Hitting the mowing wall (of grass)

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Annual Australian Climate Statement 2010, which I mentioned yesterday, says ‘2010 began with El Niño conditions in the Pacific followed by a rapid transition into La Niña during autumn. The second half of the year (July to December) was the wettest on record for Australia’ [1]. Here’s a bit more about La Niña [2]( which means ‘the girl-child’ in Spanish) and its opposite, El Niño [3](‘the boy-child’). As the Bureau’s Statement says, ‘La Niña brings heavy rain, eases drought and causes widespread flooding…(so 2010 was)…Australia’s third-wettest year on record’. The 2010 La Niña event affected Tasmania less than the mainland. Even so, here in Mole Creek the 2010 rainfall was nearly an all-time record. I’ve previously mentioned the task of mowing our orchard’s grass, and my proclivity for postponing that job [4, 5]. The 2010 spring and early summer rain left the grass too wet to mow. When the rain finally stopped – a few days before Xmas, the grass was knee-high. Even a few days later my push motor mower clogged with wet grass. So I enlisted the help of my friend Barbara who cheerfully brought her ride-on mower to the task (picture). She and it did a great job. Indications are the La Niña will weaken in our 2011 autumn [6]. So I reckon my trusty mower will do the job from now on. Including next summer. Assuming my tendency to procrastination abates with La Niña. Ho hum.

Review Tuesday: 'Later'

Today’s ‘Review Tuesday'. I bet you have one. I certainly have. In my head. A list of things I should do: plant seedlings, mow orchard, sweep floor, wash car. Et cetera. But I’m a procrastinator [1, 2]. I’m not good at much, but I’m good at procrastinating. James Surowiecki’s review article – titled ‘Later’ – in the 11 October New Yorker [3] focuses on procrastination. He writes that it’s always been a basic human impulse, but anxiety about it has emerged only quite recently: the percentage of people who admitted to procrastination troubles quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. So it’s quintessentially modern. And a powerful example of a Greek word akrasia, i.e. doing something against one’s better judgment. Though delay makes us worse off, delay we do. Conversely, it’s not procrastination if the delay’s not detrimental. We often procrastinate not by doing fun tasks, but by doing tasks whose only allure’s that they aren’t what we should be doing. And when we put off something by telling ourselves we’ll do it tomorrow, we overlook that tomorrow the temptation to put it off will be just as strong. Procrastinators know all too well the allures of the salient present, and they want to resist them. They just don’t. The solution (assuming we want one)? In essence, imposing limits and narrowing options. More organisation, and a ‘to do’ list, may help. And importantly, ensuring all items on the ‘to do’ list are worth doing. If you’re a procrastinator, you’d do well to read Surowiecki’s article. Now.

farmdoc's blog post number 194

I’ll bet you don’t know who Norma Deloris Egstrom was. Her stage name was Peggy Lee. Does that help? Born in 1920, she died in 2002. An actor, singer and songwriter, she wrote and sang several famous songs including Manana which reached number 1 on the US pop chart in 1948. Manana is a Spanish word meaning ‘tomorrow’, and the song goes: ‘Manana is soon enough for me’. I’ve previously mentioned my procrastination; here I go again: Some years ago I built a floppy-top fence around our Mole Creek orchard to keep out native wildlife. So successful is the fence that the orchard grass goes uneaten. I’ve considered ducks or geese to eat the grass, but to date no action’s resulted. So I have to mow it – 30 metres wide and 20 metres deep making 600 square metres. My mower’s a push motor mower – not a ride-on – and every Spring I delay the inevitable as long as possible. I always delay it too long. If I mowed earlier, it’d be a much easier job – and vice versa. Last Tuesday I could delay no longer. After an hour and a mower tank full of petrol, I’d done 40% of it – the 40% with the longest grass, I’m relieved to tell you. When will I mow the remaining 60%? Manana is soon enough for me.

farmdoc's blog post number 64

As I wrote last Saturday, I work hard. Therefore my sweetheart Vivienne and I are financially comfortable. One of the consequent joys of being so is donating money to our chosen charities and NGOs – about 20 in all. Each year I resolve to send the donations well before 30 June when the financial year ends. But it never happens; I can’t explain why. But, folks, it’s another exception to the bus stop principle – because as long as the donations are paid by 30 June, they are tax deductible in the current financial year. Yesterday, eight days before 30 June, the bus roared up behind me and I could procrastinate no longer. So with the aphorism The best way to get something done is to begin propelling me on, out came last year’s spreadsheet, the Donations file, and the calculator, chequebook, pen, stapler, envelopes and stamps. The job was done quickly. Surprisingly so. No bother at all. A perspicacious Chinese citizen once said that A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. Yeah, yeah, sure, mate; so maybe next year I’ll pay the donations earlier. But equally perspicaciously, another Chinese citizen – or perhaps the same one – said that A one-inch error at the start can be a thousand miles at the end. So maybe I won’t.