What Do Retirees do all day?

I really have a wonderful life! Here is one of the lettuce beds with something new always coming along, and as in my life, there are always a few weeds and something bolted and ready to be discarded.

When we first retired we flopped around as everyone does. We learned that this place in the Green Swamp that we had been going to for years of too short weekends really takes a lot of maintenance. Pastures have to be mowed several times a year, fences need constant attention, gardens have to be tended, the pool deck and the orchids have to be cleaned and watered. The studios and other buildings need attention and maintenance. All that stuff. In the house there is the usual cleaning and upgrading. We constantly throw away, give away and pare down on the things.

We had to figure out what we wanted to do in our community, and we tried many things before we got our groove. (And the groove can change.) And now we have our routine.

Each morning we get up at dawn, throw the dog out of the bed, and start the day. I grab a cup of coffee and drive the mile to the mailbox to retrieve the newspapers. Often I stop along the way to look at birds and what other wild life there is to be seen - deer, turkeys, feral hogs, sometimes otters. Sometimes the herd of cows is in the road, and when I get to the mailbox my neighbor's chickens have just been released and they are all over the place.

I get back, feed the dog, start the laundry and empty the compost and check the traps for armadillos. I am looking at this amazing early morning with the mist rising off the pond and the deer grazing at the edge of the far pasture, and in this season, the colors of autumn in the trees.

We generally do our workouts early in the day, takes an hour, then read the St. Pete Times while sitting on the screen porch. I save the NYT for my "nap" after lunch. Many days I am off to this and that of volunteer activities, Garden Club etc. I spend many hours each day in my studio where I make quilts, pots, and paint. I check the e-mail, attend to business, call friends. Each day I spend a lot of time tending to the gardens.

In the evening around six I go up to the main house for dinner. I will already have picked the daily vegetables and presented them to the cook, but I am always surprised with what's for dinner. We eat by candle light, flowers on the table and good conversation.

I know what most folks do who are working because I did it for forty years! Retirees have to invent a new life and this is pretty interesting.

So, now, off to do a hot tub under the stars. It's a pretty good life..