To Do List For The Year (2023)

The grass is starting to grow, birds are appearing more frequently, and days now seem to have a reasonable amount of sunlight. Spring is here and so is that unbridled enthusiasm that can only come from being stuck indoors under piles and piles of snow for months! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love winter. I’m even crazy enough to think that it might be my favorite season. However, since I cannot currently do any work on the homestead in the winter I am always rather excited to see the snow melt so we can spend some quality time in nature.

It is funny to me that I am writing a to do list for the year. When I was working my corporate job we were required to do this every year, and I hated it with a passion. I always felt that it was tedious, very much out of my control, and bound to go completely off the rails in about a month with unexpected projects. Funny how things change when you are the boss….well technically Archer is the boss but he can’t read so as long as no one tells him we are good 😀 I also get to make the list as long or as short as I would like which makes the process that much easier.

Goal #1: Finish sorting through the logs piles

Barring any surprises from the winter (i.e. collapsed roof, leaks, random critter take over), the shed shack should be all done. That is important, because it means that I can focus my efforts on the guest cabin. I still have two piles of logs to sort through and stack. I want to give the logs another season to dry out so I have all spring/summer/fall to get through those which seems very doable. Before I can move any logs though, I will need to address the giant pool of water that was in front of the two remaining log piles for most of last year. A pump is the obvious solution, and I have a battery that should be able to run one. As I said earlier I am crazy, so I will probably try to just use a bucket and move it by hand 🙂 One day I will have rain barrels for the garden can be filled with the water, but that is extremely unlikely to happen this year.

Goal #2: Get building permit for the guest cabin

Outside of continuing to work on the logs, I get to begin my adventures of working with administrative side of things. Definitely not excited for this part as it means I must interact with people. Gross 😀 It really should not be too bad this year as I just have to work on getting the building permit figured out. The first step will be to get a percolation test done to see what kind of septic system we will need to install. After that, I have no idea what to expect!

Goal #3: Refinish the gravel driveway

This one is an easy task, and it made the list more as a future reminder of how frequently we will need to refinish the driveway. The driveway has been holding up well, but it is only a matter of time before it sinks into the earth 😀 I figure we will need to repeat this every year or two, but it will very much depend on how frequently we use the driveway. Topping it off this year will do it some good.

And there it is! Three simple goals as our starting point for the year 🙂 If all goes well then I will come up with some additional goals for the year. If things go poorly there is no reason to spend the time and effort right now coming up with things we won’t get to 😀