Juggling Multiple Variables

I realized today that intelligence can be a pain in the ass and a roadblock to progress.  One major thing I've learned already as part of this homesteading project is that there are numerous variables that must be taken into account during the planning process.  But an awareness of all of these variables can be paralyzing. Consider for example, the big picture:  there are multiple projects that must be undertaken pretty much simultaneously at the beginning of the homesteading process, and each includes multiple sets of variables.  Here are just a few of the kinds of projects we find ourselves faced with, and a few of the questions associated with each):

• Developing a plan for the layout of the homestead (where to locate the various elements such as the garden, the house, the road, the well, the barns, etc.);
• Determining what kind of water source to use (in our case, whether to share a neighbor's well or dig a new one, or to build a cistern, the relative costs, including labor and materials of each approach, and what kind of power to use to pump the water);
• How to power the homestead off the grid (what kinds of alternative energy sources are available, what are the costs and capacities of each, what kinds of backup systems might be desired);
• Creating a garden while the growing season is already underway (what's the best thing to do with the sod that currently covers the land, what size should we start with and how do we design something that is both realistic given current time constraints and which at the same time allows room for expansion in coming years;
• What kinds of permits are necessary (for health, safety, and the goodwill of the county), and which ones can we sidestep; 
• What kinds of zoning regulations exist that we must observe and how do they apply to our particular circumstances; 
• What do we do about the house back in the suburbs (the one with my mother living in it, the possibly underwater mortgage, the unfinished basement renovations, and my ex-husband's name on the deed and bank loans; 
• What do I do about earning a living (will I continue in the fall as a professor or will I go on short tor long term medical leave, do I further develop my small jewelry business, do I pursue some other consulting line as I have in the past); and last but by no means least,
• How do we juggle current multiple demands on our time (job related work, the need to move quickly on developing the homestead, the need to read and learn more)?  Etc., etc., etc.

At the same time that all these questions have been swirling around in my head, I've been reading as much as I can online about homestead layout and planning the garden.  I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to create a turtle-shaped garden.  That sounds nice but like most things is more difficult once you consider the specifics.  I first made a rough pen-sketch (couldn't find a pencil...) of my idea for the garden layout.  I realized that unlike the case of a square or rectangular garden, specifying the length of the two axes didn't allow me to quickly calculate the length of the prospective garden beds to determine what a reasonable overall length and width would be.  This led me to realize that I needed graph paper so that I could first visualize and then calculate the lengths of the rows in each quadrant of the garden.

At this point, I began a side journey into learning how to use Google SketchUp.  Let's just say that the program isn't entirely intuitive and requires a significant investment of time before one can even draw an oval of a designated size.  I'm through lesson four in YouTube and I haven't yet figured it out.   Given the slowness of the process, I decided to go all old-fashioned and use some graph paper.  But (of course) I couldn't find any graph paper or a ruler, so I resorted to drawing my own graph paper, using a piece of paper as a straight edge and estimating equal distances between my lines.  This worked out pretty well.  But it took half an hour just to make one sheet of graph paper.

So I finished a sheet of graph paper and attempted to sketch out a turtle-shaped garden divided into four quadrants, with each quadrant having beds that run diagonally.  Imagine the whole garden in the shape of an oval, with a cross-shaped path dividing that oval vertically and horizontally.  Inside the oval, imagine a series of concentric diamonds descending in size as you move toward the center of the garden.  The lines of the diamonds represent the paths and beds.  It looked kind of like this, except that the diamond is elongated because it's set into an oval:

At this point I realized, even using my crappy homemade graph paper and my rusty geometry skills, that because the diamond shape was set into an oval, the rows within each quadrant could not be of uniform width.  Given that the y-axis of my turtle-shaped garden would be longer than its x-axis, the rows would need to be narrower where they intersected the x-axis than where they intersected at the y-axis.  But how much wider??  Seriously, do I have to figure this out before I can begin to break sod and bring in some manure?  It's the end of freaking May already and my tomato seedlings are straining at the edges of their little peat pots.  They should have been in the ground two or three weeks ago!  At this point, I put down my drawing utensil and went to make myself a stiff drink.  How the hell people get anything done?