Entropy: the battle for order / against disorder.

Entropy: the battle for order / against disorder.

Today we skipped church (#3 is just 1 week old and we didn’t want to open her up to so many germs yet). This is the first time in probably 3 years we’ve missed two weeks in a row, feels really weird, luckily we can catch up at www.substancechurch.com

Despite having a “day off” from church, we ended up having a crazy busy/hard work day instead. Starting in the morning, I began cleaning and organizing our utility shed. Going through old boxes and rearranging, identifying what we have and asking myself if we still need it- and if we need it – is it accessible to our everyday life?

Part of my 2015 goals are to reorganize and actually BE organized. Not becoming a minimalist by any means – just having order to what we have. Tiller goes here, hand tools go here, tool chest goes here, zip ties go here…definitely not getting rid of everything and living the urban experience. No, we are fully enjoying the suburban lifestyle with a fenced in backyard with a playset and grass for kids to play, a fire pit, a garden, and soon a gliding wooden swing, large patio, deck, and shed.

We live a fully embraced suburban lifestyle that just needs some order and organization. I can feel the pit of “home projects” so many renters reference. I suppose that’s part of the problem with having neighbors versus growing up in the country where our neighbors never saw or cared what we did.

Compared to having endless space on a hobby farm, having a limited city lot forces us to be more organized and intentional with what we have and store. I like that. What we have represents what we do with our time and what we value. We expend energy maintaining and cleaning stuff – and getting rid if that stuff here and there has its perks.

My biggest challenge is rarely the setting up but the maintaining.

Entropy: the natural decline from order to disorder. Its a secular fact of science, yet its “anti-evolution” as far as our orderly cellular intelligent beings coming from a sludge pool of non-intelligent matter… But that’s fine to believe what you want, I’m not going to force my beliefs on anyone. Point of mentioning entropy is that it is how my life seems to follow regarding organization. If only my organization worked opposite of science and became more organized over time…

This year we have taken some cool steps towards organizing our basement / my studio. My shooting room now has large shelves clearing the floor of NY gear and equipment. That project of order has totally transformed the room into a useable and easy to load in/load out space. Whether I am grabbing one of my two photobooths, backgrounds, lights, stands or a posing stool, I know where everything goes and its easy to grab. No guessing or wondering if kids got into something since its all on its own shelf. Some even have labels.

Today I began setting stakes for our tomato plants and making rows where plants will soon be. It’s always fun seeing the stakes go in and anticipating the summer garden. Soon my seedlings will be big enough! Time to get everything ready for them 🙂

The rest, and majority, of today was involving firewood. From finishing the clearing behind the shed (cutting down three small trees) and then cutting down two trees at my nice neighbors (my dad helped drop them), it was a mix of chain saws and bonfire throughout the day. Good smells all around.

After cutting out the trees and burning the brush, we set the end posts for the wood rack, and finally at the end of the day piled one trailer load in. Turns out we should be able to take a lot of wood stacked up in the rows. The plan being to take all of our firewood and having it stored / drying behind the shed and just a limited supply out front in the yard. Neat and orderly.

Creating systems to prolong the tug if entropy.

There is still a good amount of wood/work to do this week, but one thing I know, we are getting there. At least at the end of this project we will have it organized and setup looking and working good for a while. It will be a big overhaul from the horrible looking junk like with dead brush our nice neighbor has been having to look at since they moved in.

Entropy, the battle for order against disorder. One baby step at a time, one log at a time, one tomato stake at a time, one branch/shovel/wheelbarrow/box/shelf at a time.