Triying to Find Balance

Finding Balance

          How do I balance my personal life & interests, my job and my businesses? With farming, it seems like the business of farming is my personal life. It is a lifestyle choice and that’s fine with me. But I do have an absolute passion for colour pencil painting, yes – art work done with colour pencils is called painting, as is art done with pastels, air brush and a number of other media. I love the sketching, inking, and colouring my work. Have been doing cards as they are small and I can complete them in a few hours but since about March I haven’t had any time for even those. Miss it but starting a business takes priority.
          I have a full time job, 7.5 hours a day and about 50 minutes in commuting (25 minutes each way). We milk in the evening at around 7:30 pm and that can take upwards of 2 hours. Milking in the evening also includes chores of feed hay to all the goats; the bucks, the dry stock (babies and yearlings) and the milking does. Every pen needs water, the chickens need to be locked up if they are roaming around and the dogs are fed. So it’s not just milking.

          There is also the paperwork in running the dairy and the new paperwork for the gelato business. Then there is the bookkeeping, which I seem to be behind on. But I am managing to get the HST/GST refund paperwork in – getting money back from the government is pretty motivating. That’s why I like doing my taxes; it’s the challenge of figuring out how to get as much back as I legally can.
          I really like to sleep as well. Some people seem to be able to function effectively on 6 hours sleep or less but not me. If I don’t get a good 7+ hours, I am not a happy camper. Lack of sleep and menopause makes me into an extremely cranky person and isn’t conductive to good public relations – I have to bite my tongue & just shut my mouth, a lot.

Pouring concrete in during our lovely Hot Summer! I love watching other people work :)

 

          Weekends are getting work done around the farm, daylight needs to be taken advantage of. Fall is a good time of year as it’s more putting everything to bed and battening down the hatches for the winter storms. This fall (2012) has been exceptionally dry and sunny and I am amazed at how much stuff has crept outside. In our west coast climate, we generally have rain a couple times a week but this fall there has been no rain for 90+ days – amazing! Today’s Oct. 11/12 (ohh 10/11/12 – cool numbers) and there is a gentle mist of rain falling.
          I am coming to the realization that I am going to have to get up earlier in the morning, get to bed on time, & not read in bed. That will give me a bit more time to get some paperwork done.
          I also think I will have to leave some things undone as well. The hard part will be deciding what is and isn’t a priority and being flexible to change as time goes on. Not sure how I will go about it, I probably will just mull over the possibilities for a bit and then make some decisions.
          Everyday brings new challenges and new decisions to make – keeps life interesting.