It’s still March and I keep telling myself that it’s March. Over and over and over again.
You see, my brain knows that this March has been full, just like many Marches before this one. There have been travels with the requisite adventures. There have been significant work tasks. There were and are family and friend things. I even managed to rework my entire postal history exhibit prior to a trip to Cleveland. And all the while, the farm is calling for more of our time and attention.
So, why is it that I am still telling myself that I will get SO MUCH done in March - as if it hasn’t really gotten going yet and I’ve got the full 31 days to do it all?
I know that some of this feeling comes from the unseasonably warm weather we have had for most of the winter months combined with the truly seasonal weather - complete with snow and wind - that we’ve gotten recently. It feels a bit backwards, so maybe I can go back and recapture some of the days that are behind us on the calendar.
I also recognize that this is part of the normal progression of the disease known as Farmer Delusional Syndrome. I’ve told myself all the lies about how everything is going to go just right this year just often enough to start believing them. Now, I’m telling myself the lie that I haven’t already missed some of the targets that were set out in the “grand plan.”
It’s all still salvageable.
At least, that’s what I tell myself.
And no, I’m not really that clueless. I really do have a pretty good idea why things go this way and how March gets that crowded feeling. Between Tammy and I, our combined schedules become quite dense with the college, my job, the farm AND any outside interests we stuff into the cracks.
What makes it worse is that all of these things overlap with each other and the only one that might be considered to not be going full tilt is the farm. The rest is full-steam ahead!
We’re just looking to add more farming to the mix. That’s all we ask. It shouldn’t be hard to do, should it?
Most years, I find myself doing multiple presentations in March. And, while no single presentation takes too much time to prepare and I do enjoy giving them, the introvert’s recovery period afterwards isn’t accounted for. You would figure that I would schedule some time to recharge. But no, I often schedule the next few hours and the days that follow as if there was no need to address the energy issue.
And, yes, we both could benefit from a little bit of a transition after traveling too. This is especially true if you get home at 1 AM after driving ten hours. It’s also a good idea if you’ve been in airports on and off much of the day before driving an extra hour and a half to get home by 4 AM…. And it’s the first day for Daylight Savings.
In that case, I tried to make myself feel better by reminding myself it was really 3 AM.
It didn’t work.
Of course, our bodies are not used to doing the physically rigorous farmwork, which means we might want to expect that back-to-back heavy work days might not be wise. That’s exactly why weekends are two days long. So we can attempt to do the rigorous stuff two days in a row. I guess it makes sense, in a slightly masochistic sort of way.
That’s why March is a time where there are these little “crashes” that happen where one or both of us just don’t have the energy to keep pushing. We don’t schedule those in and we pretend they haven’t happened. That way, we can keep thinking that we have more of March to get the rest of the stuff done!
I know I’ve already hinted at it, but March is typically a big travel month for the two of us. This is partly because it’s a time during our year where we can get away with doing it. If only barely. The farm is still at some of its lowest levels of daily work requirements and we’re away from the holidays that often make it hard to find someone to cover farm chores for us while we are gone.
The March travel period typically has connections to work or other activities. Both of us are often on the clock for these. For example, Tammy is on the board for a national organization that holds their annual conference in March. Believe me, that is NOT a vacation for her, even if she gains some positives by going. And the time and location is rarely convenient, so there is some preparation and effort put into the whole thing.
This is the month where a couple of reachable philatelic/postal history shows land as well. I fully admit that this one is all my fault for having the interest in postal history that drives me to want to participate in events like this. But that IS the way it is and the time for shows close enough to Iowa for me to go is usually in or around the edges of March. Anyway, you don’t need to know all of the details - let’s just say that this month usually provides me with an opportunity that I don’t want to forgo. But when I take it, it just adds to the madness.
March is also the time that we realize we absolutely cannot put off getting on the “hamster wheel” for the farm any longer. It’s the time of year when the daily chore list gets longer, not shorter. And it’s going to get longer still until it plateaus at some point in June and stays there until maybe October.
So that means I am often trying to get things for my PAN job to a point where I can manage to reduce that workload as the farm effort increases. That usually results in me trying to push out some bigger projects or setting up lots of things so they are easier to do in smaller chunks of time in the coming months. I’d like to say that I’ve got it all figured out by now after giving it a try now for a few years. But, apparently, I am still pretty clueless.
Still, I am ever optimistic that I’ll figure it out this time around.
Is there such a thing as General Workplace Delusional Syndrome? Maybe Farmer Delusional Syndrome infects everything a farmer is involved in? This requires more study.
I’ll get to that once I’m done with this article.
In all my spare time.
Now, I do think I deserve a pass because the first year I worked for PAN had all of the new weirdness of a pandemic. The second year saw me lose a kidney in April and another one of those years resulted in Tammy having surgery to reattach an Achilles tendon. So, in reality, we have had exactly ONE shot to try and figure this all out. And I am sure I can come up with an excuse for that one as well. Just give me a moment.
So, hey! It’s all new. And new experiences require a certain amount of patience and grace.
Right?
I told myself that this would be the year that I would not let myself be deterred from getting some tasks done that are so much easier if they are done before things start greening up. There are some fencing projects that need doing and I always intend to walk the farm and find those odd fence posts and other items that fell over last season and have gotten covered by the prior year’s growth. After all, this is the time when the ground cover is thinner and the temperatures are warm enough that I can stand being outside for extended periods of time without much complaint.
Unfortunately, I have, thus far, been deterred.
This was going to be the year that I would set aside a full day to clean up this office in March. And, I don’t mean a superficial cleaning either. It was also the year that I would finally finish that organizational project for our outbuildings so it would be easier to find our tools as the season progresses. And, yes, I was going to clean out the turkey room this month as well so it didn’t get so close to the moment that we absolutely HAVE to clean the room because new birds are coming soon.
Once again, I have not set aside my full day to clean, nor have I finished these projects that would certainly make the year go more smoothly.
I know we have not been sitting on our hands. There are accomplishments. In fact, I would say we have done well. After all, we have the whole month left to get the rest done. Just don’t remind me of exactly how many days remain in March and we’ll all be okay.