Farming in my own backyard

One of the more rewarding activities I have been up to in the last year, was to start a veggie garden in my backyard. Last year I started with spinach and carrots and it was a huge success. This year I have expanded.

Growing your own vegetables, and then harvesting and eating them, is a huge satisfaction to me. I just love it, and I have been blessed because my veggies come out huge, my carrots last year was what my daughter called huge mutant carrots. This year my pumpkins are growing at a huge pace and I will start harvesting this weekend.

Doing a veggie garden isn’t that much work, but the rewards are amazing. Not only do you get to harvest your own crop, but you get the satisfaction of working in the garden for more than just adding beauty. On top of that it is also a family project, so I get to spend some more time with my kids doing fun things.

In these recession times, with money being tight, with stress all around, it is great being able to fetch your own veggies from your own garden. It has got me pondering about how the economy would look like if more and more people started growing veggies and even trading veggies with neighbors. An idea I love and would like to see come to live in our world today.
Just as a note I am neither a competent gardener nor farmer, but I do try the best I can to keep my patch nice and clean and now productive….

Night owls on the Prowl

Again it is midnight and I am sitting supporting one of my client’s systems, something broke and Mr. Fix-It is on place in front of the computer screen and sorting the issue out. Over the years I have done more support than development, funny how it goes, we end up doing more of what we don’t like compared to what we love and desire.

I have spent some time these last couple of months looking at how I do business, what my model is and what can be improved. The main issue is that I am a one-man show, and that is in general never a great idea in the IT industry. You end up doing everything from highly motivating and complex tasks, to writing procedures on how to use a software tool.

We all have this issue one time or another, we try to do everything, we say yes to all requests coming our way, we know we can do it best and trust no one else, and the list goes on and on and on. And by the way so does your hours and your stress and your backlog of tasks. Personally I have come to the end of the road, I have decided that I will hire an assistant, train this person in my field, and reduce my annoying tasks.

Since I am a contractor/consultant/one man show I am paid by the hour I work, so I don’t mind working through the night, over weekends, and in holidays. Well I used to not mind, now I am starting to want a social life, spending time with the kids and grandkids. Taking up fishing again…

But selling the idea of having an assistant isn’t always easy; many customers are worried about the quality of work from the new resource. But in the end it boils down to more work done, reduced costs, and for me the most important thing starting to get a life again……………watch this space it is for a recovering work-o-holic….

And so the story goes…….

How many times have we not all set goals and then just lost track of them, or just the traction we had in them. It has happened to me so many times; sometimes I think I am the master of planning and the joker of completing......

But anyways, this blog came up and was supposed to be a good channel for me to give my ideas and my inspiration to those that needed. I had clear goals on creating weekly content; make sure it was up-to-date and relevant. Most is also based on my own experiences, which should make it easier to write about.

So it has been some months since I wrote, but I am back again. Now my notes will be shorter, more concise and might be more general about the life in South Africa and on this earth. Life is what you make it to be; sometimes we will make it more complicated, more difficult, and more dangerous than what it is. But that is entirely up to you.

Anyways, this Viking will try not to be that lost anymore and have more regular updates, and one of the updates is that I have cut my hair….making me less VIKING?