Where does the time go?

I did a little bit of math yesterday.

Mrs ERJ got tired of my fretting around the house and suggested that I go out to the property and do some springtime chores.

It took me 0.5 hours to load the truck. Depending on the chores, it can take up to two hours to load the truck.

It takes 0.75 hours to drive to the property one-way. Of course, that takes longer if I need to stop at a store and pick up supplies.

I used a stop-watch and logged 3.25 hours of time-on-task work with another 0.5 hours of breaks between each hour. That is, work an hour then drink some water and have a bite to eat.

Adding up the time: 3.25 hours of work and 2.5 hours of overhead for a total of 5.75 hours clocked start-to-finish.

Add another 3.0 hours for the time I am responsible for Quicksilver and another hour or two for a nap which keeps my disposition sweet-and-happy and I don't have a lot of day left for recreational activities like writing deep and thoughtful blog posts.

That is why the recent content has been reading like a fifth-grader's "This is what I did on my summer vacation".

Yesterday's work-ticket

I start laying out beds for perennial plants at the property.

 If you squint a little bit, you can see two pieces of green surveyor's ribbon in the foreground. I used the small mulberry tree on the right side of the image as one of the corners.

The other end of the rows were also marked with green tape. The reason the spacing looks uneven is because the bottom row (on the right) is penciled in as blackberry bushes and the next two rows are penciled in as asparagus. There is 6' between the rows on the right and 4' between the two rows on the left.

 

I used a traditional compass, my smartphone and the distance from the center-line of the road to keep the rows running true-to-grid. Lucky for me, my part of Michigan has magnetic north currently aligning with true north. Magnetic north and smartphone north varied by about 4' in a 100' of row. The center-of-road north was the "flier" and farther away from smartphone north than magnetic north so I ignored it.

 

The plot that was brush-hogged has some naturalized crocus.

 

Another item on the work-ticket was to spray the nettles that are in the Upper Orchard.

 

The last two items on the work-ticket were to cut-and-drag brush. Since the brush was infringing on the field that is rented out to the farmer, it is imperative that I get it dragged off so it doesn't interfere with his field operations.

 

I dragged the brush to the linear brushpile (four minutes per round-trip) and stacked the thicker pieces on a property line where the neighbor could use them for firewood. It helps him and it made my job easier.