liked it and was quite happy that I had been to Oaxaca and we talked like homies for a bit.

Today was a lot of driving.  I was rapidly getting short of time to get some baby chicks - they're only carried in the spring.  But not in Tallahassee - Ace Hardware (they have good healthy chicks) in Tally are inside city limits and not allowed to sell livestock.  So I was going to have to go to Crawfordville for them.  I called my friend Judy from the museum who lives there and we met for lunch first - had a lovely long chatty time together (she is also a widow, so we have that bond, although we've been friends for a long time, back when we both had husbands).  Then I went to Ace - and even though when I called late last week they said they would have chicks in for at least a couple more months - they were out, and not going to get any more.  So the only thing I could do was drive to yet the next town and they had a few left.  But at least I have my chicks.  I'll let them settle in for a day or two before I shove a camera at them.

I've also started on remaking the seat for the swing out front.  This afternoon after I got home and the chicks settled I painted it all with some leftover Thompson's water seal.

Tuesday and Wednesday I work, and then will come, at last, my cocoon time, when I can stop this hyperactive running from my demons and just invite them in for a couple of days.  I'll lay in a supply of rum and pastries and maybe some chocolate, release my relentless hold on my own bootstraps, and just quit for a couple of days.  If I feel like working on something, I will.  If I feel like pouring rum in my morning tea and then going back to bed (after cats and chicks are cared for) I'll do that.  Whatever.  Stay in my jammies on the couch.  Just stop for a little while.
Come March 31, I'll pick up those bootstraps again and forge into year 5.