Done, Done, Done, Done, Done!
(picture this with hips swinging, hands in the air and dancing in circles and you'll come close.)
My child thinks that I went a little crazy for a few moments, or that's what the expression on his face seemed to say. My girlfriend laughed. And you probably think I'm a little crazy, at the moment, for being so very thrilled that the weeding is done. But bear with me for a few minutes and I think you'll understand why it made me so happy.
For over five years now I have suffered from an odd form of depression. I'm not sad. I knew what needed to be done. My body wouldn't do it. My mind and body have been at war. And my mind typically lost. When my mind won, I'd get the energy to do something but typically only for one day. Then I would be wiped out again. The docs swore it wasn't anything thyroid/adrenal related despite a family history of those issues, and very very low thyroid readings.
At the end of last year, I got a book on adrenal fatigue. I was very skeptical but by November I decided to at least give part of the suggestions a try. I tried one amino acid supplement. ummm, wow doesn't cover it. It wasn't instantaneous or continuous at first. And there are still some rough periods. But things started changing. I ended up adding two more supplemental amino acids for a total of three. By January, things really, really improved.
Guess what.......my mind now wins most of the mind/body arguments. In fact, most days there isn't even an argument anymore. When my thyroid was tested a few months ago the readings came back mid-range, not bottom end. I don't know why my body isn't getting these supplements from my diet. I checked the natural sources and I consume them. But at least for now, I need to take the supplements. Maybe, after a while, my body will again be able to function on what is part of my normal diet.
So the reason for the dancing is because a year ago, I could not have gotten the weeding done for my parents. I would have tried but I would have gotten maybe one good day and then had to quit. And my mind would have quit because of the heat extremes we've seen this week. Yesterday hit 106.
This week, I worked during the morning for four days. The total was 12 hours. I got all the garden beds done completely. My body didn't quit on me, although it did give me warnings. I listened to the warnings and kept going. My mind didn't quit on me, it just kept figuring out how to get it done.
Of course, I was laughing at myself when my mind gave me the best information just as I was finishing up. A thick towel to lay over the rocks for sitting. My stirrup hoe to deal with the rock beds. Etc. I just laughed and filed the idea away for next time. Because there will be a next time. This has been one of my biggest successes since things started getting better. The changes in my yard are a close second. And I like knowing that I can once again do the things that need to be done.
So I'm dancing happy today. And so incredibly grateful for the intervention from above that led to the ability to feel "human" again.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Hardest Part First
One of the things that my Dad taught me as a kid was to do the hardest part of a task first. That way when you were tired, you were doing the easier stuff and less likely to make an important mistake. I try to apply this to everything in our life. And it works for the most part. Even if I have to break a task into multiple parts, it's easier to go back to it when I know that the hardest parts are already done.
So for weeding at my parent's house, I started with the front yard. It was hardest because of my son. I was going to need to be hyper alert to make sure that he didn't go running off of the front porch. It was made slightly harder, after the fact, by the Jackson Vine. Oh, by the way, in Florida that vine is known as saw briar.
The next hardest part was a bed directly against the back of their house. It has never been mulched or had landscape cloth put down so the weeds were well dug into the soil. And the soil, which is clay, has been hard baked but the temperatures the past few weeks. It also has several very thorny plants, including two roses. There are not many fears for my son in the backyard because it is fully fenced. And I can keep a close eye on him, even in the pool, regardless of which garden bed I am working on since all the beds are local to the pool.
After the first bed, I moved to the large areas surrounding the pond. Dad has become addicted to raising Koi and has a pond that is half the size of their pool. And the surrounding landscaping is equal to the entire pool area, pool and all. Given how the work was done, I didn't expect any real problems with this area. And there haven't been any real weed pulling problems. The problem is the sheer volume of the weeds! This area contains large areas with no plants at all, just rocks. And those areas looked like they were debating becoming part of the lawn. Given another couple of weeks, they probably would have!
This is not normal for my parents. While Dad doesn't do heavy weeding in those areas, he doesn't typically allow it to get so incredibly overgrown. If nothing else he will spray weed killer. But right now, it's starting to look good. I putting the lack of care down to the fact that Dad hasn't been home for five weekends out of the last six. And his job has been very very stressful during this time. Things have been so hectic for him that he even has someone coming in to do the lawn occasionally.
