I woke up with the trash truck this morning.

Thinking of all the things not done.

The kitchen floor needs mopping.

The paperwork is piling up.

The front lawn is overgrown, harboring last year’s leaves and deadheads.

The laundry bin is overflowing.

I haven’t blogged all week.

The whole house needs vacuuming.

The list goes on and on.

The not-done and don’t-really-want-to-do list.

Did I mention the carport?

The carport was a major point of argument when we moved here.

I wanted to rip it down.

My husband saw it as a practical necessity, this horrid slanted structure attached to the back door.

One hundred square feet or more of not-out, not-in space.

The compromise was renovating it a bit.

It’s still uglier than ugly but I concede, it is very useful.

It holds entropy at bay.

The chickens come into the carport to demand breakfast, pooping right on the door step.

The barn boots clutter and perfume the carport not the house.

Seeds, bikes, shovels, skateboards, buckets, jackets, helmets, pansies, gallons of clabber…

This bit of ugly chaos helps keep me somewhat sane.

It’s nice to post pretty pictures and present Penny Tree Farm as totally sane and in control.

These pictures today don’t even begin to depict how far from Pretty Sane Control I feel this morning.

So…off I go – in hopes of  having just one day- maybe even one hour- of feeling like Pretty Sane Control is attainable.

No doubt tomorrow, if I write, I’ll sit down and say how I love the PROCESS of farming and mothering.  How fun it is to see things evolve and change.

But today off I go trying to keep the universe from disintegrating on my doorstep.

Wish me luck.