I feel like an Ant

Well, this week has been busy busy busy. I have been working on my fall to do list and doing pretty well at accomplishing tasks. I have also been pretty busy picking up acorns for the pigs and chickens. I am not sure if I am allergic to oaks or I have caught a cold, but I am miserable. Yesterday I picked up acorns from the white oak and since they are much smaller than the red oak acorns I have been picking up it took me longer. By the time I got in the house I couldn't breathe and spent the rest of the night coughing and sneezing. I am still stopped up and sneezy this morning. But no rest for the weary the acorns still need to be picked up. I am trying to pick up as many as I can each day because I am giving the pigs about 5 lbs a day and the chickens about 1 lb. a day plus trying to put some in the freezer to make acorn meal and flour this winter. We have loads of oak trees and they each are beginning to dump their acorns. I probably look like the crazy woman to most people because I have found that the easiest and most efficient way to fill my bucket is to get down on the ground and crawl around on my hands and knees. It makes for sore knees at the end of the day, but I get them picked up more quickly than if I were stooping over. We have also almost finished our yearly raking of the yard. Between the pine trees, oak trees and pecan trees the yard is covered in leaves. I rake really well once a year and then in the spring I will rake up what I want to add in the garden. Then I simply don't worry about it. I could literally rake around here almost every single day which would wear me out and take up too much of my valuable time. We noticed the other day that we have two large pine trees near the house that are dead and need to come down. Unfortunately, we will have to hire a tree service for them since they are very close to the house. If one of them fell on the house there would simply be no more house. It will be a costly job so now there is the issue of coming up with the money to pay for it. I really hate pine trees! We already had to have two removed that were a danger to the house and it cost us a pretty penny to do so. Oh, well. I guess that is the price we pay for all the shade on the house in the summer time. I have a good start in the garden for spring, so spring garden chores should be easier than ever. Our main concentration has been doing outside chores lately. Since I have fibro/chronic fatigue tolerating extreme temperatures is difficult. So the majority of our outside hard chores are done twice a year when I can tolerate being outside longer. In the summer, I get chores that are necessary done in the morning and by 11:00 I am done. Even summer late afternoons are just too hot here to be bearable for long periods of time. In the winter I go out in the afternoon to get the main chores done. The temps are supposed to drop again at nights down into the 30s so I guess the next few days I need to really spend getting the window coverings up so that the house isn't so cold. Still haven't turned on the heat and hope to hold to that for as long as possible. We have had the wood stove going in the den though in the evenings which keeps that area nice and toasty. We all have electric blankets on our beds so that we sleep cozy. Mornings have been a little chilly though and those few nights we have already had dip into the 30s have prompted me to start the stove in the morning for a few hours. So lately, I have felt like an ant...especially when crawling around the ground picking up acorns! As the first signs of winter approach and we feel the first of the cold winds I scurry here there and everywhere battening down the hatches. It is amazing how tied to the seasons and God's creation my life has become. Blessings, Kat