It Costs A Lot To Die

 “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...”

― Henry David Thoreau

Have you given any thought to dying?  From a spiritual standpoint, it is of paramount importance.  We will all spend eternity somewhere.  You want to nail down the fact that you will be spending eternity in the presence of God in Heaven.  There's only one way to get there and that's through faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ, believing that He's the Messiah and trusting in His finished work on the cross for your salvation.

Once you have that settled, there are some additional, unsavory things about death from a practical and financial standpoint that one must consider.  When I had heart surgery in August of last year, I sat down and wrote out my obituary.  What a project.  If things were to go south in the surgery, I wanted to save Tricia the time and trouble of writing that out.  She didn't end up needing it, but one day she will, and it's done.  But there are other things to consider.

The will is all done and filed away with other important documents.  The next thing to do is to think about the songs you want at your funeral, the pallbearers, singers, and other details of the service.  I haven't completed this yet, but it's next on my list.  Once done, I can put all that in a file and let Tricia know where to find it.  All it would take is a few minutes to read and make any necessary updates.

It seems like the only thing the USPS delivers to the mailbox anymore is junk mail.  Some days we don't get any mail.  However, I walked out to the mailbox the other day and there was a letter from a local funeral home offering a free consultation and funeral planning discussion.  That seemed like the logical next step in getting the planning squared away regarding "kicking the bucket."

I arrived at the funeral home and a professionally dressed woman led me to a well-appointed room.  We sat behind a large wood desk, and she passed the following folder across to me.

She went over a whole lot of information, regarding my wishes.  What I learned is this: "Dying is a doggone expensive proposition!"  Look at some of the costs below:

$7,360 for just the service.  We put a placeholder in for the casket as an average price of $4,000.  I did not bring up with her the thought I had of making my own.  That would be an interesting woodworking project, but where would you store it?  Could it double as a coffee table?  What a conversation starter!  The casket cost does not include the cement vault.  The total goods and services comes to $13,055.  But wait... there's more.  This doesn't include the real estate that your remains will be deposited on.  Local plots run between $500 and $800.

But where to be laid to rest?  We do have a family cemetery in Oberlin by the farm.  I always told my wife and kids that I wanted to be laid to rest beneath the old elm tree in the back yard.  They always respond, "Dad, we don't have an elm tree."  Louisiana law requires that one must be buried in an established cemetery, so I guess that removes my composting in the back from consideration.

Thinking about death is very important from both a spiritual and financial standpoint, and it makes a lot of sense to plan.  I'll continue to fine tune the plans, but thinking about dying reminds me that it is important to think about living, too.  We don't know how much time is still in our hour glass.  I want to make sure that I make every day count.

Running Around like a Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

Those are a bunch of chicken heads, huh?  This is the sight that greets us most Saturday and Sunday mornings as we walk out to milk the cows.  On weekdays, it is still dark and they are mostly milling around the hen house or still roosting.  On the weekends when we milk about 2 hours later, those birds are impatiently waiting for breakfast.  They are cackling and clucking all piled up by the gate.  We press through the flock, trying not to step on them.

Looking at the photo above and all their heads, it reminds me of many people who talk to me about chickens, telling me when they grew up butchering chickens, they'd chop the birds head off and the bird would run around with no head.  We don't do that.  We slit the artery and let the bird's heart bleed them out.  But the saying "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off" is an interesting visual that people use to describe themselves or others.  It represents chaos.  Lack of planning or organization.

Do you ever feel like that describes your life?  It's funny.  I try to be efficient and organized in my work life.  I try to plan and keep things orderly.  In a Jekyll and Hyde situation, my work around our little farm is often quite chaotic, not organized, not well thought out and woefully inefficient.  In our current viewing of the Canadian series "Heartland" on Netflix, the character Jack Bartlett made the following quote:

"If you act like you have 15 minutes to do a job, it will take you all day, but if you act like you have all day to do a job, it will take you 15 minutes."  - Jack Bartlett from "Heartland"

You know, Jack is 100% correct!  Oftentimes, I have a bunch of projects that I feel like all need to be done.  With limited time, I'll just dive in and start working hard without planning.  I'll rush to do the heavy-lifting and hard work without stopping to think and get organized.  Inevitably, that results in numerous trips from the barn or pasture back to my workbench in the garage to get supplies I need.  While great for burning calories, it burns up the day and I end up not being productive.  As Jack mentions, it takes all day to do a job that could have taken 15 minutes had I spent time on the front end planning.

