The computer shift key on my standing desk is sticky. I may need another keyboard. Intermittent sticky means I can put this off. Permanent sticky means that I can’t put this off. Most things like this are quite simple. We humans make them difficult.

I am working on finding a balance. I made some headway today. This is going to be a lifelong process. I did have this figured out, or so I thought. A later in life priority shift made me aware of the fact that few things, balance included, are written in stone.

Alys and Raudi

My tombstone (and I am going to have one) is going to read:

Done Here
Gone Elsewhere

So I decided that rather than work early on book project administrativa that I would instead work late on book project administrativa. It was with this in mind that I got out right after breakfast and I cleaned the goat pen.

This is a task that I feel ambivalent about. It is gross, dirty, and physically demanding work, especially if I put it off, which is usually the case. I use the hedgerow rake and shovel and deposit the soiled hay in muck buckets. I cannot do this with the stuff underneath because it is a close clumped mat. Instead, I use my hands. I was told by tool using man to use a pitchfork, but the mat is so dense that I can’t pick up the sod like, connected matted bedding.

When done, I had seven buckets full of crap. Pete later ran them down to compost station and up behind the hoop house. What I do like about this job is that after, I feel like I’ve done something good for my animals.

I finished in time enough to go for a ride with Pete. He rode Raudi and I rode Tyra. Raudi, who was in the lead, was very slow, so I got out front. We then moved a bit faster. All the while, it threatened to rain but did not. It still hadn’t rained when we got back, so I took Hrimmi and again the dogs on yet another outing. I felt good about all this.

After lunch, 3:00 p.m., I went to town and sorted and cleaned and stamped books. It went well because I have a system. I boxed up books for Bill, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, which he will pick up and distribute this week. After, I felt good about the fact that the books that he’s to distribute are going out clean and stamped. This is more time consuming for me, but worth the effort.

Cherokee appeared and made it a point to tell me that the book I gave her, The Woman who Moved Shit with Her Mind, was a terrible book. I told her that I was glad to hear this because she assisted me in determining that this book should be shredded. Less work for me, for sure.

Cherokee then discovered the Anne McCafferty books that I had set aside for Pete to take to school. I let her have them. It then occurred to me that, yes, this project is a wonderful thing. Here we have a hotel and its patrons now taking books.

This evening, I met with Pete and we figured out what we are doing this week. Then I worked on administrativa, which I originally was going to do in the morning. So in essence, I struck a balance by flipping my flipping day around.

Next: 277. 10/9/23: Cutting off the bottom of an Apron