Restoring Order... Maybe not so much restoring...

It's been a while. Not much unusual has happened. I'm not working so much anymore.
The title should tell the story. I have never been much for keeping order in my life. I have always followed my whims. Does that mean I've lived a whimsical life? Probably not... Part of the title for this blog describes the part of my life that's been in disarray. I'm trying to fix it. I have too many projects.  It's time to prioritize my life. I have got a lot going on but nothing is finishing. The world calls it ADD. I see it as a lack of apostolic order. I say that with the intention of pushing you to study this a little bit. I tend to operate mostly in a prophetic venue. I see the potential in everything. This is really a talking out session in my head that I'm transferring to this venue. Apostolic brings order. Prophetic without apostolic is lawless. In other words I can have fifteen projects I can't finish and still take on more projects without any hesitation. Apostolic brings law to the prophetic. In other words apostolic says finish this project then move to the next one. I use projects as my example but this comparison can be true in any part of our lives. My shortcoming to complete something I've started is exasperating. I'm sure my wife has plenty to say about this. I have begun finishing what I start so I can be the leader of my home the way I'm supposed to be.
I have been sitting here watching our two cats play with a mouse. I want them to kill it because it can cause damage if it remains alive. They want to play with it. It's quite entertaining. It's also somewhat reflective of my topic. I want them to finish they want to play. Sounds a lot like the way I live. Interesting.
We live on a lot measuring 300' x 300', it's a little over two acres. The house is an old four square home. Look it up they were once offered in the sears and roebuck catalog. It's a square house which originally had four square rooms with a fireplace at the center of the house. It had an outhouse(it now has modern plumbing, indoor bathroom, central heat and air etc.). There is a cistern behind the house, there used to be a fruit cellar and a water well. It has a detached garage which needs quite a bit of work and a large old red barn with a hay loft. The barn has needed a lot of work for a very long time. A creek runs across the north edge of the property and a hill rises to the west. Lots of hickory and oak trees, a couple of huge maple trees to the south, a redbud (dying), a curly catalpa ( my favorite), 3 pecan trees and some willows along the creek. My closest neighbor live on 8 acres to the north and partially west, the neighbor to the south and west is on 60+ acres. The neighbor across the road owns almost half the mile section. There are a few houses within sight of my house to the northeast. Our place has tremendous potential and is somewhat secluded. The only thing I would consider leaving it for would be more land, 20+ acres or so.
We have lots of pets. Some by choice some by default. Our paint horse is a beautiful gelding named buckaroo two times but we call him biskit. He's quite fond of apples. We also have goats. At one time we had 8 but are down to three now. Two sister's named Daisy(noted for her extreme overbite) and Petunia. They are quite ornery but have never jumped on a car. The other goat is named baby doll. They all have horns and a ton of character. Our pot belly pig is named lulu but she likes to be called Lucy and loves gummy bears and fruit loops. She is always getting her nose in whatever I am doing. We have two inside cats and two inside dogs. The cats are tigger and Charlie. Tigger requires a lot of attention and squeaks when she meows Charlie growls a lot but also likes a lot of attention. Cinch is the border collie. He's a very attractive dog with so much personality you can almost read his mind. Someone shot him when he was young so he's lost use of his right front leg but he gets around fine and always wants to tag along. Cinch can sit under a tree for hours on end keeping herd on a squirrel. Sandy is our dachshund. She is a hoot. Chases everything, balls, cats, leaves, squirrels. We inherited all of our outside dogs by the irresponsible actions of a person I have very little tolerance for. Somebody dumped a bird dog on us on a Sunday afternoon. About three weeks later she had seven pups. The girls gave three away. So we have four pups and mom. Pumpkin (mom), nubby, Rudy, wobbles and yum yum are her litter. We've put electronic collars on them to keep them home. Each has a great deal of character. All are neutered and spayed including mom. I get tired of tripping over dogs all the time but feel responsible to give them a good home since they deserve no less than that. I do like having them around as a deterrent to strangers and coyotes from being on our property uninvited.