I give Jack Bartlett credit for that quote, but King Solomon said it first, I think:

The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty,

But those of everyone who is hasty, surely to poverty. 

Proverbs 21:5 New King James Version (NKJV)

Wise words indeed...

Spring is on its way!

The last several days we've seen temperatures in the 70's.  It has been a welcome change.  While milking the cows this morning, I heard mockingbirds in the trees singing their songs.  I hadn't heard songbirds in a while. This weekend I could hear crop dusters flying in the distance which is another telltale sign of Spring.  As discussed in another post, I worked up four rows and planted 116 seed potatoes.  I have some additional seed potatoes that I need to plant, but it'll require pulling up a couple more rows.  The days are getting longer, too, which will allow me to get more done in the afternoons. Sunset today is at 6:01 pm, but by the end of the month, it will be 6:09 pm. Longer days and warmer weather will dry out the water-logged soil and enable me to plant the Spring crop.

That got me to thinking that I needed to do a seed inventory so that I can order some seeds to replace the that I used last year.  So last night while Benjamin and I watched the Olympics, I went and got all my seeds out of the freezer and grouped them in logical groups like melons, beans, peas, corn, squash, okra, herbs, etc.  I made a list of the seeds that I have in stock on a legal pad.

Grouping seeds together and getting organized

Then I pulled out my planting guide from last Spring that shows, row by row, what I planted and when I planted it.  My planting guide shows all 35 of my 30 foot rows and what is planted where.  I compared the two lists (inventory against planting guide) to determine what I needed to order.  I like Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and I went to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com and placed an order. They'll come in the mail in time for planting.  The other reason I look at my planting guide is to help me determine where in the garden to plant items this year as I don't want to plant the same crop in the same location.  Rotating planting locations helps give the soil a rest and allows the soil to build up nutrients pulled out of the ground by the crop.

Looking at my planting guide from Spring 2013

Some of my seeds are left over from the 2009 crop packing year, but I still experience good germination on them, so I keep using them.  You'll notice that I only inventoried my purchased seed last night.  I have a big drawer that is absolutely filled with supplement bottles full of seeds that I save.  I'll use those seeds in addition to purchased seed.  Each year I try to save as many seeds as I can.  I have another inventory list of those seeds.  I'm finding that I have to purchase fewer and fewer seeds each year.  This year my total seed purchase was $17.50 and that included shipping.

Seeds on carpet that will soon be in the dirt

Making a list of all my seeds does another thing besides providing an inventory and determining what I need to order to be prepared for Spring Planting - it helps me begin thinking about how to organize the garden.  I have so many seeds and each year I'm tempted to enlarge the size of the garden.  I've found that the size of the garden and the time it takes to maintain and properly care for it is at odds with a person (me) who has turned another year older since last Spring's Garden was put in.  A man's got to know his limitations.

So I've decided to operate on the same standard operating procedure that our Government does.  I won't reduce the size of my garden, I'll just increase the size of it at rate that is a little slower than the garden's growth rate in the past and call it a cut. (Smile!)

Making a list and checking it twice

While watching the Jamaican bobsled team go down the run, I got out my LSU AgCenter Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide.  It can be found here.  It is a really good planning tool that I use to help me with seed spacing, depth, and planting times. After looking at it, I really got the fever to go out and play in the dirt!

Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide from LSU AgCenter

I have notes in the margins and things highlighted to help me improve the garden each year and I look over it to refresh my memory of things I want to change.  One thing that I'm definitely finding is that I want to be planting at the very earliest dates for the Fall Garden.  To try and beat the heat and bug pressure, I want to do the same with the Spring garden as well, but it is a little dangerous to do that.

Just to be on the safe side, I researched the average last frost date for my zip code and it is February 21 - 28th.  It won't be long now until I knock the rust off of my garden hoe...