Able to Work

In my previous post, I wrote "Auto parts fail eventually, lumber exposed to the elements rots sooner than expected, plumbing connections clog or spring leaks (all of which I experienced this week)."  Today I felt strong enough to actually address those failing components of home and auto.  Well, not auto, perhaps - our Mini has been placed in the capable hands of Russell and his guys at Highlands Automotive for replacement of two power-steering hoses, a feat of mechanical expertise which I wisely realized is way over my head.

It has not rained for two or three weeks, and suddenly rain is in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon, continuing in heavier amounts over the weekend.  It is unfortunate that this may impact the Highlands Motoring Festival scheduled for that time.  But for gardeners, rain just now will be welcome.  So early in the morning of an ambitious day, I laid out the gardens in our raised beds and got all of our plants in the ground, just in time.  I was careful not to over-exert, to pull something loose in what I think of as a healing process that becomes less fragile by the day.  We do love gardening!  I couldn't help but add up the cost of plants and fertilizer and imagine how many perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes and fresh vegetable I could buy for the same amount of money.  But I really like to get dirt under my fingernails, gently tip those tender plants into the ground, and pat the soil around them with my bare hands.

Tomatoes, sweet potatoes, zucchini, yellow crook-neck squash, and beans.  Now we just need the right combination of sunshine and rain, plus netting to protect these tender plants from the marauding herd of deer who have finished off most of our hostas and also, I discovered last year, have a taste for tender bean shoots and sweet potatoes.  Why can't they eat weeds?

Next came the leaking supply line to the upstairs toilet (no photos taken), which involved two trips to Reeves Hardware and complications too numerous to list.  By then it was lunch-time and I realized that my lack of running and lifting weights have left me so easily tired that I was dragging around slowly, as if I had already put in an eight-hour day of hard yard-work.  

Still eager to complete the short list of chores I wished to complete today, I swept all the tulip poplar petals off the driveway with a push-broom.  (I am the only man in Macon County who does not own a leaf-blower.)  By now I was seriously fatigued, but I persisted.  There remained that rotten 2 X 6 on the back deck which I should have treated with Thompson's Water Seal.  Let's just say that it was easier to screw the new one in place than to remove the rotten one - Martha would not have liked knowing that I had to fetch the pry bar from the tool shed.  I'm supposed to be taking it easy.

At the end of the day, I was indeed pretty much exhausted – dehydrated despite the constant intake of liquids and nursing sore muscles that have not been used in a long time.  But it felt good to be out here on the deck, and down in the garden, working again – that wonderful tired feeling at the end of a physically demanding day.  I walked out onto the deck, rejoicing in the feel of the new 2 X 6, gazing down on the newly-planted garden, feeling that I was once again able to work.