Chateau Lloyd

Yesterday I finally finished the garden shed and began filling it up.  I get a sense that this is going to have a long-term and decisive impact on storage, exercise and gardening.  

Having the tools almost within arms' reach will save a vast amount of walking time.  No, it's not a great distance to the garage, but even a minute there and back adds up.  Moreover, the organization of the things is finally being rationalized, so less wasted time in searching for the thing I want.

One lesson: sometimes more is less.  Getting the right storage system forces you to buy more stuff, but it actually uses less room and saves time in the end.  The experience of doing this is giving me ideas for how to sort things in the house as well.

It is of course a process, not an event.  I recall how much easier things got when I created a parallel set of "garage tools" to save me a commute to the basement each time I needed something.

Put simply, I'm reducing the Clausewitzian "friction" involved in all aspects of yard work.  Save a few minutes here, a little exertion there, and I broaden the scope of what I can do with the same amount of time.  It's like motorizing my infantry and mechanizing my cavalry.  Areas of the yard that were out of reach are now closer to my logistics base, and I can increase the scope of my operations.

Because of my National Guard responsibilities, it was always a struggled to keep up with the yard.  Indeed, some years ago I decided on a strategic withdrawal from the back fence line.  It was always hard to mow, and I needed maximum effort to spray for bugs or weeds.  Falling back allowed me to consolidate effort closer to the house but also caused trees to start coming up, increasing my privacy from the neighbors.  I'm only a couple of years from a summer "green wall" providing complete seclusion from most angle.

Another factor is that the grandkids are now old enough to effectively help in the yard.  They rip out plants with great gusto.

Of course, nothing is certain, and this year may be yet another disappointment, but if nothing else, the failure will be much more efficient.