It is not just that the work is hard

It is not just that the work is hard, it is also frustrating. First there is the problem of getting the tools from the garage the 200 feet out to the street. Driving the tools and using the Astek as a work station is not an option. The parking at the street is the same place the cut brush is left for pickup. I have a great garden cart that I load up with chain saws, hedge cutters, water, gloves, insect repellant, sun block, camera and chair. By the time I get the cart down and up the driveway, I am usually out of breath.(This gets better everyday.) The driveway is steep in both directions and when it is wet (like it has been all spring) it slippery.

The work seems to have 4 parts, plan, cut down, cut up, and haul to the street. The hauling to the street is the hardest part, with the bending over to pick the limbs up and carry them up and down the landscape. Sometimes I can not face the hauling. I have decided that it is definitely a morning activity. I have noticed that I generally carry the brush like you would carry a massive arrangement of flowers. As I head toward the street, I often step into a fantasy of being named Queen of the Forest (it is my forest) and I am walking down the runway with my bouquet to the admiring forest animals. I wonder if guys carry bundles of limbs in a different way and invoke different fantasies.

I would be able to do this if I had not been doing strength training the last couple of years. The first time I would have gotten winded, I would have thought, that’s it, I have exerted myself, I am done for the day. Strength training has taught me that you exert yourself, get out of breath, recover and exert yourself again. I wouldn’t have gotten very far with this project without this information.

While hauling to the street is hard, the cut down and cut up phases are even more frustrating. I take frequent small breaks in my chair to recover. During these breaks I am planning my next move. From the chairs the hedge stalks look thinner and lower to the ground than they really are. It always looks like it will take only 2 swipes with the hedge hog to clear a 3 foot section, one at about waist level and one at ground level. When you get to the work area, at least half of the stalks are thick enough to require the chain saw. There is no broad sweeping of the clutter here. Each stalk has to be intentionally cut. I can’t see the tops of the stalks. They are intertwined with other trees and other stalks.

(time frame June)