Cutting Broom in Bloom with BroomBusters

I finally did it! Finally got my act together and reached out to the local BroomBusters team BEFORE broom busting season started! For those along the West Coast (looking at your Oregon and Washington), you're likely very familiar with Scotch Broom. It's cheery yellow flowers covering entire hillsides can make one smile until you realize... it is HIGHLY invasive.

It was introduced on Vancouver Island in the mid 1800's by an ango-colonizer who brought 3 (yes, three) seeds to his property near Sooke. He planted those seeds and the broom... well... it took off. It's originally a Mediterranean plant so it adapted well to our climate.

But it does tend to form mono-cultures, crowding out all of the native species. Plus... it is highly flammable which is not a good thing.

Enter BroomBusters! Started about 15 years ago by an organic blueberry farmer who was concerned by the encroaching ranks of broom taking over her neighbours' properties. She asked the local municipality and the ministry of forests to "DO something". But they didn't have the manpower to handle the invasion. She she organized her own volunteers and the municipality and forestry provided the bins to collect the casualties. She also learned from an old railway man that the best time to cut broom is when it is in bloom as it puts a LOT of its energy into making flowers. Cut it when it's in bloom and you have a 75% chance of killing the plant. Which is pretty good. And the trademark slogan was born... Cut Broom in Bloom!

Since then, BroomBusters has spread across the Island... and there are now teams on the mainland where broom has gotten a toe-hold. I first became aware of it BroomBusters several years ago but somehow always missed broom season. Which is annoying. Because when it's in bloom... it becomes highly visible!

But this year... this year I got my act together and joined my first cut a few weekends ago. We tackled a big sprawling patch across from the local SPCA. I love this little wooded area. There are camas lilies, chocolate lilies and fairy slipper orchids at various times of year. So pretty... but in danger from the Broom Bully.

I had already watched the BroomBuster's video on how to cut broom to have the best chance to killing the plant. (How to Cut Broom • Broombusters - Cut Broom in Bloom, Vancouver Island & BC Mainland's Grassroots)

It's not hard to learn. Pull the tiny ones, tamp down the soil where they were. For the bigger ones, cut as close to the ground as possible. Try not to disturb the soil as broom puts out a LOT of seeds so the ground is probably covered with broom seeds. But they struggle to germinate when there's (a) shade and (b) a lot of other plants (e.g. grasses) that crowd them out.

I got a pair of loppers and a high-viz vest and... off we went! There were about 15 BroomBusters on that day. I could only do it for an hour before I had to leave but... it was insanely satisfying to make a visible dent in the broom population. 

I went back later that same day and tackled an area across the street where I had seen scattered broom plants. Had a very satisfying cut and saved another little patch of camas and chocolate lilies from being overrun.
 
 And then I tackled a few patches in our neighbourhood... I also have my eye set on the rocky bluff at the local lake which has a well-established broom colony. So much broom... so little time! Just a narrow 4-6 week window while it blooms (or gets ready to bloom). But next year... I'm going to keep an eye on my patches (I started a Google Map so I can track them) and hope that maintenance cutting is better than the first cutting!

There are also two organized cuts coming up. Those are fun too because many hands make light work! Although... my loppers and pruning clippers need a serious sharpening before I do any more cutting!

Consumerism Paradox: Acquiring Stuff only to Let it All Go

I came across this meme on Facebook the other month and it rang soooo true.

"I spent the first 2/3 of my life acquiring stuff that doesn't matter only so that I can spend my last 1/3 getting rid of it. What a stupid game of consumerism we play"

And in some way... we all know this...

"You can't take it with you"...

"We are born with nothing and leave this earth with nothing."

Yet, we continue to teach our kids that it's a game in which "Whoever crosses the finish line with the most, wins." Really?

And I get the truth at the heart of this meme too... we need "stuff" in order to live our life. Unless we want to be itinerate hobos with no home, no stuff. Which is always a possibility. And because we are born with nothing... we need to get "stuff".

As we approach the later years of life, we recognize that we can't take this "stuff" with us. But the sad truth is... no one wants our "stuff". We chose it because it fit us and our lifestyle and the consumerist trends current when we bought it.

But... newsflash... china cabinets are no longer de rigeur. No one wants the china cabinet. No one wants the precious china that was soooo expensive and a "collector's item". No one wants the fancy embroidered table cloths. Nope... not even if the china is Royal Doulton or the cabinet is solid walnut.

I do have hope for the younger generation. They at least recognize that the walnut china cabinet is not something that will add value to their lives. It is just one more massive piece of furniture taking up space in a tiny apartment that will never hold china that is never used. It serves no useful function. Don't want it. Don't need it. Would the younger generation want the china cabinet if they could afford bigger homes? Somehow I doubt it. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want the mortgage and the 9 to 5 jobs.

