Sunday, August 14, 2011

Marking my territory

Where does the house go? That's the million dollar question. Where I want it and where the wife want it are two different things. We somehow always find a way to meet in the middle. Compromise, alas, that is what marriage is all about.

There hasn't been anything really for Shawna to do on the land. Not to sound chauvinistic, but after handling barbed wire and coming home looking like I had been in a fight with a mountain lion, this is not a girls job. I love my wife's smooth, youthful skin. As a matter of fact, I like the fact that my wife is quite girly. Now if the jobs requires getting dirty, she is all for it, but it is on her terms.

Time to stake off the house, pool, and Tiny Home so the gentleman that is going to put in our septic system will have an idea where to run lines and how much it will cost. Sounds easy right? Wrong. I asked Shawna to show up and help me stake off the land. Woohoo! Her first job on the farm. Girly Shawna decides to show up and help, and I pick the hottest day in Texas history. Things go south from here. The heat is stifling and her mood is heating up near the temperature outside. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had become accustomed to the heat while putting up all the dang fence. We both ride desk at our day jobs in climate controlled rooms that we can adjust. We have both taken for granted that people on the other side of the glass are 5 degrees away from becoming the latest heat stroke victim. In due time I think we will find the happy medium when we actually start the farming side and become more accustomed to the heat.

The Staking begins, we mark off the house, pool, and tiny home. All the while, I am trying to put the structures closer together and Shawna is trying to space them further apart. I listen to her and agree with her (that's what smart men do when the wife is mad), then in a couple of days I start giving her comparisons. The problem when you have four flat acres with nothing on it is that there is nothing for depth perception. We marked off a 3600 sq. ft. house and she thought the house was to small (you could fit the house we live in now in the staked off area nearly twice). Pool and Tiny Home also got staked off, but not too close to each other, she said I was crowding the structures. I knew better, but by the time we had marked off the land, we had nearly a football field for our living and she still thought it was a little crowded (again no depth perception) (I also was starting to question my tape measure). I actually want all the things she does, I just want less to mow. Less to mow means more time to enjoy. I say, let the creatures do the mowing and the humans do the swimming. After a few visuals and comparisons, she has agreed to let me back it down to a more manageable size. I am excited because now I won't have to spend all weekend mowing our football field.

Farm lesson learned #2 - wait for more girly appropriate weather before involving the wife.
Farm lesson learned #3 - rent a blow up bounce house for visual aid and depth perception.

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