Oh for firetruck's sake!

He said, having somehow inadvertently published an incomplete very rough post beginning...

SMH

When wally world is deserted, it's a great time to be shopping. If you must, you know, actually shop.

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It's been an extremely busy week. While the recent storm slowed outside ranch work, pop up tasking provided a great deal of vital inside work.

A couple of weeks ago the Big Aircrew Chief presented me with an "opportunity to excel." That's what was often said in the navy bitd when one was presented with what looked like a tough and complex job. In the navy I learned over time that whining about the impact such tasking had on my poor, persecuted self didn't help with task execution and didn't really even make me feel better. I also discovered that doing caused the tasks to be done, eventually, and that the doing of hard tasks was the reward. What a concept, what a lesson.

Now I have on my plate a tough and complex job. None of the other things on my plate have magically vanished. This is become the time for suck it up and drive on. The doing will see the tasks done, eventually, and the rewards will be, as usual satisfying and fundamentally right.

It's a grand and fulfilling thing to be alive and presented with opportunities to excel.

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The slow moving weather system took its time clearing the AO. It was a very cold system, when placed in perspective of April. Wednesday night the mercury tumbled down to 6 degrees, Thursday night all the way down to 4 degrees.

The snow drifts have impeded initial initial operations in the 2020 fencing campaign. Stage zero, a bit of unanticipated chicken enclosure work, needs to be completed first. It's a response to chicken scratching damage at various locations; the intent is to properly confine the birds. My rules of engagement are restrictive, so no feather clipping is allowed. Therefore the fence must go higher. I think it'll work, but I won't be surprised to find myself eventually installing an overhead containment system with additional chicken wire. However, first things first, and don't place the cart before the pig.

While waiting and confined (heh-heh) inside by weather and pop up tasking, I was able to execute a surprising but effective maneuver as I got stuck into tough and complex.

The very thing!

Tough and complex doesn't mean you can ignore routine maintenance.

Or chicken chores!

We seem to have discovered that at our place and with our chickens, oatmeal is the key to egg production.

They love their oatmeal!

They're keeping an eye on me!

As usual, increased tasking has resulted in decreased blogging. Sigh. There's lots of room to increase efficiency, but it's a tricky balance just now. It's life.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.