I've been replacing the fascia on my house. My house has fallen into a mild state of needing attention.  So I'm starting with paint and trim work. We are preparing for a new roof. I have removed the old boards as I progress instead of all at once because I know how I am. We bought 1x6 cedar and 1x3 cedar. The 1x6 is screwed to the rafters with stainless screws after my wife paints the board with primer and two coats of paint. She's great at getting 100% coverage, front, back, sides and ends. The 1x3 is attached to the 1x6 aligning the top edges. I will put new drip edge on the perimeter as soon as all the fascia is installed with new guttering in place. I'm thinking I should plan to put the drip edge and guttering up as soon as the old roof is removed just before installation of the new roof. I also intend to install a standing seam metal roof. Part of my plan is to capture the rain water off my roof to water the flower beds, lawn and garden. At least I can supplement my water usage by doing this. I am hopeful this project will be complete by the end of April.
Another simple project I did yesterday was putting new laminate flooring in the bathroom. This project went very well and made my wife happy. I had dreams of hardwood throughout the house but something kept pushing me towards a laminate for the bathroom, probably a good idea for a humid environment. The whole thing took about an hour and $90. We also spent the day deep cleaning and re-arranging the living area of the house. (probably how the mouse became exposed)
I also began putting a roof on an old rock building behind the house to get a permanent facility for all my black smithing effort. This building is about 14x28 feet. It used to be a chicken coop I think. When we first moved in the girls and their friends would play in the building but the roof was rotten and I was concerned it would fall in on them so I tore of the old roof which was very rotten. It had all wood shingles on it at the time. It had a wall in it about 8 feet from the east end. I rebuilt the wall, put up new rafters and have begun installing a metal roof. I only have the 8' section roofed so far and it's enough room to operate in. I offered to make the rest of the building a green house, which my wife actually got very interested in. Now I need to design the rest of the roofing to collect sunlight. This has really been a fun project even though I'm working alone and climbing a ladder 100 times a Saturday wears me out. One of the cool things is I'm using things I have accumulated to complete this project, except for the lumber.
A friend of mine told me I had to turn in my man card the other day. I've discovered the amazing world of Pinterest. I am astounded by the creativity of people. I have looked at "garden art", "blacksmith ideas", peterbilt trucks ( I'll tell this story later), mason jars, garden gates, old doors, again people are amazing. I find inspiration in their creativity. One of the things I've been interested in doing is building raised beds for my garden. I want to use old corrugated tin cut in 8 - 10" lengths with the flutes running vertical. I want to put a 1x3 cedar cap on the top edge to avoid the slicing tendency of the tin. The raised beds will be 3'-4' x 8'-9' long. The paths between and around the beds will be 4' wide with a weed barrier then cedar mulch for the walkways (don't hold me to this I might change the media to river rocks...).
My wife built a fire pit last year by simply placing some native sand stone in a large ring and starting a fire in the ring. It's worked out well but I think I'll make it a little more permanent and add seating
around the perimeter. If you all have any unique ideas let me know.
We also need to build new flower beds this year and re-establish our lawn. The droughts in oklahoma over the past few years have killed our yard. My intentions are to reseed with native buffalo grass around the first of April.
With all of that written I'll throw this out there. If you have old farming equipment, a concrete mixer, a sawmill or a large band saw you want to get rid of, working or not I would gladly dispose of it for you..... Oh yeah, I also am looking for a couple of good 19" front wheels for my 1952 ford 8n tractor.
How does all this relate to the start of this post? Read it again. I've only listed a few of my projects. There are twice as many unlisted. I work as an engineering technician/quality assurance inspector for an oil and gas engineering/construction company. The challenge I face with finishing projects is I want my projects done the right way with the best workmanship and quality I can possibly produce. This is the main reason I can give for lack of completion. I rebuild or build to the point I cannot proceed until I purchase exactly what I want or learn/develop the skill to complete the project at hand in a fashion that allows me to walk away knowing I did this or that in a manner that provides me peace knowing I did it right. I could use some help. Ideas and thoughts are welcome, physical help would be greatly appreciated but it must be free and meet the requirements of developing deeper and lasting friendships. Just so you know I never ask for or accept help because I don't want to impose on others but I'm really having to learn some new things. If I allow or ask for help I'm hoping it will help me be more giving of time and skills to others. My only ground rules are Yahweh and His kingdom are the priority over everything else. It can't be any other way. I'm learning about stewardship and apostolic leadership, care to join me?