Eating our dessert first

A while back, hubby obtained a windmill head from a farm where he hunts.  We thought, years down the road, it would be a cool addition to our farmstead.  You know, after everything else was done.  That’s when we would put up the windmill.

Ya, right.

Working in construction, we have witnessed homeowners who have “eaten their dessert first”, shall we say.  People who have installed light fixtures completely before painting the walls or people who have finished flooring before finishing drywall.  We always laugh at those people.  Well, I guess in our own way, we are those people.

Logic would tell you that we need to complete critical house projects before completing frivolous projects.  However, sometimes logic does not rule.  Sometimes, it seems we need to do a “fun” project in the midst of it all.  The chicken coop was the first of these “fun” projects.  At that time (2 years ago), having chickens was really the last thing we needed to do.  There was so much to be done on the house it was overwhelming!  But, we had fun building the coop and got a lot of joy out completing the project, and really enjoyed having little feathery egg producers wandering around.

Seriously, how can you resist these little fluffballs?

The pig pen came next.  If we didn’t need to add chickens to our menagerie, we REALLY didn’t need to add pigs.  But, again, we had fun building the pig house and loved having the pigs all summer.  Even better was eating the bacon in the fall!

Almost as cute as the baby chick

The barn was a project that we partially had to start because of the horses moving in, but painting the flag on one side while two sides are still completely unpainted was a bit out of step.  It sure made hubby happy, though, and he got it done before the 4th of July!

How patriotic!

As for the windmill, hubby started the conversation like this:

Hubby – I really want to break up that concrete and in the barn this summer so we can get it replaced.  The windmill head is in the way, we need to put it up and get it out of the way so I can work on the concrete.

Me – Um….okay

I love how he turns something “fun” and frivolous into something that seems to make logistical sense.

Also, how in the hell did my life become one where building a chicken coop, a pig pen, painting a flag on a barn, and building a windmill became “fun”?

Today, we’ve been at this house nearly 3 years.  We’ve done so much as far as restorations go.  Of the 13 rooms in the house, only 4 are not yet done.  About 3/4 of the exterior siding is scraped and painted.  The lawn has nearly all grown back.  Half of the roof has been replaced.  The barn is about half way done.  We’ve removed 5 huge roll away dumpsters of trash, replaced all of the electric and most of the plumbing.  I guess part of all this work has to be enjoying living out here.  Having chickens, pigs, a cool barn, a windmill…..that’s part of the fun.

Sometimes, you should eat dessert first.

Our new lawn ornament