Raspberry patch

A fairly mundane project. 

I like to listen to podcasts on how people "do" things. What are their systems, their tools, their inspirations for success? I enjoy others telling their stories. I have always been entertained by this. In third grade, my classroom had an astonishing collection of biographies. I went through them all. And as I recall, I didn't have to fight any other kids to secure any of the books. They were busy socializing - a developmental step I might have sat out. Really, what kind of third grade classroom has shelf upon shelf of biographies, all readable by elementary school students? I can tell you Waldo Rohnert Elementary did. My third grade teacher, for some reason, also decided that she was going to learn how to play a Hammond organ every day for an hour or so, and we had to watch and listen. In retrospect, it was a feral learning environment.

I have been developing my own way of doing things. Future biographers, please take note. The raspberry infrastructure pictured above is a good example.

I got off work last week, after a busy night. After I biked home, I sketched out the design of the trellis/fence/fort. I then drove to the hardware store and started doing the math. It would cost me $200 to build this raspberry defense system. In my haze, I wandered around Home Depot, doing math and staring slack jawed at Roundup. I made some hasty economical substitutions,  then strapped cedar to the roof of my car. Contrary to my expectations, I didn't jettison any of it.

The wood sat on the picnic table until I was tired enough to build. Again, this opportunity arrived after I was sleepless from the night before. I left the crumpled plans in the house and started cutting up wood and screwing it together. Sometimes, I would find myself holding up two pieces of wood and not knowing where they went or whether it mattered. This lattice work looks nothing like what I had sketched. It's close to the same size as I had envisioned, but is a little more detailed.

I like how it turned out.

I realize that this is a pattern of how I do home improvement, writing, painting and other creative pursuits. Doing things when you are really tired makes the task more fun and the results more interesting. You just have to ride the wave of fatigue into the port of giddy acceptance. And exercise a little more vigilance with power tools.