But then I think of the teens today... they do buy things. Lots of clothing. Lots of make-up and jewelry. At least the girls. But maybe the boys too. What will happen when they fly the coop and move into their own apartments, likely shared with multiple roommates? Will they go out and buy new furniture? Probably not. Will they grab free stuff off the side of the road, or for cheap off of Facebook Marketplace and thrift stores... probably.

Maybe this meme is really a testament to the Boomers and Generation X. Maybe this meme will have no relevance to younger generations. Perhaps because they will have been collecting experiences and not things? I hope so. Or maybe they will only purchase stuff "that matters". Perhaps they will be immune to the siren call of tchotchkes? Perhaps they will be able to distinguish what "matters" and what doesn't matter. I hope so.

In the meantime... Minimalism is trending, the Joy of Tidying Up is a thing, and the Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning has its own Facebook group. Go figure. Declutter, purge, let go... because we can't take it with us. And no one wants our stuff.

Embracing Procrastination: Why It's Not Always a Bad Thing

Zen Garden (Image by 18121281 from Pixabay

"Hello, my name's Gigi and I'm a Procrasinator".

Seriously... if there was a PA group (Procrastinator's Anonymous), I'd be a card-carrying member for life. I have always held procrastination as a bad thing... or BAD thing.

So much to do, so little time... and I'm scrolling the news on my phone avoiding my to-do list. WTH??? Why am I procrastinating again?? I should have this handled by now?

But I procrastinate. All the time.

And then it came to me... procrastination is NOT a bad thing. It is necessary. We can' escape it. We need to embrace it. We need to make friends with procrastination and see it as a valuable tool in our Life Toolbox.

Ready? Ok... here we go. Let me lay it out.

Time is a Limited Resource

We only have 24 hours in a day. Every single one of us. And out of that, we need to sleep 8 hours (give or take). Which leaves 16 hours to do everything that we need to do in life. That is not a lot of time. So we need to make choices on what we are going to do in any given day. We can't make more time. The only thing we have control over is what we try to squeeze in a day.

We Can't Do it ALL

We can't. Given that time is limited, and energy as well, we can't do it all. It is Impossible. It is physically impossible to go to work for 8 hrs, walk the dog for 2 hrs, watch the kids in the school play for 2 hrs, cook meals for 2 hrs, work on taxes for 2 hrs, clean the Airbnb for 3 hrs, run errands for 2 hrs and work in the garden for 2 hrs... all in the same day. Do the math. It's not possible. Oh sure, you can burn the sleep candle at both ends but for how long?

On some days, my Amazing Marvin to-do system tells me I have 25 hours of tasks scheduled for that day. Um. Let's talk about overwhelm!

Work Faster, Longer, Better is Not a Solution

I think that if I could just work faster, work longer, or work better, more efficiently, that I can get everything done on my to-do list. Society is speeding up, everything is getting faster and faster. There is always more to do. How come everybody else seems able to do more with the same amount of time? What are their secrets? I need to find out! Surely there is a key somewhere that if I just new what it was and where it fit... my life would magically clear up and all would be ease and flow.

More is not always Better. Sometimes Less is More

We can have too much of a good thing. We can volunteer too much. We can take on too much. We can think that we can do more, and more and more but... always we run up against time and energy constraints and the Rule of Life... We can't do it All. Sometimes doing less is... more. 

Procrastination is the Solution

As I said... I have always seen procrastination as a bad thing. But like all things in life, it has a good side and a bad side. Procrastination is not necessarily good or bad, rather it is how we use it. An ax is not good or bad... it's how we use it. Procrastination is just a tool...

And if I use it carelessly, without thought or focus or attention, then I just drift through life, scrolling the news sites and avoiding the problems in my life that just seem too overwhelming. Not today. Tomorrow. I can't deal with this right now. I need chocolate. I need a movie.

But procrastination used mindfully, strategically, can be a very good thing. I only have 8 hours to get stuff done today. What are my priorities. What tasks am I going to focus on. What do I need to defer? Oooohhh... see... good procrastination has a new name... Defer. Or maybe Postpone. A rose by any other name...

I can't get everything I want to get done.... done in one day. I have to defer things, postpone, procrastinate. I have to choose what I am going to work on and say... these things are a "yes" and these things are a "no". For now. For today.

Rather than fighting procrastination, what if I embraced it and used it wisely? Might change things... dramatically.

Confessions of a Productivity Junkie: My Latest Obsession with the 1-3-5 Method!

