We have been having great weather and it has made riding irresistable. Unfortunately, that cuts down on spring work that should be getting done. I am trying to come to grips with that. Part of retirement should be the ability to ignore pressing jobs around the farm and be completely irresponsible and go enjoy the day or at least part of it. I have not completely eliminated the guilt from shirking, but I have learned you only feel guilty for a short time and I think it's a start. I have rationalized the lack of progress in some areas by pointing out to myself that some of my ancestors were aready dead at my age and got absolutely nothing done. Consequently, getting something done is better than some of them.It is a strange phenomenan that as you reach 60 you start to think about your ancestors and how you fit into the gallery.
I have been helping Walter Kane repair his barn. It is approaching 200 years old. It was moved across the Newberry Neck road in the 1860's by 6 teams of Oxen. That had to be an incredible feet of practical engineering. I gather they really, really needed the barn moved across the road to even consider it. We own a tractor and an excavator and I would not want try to move the barn across the road. Laying under the barn and digging footings in a crawl space is slow work and gives you time to imagine what in the world would cause you to want to move the barn. I can't come up with anything. The best I can think of is at some point one of the wives looked out the window and said "you know our yard would look better if you would move that barn across the road."
I'll write more about Walter's Barn in future posts. It fastenates me and I'm sure you can hardly wait.
