Bushed!
Yesterday kicked my butt! I am not going to say I am too old for hard physical work, bite your tongue! I am not going to say I am too delicate either. Anyone who has seen me knows delicate would be sarcasm. “Sturdy” is a better match. So bring on the hard labor, but give me a few days to recover! Please.
Last Friday, the boys were asked to take on a job of clearing an old homestead in town. It had been abandoned for some time and in the abandonment all the articles of life no one wanted had ended up burped out in the yard. The owner wanted to mow the weeds down so first the yard must be cleared. And then there was the business of all that junk in the carport. Rain threatened this whole week coming so they started right away Friday.
My part in all this is to make sure the pay is fair for all parties and I like working hard so I pitch in to help the job go faster. I also supply to tools and give pointers when the boys come across something they haven’t tackled before. They supply most of the labor. Its a good combo of work for pay and on the job training for them.
Right off I noticed the original residents included at least one gardener, maybe more. There were foundation beds battered, but some plants had survived on their own. Three varieties of Iris, Crocus planted at the base of most of the trees, and Wisteria, Trumpet Vine, Honeysuckle slowly but surely were reclaiming the tiny house. One vine had breached the peak of the roof before dying back. Probably last year’s drought. So I was keen to find a few livelies for my garden. Sad but the tiny house was nearly falling down and being on a soon to be expanded street eventually to be zoned for commercial use. The house would certainly be bulldozed… no one would ever live there again. I let the property owner know, the boys will be working for pay, but I am working for plants. He hesitated only a moment before saying “Sure”.
Well 8 hours later the front and side yards were clear, trees trimmed, and over a hundred bricks, 13 bags of trash, and one cast iron skillet were recovered from the weeds. Those boys went over the yard 3 and 4 times. I finally asked them why so picky? They reminded me they had just repaired the owner’s mower the week before and didn’t want to do it again anytime soon. Something about having to remove the engine just to replace the drive belt on this particular model and the rest was over my head.
I guess that is bad?
I am more a simple tool girl. Replacing an ax head, new handle on a shovel…I can do. I don’t fix things with too many moving parts or know which remote does what. That is a perk of being married to the mechanically inclined and having his like-minded mechanically inclined babies. They know which buttons do what so I don’t have to. I helped them go over the yard again and again safe in the knowledge it was needed for good mower health.
Back to the yard that kicked my butt. I was pretty tired, but not sore, so we went back for more over the weekend, then it rained hard Monday. Tuesday was rainy but not constant. I remembered all the rose bushes and other goodies and decided after Monday’s rain the ground was perfect for digging up and the weather was great for transplanting new. So I spend the afternoon taking cuttings, digging up 2 monster rose bushes and replanting them at home. Now the boys didn’t help with the digging up. I was serious about them not having to work to get my free plants, but by the time I got home I was no longer able to bend in the middle. I cried for help. They jumped right in and dug my garden holes and filled them in again with plants inside. All the while I was pointing here and there, giving directions and whining about not being able to do it myself. Pitiful. I don’t know what is worse, having to dig holes for a perfectionist or having to listen to her whine about how much she wants to do it herself! * guffaw* I guess the boys know it sucks all the way around and just get through it.
After a good night sleep and a good deep stretching the old bod was good as new yesterday. So back we went after our usual town errands and my stop at the weekly senior lunch. I just love going there. Each person is so unique and delightful!
Well…I last only 2 hours cleaning out that nasty carport of lumber, trash and weeds before I called it quits. The boys of course have not a single issue…they could have worked another 6 hours, but were happy to pack it in. Humidity, mosquitoes, interspersed with rain and hard work over soft ground can take it out of a person, even a teen person. It didn’t take much convincing to get them into the car.
I, on the other hand, found bending to fit the car, dropping of the mountain of trash bags off even with their help almost did me in. I managed to make tuna sandwiches, and macaroni & cheese for dinner before becoming stiff as a board and about that entertaining! * Hoot!*
Nothing seems to stop me for checking my email and reading my blog favs. So when I saw Kim B revealed her entire Anniversary Grab Bag after the day I had…at once I decided I deserved it! I had ‘wanted” it for a while now, but had always found a good reason (had tons of great stuff bought from her already I had barely cracked open, for starters) to pass each time.
Well Poo to that! It was either a shovel full of chocolate kisses or gifting myself something scrappy so I went low-cal!
Great Googa-Mooga! There is some terrific stuff in HERE! I was standing at my computer going “Ooooh, Ahhhh, Owwww” Each goodie better than the last. If you’ve had a rough week, or even if you haven’t buy this grab bag before it goes away!!
You deserve it too!
![kb-annivgrabbag_thumb[1]](http://jodianncates.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kbannivgrabbag-thumb1.jpg "kb-annivgrabbag_thumb[1]")
Good sleep and a deep stretching didn’t do miracles for my tired back this morning. Time to pull out the magic weapon! I have donned my “brownie pants” Soft, warm and fluffy they feel like brownies’ taste. I am going to conduct school, and play with my new grab bag from the pampered comfort of my oldest rattiest long-sleeved tee and my brownie pants. I may not get out of my fuzzy slippers either. Watch the Fed Ex guy come today and me creak out to the gate in mismatched clothes and rain frizzed flailing hair like tentacles waving around my head! That should give him a good freaky scare!
He will go home to his wife and tell her how great she looks. “Baby, some poor guy is going to come home to The Girl-Beast! I am so glad I have you!”
Bow WOWser!
Oh, before I go. A few days ago my son, Nate called me to his computer to gaze upon the best “NEW” guitarist he had yet to discover. Imagine my surprise to find it was none other than the great Carlos Santana! Imagine his surprise when I told him I knew of Carlos and that he is many wonderful things, “NEW” not being one. Here he is doing his talented “thang” With Chad from Nickelback. Give a listen. Try to keep your hips from grinding and your head from bobbing. Impossible!
Never tried this, if this bombs or the quality sucks because of my blog formatting, view it Here.
Happy Thursday!
Edited: April 30th, 2009
