Common Sense Home Good News Letter 9/25/22
“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.” -Meister Eckhart
I was reading a story recently about a photography class where the teacher divided the class into two groups. Group one was graded on how many photos they took. Group two only had to submit their one best photo to be graded.
By the end of the semester, the “lots of photos” group had taken a ton of photos, and done a lot of experimenting and learning, with some excellent photos in the mix as a result. The “one perfect photo” group spent more time discussing the perfect photo than taking photos, and by and large produced rather lackluster photos.
It’s an old saw, but “done” is often better than perfect. Over the past week or so, I’ve been tracking my time to see where the heck my day disappears. Right now, a lot of time is devoted to the harvest, but my online time can easily be gobbled up by trying to figure out the “right” way to tackle projects instead of just diving in.
I am, by nature, a “dip toes in water and move in slowly rather than jump in” sort of person, but it can be good to challenge yourself to mix things up.
If you have a project you want to tackle or skill you want to learn, how about setting some time aside this fall to make it happen?
Sure, things are messy right now in much of the world, but we never know what time we will have, so we might as well make the best of it.
Speaking of messes, I want to confirm the cancelation of our annual open house, which would normally be on October 1st.
Our “dive in and get it done” project this year has been remodeling the bonus room above the garage, but we’ve been hit with one delay after another. We’re down to flooring and heating, but it won’t be ready by October 1st.
The boys picked up the last of the flooring yesterday, and it needs time to acclimate to the room temperature. The gal from the flooring place recommended a couple of weeks.
Between the wait time, still processing the harvest, and helping neighbors with a kitchen remodel, the house is completely topsy-turvy right now.
I’ve been thinking about moving the open house date for some time so that we catch the gardens at a better time (the October date was based on being a part of the national solar tour). Right now we’re tentatively looking at July 29, 2023 for our next event.
I’m running late again, so I’d best wrap up, but give some thought to things you’ve been putting off. Wouldn’t it be great to have them done, or to have a new skill by next year?
All our best to you and yours,
Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)
P.S. One of our challenges – get some new family photos taken before the end of October! This one is getting old, and doesn’t include those young men of ours who tackle so much work around the homestead.
This week’s featured articles…
I don’t know about your area, but around here there are pumpkin patches and roadside stands all over the place selling pumpkins and winter squash. We generally grow our own, but whether your picking from your garden or gathering them from the farmers market, winter squash and pumpkins are a great storage food. They’re inexpensive, and can be used in a lot of different recipes. With proper curing, our spaghetti squash last from one harvest to the next – without processing (assuming we don’t eat them all).
Learn How to Harvest, Cure and Store Winter Squash and Pumpkins
Fall swept in with a big temperature drop in our area. We haven’t had frost yet, but they are talking lows near freezing this week. We continue to keep busy harvesting and processing, but it’s also soup season!
This chicken and wild rice soup is creamy and filling, and reheats well.
We regularly talk about food storage (with a short growing season like ours, it’s a necessity). Valley Food Storage is one of our favorite companies for long term food storage kits. If you’ve been thinking of stocking up, they’re running a sale right now for Preparedness Month.
You can read the full review of Valley Food Storage here.
Popular on Instagram this week – the unrepentant cat and making marinara and seed saving.