It's been a while since I wrote a productivity post. Lest you think that I have given up on my productivity junkie ways... nope. That was just the last 4 months of pre-posted blogs! But now... under the gun from having frittered away my 4 month blog buffer... productivity is front and centre again. Which means, of course, that I am re-evaluating my time/energy usage and looking for something that can keep me focused and efficient. Enter... the 1-3-5 Rule!

What the Heck is the 1-3-5 Rule?

A very good question. At it's essence, it's really very simple... in any given day, I should be able to accomplish:

• 1 Big Task
• 3 Medium Tasks
• 5 Small Tasks

Simple, no? But... what does big, medium and small really mean?

1 Big Task

This is the most important and impactful task I need to complete. It could be a major project, an important meeting or something else that requires a good 1.5 to 3 hours to complete. Lately... Tax Preparation has been my Big Task on some days. On other days it's "Clean the Airbnb". 

3 Medium Tasks

These are tasks of moderate importance that still need to get done. They are essential for keeping things moving forward and keeping me on track. They aren't as big as the Big Task. I sort of ballpark them as 30 min to 90 min. Things like writing a blog post, running a daisy chain of errands, posting to our Airbnb's social media stream, mowing the hay field... errrr... back and front lawns.

5 Small Tasks

These are the little things that need to get done but often get overlooked. For me, they take between 5 and 15 min. Things like phone calls, sending emails, cleaning the heat pump filter. Writing or responding to guest reviews.

The thing with the 1-3-5 Rule is... there is only space for 9 (NINE!) things on my daily to-do list. Saayyyyy WHAT? Exactly. Before... I could have dozens of things on my daily to-do list. Talk about overwhelming. And I'd end up snacking on junk food tasks (the little ones) and never getting around to the bigger ones. BTW... updating my to-do list can seem uber important and urgent when there are dozens of things on my to-do list! And that can suck up hours of prime energy time. Sigh.

Anyhow... the 1-3-5 Rule puts an end to an Over-Ambitious To-Do List... there's only space for 9 things... and that's why it works so well...

The Beauty of the 1-3-5 Rule

The 1-3-5 Rule is simple and it's effective. It forces me to have:

Focus

I have to review my tasks and figure out... what's the big thing I need to get done today. Not "want" to get done... but "need" to... like spending a couple of hours on tax prep. Or cleaning the Airbnb because a guest checked out. I can only choose 1 (one!) Big Task so the 1-3-5 Rule forces me to look at my day and go... "OK... what's Priority #1 today).

Clarity

Oh, I get really clear on my priorities very quickly. In the past, I would think I could do 2 hours of tax prep and 3 hours of Airbnb cleaning and write 3 blogs... all in one day. Yeah. No. That doesn't work. I get really clear on what my big task is and I can let go of the other big tasks... for today.

Balance

My day is more balanced... there's room for a Big Task and a bunch of medium tasks and then the smaller stuff too. In the past, I might spend 8 hours of my day beavering away on some big research blog and... neglect everything else. That's a pretty quick road to exhaustion and overwhelm. I might "want" to do more but... there are only so many hours (and energy bursts) in a day so this helps me balance my day.

Achievement

There's nothing better than looking at my 1-3-5 list and going... Done and done and done and done!!! Looking at a list with several dozen items and seeing that I've only marked off 1 or 2... meh. Not very inspiring. While I might not get all of the Smaller Tasks done (they are easier to boot into tomorrow)... the Big Task generally does get Done!

But What About the 1-3-5-7 Rule?

But... true to form... there's a part of me that wants to add "more" to the 1-3-5 Rule. What about adding 7 Tiny Tasks? Things that take less than 5 minutes? Huh? What about that? What if I have a couple of calls to make or a few emails to write and they won't take 5 minutes each? What then?

Sigh. Rather than adding 7 Tiny Tasks to the 1-3-5 Rule... I've started bundling things. So one of my Small Tasks might be "Process Emails" and another might be "Call X and Call Y". But I do spend a moment on assessing if the Calls, for example, are going to be quick and short or if they might need to bounce up to a Medium Task.

Conclusion

So far, after a couple of weeks of this, I'm really liking the 1-3-5 Rule. My online to-do list program (Amazing Marvin) has a 1-3-5 integration. It automatically assigns things to the Big, Medium and Small lists based on the time duration I have assigned to tasks.

I tend to look at my 1-3-5 list for the next day on the previous evening. I assess my upcoming day and go "OK... no cleaning of the suite... tax prep is front and centre... and then writing a blog and then...". The next day, when I look at my list, it's all laid out. I might not "want" to do tax prep but... the list reminds me that this is important... it might not be as exciting as blog writing... but it's more important right now. And I focus and get down to it.

