Planning Projects by the Seasons – Preparing Around Limited Time

Everyone likes to make a list of New Year Resolutions when the start of a new year rolls around, but I prefer to think of them as projects instead. My busiest time of the work year is the December-January period. Generally, I’m a few weeks behind the times in planning. When things slow down, I get a chance to sit and plot out what I’m going to do between February to November. It’s a time to work out which new projects we tackle this year or continue with pre-existing projects.

This will be a multi-part series on the structure behind project planning and what I hope to achieve in 2024.

Blocking Out Seasonal Events

Seasonal events are major points in our work life. These require blocking out time to dedicate to them. Christmas is the big one which blocks out between six to eight weeks. Straight after that, we jump into back-to-school, and that is a constant grind all January. These events that both of us to manage, along with our staff of five, so we try to avoid big projects at home during these events. It isn’t so bad, as December and January are typically either very hot and humid or pelting down with monsoonal rain. There is no point in starting a major project when the forecast is for 100+ mm of rain in the next 24 hours.

We know we cannot plan anything major around Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Easter. However, that leaves the rest of the year as fair game for projects!

Seasonal Project Planning

It’s not just the seasonal events that affect our potential projects, but it’s the typical weather of each season. Our seasons are a little different in the tropics. We barely get a winter, but summer seems to be broken into three seasons all on its own: dry-summer, hot humid summer and monsoon.

Summer, planning around the monsoon season: humidity and rain, time to do little

December, January, February

Early summer

I temperature watch all the time. Temperature changes interest me, as I plot them out as part of a year-long crochet project. How hot and humid it gets is a critical factor in our projects. For me, as a soapmaker, if it’s 30 degrees and humidity is 85%, I’m going to avoid soaping then. My soap batter will react faster than I want, and I’ll end up with soap on a stick, ricing, volcano-ing or other less-than-desirable effects. For the Mr, working underneath a car or on the roof at 30+ degrees is just miserable.

So it’s not so bad that our work life takes up December-January. Those two months are uncomfortable to work outdoors in, if not impossible, and depending on the monsoonal trough, February can be just as nasty as the previous two months. February has Valentine’s Day too, which is a smaller seasonal event. This can take a good few days of my attention as I build gift baskets and hampers. If I’ve managed to put down a November round of crops, I tend to those in the hours before sunset. Having given myself heatstroke before, I have no desire to repeat the experience for a few more hours of gardening.

The Ideal Project Planning time: February

In February I aim to get an idea of what my garden beds will look like this year. I think about potential crochet projects I want to do throughout the year. This year, I’ve been planning out my long-term food storage pantry.

Mr looks after the basic car maintenance. If he sees any potential problems, he notes them down and orders parts ready for repair on cooler days. He also mows the lawns – weeds and grass grow rampant in this season. We turn the clippings into mulch or add to the compost. In this season, I start raising seeds in seed raising mix, far more than I need. I am thus prepared if a heatwave comes through or they get hammered flat by rain. Some should survive and get me an early head start on autumn planting.

Autumn, an extension of summer and the whisper of winter: it’s time to get active

March, April, May

Early autumn

The early months of autumn are often just an extension of summer. Our cyclone season doesn’t officially end until April. However, given the lack of accuracy and contradictory predictions the Bureau of Meteorology has made in the past few years, take that with a grain of salt. This year was “supposed” to be the year of El Niño, with increased temperatures and hot, dry summers. At this moment, my weather station has recorded over a metre of rainfall in the first month and a half of the year alone. It does not include the half metre of rain we got in a single 24-hour period in December.

This cyclone season alone, we’ve already had TC Jasper roll through two weeks before Christmas and flood out parts of Cairns. TC Kirrily dumped more rain over FNQ a few weeks later, drifted into CQ, and flooded parts of it too, before finally dissipating. Even in mid-February, we got heavy showers and steaming hot days. Cyclones form when ocean temps are warm, 26.5 degrees or higher, and looking at this map, the ocean around our region has exceeded that temperature for some time.

A few years ago we had over 8 inches on ANZAC Day (April 25.) I have noticed a trend of decent rain pushing into May and June, which from my living memory, isn’t the norm.

Late autumn

For me, autumn is a time of hope: I may get to start my dry-season garden at the end of February! At the same time, I’m also unfazed by the potential rain. The wicked summer heat has started to fade, so as long as I keep seedlings out of direct rain, I can usually get a few hardy ones to grow ready for winter planting.

Around the house, as the temperatures begin to drop to more acceptable levels, we start looking at projects both indoors and out. The Mr will start to tinker with the vehicles and do some minor servicing. Monsoonal weather breeds mould. We wash things down, dry them properly, and store them away. We trim our few trees and mulch the branches into wood chips. The wood chip is perfect for suppressing the weeds growing between the garden beds. I begin soaping again, using fragrances that behave well. If it rains, we opt to work indoors. By mid-May, it has typically fined up enough that we can get stuck into projects planned during February.

