June 25th, 2026. I had to remind myself what year this is before I typed that. Just a small window into the mess that my brain has become this last while. And not only my brain.
I found and brought forward this photo of my, as a much younger and stronger woman, bringing pails of sap in to boil into syrup. There should be a title, something to do with life making you lug things around. Suggestions?
I am surrounded, today as I sit at my computer, by: stacks of paper; minutes to go into the minute book, requests for money from
charities we favour; medical reports; financial records for the file; a pile or
two for my husband; all the rest. And
goodness knows what ‘all the rest’ will turn out to be. I have to clear this up
and sort it before I can sort what I am prepared to lose of all my precious ‘stuff’.
You never know, right, when you will need a gold-edged certificate page or
quick-finish glue or a mid-sized manila envelope.
I have done a first and less than drastic sort of the
basement storage, my clothes and the china cabinet. It is time to hit the
bookshelves and drawers and storage in this, my office. Well, at least it now
has a door.
It was just a year ago that JG informed me that he had
hired a finish carpenter to finish the carpenting in the house. Since we moved
in, only my bathroom has had ‘finishing’ and so I have been looking, for over a
quarter century now, at structural wood in the doorways, pipes and wires in the
downstairs ceiling, subfloor on the stair landing, more but you can envision
the level. This slow and patient carpenter framed in and built the hall downstairs
and put in the ceiling. He put doors on my office and my storage cupboard (I
cheered) and finished the stairway floor. Then, sadly, he got sick and had to
leave and we still have some cleanup to do.
Another extreme cleanup is underway this morning. My
neighbour who is doing this is, she tells me, a ‘detail’ person. There is a lot
of detail on that porch, pollen and dust carried in by the wind. It settles,
sticks and is in crevices and cracks everywhere. She started right after
breakfast and as I write this, just short of noon, she is tackling the worst of
the accreted dirt on her hands and knees. She is worth her weight in shiny gold
coins.
The two things I am doing for a peaceful future are these
– divesting myself of things and locating people who can take over the things I
no longer am able to do. JG is doing the same. We are considering divesting
ourselves of some of the land, but that is a story all on itself.
And writing this is not getting anything sorted.
Even though detailing your work here may not get your any closer to your final goal down the line you will be able to refer to the post, that will show you were making progress.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right - all I seem to be producing is mess and piles of stuff.
DeleteHi there. I think about you and worry just a bit when you haven't checked in for awhile. One good thing about being older is that they don't expect you to carry buckets of sap. 😇
ReplyDeleteHow right you are. But we have a neighbour, my age, who is still lugging it. Using that yoke - I gave it to him.
DeleteSorry about the gap. I am not organized the way you are.
A bucket list for any age it seems. You are very busy. Nice to have some helpers. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteYou got it! I wondered if anyone would. The helpers make it possible, in fact, and even fun. Sometimes.
DeleteAs am I.....
ReplyDeleteSigh. Undone projects greet me everywhere here AND at the lakehouse. Since he retired, Rick is almost impossible to motivate. When I retired, I eagerly tackled as many unfinished projects as I could, but obviously we are different people, a fact that has grown more and more obvious the longer we are married.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to go through things, especially papers! I'm sure some of your motivation is so that your kids aren't left a mess to wade through. You're doing wonderfully; keep it up.
Yeah, male priorities. If JG stops before he finishes a job, it is almost never that he gets back to it, thus my joy about the carpenter. Although I commit to a set of curtains that do not have bottom hems.
DeleteI am not going to get the mess cleared without them, but I guess I am hoping that this way it is a little less drastic for them. I think having to sort for the previous generation gives you an incentive, too.
The hardest think I ever through out was a battered tam hat that my mother used to garden. It was a sad, rained on mess and so was I. I am trying hard to leave stuff that is not that hat.
Going through accumulated stuff seems to be commonplace and after sorting through paperwork myself, I am trying only to keep most current statements of anything and not an entire year's worth. Last week, I divested the file drawer of vintage tax returns and thrift store donations are being made regularly. That photo of you hauling buckets of sap was impressive, Mary.
ReplyDeleteGood for you!!!
DeleteWe made maple syrup for a lot of years; that photo is from one of the first years before we set up a proper flow site with tubing. I was supposed to collect in a vat by snowmobile and the snow all melted on that year early.
Yes, it seems many of us are at this stage now. I did so much sorting and divesting, as you call it (good word) last winter, but boy the junk just creeps right back in. So I will start yet again. It made a big difference last winter, but then Spring and gardens struck.
ReplyDeleteNot only are things piling up on me too, but my brain is not what it used to me... not that it was ever that great. I need to clear my file cabinet. I need to get to the ironing. I need to get more mind strengthening activities for my mother... sigh...
ReplyDeleteWhen we look back it is almost as though we're looking at strangers. Were we really that young? that strong?
ReplyDelete