I've read several articles over the course of the last several months with titles like "Easy timber framing" and "Simple household solutions." While I'm in the workshop, I have my radio tuned to KKPT and I get to hear Mick singing about how time is on his side, or Charlie Daniels being like his ol' blue tick hound, laying round in the shade.

These two concepts don't quite go together. At least they don't for me. Sure, there are lots of things that are simple or easy, but when you have 908751 simple things on your to-do list, getting thought them is not easy unless you have enough time.

For instance, scything hay is easy. Sure, it's a lot of work, but the task itself is easy. The fields around here should probably be hayed in late June, again in August, and maybe once more in late September. I can cut an acre a day... but that day has to start at 4 a.m. and end at 10 p.m. with a HUGE lunch break. It would be murder (or suicide) to work like that in the heat of the day (frequently 100° and 100% humidity). However, while I'm cutting hay, the barn's not getting repaired, the looms aren't getting built, the crochet hooks and knitting needles aren't being carved, winter firewood's not being brought in (and this is something one should start early on... believe me!), the beer's not getting brewed, and so forth and so on.

I could fence off the area and let the animals graze on a rotational basis and then only hay once a year... or maybe not at all, right? Wrong. Then the time I would send haying has to be spent building fence. That's even more work if you're trying to do things without a budget. T-Posts and wire cost a lot and splitting rails is no picnic. Of course, I should only have to do this once. On the other hand, I'm again losing time to moving the animals from one paddock to the next and back to the barn at night.

I could buy hay. In fact, I do buy hay. This frees up my time to get the things I need to get done, done. However, because the hay that I buy is around $5 per bale and it takes roughly 600 bales to feed out critters for one year - that's $3000 for those that didn't do the math - I am now trying to get more looms made just to cover the cost of the hay. No time was freed up! Add to that equation hay hauling and stacking - more time! Just buying the hay doesn't make it materialize in your nicely tarped hay yard or barn - (^%&(%)*^% Scotty, get that transporter fixed!

Sounds like I'm whining. Hardly! I love the life I'm living. However, here's a fine opportunity for folks leaning towards this kind of lifestyle with visions of leisure time away from the 9-to-5 grind to learn from someone else's mistakes. It ain't leisurely (which is why you've not seen a post here since November of 2007)... but it sure is fun!