This morning I got the little tractor out before the sun had a chance to start baking everything. I took a cart-load of downed tree branches to the edge of the green strip just above my tiny slice of riverbank, and dumped them on the top of my stick pile. They will either compost down to dust and provide river critters with a place to hide in the process, or (ever less frequently in recent years) they will be dragged to sea along with tons of debris the Brazos River will steal the next time it rises out of its banks on a sprint to the Gulf.
On the way back up the hill to my yard, I detoured to a neighbor’s, who’d whacked a big branch off of one of his pecan trees, and invited me to take any wood suitable for smoking. This was a nice present, and so it prompted me to finally get outside and do a few things to put the One Acre Ranch back in presentable shape, constant daily 104-degree temperatures be damned.
I must confess, however, it isn’t so much the extended heat that’s kept me from my chores so much as it is my unruly and aging body.
Knees, back, neck, eyes, elbows, shoulders, man-parts you don’t want to be reminded of – all of them contribute this or that complaint to a cacophony of oldness. What’s worse, medicine that would fix up one body part can screw up another one. Really, I don’t think I’m very old yet – not quite 60. But already I can feel the affect of the miles.
Homesteading and farming in general go best with young backs and seasoned brains. At the same time, you’ve no choice but to play the hand your dealt. You can fold, but to keep going forward, you better just shut up and go cut the wood.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Your body may be telling you it’s time to start downsizing in the yard and garden; and/or start relying on some other source of labor–like children, or a paid gardener. Can you imagine how you’ll feel in 20 more years! Mom
My love and I are in the same boat, right around sixty. We can still do it all, but the recovery time gets longer and longer. Downsize??? This IS downsized! The plan is to get everything on our 1.37 acres in place so it’s just maintenance. Lot easier to maintain than build. I disagree with ‘mom’ – as soon as you rely on someone else, you lose your autonomy and self-sufficiency.