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In the M*A*S*H television series, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III once said:
I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, and then I move on.
It’s a nice sentiment, but it’s not always possible. What’s more, it’s not always wise.
If you haven’t caught on, Lori and I are doing some serious homesteading. We’ve been adding garden space for a few years, and now have two areas that total about a half acre. But then there are the deer. We once counted over 100 deer the first three miles out from our home. And in the fall, they are desperate for food. We’ve been working on a nice fence to replace the t-post and netting we were using. My son and I milled posts, and Lori put copper preservative on the bottoms, and stained the rest. Last Saturday, my son and I got half of them concreted into the ground. I expected to have the whole thing done a week from Thursday.
Then we get up today and found the deer have started tearing thought the netting. So Lori and I put in a long day attaching the deer fence to the posts in the ground, and putting in temporary t-posts to enclose the entire area. It’s not how I intended to spend my day, and I’m exhausted. But it had to be done, so we did it.
Sometimes the only wise choice is to ditch what you were going to do and do something that needs your attention. Sometimes your marriage requires that, and sometimes your wife needs you to do that for her. When that happens, it’s pass fail. Either you’re a hero for doing what needs to be done, or she sees you as a failure for not stepping up.
BTW, having margin in your life makes it way easier to do what needs to be done when these occasions come around.
Image Credit: © Paul H Byerly
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In a related/unrelated line of thought. Have you considered using electric fence to help keep the deer out?
For being one of the edgier shows for it’s time, M*A*S*H has a surprising amount of wisdom and morality, as well as discussion of marriage and relationships. Even if some of that wisdom is about the virtues of the driest of dry martinis.
My wife and I were both born after it finished, but it’s long been one of our favourite shows.