Just do it

When we bought our place a good many years ago, we knew that there were three big pipe lines running up through the valley back of our house. It's a good ways back there, so at the time it didn't mean a whole lot. Once a year they'd send a mower crew to mow about 20 feet on the outside edge of the pipes to keep it free of trees and such.

But as the years have gone by, we thought about fencing it off and grazing our steers back there. But it has some issues to deal with. There are two big drainage ditches that meet about half way down the little valley and make one deep ditch. The only way on the other side of the ditches is by foot, and I'm beyond walking wire and posts back there. So we decided to fence on the house side of the ditch and put our steers back there to graze.

But there was also the gas line pipes. I think they are respectively 24 inches, 20 inches and 12 inches in diameter. They are buried and about 12 to 15 feet apart. Everyone said there was no way one could hit the pipes, so I called the pipeline people and had them come for a look. Lesson No. 1 is don't listen to everyone. There are some places where the pipe is a foot or less below the surface of the ground. I drive steel T- posts in the ground, but I sure don't want to try driving one into one of those big gas pipelines. Nope and no way.

We had the pipeline guys come a year ago, and they checked it out and said where to put posts and gave advice and I thought I was ready. Nope. I banged it around in my head and put the fence in gosh knows how many times in my head, but I didn't put one post physically in the ground. Well, we decided that this was the year and this spring it was for sure. So I called the pipeline guys again and said I needed help and that we were going to for sure.

A man named Kevin came first of all, and we checked out where I had marked for three corner posts. All three were in good locations and would cause no problem with the pipeline. But it was still a little scary using the post hole digger on the tractor and punching down those holes. The post hole digger went down about 3.5 feet and then we dug down the other foot by hand. Got them deep enough and wide enough for railroad ties, so Marge and I dropped them in. The ties were some I bought from Clem years ago before he passed away. But we got them in the ground. Now for the last one back by the lines.

This one was by Jeff's pipeline so he came out and checked it all out. We found the pipe was about 7 feet deep where I wanted to put a post and about 6 feet from where I'd chosen. Still a little scary drilling down that hole. We dug it down with the tractor and finished by hand and dropped in a tie. Man what a relief. I felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders when we got that one done. I'm sure glad that guys like Kevin and Jeff are around to help us out.

I'd been putting it off for gosh knows how many years just because I didn't know what to do and how to do it. I wanted to use the ground but wasn't sure how and at the same time what to do to use it. I had to come to the place that, come what may, right or wrong, success or failure, we were going to do it. So we just went ahead and did it. Probably three or four days left of fencing, but these are easy days. Lots of tics back there and chiggers, but we can deal with them. And if there is any doubt, I'll just call one of the guys to come back and help.

Odd how some of us will wait and put it off or just not start something that needs doing, and this can go on for years and years. We just go on and on, waiting and waiting till it's too late, or we are faced with the ultimatum of having to get it done. We have no time left. This can be major events, but it can also deal with mundane, everyday events. Kind of like cleaning the chicken house. I'd tend to put it off and off and finally just have to do it. Hopefully, my brother would clean it for me.

This can be different for each and every one of us. For one, it may be washing the car or making the bed or doing the dishes, but for someone else they may enjoy doing these tasks so they'd jump in and get them done. There are times when the task is so overwhelming we aren't real sure where to start. It's not that we hate to do it. It's just that the task is so big, we aren't sure where to start.

We have, I believe, seven rows of potatoes this year and each row is 60 feet long. We need to start pulling dirt up on each of the rows, but it's kind of overwhelming. I mentioned to Marge that what we need to do is just do a row a day. Just one row. It would take us seven days to do all the potatoes, but they'd be done. Or like putting down mulch on our tomatoes. The rows in the little high tunnel is about 42 foot long and about 52 feet long in the big one. When you look at doing 17 rows of tomatoes, it is overwhelming. So we have been doing a couple rows a day or so and it doesn't seem quite as bad. The hardest part for me is just getting started. I can think of every excuse in the book to do something else and put off getting started, so it finally comes down to just get started. No more excuses. Let's do this. Age probably has something to do with it. Back 10 years I had more get up and go and definitely 20 years ago I had even more. But then sometimes we use age as an excuse. When facing a difficult situation, take a careful look, make some plans and then go for it. Don't put it off just because it may be difficult or trying.

Let's just get with it and do this.