One Good Deed

Recently I took L1 to the library in the evening after my husband got  home from work. We went partly to pick up our books that came in, partly to sign out a local museum pass but mainly to return a book, The Importance of Being Little, that was not only long overdue  but also now billed to me. I had been working my way through it for the last two months. Because, as you may have guessed in my absence, things have been really busy. I would love to explain that spring is the busiest time of the year and all these things happened, because they did but the real reason for my absence has been lack of motivation. Sleep and energy too but mostly motivation. When you get out of the habit of something, it can be so easy to just let it go for a few days but then days turn into weeks and weeks into months and suddenly it is a whole different season. So today, as I looked over the couple of books that came for me, I saw that One Good Deed: 365 Days of Trying to Be Just a Little Bit Better. I figured that I could check out the introduction while I made lunch. Can you guess what it was about? Yep, doing good but on a larger scale, it was about doing what you are passionate about. One of the things I have been behind on and really missing, is writing. I miss your comments and being part of a community.

So here we are, months have passes and there is so much going on that I have no idea where to even begin. Here's the short recap: got piglets, they escaped, put them in the second garden (with electric fencing so they didn't eat all our peas) and let them clear the weeds. One beautiful sunny day in May, the air seemed filled with bees. Then we realized that the air was in fact filled with bees and our first hive swarmed. Exactly one week later, the other hive swarmed. We now have four hives. Three weeks later we saw that the old queens were laying eggs. Hooray! What a huge relief. Then we moved the pigs to the first garden, using an electric fence to move the boundaries so we could start planting both gardens. The pigs have now moved to their electric fenced pasture alongside the orchard. We have lost 9 chickens to the foxes that have a den in the neighbor's brush area. Many broody hens and many more chicks later, we have new broody hens.

We also joined a local CSA and we are receiving a small weekly share. Why join a CSA with our gardens? The main reason is that this farm grows some amazing produce and they seem to excel at all the things I have not grown well in the previous years. If there is something we aren't able to eat right now, I am making small batches and putting them up. I started in June, canning some pickled radishes.

There's a short recap of life this way and while the day to days have been truly full, picking up One Good Deed was the lightening bolt I needed to get back to writing. So thank you Erin McHugh!

What about you? Is there anything you love to do that tends to slip through the cracks, especially with nice weather or holidays?

This article was shared on The Chicken Chick