The plan for Year 2

This is easy. We just want to do everything that hasn't been done yet, bringing the place to perfection by Jan. 31, 2015. Snort.

The garden (our big success)
• Expand it. Most of the fencing is in place. We need to extend the terraces, dig out giant rocks, quack grass and knapweed, add compost and mulch. We want to grow more greens and roots for the animals, more staples for us.
• Create a watering system. Dragging hoses around sucks.
• Fit out the basement for veg storage. It's too damn cold here for storing root crops in their garden beds.
• Start a small orchard and berry patch. I made a tiny start last year, but the sheep put a stop to it. I want Stanley prune-plums, apricots, apples, and raspberries and blackberries.
• Move the mushroom kit outside and try to establish a wine-cap patch.
• Divert one of the roof drains to rain barrels to water the greenhouse.
The greenhouse is a temporary setup, but works OK for now.

The animals
• Fence another pasture for the big animals to minimize parasite exposure.
• Add a porch to the chicken house.
• Figure out how keep chickens out of the garden.

The building
• Install the electric furnaces and ductwork to keep the studios, hall and bathroom at least 50 degrees.

C.'s studio
• Fit out the closet for heavy fabric storage
• Move the hall electric heater in there. Wood heat is too dirty for all the fabric/fleeces/fuzz.

My studio
• Patch the roof-drain leak
• Fix the lights and outlets
• Install one of the spare wood stoves
• Tear out the busted vinyl windows and idiotic framing and install... a mosaic of old small-pane wood windows? Have to have some welding done for a frame for them. Can we afford vintage metal-frame windows from Tormino's? Probably not.

Have fun
• Go mushrooming and woods-walking. Take Kewpie to Elk Park. Bring the canoe up, and take it out once in a while.

A year (nearly) on Old School Acres

My to-do list is downright scary. It never seems to get shorter, and I can't look anywhere around the place without pangs of guilt. The animals need this, the garden needs that, the gym... the studio.... The hallway still has particle board on the floor, the living area STILL has plastic instead of doors, yada yada.

The truth is there is enough work around here for 15 years (20 for the ancient slow-motion carpenter), but that doesn't mean we haven't done a lot. So while I'm planning next year's priorities, I want to celebrate last year's accomplishments.

The place became ours Jan. 31, 2013. We moved in about three weeks later. And over the last year (in addition to surviving) we – with the help of family and friends – have:
• Moved 27-plus years of stuff from the Ancestral Home (this was a massive undertaking that involved many trips in rented trucks and many family members and many hours and is still not completely finished)
• Fenced, terraced, dug, de-rocked, de-knapweeded, de-quackgrassed, planted and harvested an amazing, BIG garden (this was the big accomplishment of the year – C. did most of it, and Richard did a whole lot of rototilling)
• Canned, dried and froze many, many pounds of food from that garden (C. again)
• Installed an awesome wood stove (with the biggest legal firebox you can buy)
• Fenced a pasture for the big animals
• Fenced two yards for the dogs
• Built a chicken house
• Fixed up the old barn for the big animals (and the two chickens who insist on laying out there instead of their perfectly nice chicken house) (Richard, Emma, KC, Cullen and KiSong did this)
• Had some of the roof redone (there are still some issues, but several areas are brand new)
• Got the basic systems up and running: fixed frozen pipes, replaced some faucets and water-heater elements (thanks, Tom), capped off the crazy buried irrigation pipe that was sucking all the water out of the house system, rootered out the lines to the septic tank, patched some of the vandalized electrical system, replaced glass in some doors and windows
• Hauled supplies for future projects: 2,000 square feet of maple flooring from an old school (I nearly killed Richard with this), hundreds of feet of old picket fencing, a set of kitchen cabinets...

So when I'm feeling doomed, I'm going to look at this list and remind myself that we have accomplished quite a few things. Now, the list for next year.