I live in a rural area on a half acre that I’m trying to tame. I must say that during the nasty drought that Texas experienced that past seven-plus years it was a lot easier to sit in my air-conditioned house and go outside as little as possible, like to the mailbox and back. Period.  Now that the drought appears to be over, everything is green again and our lake is back up where it should be, I’ve decided it’s time to make my place look the way I’ve always dreamed it could on the outside.

Usually I get totally overwhelmed looking at it, but have finally adopted a common sense approach of taking it on one thing at a time, about an hour a day. It usually takes me three separate days to mow the yard with a walk-behind mower, so today I finished what I started Friday. I cut back the cactus by my front door that was taking over the porch, and have a list of manageable chores on my list for the coming days, like cutting down several volunteer hackberry trees and saving the irises from that unruly cactus.

So often when a task is utterly overwhelming, it’s easy to ignore or dismiss it entirely. How many things are you putting off because you don’t know where to start? Here’s the secret: Just start.  The satisfaction feeds your resolve and before you know it you’ve gained enough momentum to keep at it. I just hope I can get enough done before serious heat sets in, but until then I’ll tackle taming my little patch of land one bite at a time.