Well, January has done it again. It’s the same almost every year. I have big plans for the first month of the year, just to set the stage for the following months and … something comes up that just makes it impossible to follow through with all of it. So, here we are for the first check in of the year – already with changing plans. Most of my to dos for January fell through. It is raining, and raining and raining. And more rain. And it’s stormy. At least my brother and I managed to take down two of the smaller apple trees that got damaged in one of the last storms and in between rain showers I managed to finish the green waste dumpster which had been on hold since my Dad passed away. We made some progress with the legal bureaucracy stuff concerning the homestead but there is still lots to do and lots to figure out. It’s exhausting. That combined with the fact that I am still grieving and still trying to figure out how to breathe in a world without Dad just makes the whole thing this much harder. It’s not that Dad was very active theses past … six years or so but I still miss the sound of his car pulling into the driveway. I still miss waking up after night shift to the sound of the chain saw. I still miss the smell of the chain saw oil, freshly cut wood and in general his presence. We didn’t always get along when he was still active on the homestead because we come from different generations and well, had different point of views in a lot of things. That didn’t change the fact that we loved each other, nor does it diminish the fact that I still was able to ask him a lot of things. I find it strange that now I wish I had been able to learn more from him but when he was still working it was almost impossible for me to work with him. Just because he had very high standards and they were really hard to match. I guess it’s a normal thing to think about. Doesn’t unfortunately make it any easier. This is the first time that I have lost someone this close to me and I am not sure how to handle it. Maybe some of you have some suggestions?

And then … well, then my tenant moved their moving out date to mid February. Meaning I cannot start the renovation before the end of February. That as well means that I won’t have the electrician here before that so I cannot start taking out the ceiling in the wood work shop. So all I can do right now is reading up on the things I need to learn to fix the ceiling, which is a huge problem in itself because I have no idea what is waiting for me in that ceiling and I still have not figured out how to attach the extra support beams. It’s complicated.

I cannot work in the garden because everything is really muddy and wet and cold and it really bugs me. Honestly it frustrates me so much that I have not started to really plan anything for the garden just yet. What makes me even more annoyed. It’s like a tiny doom loop I am not yet able to break through. I scheduled the garden planning for my work week. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some work done when the patients are sleeping. At least I had a skilled Forrest worker here to get a quotation on how much taking down four of the big trees. Hopefully it won’t be that expensive but they need to come down anyway. One of them is so close to the neighbours house that it could cause nasty damage to it if it’d were to come down during a storm.

At least inside my apartment I made some progress. And with my reading as well. I read through two books about creating and building up a you tube channel and I managed to figure out some of the design things concerning the blog. I’m still trying to figure out a posting schedule. For now I think I’ll post an overlook at the beginning of the months, a check in in the middle and a review at the end. I consider posting every Saturday in addition to that. For this months I have a desk to kitchen island make over planned and an overview about what I plan to grow this year and what kind of work I still have to do in the garden. Do you have gardens and what do you plan to grow this year? Any suggestions what I should absolutely grow and what not?

Another things that came up in the past days is that I really need to sort through my attic. There’s a leak somewhere and I cannot find it when I cannot access the roof. I already started to sort it but still have a lot to do. But I am very grateful that I managed to clean it out last year and now everything is in storage boxes that I just need to move around to get access. Well that and I want to build a few shelves so that not everything is on the floor and easily accessible when needed. I mostly store crafting things up there, tools and raw material for smaller crafts and seasonal décor.

Sadly my dog Happy got sick and well, sick dogs always make things and being productive that much harder. Which is fine. All I want for her is to get better.

What are/were your plans for January and how are they going?

Love, Mael