Spring chores

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist

The weather has been amazingly warm these past few days. The sky overhead has reflected my joy, so I decided to head outside and dive into my spring cleaning, even though spring is y still several weeks away. I pulled on an old flannel shirt, tied up my leather work boots, and set off into the day. 

Everywhere I looked, there was an end-of-winter task that needed doing, and I must confess I felt a bit overwhelmed. It occurred to me that perhaps I should make a list, and then I would be able to tackle one chore at a time, crossing each chore off the list once completed, and thus I would not feel so overwhelmed.

A slight breeze blew up the valley, but it felt wonderfully warm in the sun. I decided to sit down on the bench just outside my woodshop and draw up my list. The day was glorious. I found that after I had jotted down a chore, I’d look up and sit just still, simply enjoying the day. In time, my list grew longer, though I was in no rush. I felt that I could sit there on my bench forever, but eventually it occurred to me that my list was complete. I sighed and read it through.

1) Rake out the accumulated straw from the goat house, load it into the back of the four-wheel-drive-green machine, add it to the compost pile, and then scatter new straw across the goat house floor.

2) Shovel out the straw and debris from the pigeon gazebo, pile it into the back of the four-wheel-drive-green machine, add it to the compost pile, and then return to the gazebo to spread a fresh layer of straw across the gazebo floor. I envisioned the pigeons flapping around my head, my mask securely in place.

3) Rake and shovel out the chicken coop (clean mask across my mouth and nose), load the debris into the back of the four-wheel-drive green machine, add it to the compost pile, and then return to the coop and spread a fresh layer of straw.

4) Fire up the backhoe and trundle down to the compost pile. There, with outriggers firmly planted, extend the hoe over the top of the pile and pull the far side over to the near side, and so turn the pile, burying my latest additions.

5) Gather up the excess metal barn siding (left over from building our most recent barn), load it into the back of the green machine, drive it over to the pole barn, and stack it up against the back wall. (It might come in handy for some future, currently unforeseen, project).

6) Cut down the wayward seedlings, some of which are as thick as my arm, which have amazingly grown up along the field side of the pole barn, and scatter them in the woods behind the barn.

7) Cut down the outright seedling forest that has grown on the hill behind the cabin, again some of which are as thick as my arm, some even thicker, and scatter them on the far side of the rock walk. There is no need for unnecessary leaves to gather in the gutters. It astounds me how quickly these wayward seedlings grow.  

8) Clean out the greenhouse, rake the chip floor, and get the float bed ready with a new plastic liner and fresh water, so that I can float start my garden seeds when the weather finally warms.

9) Pull the weeds from my many raised beds, toss them into the wheelbarrow, and deposit them around the base of the compost pile.

10) Put the tiller on the back of the gray tractor and, when the soil is dry, till the garden for the first time this year. I like to do three tills, spaced far apart because I do not use herbicides, and tilling turns under the weeds.

I read through my list again and sighed, again. This was a good list, but I realized that sitting there in the sunshine I had expended all of my day's energy with its creation. Greg stopped by to join me on my bench. Our puppy, now a year old, joined us. We sat for a while, and decided to go for a walk. Spring was still a few weeks away.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in Ohio south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com. 

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