Identify one project you’d like to complete with your hands. There’s something special about a man doing work with his bare hands, and most men today have lost that. Maybe you want to start a garden, or build a workbench in your garage. Maybe you’ve been meaning to upgrade your bathroom on your own volition. Once you identify that one project, write about what you have to do in order to complete it. Detail the steps, the resources, the help you’ll need, etc. Then, set about doing it. Come back to this entry as motivation when you see yourself wavering.
Since this is supposed to be something I make with my hands I would have to go with starting a garden. I think I already have a quart stay of experience with making things physically than most men of my generation (beds, bedframes, shelves, tables, boxes, cupboards are all examples of things I have not only built myself but designed myself). I choose the garden because I have wanted to do it for five years and it is part of a larger goal to get myself in a position where I would be capable of being almost entirely self-sustaining without any outside economy. In order to accomplish that I need not only “a garden” but a garden which extends my growing season and it must include trees to produce fruits and nuts to augment the variety of things that can be grown in a traditional garden.
I have seen a plan for a sunken garden/greenhouse which can theoretically produce vegetables year round. That would be fantastic but it’s also a massive investment. I would estimate that it would cost at least $300 to build it plus labor in excess of 100 hours. It does appear to meet the added requirement that it keep the deer out of the produce. I’m just not sure I have the capacity to tackle that this year. I would like to tackle the fruit/nut trees this year because I could acquire all the trees I think I need for $50 and I think I can put in the necessary work to select locations for those trees and plant them. Then they could bring their multi-year maturation process while I figured out the garden proper.
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