And it works. And that gives me a boost to do more!

Weeks 1 to 3 - Diary of a Grieving Ailurophile (Cat Lover)

Day 4

Evenings are the hardest. Minnie used to come and sit on the couch and demand tummy-time from us. She was such a cuddle bug. Now we sit on the couch alone. No little cat sauntering around the corner with her tail in the air and a chirp/coo for us.

Bedtime is even harder. No little cat jumping on the bed. I wake up in the middle of the night and there is no warm furry body tucked between my legs, or snuggled against the back of my knees or hogging my partner's pillow. Theoretically, we should be sleeping better because we don't have to maneuver around a little cat. But in reality, we are both sleeping poorly.

Mornings are hard... oh heck... every time of day is hard! But mornings... for me... in particular. I get up early and Minnie would get up with me. We would play toilet-paper balls... I would wad up a piece of TP and toss it towards her. And she would leap and jump and then bat it around. But no more. Our chair time is gone too... those 10-15 minutes where I would sit in the reclining chair in my office and she would join me for cuddles. I would scroll the news and she would lie there and purr while I rubbed her tummy. Yes, I know... she loved to have her tummy held and rubbed... not your typical cat.

So there is a gaping hole... multiple holes... in our day to day life. We keep expecting her to arrive in a room demanding attention. We hear a random noise and think it's her. But it's not.

We worked in the garden yesterday on a warm, sunny spring day. In the past, Minnie would have been out there with us, dressed in her uber-fashionable harness and dragging her bright blue leash behind her (so we could find her, even when she hid under a bush). She would patrol the perimeter of the back yard, surveying her queendom. Chewing grass. Watching the humming birds. Chasing bugs. Sunning herself. But there was no little cat yesterday. We don't have to worry about leaving the back gate ajar a bit while we go in and out. There is no cat to escape. We no longer have to stand up suddenly and go... "Where's Minnie? Have you seen Minnie? She was right there... and now she's not!" And then we would scamper around the yard calling her name, searching for her, terrified that she had jumped a fence or... something. And we would find her, sitting in some obvious place but blending into the scenery so well. We could almost hear her little voice: "I'm right here? Hello? Right here!"

Such a big presence... leaves such a big hole. And nature abhors a vacuum... but we are not getting another pet. Not for a while. It's a hard decision but we are both adults... we should be able to make these hard decisions. Doesn't mean they aren't still hard.

Day 5

This was the hardest day. I went to the vet with all of the leftover cans of prescription cat food, the meds she never used, the unopened bag of renal kibble. As I walked in the door, holding a stiff upper lip, the three receptionists all looked up and compassion flooded their faces. They all knew who I was and what had happened. And I burst into tears. The receptionist on the left, I know a bit better, because she comes into Starbucks every Saturday morning and we have chatted in recent months. I sobbed out why I was there and took the stuff and told me to go home. She would look over the stuff and calculate the refund. No need for me to stand around waiting. Which was very kind.

And so I drove home through a veil of tears. It's only food and meds. But to walk through those same doors... when the last time we had been there... we had left without our little cat. It was hard. So very hard.

Day 8

We went back to the vet... to pick up her ashes. There were more people and we stood to the side. Waiting. She came out in a little paper bag and we took her back to the car and cried. Not as hard as bringing her food back. But still hard.

Now we have to bury her ashes. One of these days. But we aren't ready yet. Not yet.

Day 25

Yes, a bit of a gap. Not because we don't miss her but because I was working 12 hour shifts and then was out of town. The house is still empty. And it all feels so unreal. We STILL expect her to jump up on the couch, or see her snoozing in a patch of sunshine.

Today, it is Saturday and I am at Starbucks. The receptionist from the vet came over to chat for a bit. Have we thought about getting another cat? Oh, that's a hard question! Of course we have. And yes, I am the weak link. I see posts go by in my Facebook feed for the local SPCA... cats needing a loving home. We could offer that. And yet... we have been cat parents for 23 years... with a brief gap between Spooky and Minnie. What does life look like without a pet. We don't know. The receptionist gets it too... she asked if we had kids, and I said no and she nodded sagely... "she was your kid". Yes, she was. And she won't be easily replaced. 

Here's another interesting tidbit. We received one condolence card in the last 3 weeks. Acknowledging the loss of Minnie. From family? No. From close friends? No. From a blogger pen pal that I have never met. Interesting. We message on WhatsApp. They don't have kids either. Perhaps that's why. They get the potent impact of losing a pet who was so much more than a "pet".

So we grieve. Still. Yes. Still.