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One of the many perks of my job are the opportunities for learning. Outside of the education I get from the agriculture community is a little learning program through my workplace that offers regular mental wellbeing challenges.

The latest challenge was focused on decluttering. Boy, that’s a struggle for me. Probably worse now is my work desk than when I used to work in an office with people visiting me daily. I at least had to try to keep my desk decluttered and presentable back then. Now only my family really gets to see how much of a mess of paperwork I’ve been collecting. The only thing stopping utter catastrophe is that in the back of my mind I remember that my standup desk has a weight capacity that could render the desk useless if I allow too much weight to build up. So far so good.

I like to try to convince myself that much of the paper is worth keeping around. You know, like that list of financial assistance qualifying water quality practices from 2023 that I haven’t even thought about for the last two years ago. I can’t think of a story idea to go with it today but I’m sure I will when I toss it.

Perhaps the real trouble is that there are legitimate story ideas in that pile that I will forget about because it is out of sight and out of mind. Of course my clutter issues stem far beyond my desk. I have outbuildings bloated with stuff I have only dreamt of utilizing.

I am quite proud of some of my accomplishment during the last few weeks of sub-zero temperatures. My time enjoying the outdoors was limited to short rescue missions into the shed to find boards, sheeting and doors that I’ve been accumulating for several years with the plan of one day making built-in cabinets for our entry way.

That project was successfully completed without me having to spend more than a few dollars thanks to bargains from auctions, plenty of nails and screws on hand and a rescued barnwood door from the front of my shop. Of course, I still have an overhead door to install in order to fill the void of that removed door. The recent warmup will have me completing that job soon.

Decluttering is also flowing into our planting plans as we did some planning for the 2025 growing season. Actually that job is mostly in the capable hands of my wife. I mostly hinted at some of the items that seemed like we could do without while she did the actual planning and ordering. Eggplants were one of those items that didn’t seem to find a place in our menu or others at farmers markets, though they did produce pretty well.

The garden, like our basement can become cluttered with things that seemed like a great idea but soon become just another thing we don’t have time to deal with. That’s what’s leading to some trimming back of operations this year. Last year was a very taxing year of expansions and new trials without the success we had hoped for. I say it was a learning opportunity now, but I had less kind words for it during the peak of operations.

In an effort to regain some of the mental health I think we lost last year, we are regrouping and working to Make Our Garden Rewarding Again. I’m thinking I’ll also build up the fence system to be a little more attractive and effective against cervid breaches. We’ll call that the Deer Out of Garden Experiment. I’m sure both will be hugely successful. I believe the deer will even pay for it.

But seriously, working the land offers rewards beyond harvest. It will be well worth it if we are able to look back and see that despite all the challenges, we were able to use it not to show how great we are at growing, but to bless others and teach our children about the rewards of doing hard things.