Let me clarify the title of this wicked blog:
• How many projects do you have going on right now?
• How many projects are you making plans to try to accomplish with the next 12 months (sometime in 2017)?
• How many projects did you plan a year ago this time, but suddenly it was 12/31/16 and didn’t get them done?
I too live in my projects. Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping because I cannot shut down the stupid hamster on the wheel called “my mind” at night. Yes, it is a hamster on a wheel because that sucker just keeps going around and around on things.
I have tried multiple ways to get it to stop at night;
• I keep a notepad/journal at my bedside so I can write them all down. Now, I was once told that by doing this I would then mentally release and allow it to flow out of my head. Reason being that it was now down on paper – permanent (so to speak) and I could let go. Ya, sure!? All this did was keep me up longer writing details of the project then, inevitably, coming up with new ideas off the original.
• I gave up on things like counting sheep because they just made me think of something that needed to get done in one of the critter pens.
• Over-the-counter sleep aids. Once in a blue moon, they do help me but most times not.
• A very good friend told me to picture a “purple cow.” Since this is not a normal color for a cow (but wouldn’t that be fun to see?!), you actually have to concentrate on it. IT WORKED – for a bit anyway. Then I started picturing that purple cow on my handmade cards with some great humorous statement about it. Then was the idea of a knit critter for kids of a purple cow with really long legs. Blew it again!
On average, I get about 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night. This is nothing new for me, as I did this a lot when I was younger. However, back then I was also working three jobs and taking part-time classes for business. I didn’t have any time for extra sleep back then. (Having a child that required special surgeries every year for 20 years didn’t help much either.)
So this year, just as the last ump-teen million, I have set myself some project goals for 2017. A brief part of that list follows:
1. Start seeds for this year’s gardens – greenhouse and outdoor.
2. Get the rest of the greenhouse cleaned up and ready to go for plants by March.
3. Get the outdoor gardens cleaned up and ready for plants by June.
4. Start new plots in the back yard (there hasn’t been a lawn back there ever, so we decided this year we were going to set up several vertical gardens. The whole area gets a ton of sun.).
5. Fix (maybe replace if we can afford it) the chicken roof. Stupid winds-from-hell took out a large section of the sheet metal. Think it’s in Kansas with Dorothy now?
6. Clean up and expand the chicken coop. We have the west side of the barn vacant. It used to house our goats, but since we do not have goats anymore; now would be a good time to put it to use again.
7. Cover the north exterior chicken pen with plastic (hard greenhouse pieces we have and then some 6-mil plastic for the sides that we can roll up and down as weather regulates.
8. Get my yarn projects under control and organized. Right now they are all stuffed in large plastic bags. Kinda hard to sell what you can’t find! One of my “night ideas” is to build a special wall in my crafting room to hold all of these in compartments and hooks (furry hat on a post, extras in the box or crate above on a shelf, etc., etc. etc…). However, it will take a full wall to show all of these in their individual categories.
9. #8 then took me into this one: Re-organize my craft room. It can look so pretty; then I get into a project like Christmas Cards and wow – I can demolish the room in one afternoon. I pull out everything for an “ordinary” card making session; then I get a dangerous idea. Something will pop into my hamster brain again, and I’m off! Pulling extras out of drawers and setting up more equipment (yep – have tons of that too: cutters, colors, designers and designing boards you name it, pretty sure I have it). It’s a disaster in there more than pretty.
This is only part of my list. Maybe one of my goals should have been slowing down some, or get more sleep?
(Just out of curiosity, how many projects do you have going on or are planning on for this year?)
HELBERG FARM STORIES 
How many projects?.. Only 4.
A veg patch. (Raised beds and better plot definition)
A vertical garden.
A low level aquaponic trial (From my pond)
A better garden map (Larger, with all my plants listed)
So not too bad.
I’d like to hear more about your idea for your vertical garden though. Mine was going to be really simple. 3 stretches of guttering, set on my wall at a slight angle for flow, and planted up with strawberries, lettuce and maybe some spring onions if I can find a deep enough piece of guttering!
I have some other ideas of things I want to do… But they are just pipe dreams and would be based on my getting more money then I can really expect! B-)
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We have “tax refund time” here in the states over the next few months. At this time we look at our “projects” list and figure out which ways are the best use of the funds. One of the biggies this year is more vertical gardening – in the greenhouse and outside. The biggest hope is this will cut down on some of the ugly ground pests. I will be taking pics, keeping notes and sharing everything including costs. Hope this will help you out too. (By the way: you “bulked” your list…wait till you really get into it/them. You will do what we now do – break each “big” project down into smaller, manageable sections. It makes for a bigger list, but you feel so much more satisfied when you can cross one off and know you are that much closer to the big one! ) (another FYI: There is a tube now for growing up things like strawberries: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diy+vertical+garden
This is link to reach some of my youtube videos that I have saved for our use. You may find some helpful!)
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I have not actually sat down and counted the projects I have planned. I am afraid I would overwhelm myself! Loved this post.
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They overwhelm me too – this is why I keep a “constant” to do list now. I list all that I can on a page, cross off and celebrate what gets done. When the page is full of stuff (crossed off or not), then I move the undone stuff to the next page. Gives me a nice reason to wake up the next day. There was a story about this from my childhood. All I remember is the child kept telling the grandfather a story that would leave him hanging. This way the grandfather would not die because he had to know how the cliffhanger ended. This is how I look at my project list – a reason to keep going! hee hee
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hahaha My dad used to have a sign in his plumbing shop that said he had so much on his list and was so far behind he could never die!
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I’m on a mission this year to have a great big clear out. I’m intending to be ruthless 😊
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