Do you finish strong? A wise woman once taught me the concept of finishing strong. We all start most projects with an element of excitement and energy but how are we at the end of the line? Do you finish the task with the same excitement and energy which with you started? It takes effort to finish strong when you are looking at yet another bushel of tomatoes or that whole row of potatoes to dig but you can finish strong! Remember how good it felt when you processed the first tomato juice of the season? Capture that feeling and finish strong!
Many of you know the total satisfaction that comes from living a simpler life, how your hard work pays off when its -9 degrees outside and you can go to your pantry and freezer and cook up a wholesome healthy meal. You can sit at my table and enjoy a meal that is totally produced from our homestead. Hard work? Yes. Totally satisfying? Yes indeed!
Homesteading includes times of discouragement, like when the garden is too wet to work and the weeds are growing through all my best defenses. That’s when the “Finish Strong” concept kicks in. It’s an attitude that helps me overcome the fatigue and enjoy what I am doing – today it’s pulling weeds.
My sweet friend Laura is helping me dig potatoes but instead of curing them off outside, we have a sudden cloud burst followed by a solid week of unexpected rain so I will clean and preserve them another way. Homesteading is full of challenges. I’ll let you know if I am able to “finish strong” with bushels of potatoes.
I am planting the last of the fall crops, cleaning out the raised beds in order to plant them for next spring as well as harvesting herbs. I lost the purple cauliflower I nurtured since February to a nasty little caterpillar, just didn’t check them quickly enough. But that is another way to finish strong, don’t quit when you fail, I always learn from my gardening mistakes.
I am filling in bare spots in my container with some great mums I picked up during the Founders Day sale at Buchheits. Now is the time to buy mums if you are planning on using them as perennials so they can establish their root systems before frost. I hope this has encouraged you to keeping going on difficult projects and finish strong. Anne May
