Catharsis of the Bogue

Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: yardwork

Adding more to the Plate

July 9, 2014 / / 2 Comments

So here I am 4 1/2 months into my blog and doing pretty well.  I still am working on traffic, comments and writing ebooks.  I do forsee a problem brewing.  That is the weather.  It is getting very nice in Utah even with some great rain the past few weeks.  Oh yeah I found a hole in my roof I need to go patch.

Anyway, the weather is turning nice and there are many things that have to be done outside with my lawn, flowerbeds, and the vegetable garden.  All of these have not been a problem in the past, when my daughter was healthy.  Everything went to pot when she was in the hospital.

Last year was ok, this year promises to be great.  I can’t wait to get out and work.  There is however my blog to consider now.  I haven’t had the work commitments that a lot of you have had to deal with.  I have put hundreds of hours into my site and my burgeoning empire.

Now I have to figure out how to keep up with all of the yardwork, housework, and my work.  This is not bad.  This will be a good thing.  I have a 10 year old and a 7 year old that can pull weeds and move the sprinkler as good as I can.  That outsourcing thing that is the rage in the blogosphere nowdays.  I have 2 ebooks that are coming, one a stay at home dad primer, the other a book about our families journey with kidney failure.  I also have my fiction ebook of Jackson Malone that will be finished soon.  Plus new fiction saturdays and the Creative Copy Challenge!

To that end, you may be reading lessons over tomatoes, or things I taught my son in a weed patch.  Heaven help us when I get to the fishing reports.

Have a great Thursday folks!

-justin

Should I sleep or Write more?!?!

May 27, 2014 / / 6 Comments

The time for bed approaches and I am trying to decide if I should give up and go to bed or keep writing posts! My body says tired, my mind says tired, the energy drink I had a while ago says Write you lazy bastard!  So I write.

Lately I have been working on organizing my day to get everything done that I need to.  I have discovered that I can’t just go all out and hope to get my blog maintained, posts written, house cleaned, family taken care of, and the “other” stuff done.

I found myself glued to the computer, reading blogs, trying to figure out where I am going to be able to open my rss reader, and all of a sudden it was time to get the kids from school and get dinner started.  Oh crap the laundry hasn’t made it downstairs yet.  Oh crappier, the dishes still have to be done…so that was the smell…did we eat lunch?

Yea, it was getting to be a mess.  I am working through some sort of “getting to writing procrastination” garbage that is not helping.  I am still getting my stuff done, just not how I want to.  I started to divide up the day and use the timer method that many others use.

I even got a special timer to help with this, I will have a review of that later this week.  It’s called the Gymboss, it’s beauty.  Anyway, it seems that the timer method is very much going to help get me organized.  I am splitting time into 2 hour blocks and devoting 30 minutes to each task.  At the end of the 30 mins, I have been just stopping and going to the next task.  It has been great to actually get some things done around the house.

Now I have to get time figured out to add in outdoor stuff.  Spring is coming to Utah and my yard needs some help.  If you know how to get rid of freaking grape hyacinth, let me know.

I think I am getting a good balance figured out.  Writing, emails, reading, commenting, maintenance, housework, outdoor work, writing, and blog posts.  A good way to fill a day.  I also realized that I have got to crank out some more fiction for my Saturday Series.  I have used the only 2 complete short stories that make any sense already.  Time to get writing some new stuff!

So now you all must be asking yourselves, how can I help.  Ok most of you are probably not asking yourself anything but when this post is going to end.  Soon I promise.  Here is how you can help.  Keep reading my humble blog, recommend it to your friends, your enemies, and that guy down the street who may have a use for it.

I am going to be running a poll this week about future posts that you may like to see.  I hope to get some great feedback from that.  I have decided to place the mailing list on pause for a bit, I will still make myself put out the newsletter every month but that will be about it.  Please sign up if you are so inclined, I will start putting up exclusive to the newsletter stuff starting in May.

Now for the big one, Please leave comments with how you organize your time so that you can get everything done that you need to do.  What things do you slack off on?  What do you give up on altogether?  I hope to get some great comments and be able to do a followup with lots of backlinks and credits.  Maybe a prize for the 17th commenter…

Of course if you feel so inclined as to write a ton of stuff and want it included, I am open for guest posts!  All you have to do is email me.

If you are reading this, you are fabulous!

-Justin

PS.  If you are reading this, you are incredibly patient.

PPS. If you are reading this, you are finally at the end!  Go comment and get on with your life!

Groundhog was wrong, It’s time for Yardwork!

November 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Take 2.  Hopefully wordpress wont crash out on me this time.

Ok so it is not exactly time for yardwork but if it isn’t going to snow then it is time to start planning for summer!  Sorry East Coast, we have had tons on high pressure over Northern Utah this winter.  A couple of good storms early but bupkis since before Christmas.

So now it is time for us(the Mrs. that is) to start planning all of the projects I get to do over the summer.  Ok I put many of them on myself.  It was strange this morning to be outside at 24 degrees taking pictures of the yard to plan what need to be torn out or built up.

Thinking of planting a garden when there is still frost on the windshield is a bit odd as well.  I have learned in the past that if we wait to plan and prepare, there is not enough time for things to grow before the season is over.

So I sit here and while not checking my email, twitter or my page vies on here, I have been looking up growing charts, planting guides, deck building tutorials, stone column building, and mailbox building so I can have something to do over the summer. I have been researching how to make the dog quit peeing on the kids slide and I gotta say if the pee stake doesn’t work, I am going to electrify the slide.

I still have much work to do that is left over from last fall.  I was sick for the week before it snowed and is just now getting off of my lawn.  There are many leaves that are still there as well as my roses that still have leaves on them.  I was lucky that there were some strong winds that blew leaves around the bottom of the roses to keep them from freezing.  I didn’t even get the rest of the detritus out of the garden.  It is almost pathetic.

I am glad that spring is on the way though. I actually like to do yardwork.  Now I have to go draw on the pictures I took this morning and figure out how to make those drawings into reality.  I can’t wait!

If anyone wants to come over and clean up dog manure or haul dirt give me a buzz.

Until tomorrow.

Justin

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