Honey-Do List

It’s finally sunny this morning, and I’m not gonna lie—if it had rained one more day, I was about to start gathering two of every animal and checking the caulking on the chicken coop. After a solid stretch of gray skies, it's good to see actual shadows again. I squinted at the yard and muttered, “Good grief, that grass grew three feet.”

With sunshine back on the schedule, it’s time to tackle the Honey-Do list. That’s our running tab of projects, chores, repairs, and occasionally some good old-fashioned over-commitment. I call it the Honey-Do list, but really, it’s more of a “Honey, don’t forget we still have…” list. And up here in the Great North Woods, we don’t get much time to mess around—Mother Nature runs a tight schedule and does not give extensions.

Spring and fall are our “get-your-butt-in-gear” seasons. Summer is for sweating, swatting, and second-guessing your life choices, and winter is one long snow globe shake with a side of frostbite. So we hustle like caffeinated squirrels in the spring and fall, trying to get everything done before the mosquitoes arrive with their tiny pitchforks or the snow starts rolling in like a blizzard at the North Pole.

Here’s what’s on our let’s-pretend-we’ll-get-it-all-done list this year:

1) Clear more land and seed for pasture.
Last year, we fenced off some new areas and unleashed the goats and pigs, who immediately got to work like it was their full-time job (which, frankly, it is). The underbrush didn’t stand a chance. Now we’ve got to take out the bigger stuff—cut what we can use for firewood, drag the rest to burn piles, and seed the new ground. The sheep will keep it trimmed, bless their nibbling little hearts.

2) Fence more land to rinse and repeat.
More fence. Always more fence. If you ever wonder where all our time and money goes, just look for the T-posts and blisters. We’ll let the animals clear it this year and plan to seed it next. It’s the circle of life… except it involves post pounders and a lot more sweating.

3) Build raised beds and a mini greenhouse.
My tomatoes have a tragic history up here. Every year they get just about blushing pink and—bam!—first frost. Not this year, tomatoes. Not. This. Year. I’m building a greenhouse from the metal frame of an old portable garage that once housed animals, then tools, then nothing, and now? Redemption arc. We’ll wrap it in heavy clear plastic, shove the tomatoes in there, and dare the weather to try me. The other half of that old frame? It’s becoming the new chicken coop. Because up here, “repurpose” means “this used to be something else entirely and now it has chickens in it.”

4) Finish the barn. For real this time.
Last year we finished the second section of the barn the night before the first real snow hit. I’m not exaggerating—we put up the last roof panel, packed up the tools, and watched the sky go dark like it was cueing the closing credits. This year we’re adding the third and final section, connecting the rooflines, and taking down the temporary interior walls. I dream of a big open barn the way some folks dream of beachfront property. But without the sand in your underwear.

So that’s the plan—ambitious, slightly delusional, and written down here so I can’t pretend I forgot any of it.

Now I want to hear from you. What’s on your “honey-do” list this year? Big projects? Tiny ones that somehow eat three weekends? Are you building a deck or just trying to find the garden hose you left out last fall? (No judgment—I’ve lost entire tools until spring thaw.) Drop me a comment and let me know what you’ve got cooking.

Bonus points if your list also includes chickens, duct tape, or an old shed you're definitely going to fix this year.