Projects

 Getting things done!

I am learning as I get older and, maybe wiser,  that I need to focus on one thing at a time and not try to spread myself thin trying to accomplish numerous things all at the same time.  One time in my life, I could do that (I could remember 32 waitress orders at one time and I knew almost every entry at the Terrier Classic or St. Valentine meet), but those days are long gone. I was never all that good at finishing something I started, until upon a deadline or I just never got it done.  So, it is important to me that I now at least try and start a project, work it through without getting upset and finish it before I start the next project, or at least in the present tense, rather than at some future time down the road.

Now, I have to set things up as projects and hope I can get a project done, one at a time, in a timely manner. This is not always possible, as a project has many parts and relies not only on my staying power, but also on available supplies and my avoiding distractions as much as possible.  

So, we are now as we move into October and my projects are coming to a close, I can reflect back a bit and learn something new again, I hope.

Here is a listing of projects that are "in the hopper" or almost complete:

So, what have I learned, from this year's retirement living.  Owning a home means never being retired.  There is always something to do, something that breaks down or something new to add.

When we moved, I gave away most of my tools, thinking that life in our new home would be simpler, resulting in much less work.  Wrong. There is always something that needs to be looked at and that is not a bad thing.

However, if one looks at all the things that need attention, the tendency is to get overwhelmed and not do anything, or attack all of the things at the same time and get nothing completed.  That is how I have handled things for a long time.  I become discouraged and let things go on or I attack and never finish one project, let alone all of them

I am now trying to look at a project as if I have been called in to do a job.  Get to the job, figure out what needs to be done and do it.  Of course, things get in the way, whether it be family, dogs or not finding the right material to finish a job.  

For example, I wanted to run some drain pipe from the two downspouts on the side of the house, down the lawn 50 feet away into a drainage opening that was put in by the previous owner.  Digging the 50 foot ditch wasn't all that bad, considering if I were still in Mansfield, I would have found lots and lots of rocks and even boulders in the way.  The problem was getting 3 inch drain pipe that was out of stock everywhere.  I ended up having to buy 4 inch pipe, digging a bigger drench, cutting into a part of the irrigation pipe, fixing that (which took a while even though I have done that in the past) and finally backfilling and putting down grass seed.  Instead of a job that would take me a few hours a couple of days, ended up taking a lot of hours and 4 days.  

The good news is that the job is done (I hope) and now an area of the lawn that used to get quite wet, should be a lot drier.  I was glad I had done irrigation pipe repair up in Mansfield, as I knew how to fix the damaged pipe line.  Even that was more complicated, as I used a heat gun initially to try and put the pipe couplers in, but ended up melting the main pipe due to it being a lot thinner the what I had worked with in the past.  I ended up using Irish Spring soap and liquid soap that worked quite well in connecting the couplers and the new tubing.  The clamps helped to stop any leaks and the job was finally done correctly.

Patience and doing one project at a time seems to be a good combination to getting things done.  Giving myself some good lead time and multiplying by 3 or 4 the amount of time it will take to complete the project also resulted in less frustration.

Digging a ditch 50 feet long

Oops! Didn't see that irrigation water pipe! Fixed!!