Every once in a while I am forcefully reminded that, though I feel a thousand times better than I did two years ago, I am most definitely not in any way shape or form, recovered.
Thursday and Friday, I decided to take advantage of the wonderful indian summer we've been having up here in north Idaho, and get some long overdue yard work done.
Like... six months overdue.
Between the long warm season, and the very wet spring, out grass growing season this year has been... very fruitful shall we say?
Farmers have had as many as four cuttings of hay on their lands this year, and most everyone made three cuttings.
However, my yard, was not intended to be a hay field.
1.67 fenced in acres of 3 foot high grass and brush, on a 20-30 degree slope, is not all that fun to clear out
Before my surgery, I tried to deal with the overgrowth using our wheedwacker and a brush cutter attachment.... And discovered just how surprisingly tiring it is to attempt such a thing, and just how little progress you will make over the course of four hours.
So, Thursday afternoon, I picked up a heavy brush mower from the equipment rental place, to really take care of it all before the rain and snow came back (thus making it nearly impossible to cut down).
I got it home, and realized I needed to take down a few trees first; so for a couple hours Thursday I felled and bucked four dead birch trees (with my chainsaw). So dead in fact, that when I cut them and stuck the moisture meter on them, they were already seasoned for burning.
So, starting out on the yard Friday late morning (it was 20 degrees overnight; didn't warm up to 40 until 11am, on its way to 65 by 3pm), Mel and I managed to get the entire fenced portion of our yard done in about four hours.
1.67 acres of brushy hill terrain is not exactly easy to clear, even with a 13hp billy goat mower.
Now, I was expecting that Saturday, I would be paying for my overexertions, but actually it wasn't too bad. A little stiff an sore, but otherwise mostly OK.
SUNDAY on the other hand...
Yeah, late this afternoon my knees and back started locking up. By the middle of the night my knees were swollen up like grapefruits and basically locked.
Yay.
The good news though, is that my best friend of not quite 30 years, is visiting us (up from Arizona) for the next couple days.
Painkillers and anti-inflammatories. Lots of them.
