Blackberry versus The Weather Man

I was refining my To Do list for today, picking up some of the things I didn't get done yesterday and adding some things I should do today. Once more it struck me at how different my life is than those of you who live in the city or even most of the residents in this small town of 1200 people that I live in. I may glance at the calendar to make sure there isn't a dentist appointment to go to but it isn't a day planner that I refer to whether it be a Franklin or a Blackberry, (I think that's what you do with those things.) but the weather underground site on the Internet. And my list isn't written up fancy just on an old piece of paper or cardboard. About as techno as I get is the dry erase board in the kitchen I use as a bold reminder for this forgetful mind.

You see my days activities can't be put into little lovely planned way out in advance time slots for they nearly all revolve around the weather. Yesterday, I filled the wood and coal stove box because the weather man says it isn't to creep above 4 degrees Fahrenheit and I don't want to be flapping the door airing out the house on a frigid day like today while I make load after load of wood and coal to fill the bins in the basement. And some of the critters at the corrals I figured could use some more bedding in their sheds since they'd be spending most of the next two days in them.

I'm low on already prepared foods in my freezer so I planned to bake and mix today. The oven will help heat up the house and we could sure use some cookies and muffins for Kirk's lunches and I want to make a bunch of noodles to freeze along with some for a lasagna since ricotta cheese was on sale. While I'm at it, this would be a good time to make that Italian bread with pumpkin seeds and spices rolled up inside that I've had in mind for some time. Then tomorrow I'll continue cooking and hopefully get some sewing done on a quilt. But as soon as the weather breaks and turns a bit warmer without being windy, I've a chicken coop to clean and I think I'll eliminate some old hens who aren't laying like they should and....

Then next month we'll be eying the weather really closely since we need to butcher two pigs and a beef. We don't have a walk in cooler but rely on the weather to cool the meat. Too cold though and it freezes yet too warm and it rots. The pigs are processed in two days except for the hams and bacon but the beef hangs in the garage for a week to ten days. I know others do it for longer but have you ever tried to get the weather to cooperate for that long? Since our beef has a wonderful texture and is very tender there is no reason to wait a longer period and risk freezing it.

In the spring, the weather will determine when I plant, water, and weed the garden. It decides when I go to the next town over to buy livestock feed and shop as the road can be icy and slick in the winter nor do I want the feed rained on in the summer. Our weather decides when I have the goats bred since we haven't any electricity at the corrals and in fact when we do most everything. It even decides what time of day I schedule our winter dentist appointments since the road can be really treacherous and it has a better chance of being good in the middle of the day.

So you see that Franklin planner or Blackberry won't do me much good for Mother Natures in charge of my life and I like it that way. I and others like me have a connection with the world around us that goes unnoticed by most who can put their lives in little times slots. We may not be able to schedule way in advance what we'll be doing but we feel the ebb and flow of the world around us and I find myself watching for the patterns of nature. Even the time in the fall and spring when the little brown caterpillars are on the move. So though the weather man is seldom accurate and he often muddles up what I want to accomplish for the week, I'll take him any day over the Franklin, Blackberry packing life.