Wonder if they have a 12 step program for list-a-holics?! I make a list for everything; and then I make a list of my lists! Well, here's my list of plans (not even remotely finalized!) for 2002 - I figure if I post 'em out here in public, maybe I'll be encouraged to get more of the stuff done! Tell us what you're going to do in 2002!

2002 DO LIST:

Make a better shelf for starting seeds. Buy new shop lights for seed starting shelves. Hide new shop lights where Pop and Hubs can't find them (to swipe for the shed) after seed starting season.

Sit at the window and watch the birds at the bird feeders while recovering from frostbite acquired while digging through chest freezer for suet to make seed blocks. Smile anyway.

Take grape cuttings and root and plant on grape arbor to replace ones that died. Believe Pop the next time he says those kinds of grapes won't grow here. Don't let him know that I believe him, tho.

Put paving stone floor in grape arbor/tea house. Buy them early so the stores aren't sold out.

Argue with Uncle Ivan about when and where and what to plant. Grin and say "Thank-you" when he does it his way.

Sandblast and paint iron table and chairs, move to arbor/tea house. Have a tea party and wear a big hat and a gauzy dress. Extend my pinky and don't slurp. Well, not if anyone is watching, anyway.

Put in at least 4, and possibly up to 12 new 4 x 4 raised beds. Lose 20 lbs so I can bend over and reach to the middle of the beds without danger of asphyxiation.

Lay in hammock and read trashy romance novels; or watch the sky go by. Get a sunburn on my nose. Gloat to day shift crew at work about beautiful sunshiney day.

Put new muffler on tractor (expensive!!); charm Hubs into painting it. (Probably Kawasaki green! Unless I can talk him into bright pink!)

Find a permanant home for the chicken house and leave it there! For good. I mean it. Make more fence panels from lattice and 2x 2's to make portable pasture for them, rotate more often.

Grow more flowers. And take time to enjoy them more!

Plant more fruit trees; at least 4 more. Or maybe 6. Unless I find some paw-paw trees. Then it would have to be 10.

Build raised flower bed around walnut trees and propane tank in E. side yard. Try to find something that will grow under the walnut trees. (Thanks for the links, Sharon!! That red bee balm clashes with my pinks and purples in the front perennial bed, but will probably look pretty good with the tiger lillies and black-eyed susans under the walnuts!)

Smuggle the pet taxi into the car and sneak off to KY to visit Sharon again. Convince Nick to be my partner in crime for a snatch and grab of Silkie banties at Linda's house; Sharon can drive the get-away car - you ought to see her drive on those twisty mountain roads! Visit Jennifer the basket lady and commission a gathering basket for tomatoes and flowers. Talk Sharon into letting me help plant something so I can see if the KY soil therapy works as good as the IL soil therapy does.

Quit dithering and decide what color to paint my iron bed frame and have Hubs paint it for me. Nag Pop to finish the trim in the guest room. Go back to Berea and look at quilts again. Buy one this time.

Hire the neighbor kid to pick the green beans. Give him a dollar bonus for every degree over 85 that it is outside.

Rejoice at Jes's high school graduation. Cry when she leaves for college; then move sewing machine into her bedroom.

Organize kitchen cabinets. Build more shelves in store room to hold excess kitchen stuff. Label the boxes this time.

Give thanks for all my blessings; family, friends, health, happiness.

Make out a list for 2003. Be realistic this time.

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

Answers

My list is nowhere near as long as yours, Polly. I got tired just reading all that you had planned! :-)

Continue enlarging our vegetable garden. I plan on putting in 8 4'x12' beds (NOT raised beds this time) and will use some (all?) of them for the tomatoes.

Install the $#@@@# drip irrigation for the vegetable garden that I SHOULD have installed the first year. One down-side I've discovered with raised beds is that they dry out far too quickly. :-(

Put down weed barrier and pea-rock in aisles of vegetable garden so I don't have to keep weeding the $*$^&%^ weeds out of the aisles!

Get asparagus planted this year. I had wanted to plant it last year but things got too hectic and I ended up having to cancel my order. (At least I got the raspberries and strawberries planted last year).

Strip the remaining wallpaper out of the bathroom and finish painting the walls.

Install the ceramic tile baseboard in the bathroom. After getting that and the painting done, the bathroom remodeling should finally be done. Yay!

