May is the longest month - and words of wisdom

Well, it is... at least May is the longest month on our farm. We get the harmonic convergence of three different time pressures:

1. goat kidding season - 23 kids in 23 days in 12 kiddings
2. gardening begins for our zone 4 garden - 80 tomatoes, 180 peppers, popcorn, sweet corn, blah blah blah - took four days to weed it, seed it, and plant it.
3. everything else green really begins growing like mad - the orchard needed some work after the deer put the smackdown on it, the ornamentals always need work, and let's not forget the fence expansion (more later on that one).

But we managed to expand the garden out front again (added another 600 sf of raised beds with the help of a Mantis mini-tiller). And planted another wind-row of hemlocks (200' of the buggers, hope the woody adelgid lays off 'em for a bit).

So now it is mid-June and we look back and say, "What on Earth did we do all last month? Or last week for that matter! Where do the days go?"

This is followed by much gnashing of teeth and rending of lists.

After 10 years of doing it on and off (farming with animals), we have come to these important (and self-obvious) words of wisdom

1. There is no such thing as "nothing to do", just things that "can be put off for the afternoon." A corollary to this says something like "there are no days off", but that may be too depressing to imagine.
2. Having a "to-do" list is a self-propagating beast - just having it will allow it to procreate and lengthen with almost no input from you. Writing it on a scroll that continues to roll down is probably your best bet, that way you won't run out of room to write it out.
3. There is almost always a tipping point in farming - beyond that one you have increased the complexity and interactions so that your outputs (and inputs) will increase dramatically. Usually it is worth it - for us it was branching out into goats 3 years ago. Their management now is the focus of our animal-side of the farm. They produce kids, milk, and mulch and consume our creativity (planning breedings, choosing goats, diagnosing symptoms!).
4. No matter what you do, it can never be perfect. Or maybe even look orderly on a day-to-day basis. It is always work, "uphill, both ways." But oh, is it worth it.