Winter, that one day of frosty temps among cooler, dry days: projects galore

June, July, August

Winter in paradise

FNQ folk have a running joke: “Winter falls on a Friday this month”, usually bandied about in late July or August when we get that one or two days where the temperature approaches 12 degrees for a day or so.

Beyond that, though, this is the magic season. We might get patchy light rain here and there. The skies are cloudless, the temperature doesn’t get above 30, humidity is low, and we even see temps drop into the teens at night.

These are the months when we get to spend our time away from work outdoors, tending the gardens, working on the house, fully servicing the vehicles, or just enjoying downtime in the fresh air without constantly feeling sticky from sweat.

This is the time of year when my garden takes off. I plant vegetables that enjoy the cooler weather, those that bolt to seed in summer. We enjoy homegrown lettuce, alliums and brassicas in rolling harvests through our winter and into early Spring.

If I can get seedlings in the ground during autumn, I get a head start and make the most of the growing season. It’s a time for salads and fresh greens – as lettuce hates the summer heat and simply will not germinate, and it’s also a time for roasted vegetables and hearty soups. A bit of a strange juxtaposition, but it truly is a wonderful time for produce. If it’s a good year, the citrus fruit are about to ripen and I get to start preserving an abundant crop.

Cool season projects

This is about the only time of year when we can work on the roof or out in the yard comfortably for more than emergency repairs. The Mr will typically spend his mornings sleeving parts of the roof or doing full services on our vehicles without the heat cooking his brain. A well-ventilated shed would possibly sort out some of that problem, but alas, we are currently shedless, though that’s a long-term project on its own!

It’s my second year being an avid fibre artist, and I feel like winter could be the time of year when I’d want to make some wearables. I have typically shied away from making clothes, as we don’t get the kind of weather that warrants a big thick jumper or scarf. However, I’ve been thinking about sleeveless tops in light cotton and even knitted socks. I’m a sucker for hand-dyed sock yarn and feel that I could certainly get into stash-busting with socks.

Spring, a weird extension of winter or a prelude to hot summer: projects slow down

September, October, November

Pre-summer heat

Spring brings to mind fresh greenery and budding blooms – not where we are. Our mild winter continues into the early weeks of September, and then it starts to warm up, and fast. This is a continuation of our dry season, but whereas winter was cool and dry, spring is hot and dry. October and November have very little rainfall at all, and temperatures head towards and past 30 degrees. It’s a precursor to the December heat as the monsoon builds. The grass dries up.

Ending projects

My garden starts to die back in October. Cool-weather crops die or bolt to seed. Tomatoes and squash slow production. I can sometimes manage to keep pumpkins going, but given their long time to maturity, they’re trying to mature in torrential rain, a perfect environment for rot. The solution to this is trellising, but I have to have trained those pumpkins on a trellis earlier in the season! It’s an example of how I need to plan to work with our environment and climate. Corn grows well in this time as long as I keep the water up. I do have to baby it initially in the dry months, but the heavy rains take care of that in January.

We finalise projects around the house or stop work on them and tidy up. It starts to get too hot to do much on the roof and under vehicles, so the Mr works on projects indoors again.

Work gets busier as we move into October. We finalise plans for Christmas and back to school. Then the retail madness begins mid-November and doesn’t stop until the end of January.

Structural Projects

Roof Repair or Replace?

I’ve mentioned here about the roof and the amount of time we spend on it. It is an area of considerable concern for us. We knew when we purchased the house that the roof was the major problem. It is standard for our area: corrugated iron fixed to wooden trusses.

Our house inspector recommended a replacement – which would cost upwards of $30,000, more now, as the price of both metal and wood have skyrocketed since the assessment in 2021. This is something way outside our budget, even if a brother-in-law is a roofer and could assist with the project. He has been over the roof several times, patching where he could, and making recommendations to the Mr as to where to concentrate his attention on repairs.

Repairing the roof is likely to be an ongoing project into the future until we can afford to spend the money and time to replace it. The wooden trusses are still structurally sound. That’s a bonus. It needs fresh iron and new screws. The good thing is – we’ve caught all the current leaks. But time and entropy stop for no one, and we must keep monitoring and replacing pieces as they show signs of decay.

Insulation

Another area in which the roof falls short is its complete absence of insulation. Insulation was not a consideration in the 1980s. Insulation would take some of the heat load out of the roof cavity, which can get up to 50 degrees on a very hot day. We have a meter up there that feeds data back down to our weather station, and it’s honestly concerning. That heat load makes cooling the house a harder proposition. Air-conditioning works harder. Breezes, if we have any, don’t do much.

