The Pay Sucks

 

On one of my weekly trips to the bank for my church responsibility I was chatting with the Bank Teller. She had asked me how my week was going and it just happened to be National Collection Week, so it was a bit busy for the previous week and this day was Big Monday. She said "You sure are busy for someone who is retired." 

Well, yes, but when I was working my 40-hour-per-week job I was pretty busy trying to do my farm stuff after work and on the weekends. So, I feel like maybe I'm not nearly as busy, but for a retired person, I am busy. Especially now that I am basically taking over doing all the things here on the farm and keeping the house going.

In addition to taking care of the critter chores I'm doing a lot of the grocery shopping, animal food shopping, miscellaneous shopping also. Already this week I have been to the bank, to my friend's house to pick up some critter snacks and to the grocery store, twice, and to the feed store as well as Harbor Freight to buy another tarp for the momma's shelter. That is just two days of errands. It's not so much the number of stops I make, but where those shops are relative to our home. Let's just say if I can do online ordering and not leave, I'll do it!

All busyness aside - I want this life! I have been dreaming of leaving my comfortable job behind (and decent pay) and start playing a bigger role here on the farm. With the holidays now upon us, there is an added layer of work to do that normally isn't a thing. 

Currently our living room is in shambles. Even though I have all sorts of time in a day I still have to do other stuff, and as in the past, decorating for Christmas isn't the highest priority. I'm pretty sure that in the next day or so I'll have everything all in place and can spend time doing some other fun stuff while I'm not doing farm related chores. 

While Tom is off working full-time, I'm here at home making some changes that I've been wanting to do for quite a while. We are only 4 weeks into my new "life" and I am feeling like things might actually turn out alright after all. 

It will be a few years until we'll be doing this farm gig together, but it will be worth the wait now that we'll have a steady income coming in. For the past almost two years, finances have been tight, but we've been able to get the bills paid, but not much was left over to do much of anything else. From now on we'll continue to take care of our monthly bills, but we'll be able to do some projects around here. Some that I might be able to do on my own, but definitely others that Tom and I will do together. 

These past few weeks have been an adjustment for me as Tom has a set schedule Mon-Fri which means I have a set schedule as well. My morning chores have morphed into a smooth feeding routine and I'm able to get most of the critters fed BEFORE the four boys are done with their food. While the routine is not terribly extensive, I do try to gather up the bowls from the sows and from Big Momma and Big Daddy before I go in for the morning. So, yeah, things are working out.

I am realizing that as the week goes on I get a little tired of feeding the critters, not so much that I want to just skip feeding them. If I did there would be a riot the moment I walk out the door. I'm sure that once the dreary weather is past us, in six months or so, I'll feel much better by the time Friday rolls around. 

So, yeah, retirement for me is great! I love creating my own schedule everyday and December is Christmas month, so I'm STILL working on that. When the new year rolls around, I'll be finding all sorts of things to do out on the farm.

Being home has been my dream for a few years...Best decision ever!