Cicadas Singing

The katydids or cicadas (depending on where you're from) started singing last week. I was a little shocked to hear them but not really. Looking back in years past, the cicadas started singing around the fourth of July in other years. They are a week or two behind. I'm ok with that.


The old wives tale is that we will have the first hard from six weeks after they start to sing. If it's true, the first hard frost would be the end of August and I don't see that happening. There might be a nip in the air in the early mornings but hopefully no hard frost.


But I still need to listen to them. When I hear them singing, it sounds like they are trying to prompt me to get off my duff and get moving. I always joke that I'm a couple months behind. At this point, I've lost track of all time and every day is just a blur. I can't be behind when I have no sense of time these days.


I'm afraid I've been packing in too much stuff lately. But with adjusting to the new paying job and all the kids' activities, I'm struggling to get anywhere with the Sanctuary. It's my own fault for scheduling so much for the kids to do but I want to expand their horizons and see what they like and don't like for extra curriculars. You don't know until you try but it does mean we run really ragged.


Last night was actually a night where we didn't HAVE to do anything but we decided to go on the SD State Park scavenger hunt. We've been trying to get to a few state parks all summer and last night we had a free night. I love going to Palisades. But doing family stuff means only doing chores and nothing extra for the horses.


Lately it feels like I've been met with one obstacle after another on some of the projects I want to get rolling. Perhaps now is not the time. But if not now, when? I've been siting on these projects for years and now when we are just finally starting to make a name for ourselves, we are met with all kinds of obstacles that I can't seem to get around.


We aren't much. The Sanctuary is really just an old farmstead and we are doing our best to keep it up. Our main goal is to keep the horses happy and healthy. It's not fancy. In fact, to me, I see weeds and peeling paint and all kinds of things that need to be repaired. I see all that needs to be done. I see stalls in a barn that aren't fancy but they work. It was only supposed to be somewhat temporary in the first place but they've become permanent. I'd love to get a new mortan building and add fancy stalls but that's not in the cards. Not with where our focus is at. I'd rather spend my time and money with the kids and the rest with the horses. It doesn't leave room for capital campaigns for barns. All the money ends up going to care for the horses. Do we have crappy stalls and an extra mouth to feed to ensure he or she gets to live out their life in luxury or do we have a pristine barn with one or two horses standing in the stalls and say no to those that ask? I hate saying no so instead we have stalls that aren't the greatest but work and we have one extra mouth on the feed bill and THAT is what makes me feel happy.


This morning I realized that the days are getting shorter. I'll be in serious trouble soon when I'm back outside doing chores in the pitch black. I hate doing chores in the dark. There's too many varmints lately to deal with because we aren't home. The racoons have taken up residents in the old grain bin but we can't trap them.


I'm guessing that as the days fly by, I'll probably not post much. I'm posting more on Facebook so that's where the action is these days. So if you don't hear from me, it's not that we aren't around, it's that I'm totally swamped, juggling too many balls in the air, and am exhausted.


And for now, I'll continue to listen to the cicadas and try to ignore their songs that are a constant reminder that fall and winter will be here before we know it.