The house lies on an east-west orientation, with the living room and front door facing east, and the master bedroom facing west. It’s catching sunlight all day. We hope that when we do look at replacing all the iron, we can install insulation. It would be the number one thing that would cut electricity bills.

Roof repairs mean that we could look at installing solar panels, assuming the trusses are suitable to support the weight. As solar panels are a long-term fixture, a structurally sound roof that needs few repairs is the best foundation for them. At this point? No. They aren’t a priority.

Security against cyclones

Roof

The roof is the major issue. Other structural issues concern how well the house will withstand a severe tropical cyclone. The roof is likely to sustain damage in a category 3 or higher, as per the Bureau’s categorisation. Fixing it obviously reduces that risk, but the assumption is damage will occur – have it in the best condition possible and have adequate insurance for any damage.

Walls, doors and windows

During our initial house inspection, we discovered that our internal brick walls are core-filled, i.e., the cavities have been filled with concrete – along with externals. Internals being core-filled is unusual for the period of construction but adds significant structural integrity. Externals are full-sized Besser blocks, that have core-filling and rebar. The house would benefit from a repaint, but that’s mostly cosmetic.

We have a lot of glass windows to board up if a cyclone hits. Do we have the materials to board them up? No? Can we easily obtain it? Where do we store it outside of an imminent hit? What about doors? The front door and laundry door both face east and have very little shelter from eaves. The back door has shelter from our large patio.

Yard

Then you look at the yard and garden shed. What’s the plan for the potted plants in cyclonic weather? What about the garden structures? What’s the plan for breaking down and storing those? We want to minimise anything that could become a flying missile, but at the same time, the garden shed is only 3m by 3m and doesn’t have a pocket dimension. It’s already home to tools and things, and to fit more in there is difficult. Plus, I’m suspicious about the wind rating of the shed itself. In a category 3 or higher I expect it to sustain major damage.

We would love to replace our fence. We have a wooden paling fence on one side – it’s fine as it is. But the other three sides are a combination of star pickets and wire mesh or wire panels. This offers no privacy, no height, and neighbour’s dogs can get into our yard. The front fence has no gates on it either, these rusted off years ago and the previous owners did not care. If we were going to get a dog, we could not do so until the yard is properly fenced.

How do you minimise damage to plants grown in pots? I grow most of my tomatoes and chillis in pots due to problems with wilt. I spend ages growing beautiful plants and tending them with care, and the last thing I want is to lose my plants to violent winds and flooding rain.

Internal Projects

Inside the house, both the bathroom and kitchen need modernising. These projects are primarily cosmetic, and both rooms still function as intended. Those are not something we worry about. I’d love more bench space in the kitchen. But we make do with what we have when other projects need priority.

I’ve spoken a lot about projects that modify the structure to make the house better suited to our needs and lifestyle, but let’s not forget that the projects can be as simple as cleaning out a cupboard and keeping useful things, recycling, donating or discarding things that are not. That’s always a perfect project to fill an afternoon.

The Current Season

Last year I felt like I was reactive. I was tired, burned out and mentally unwell from the Christmas and back-to-school season, and it took me months to recover. I found crocheting helped me to recover. Apart from skimming a pattern to ensure I was following it correctly, it was mostly mindless. No active thinking to help a burned-out brain.

This year, I learned new skills to manage this season. I stuck to my scheduled day away from the workplace with few exceptions, took time out to crochet or relax when I needed to, and didn’t promise anything to anyone. I set boundaries about my time and energy and they paid off – if they didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this.

My outlook heading into the new year

In following my analytical 6-step process on how I learn new skills, I try to identify the need (step 1) when deciding on which projects to take on. Time, energy, and cost play into this as well. Can I get a few smaller projects done in the time it takes to get a larger one done? Do I have to save some cash first for one of those bigger projects? Do we need extra manpower? What’s the weather prediction?

So what’s in store for me this year? I’ve been planning that out and am excited about it. Touch wood, we haven’t had to react to events out of our control this year (2019: heart problems, 2020: cancer, 2021: buy house or be homeless, 2022: the recession that gets ignored, 2023: rising interest rates and cost of living spiral).

Our biggest resource pinch point is time. With our business closed only four days a year, and regulatory requirements requiring one of us to be present all the time, we are very limited in the time that we have to spend. And we can’t always be working on projects. As last year showed, you need downtime to rest and reset or you burn out.

Planning things out and knowing when we can take a break (now, monsoon season) is imperative for a successful year around the house. It’s raining outside again. I’m writing this from the couch, with a glass of water beside me, and a cat warming my feet. I plan to finish a crochet project later.