Project Mode
It’s officially Autumn, and we are changing gears. Production mode is over, done for 2020. The tomato trellis is down. The squash is washed. The greenhouses are cleaned up and ready to house equipment for the winter. We still have to harvest for the weekly markets for a good bit, no small task on any given week. We also need to prep a few beds for next spring, plant garlic in October, and harvest and wash all the winter carrots (easy peasy). Other than that, we can go into project mode over the coming weeks in a way that hasn’t been accessible in quite a few years.
Nothing in project mode is do or die, but if we do, um, do, it sets a good situation for the next season and keeps momentum. If it all goes well, it can be the difference between feeling at ease for the winter or stressing about things that you can’t tackle till spring.
I could ignore project mode, and go into lounge mode, and that…would be something wonderful. But that would also make for a heavy crunch next spring with maybe just a little resentment. You know that little resentment, when past you wasn’t thinking too much about future you, and now present you has WAY too much stuff to do for bettering the season. Now is a good time on farms to avoid that feeling in our future selves. Now is the time to be a good present me for the future me (and you) so that the future me (and maybe you) doesn’t look back at the past me with a whole lot of resentment and stupefied wonder. Like…”Past me, what gives? What were you doing last October that was SOOO important that you couldn’t have left me with a better situation?”
Past me from this last spring looked back at past me from Autumn 2019 and was saying “Past me, that was a pretty crappy situation, I’ll give you that. But for real past me, aren’t we supposed to be ready for crappy situations? Like, isn’t that our actual job??” Past past me from the way past would have rather not replied to past me (who was present me when the question was being asked) out of fatigue and maybe a little sham. But if past me had cornered past past me, past past me maybe would have given in a little “Yes, yes, I should have been more prepared. You're RIGHT! It was crappy, but I should have been more prepared”
Present me is looking now at past me from this Spring and thinking “Yeah, you did…okay. But only just.” and also thinking “Crap, future me knows something I don’t , and he’s probably going to be pissed! I hope future me isn’t expecting that I be doing something different. Forgive me future me!!!”.
Meanwhile future me is doing who knows what. Probably just sitting on his lazy duff, just waiting around for the chance to berate present me, past me and past past me. Ugh!!!! What a jerk. Little does he know that future future me has his number, and when he’s finally past me, and future future me is present me, he’s gonna let future me HAVE IT!! You get em future future me!!! What goes around comes around, ya slog!
So… yeah…. we’re…um, going into project mode on the farm, like I said! It seems like a good time for it. I hope we get a lot done and done well, for the sake of all our tenses. While we do, I have to admit a part of me will be mentally lounging with the beauty of the changing trees. But I think that’s warranted.