Failure

The Road to Hell must be paved well with my good intentions. My failed good intentions have cost me cash. Bought and thrown-out food, scavenged and wasted food, gifts of food and other items, bright ideas I had--all are the past but still really bug me. Some of this failures were expensive, at least to me.

rotted and in the compost hole

I brought home 13 pumpkins for pumpkin pie and pumpkin butter and for chicken food. The chickens refused to eat them or the seeds, unlike pumpkins of other years. They were not good tasting to me, so I suppose the chickens had good reason to turn up their beaks. The worst part was my failure to get them off the patio table and allowing them to rot and get all over, necessitating my thoroughly washing the table and exbf having to expend energy and time to remove rotten pumpkins. They would have been so much easier to throw in the compost hole if I had dealt with it earlier.

While I was ill, about 15+ lbs of bananas bought cheap and destined for the dehydrator went bad. Now, I am out of dehydrated bananas! The 15 lbs. were moldy and runny, so there was no salvation, not even baking or freezing. They were not fit for hens. Yes, hens turn up their nose at really rotten food.

Four heads of celery languished. Eventually, they were not even fit for hens. Six quarts of blueberries Charlie gave me went to the hens and a quarter pound of cherries I bought when they were $2.99/lb. My hens were delighted to get both of these, along with some plum tomatoes. I buy few cherries or plum tomatoes because of the cost, but I had bought both when I felt like I could afford the little treat.

All of the above can be attributed in full or in part to my being ill. I was feeling horrid on Christmas Day and now realize all had been getting worse for about three weeks until the eventual catastrophic gastrointestinal failure. Other things were beyond my control.

At Thanksgiving, I did not have enough eggs for the chocolate pound cake, so I bought eggs. At Christmas I did not have enough eggs for another chocolate pound cake, so again I bought eggs. These should have been consumed or scrambled/boiled and fed to hens. Nope, still have store-bought eggs here, eggs I do not want to scramble because I am spoiled with fresh eggs. It remains to see how many of these are good.

My friend gave me a pretty apple gourd that he decided he would pick early. Naturally, it should have been left on the vine to prevent rotting. Nope, it rotted. He does not know it should not be picked when pretty, just left to mold on the ground. It is in the compost.

My plans for a salad garden in the glass enclosure (turtle home?) never came to fruition.  Why? I don't know.

The worst failure has been the fact that the hens laid no eggs for a week at a time. They are having to use all their food as energy to stay warm, not lay eggs. Remember, since my successful chicken defense effort, they have only a Rubbermaid box in which to live and no shelter from the wind during the day. They do not get to sleep inside a warm house. For a solid 48 hours, they were on their own last week, no food, no water. They did have apple on which they munched, left from a dozen or so I had put in their pen. Plus, the water did not run out in their waterer. But, I knew none of this from my position in the house.

And I broke a thumbnail off to the quick as I staggered into a door!

Even with all the apparent failure scattered in my wake, I still managed to dehydrate many jars of fruit and vegetables. Since none of it was designated for long-term storage, it has been mostly eaten. If I do start dehydrating for long-term storage, I need to have used it to determine if it is prone to molding and how I like it.

I have choices: learn from the failures or keep making mistakes. I was too ill to get up to deal with food, plus I did not need to be contaminating food for storage. I must never have marathon dehydrating plans in order not to waste food. Also, I must recognize when food should go to the hens instead of holding out for a miracle recovery of my health. That is a big lesson to learn. But, who expects health problems?

Now, I know I cannot be the only person who has had failures, whether because of health, ambitious plans, or things beyond control.

Now, I cannot afford plum tomatoes or cherries. Finding financial equilibrium will be difficult!

I have had four hours sleep in the last 36 hours, so I am a little morose.
Your turn
Have you had failure, large or small, due to health problems or just bad judgment on your part or on the part of others? Was it as hard to come to terms with your failures as it was for me? Has downright procrastination been a part of the problem? Did you make plans so grandiose that your time, skill, or talents were not up to the challenge?