freemotion
Food Guru
One thing most people forget to factor in is future health care costs. No, every health care cost is not paid by insurance or by gov't programs....The liver transplant or the quadruple bypass might be paid for, but I'd rather keep my own body parts functioning as long as possible! Future quality of life also needs to be factored in.
Stress reduction is a big part of this, too, and taking care of a garden and animals can be very stress reducing. I say "can" because I am not calm around kidding time!
Another way to think about the early costs and the early mistakes is to consider it the price of taking a class or getting lessons. What you learn from your mistakes is only invaluable if you continue forward and apply that knowledge.
I just took a brain injury seminar and one of the things the doc emphasized was to keep your brain functioning at a high level so you will have some brain cells to spare as you age (paraphrasing, here
) Puzzle books don't do it. You need to learn something new or do familiar tasks in a different way....write with your non-dominant hand, take a different route to a familiar place, learn a new skill.
Experimenting with different growing methods counts!
Stress reduction is a big part of this, too, and taking care of a garden and animals can be very stress reducing. I say "can" because I am not calm around kidding time!
Another way to think about the early costs and the early mistakes is to consider it the price of taking a class or getting lessons. What you learn from your mistakes is only invaluable if you continue forward and apply that knowledge.
I just took a brain injury seminar and one of the things the doc emphasized was to keep your brain functioning at a high level so you will have some brain cells to spare as you age (paraphrasing, here
) Puzzle books don't do it. You need to learn something new or do familiar tasks in a different way....write with your non-dominant hand, take a different route to a familiar place, learn a new skill.Experimenting with different growing methods counts!
I've also found that I pick my days to hoe, and only do small parts each day. For instance, not right after a rain, but maybe the next couple of days I'll be out for an hour or 2 keeping the weeds down. It also gives me a chance to really LOOK at the garden. Notice what needs trellised, or helped, or what the darn wild bunnies have gotten! :/ (they managed to eat only 1 small tomato plant, and a couple of bean sprouts) . And as was mentioned, that kind of therapy is priceless. I pick around in the garden, the goats are happily meandering the yard, chickens are pecking along, and the rabbits are snoozing in the sun. I feel so much better when I get finished, I seem to handle the rest of the day much better.