Finish building workbenches for basement workshop. Hang pegboard and hang tools.

Remove all the evergreen shrubs around house in preperation for major landscaping project this coming spring/summer. Contact landscape contractor to see if he has our landscape design completed yet.

Start looking for land (and a building contractor) to build new home. We've decided that we don't want to do any major remodeling to our current home so we've made the decision to build the home we've always wanted but could never find. The process won't happen right away but we hope it can be completed in 5 years or so. I hope our marriage can survive the process. :-)

Collapse in utter exaustion.

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

Work on my book and see what my future will bring top my "list". Other things I hope to do is discover a new species of worm, get my dogs trained, publish more articles, win something, lose 50 pounds so I can fit in 32 inch waist Levi's again (I have been wanting that for 10 years at least :>) and train my dogs. If I win a lottery or inherit from a rich relative I didn't know I had, so much the better :>)

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

I like your "lay in hammock" idea, Polly! I'd probably be catching up on my Stephen King novels, though!! AND...I sure can relate to the idea of losing 50 lbs.!! BTW...What kind of dogs, Jay?

In reality, we really have to do some finishing work on our home...the upstairs ceilings need painting, upstairs plumbing needs to be done...oh heck!!! Everything needs to be done upstairs!!!!! Oh well, I can dream!!!

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

Wow, such ambitious lists!! The first thing I have to do is think about if I want to make yet another list. :>)

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

Marcia,

I have two girls. A Bluetick hound and a Lab/Chow mix. The hound thinks I'm her puppy and is always licking on me and the mix has a great personality as a guard dog (chow agressivness, tempered by the lab intelligence).

-- Anonymous, January 01, 2002

Lab intelligence? isn't that an oxymoron with emphasis on the moron??? Just kidding...we had a black lab mix named Maggie and she was a pup until she died! Never acted grown up if she could help it but she did have the smarts to learn some commands unlike the other dog we had at the same time, Suzie. I am starting the DIEt today and the goal as last years is 60 pounds. Went sledding last night and hauling this weight up the hill was painful. Had to lay in the snow and look up at the stars to slow the thud of my over taxed heart. Will only grow things we will actually use in the garden. Will plant storage onions but fewer tomatoes since they just ended up going bad waiting for me to process them. I will process more produce. I will enlarge my garden so that some day we will be able to market some produce. I will not do turkeys again this year..I think. Maybe a couple. We will run water out to the barn from the house. I am tired of freezing my ass off already. If we don't move this year to a bigger spread I will fence the neighbors field that he said we could use. I will have my wood cookstove come heck or high water. I will never throw a New Years Party again as long as I live. The last two have ended sour thanks to a friend. But some other friends have thought up a good plan so I will still celebrate New Year's next year. Won't let the 3 year old eat McD's before boarding a ferry. Will love everyone as much as I can and try to get reconnected with the holy spirit again..it seems to have slipped away somehow and I'd like it back. Will slow down and make more time to enjoy my kids instead of letting them drive me insane. Go blonde again...its scheduled for Friday at 11am! Hubby likes it too so thats a plus. Get ducks. I think I have too many plans for 2002........

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

I have a list in my head, not yet committed to paper, though. First thing, however, is to finish last year's list! I did pretty well until about August (I had broken projects out month by month). Guess I felt so accomplished that I rested on my laurels too long!

I do know that continuing my perennial garden will be a big part of it. Whether or not I get ambitious enough to engineer the new raspberry garden will depend on how much help I get from Mr. S., I guess. Right now all I can think of is getting the Christmas decorations outta here...

Oh, and we are seriously contemplating a major remodel on the house. If we do that, forget all other projects!

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

Wow, you all are ambitious. I will NOT enlarge the garden. I love the garden, but it is a bit large for the three of us. Maybe plant a few more blueberry bushes.

Finish turning our large corncrib, into a small barn. And Oh, I hope, I hope, I hope, finally get a few goats, so that I have a steady supply of goat's milk for my touchy stomach.

Start some more perennials from seed this spring. I especially want more of the shorter delphiniums.

Read more, pray more, laugh more, love more.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

I start back to school Jan. 16. That really does top my list, in terms of effort to be expended and rewards expected at the end. I also plan to continue SLOWLY enlarging my market garden. Be a good mama. Learn to hear first and speak second or not at all a little more often.

-- Anonymous, January 05, 2002