Just disappeared up my own exhaust!!!

[diggernotdreamer]

I don't know if anyone else is in the same boat as me. I start off every year full of enthusiasm, sow loads of seeds, everything is going really well, on top and in control, then a series of events happens that throws everything into confusion. This year, in February, we made three big new raised beds, put up a potting shed, then I don't know what happened to the months, but now it is nearly August and my winter brassicas are still in their nursery trough. I walk around looking at all the jobs that need doing, wear myself to a frazzle thinking about which one to start first then end up exhausted and not actually getting anything done. The hot weather has kept me out of the garden which is very exposed and there are no shady places to retreat to, the pigs who had been very well behaved started to eat the sides of the polytunnels so we had to put up a few hundred feet of posts and stock wire and chicken wire to keep out pigs, chickens and ducks, we moved tonnes of small stones from all over the place, (moved to make a 40ft long path between the tunnels) as there were stone buildings all over the place here which were bulldozed down and squashed into the ground and now everything we do requires stone removal, outside the house was is a mess and the crappy extension we pulled down at the front of our house left a lumpy mess which we fell over all the time, so we had to build a 'terrace' which required block foundations and walling, and about 20 odd tonnes of fill topped off with 4 inches of cement (area about 40' x 12') which had to be barrowed from the road down to the house (did get a younger fella in to help with labouring and mixing the concrete). I run into the veg garden and try not to look at the blackcurrants that need picking in the scary fruit cage that has turned evil. I always think that one day, I will exude calm and organisation and that everything I want done has been done and I can just POTTER!!!, but as I get older I seem to get even more manic and things get more urgent as I am worried that I won't be able to do all the hard graft needed in a few years.................... and of course I suffer with depression and can't face certain things when it gets on top of me................long and short, is it just me????

[Maykal]

I've had my place a year and am only just about finished with installing running water in the house from the well. Wasted about two days last week trying to stop some of the fittings dripping. Was ready to bash the whole lot to scrap metal with the wrench when I finally worked out it wasn't a tapered thread and finally stopped the drips! That put be behind with the kitchen furniture making, which meant I couldn't fit the kitchen sink, all of which I was hoping to get done during the week I was at the house leaving me a couple of spare days to sort out some of the garden, which I ended up just scything (more bashing really) as the weeds were looking like triffids (no kidding, in one patch there was one thistle that was considerably taller than me, and I'm 6'2. There was a point about halfway through the second day of sitting underneath dripping pipework when I was seriously threatening to sell the place and be done with it I was so wizzed off with it all. So no, it's not just you :)

[Zech]

Short answer: No, it's not just you.

Longer answer: Read back over your post and see how much you actually have done. I find my blog really helpful for this - people are always pointing out how much I'm doing, when all I'm noticing is how much I'm not doing. I've come to the conclusion that my problem is massively underestimating how long everything takes, and particularly ignoring the time needed for 'routine' things. That is, I pay attention to the new things that I'm planning to do, but somehow expect all the familiar things (baking bread, picking blackcurrants...) to get themselves done in the background.

I haven't solved this problem yet - I'm still taking on far more than I can manage - but my current strategy, as well as cutting out a commitment or two, is to try to pay attention to all the things I do. If I notice how many hours I've spent picking blackcurrants (it was three hours for the first batch - enough for a couple of gallons of wine) then maybe next year it will feature more prominently in my mind when I'm making a mental list of things I need to spend time on. I don't know whether this will work, but paying attention to what I'm doing has got to be a good idea anyway.

[diggernotdreamer]

Glad it's not just me, thanks for making me feel better.

Maykal, I wish I had 100 euro for every time we said what have we done, lets sell this f@@@@@@ place and get out, but of course we don't, we all feel like that at times, we had water pump problems and bought a new one and had more problems, but we sorted it out but the OH had a face like a smacked arse every time something went wrong, he takes it so personally.

Zech, I think we are a people who do take on a lot, I got roped into doing some paid gardening work for someone else when I should have said no, but the money is handy, you are right, I should look more at what I do, up early four days a week picking and packing salads and stir fry stuff to sell in the local shop, so I must be getting something done I have to make a list to try and prioritise what needs doing next, that is always helpful to me, but I don't always do one.

[prison break fan]

Sorry to laugh at your post but you could have been talking about me! I never seem to learn my limitations! In the spring it seems I can do anything and every year about now I find out I can't! We just have to remind ourselves that we are lucky to have the enthusiasm to think we can do it all. pbf.

[baldybloke]

They never promised ish would be easy!!
Managed a bit of weeding and harvested more marrows than courgettes and still not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I think that we all have to do what we can and settle for that.

[seasidegirl]

Longer answer: Read back over your post and see how much you actually have done. I find my blog really helpful for this - people are always pointing out how much I'm doing, when all I'm noticing is how much I'm not doing.

What a great point Zech.

I've only got a very small plot compared to most here but everything else all in it is so easy to get bogged down in the to-do list and ignore the have-dones.

[Pumkinpie]

Yes great answer doing a little is better than doing nothing. We all have our own limitations.
Sometimes we take on more than we can possibly manage and get overwhelmed .
Harvesting, weeding , hoeing and weeding seems endless this time of year. We have our show in a few weeks time and I know I have to get my allot plot shipshape by then.

[doofaloofa]

Man up DnD!

Srysly though, Do you make lists?

Lists are cool. Instant gratification each time you cross a job off, and nothing gets forgotten

Unles you forget to put it on the list, but thats just existencial or something

Also get up an hour earlier

[boboff]

Hmm, yes this is me to a T I am afraid.

Lists are good, but when you just keep adding to them then it does pay to throw them away and just deal with the day to day.

The depression thing I really get, I wish I could sort that out.

The selling wish, I get that too.

I found that I couldn't keep animals, as I really resented the fact that you HAVE to look after them, you get no choice, no one else will.

The answer is to stop feeling guilty and get all the family involved, in my case, I cant do either.

The freezer is full, and I have 50lb or so of blackcurrants and raspberries on the bushes, I recycled all my jars as we just don't eat the Jam, and whats the point buying Sugar just to keep it in a cupboard for years and then bin it, I can't sell it as I hate markets and speaking to people, I have tried it at the local shop, but the volumes are so low, and the fear of the council asking questions makes me sick with worry, and top of the list of jobs is pruning to propagate the blackcurrants, cutting out old raspberry wood to enable splitting of the crowns....ALL SO I CAN GET MORE FRUIT IN THE FUTURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM MAD>>>>>>>>>>>>

[Flo]

You have all managed to do miracles at once and forgotten that the impossible takes a little longer.

We're all only trying to be self suffientish not the full works.

[allthecees]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Next year sow less seeds so you have less to manage. This year I am only growing tomatoes and French beans. Unless you are growing food to live off there is no need to worry.

[diggernotdreamer]

Doofa, man up?? how very dare you, don't you mean woman up!!!!

[doofaloofa]

OK

Person up?