I ended up with 3 consecutive days off. I felt like i should really make use of it; since i wasn’t contributing any income during these three days, i ought at least to be productive. I began with a long overdue project; cleaning the chicken coop. I couldn’t imagine how my arthritis riddled body was going to do all that squatting in the cold and the wind, long enough to get all the old shavings bagged up. But, one foot in front of the other. I tried not to think about it and before i knew it the task was done.
The chickens seemed to like their newly cleaned coop.
Petunia hopped in to check it out.
After i finished cleaning the chicken coop i decided to run with the momentum. I emptied all the compost bags onto the pile and hauled mulch over to it where i mulched the compost pile. I cleaned out the car, which hadn’t been cleaned at all during all of 2020. Everything from old food wrappers, mail, ppe, and clothes was inhabiting my car. I sorted everything out. Then i broke down boxes and hauled 2 and a half boxes of cardboard to the post office for recycling. While i was there i mailed an important late christmas package to a friend. I filtered enough well water to fill all our drinking water containers and contribute to the chicken water barrel. I put away everything in the house. I had both the house and shed sprayed for their twice yearly prevention of carpenter ants, turned off the air and opened all the windows to let it dry, harvested the rest of the mandarin oranges, and handled all the new paperwork for school. I put yeast down the toilet for the septic tank, watered the succulent, found the dogs some new tree branches to play with, and mapped all the berry bushes on the property. Then i steamed and hung all 20 of the masks i had been wearing at work on the laundry line. On my last day off i spent the whole day cooking. The imperfect foods box had arrived so i cooked a week’s worth of food and fed the scraps i wasn’t going to use to the chickens in their pen. After that i parked the car under the oak trees that i used to shield against hail and up on the mulch i used to keep the tires from sinking into the mud when it rained. I covered the trees and the spigots and readied the property for the next winter storm. I would believe it when i saw it but the radio announcer promised an 80 percent chance of snow during my shift the following morning. I covered the chicken water barrel in case they were wrong so the water didn’t evaporate and uncovered the mail tub at the fence in case they were right and there ended up being some kind of moisture to collect.
Having three days where i didn’t have to put on a bra or go to town or even deal with people save for the fifteen minute visit from the pest control technicians was bliss. I knew i wouldn’t make much money not going to work so it couldn’t happen too often but, i certainly did enjoy 3 consecutive days of not having to people. I got so much done. As i checked the schedule i realized i was fully booked at work for the following week. It would likely make up for my little vacation from society. I was happy about it, but determined to enjoy my last hours of peace on the land before the rat race resumed. I listened to records on the record player, recorded old radio broadcasts and Beethoven. I hung out with the dogs and the chickens and saw to the trees every time the wind blew off the coverings. I watched the light get dimmer and dimmer in the sky and knew my 3 day weekend was coming to a close.