Anyways, I have about a quarter of that area left to do tomorrow. And I was getting kind of panicked wondering if I was going to be able to get this done by Sunday. My parents have been out of town all week and are due back some time on Sunday. I want this done by then. So I walked the other garden beds....and took a huge sigh of relief. There is no denying that the other beds need weeding. But as of today, only one small section of that is as bad as the section around the pond. The rest of the beds are weedy but it's a few weeds here and a few weeds there - not a carpet of weeds from one side to the other.
So, hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to get to, and through, the easiest part. At the very least I will finish the hardest parts and then I can go back early Sunday and finish the easiest parts. And knowing that those other beds are much easier has kind of buoyed my energy level. I'm well over half way through, probably over 3/4 of the way through. The hardest part is almost done.
So for weeding at my parent's house, I started with the front yard. It was hardest because of my son. I was going to need to be hyper alert to make sure that he didn't go running off of the front porch. It was made slightly harder, after the fact, by the Jackson Vine. Oh, by the way, in Florida that vine is known as saw briar.
The next hardest part was a bed directly against the back of their house. It has never been mulched or had landscape cloth put down so the weeds were well dug into the soil. And the soil, which is clay, has been hard baked but the temperatures the past few weeks. It also has several very thorny plants, including two roses. There are not many fears for my son in the backyard because it is fully fenced. And I can keep a close eye on him, even in the pool, regardless of which garden bed I am working on since all the beds are local to the pool.
After the first bed, I moved to the large areas surrounding the pond. Dad has become addicted to raising Koi and has a pond that is half the size of their pool. And the surrounding landscaping is equal to the entire pool area, pool and all. Given how the work was done, I didn't expect any real problems with this area. And there haven't been any real weed pulling problems. The problem is the sheer volume of the weeds! This area contains large areas with no plants at all, just rocks. And those areas looked like they were debating becoming part of the lawn. Given another couple of weeks, they probably would have!
This is not normal for my parents. While Dad doesn't do heavy weeding in those areas, he doesn't typically allow it to get so incredibly overgrown. If nothing else he will spray weed killer. But right now, it's starting to look good. I putting the lack of care down to the fact that Dad hasn't been home for five weekends out of the last six. And his job has been very very stressful during this time. Things have been so hectic for him that he even has someone coming in to do the lawn occasionally.
Anyways, I have about a quarter of that area left to do tomorrow. And I was getting kind of panicked wondering if I was going to be able to get this done by Sunday. My parents have been out of town all week and are due back some time on Sunday. I want this done by then. So I walked the other garden beds....and took a huge sigh of relief. There is no denying that the other beds need weeding. But as of today, only one small section of that is as bad as the section around the pond. The rest of the beds are weedy but it's a few weeds here and a few weeds there - not a carpet of weeds from one side to the other.
So, hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to get to, and through, the easiest part. At the very least I will finish the hardest parts and then I can go back early Sunday and finish the easiest parts. And knowing that those other beds are much easier has kind of buoyed my energy level. I'm well over half way through, probably over 3/4 of the way through. The hardest part is almost done.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
One Track Mind
This could also be titled - Overdoing It!
I'm weeding Dad's garden beds this week. To do this without overheating I'm getting up at dawn - literally - and heading down to their place.
Yesterday I did all the garden beds that are not behind fencing. That took about 2 1/2 hours. The great fun was the saw briar/ jackson vine that I found growing there. The nasty thorny vine was apparently growing throughout a very very large section of one bed. After ripping out quite a bit, I realized that we were going to have to use another option for this vine because otherwise I was going to rip through a lot of landscape cloth and mulching. So I will be teaching Dad what I learned from the nursery, when he gets home.
Anyways, I only stopped because I had to go deal with school officials. My time would have been better spent working on the gardens.
Today I was determined to get at least halfway through the backyard. So I kept going even when it got hot. When I got wobbly, I downed lots of Propel and sat in the pool for a bit. When the first batch of Propel made my stomach cramp I realized that I had waited too long to start drinking it. So I made sure the container was refilled then I went back to it. At about 11:30 I had to surrender at about a third of the way through. I had to admit that I was being overly stubborn. I have several more days to work on this but my one track mind wants it done and wants it done now. So I keep pushing my body to do it.
BTW, these are very, very large garden beds. On average each bed is at least 6 foot across and 40 feet long - at least. Most are actually much bigger than that. They have a very large lot, something like 2 acres.
But my body has limits in heat and I hit them. It took an hour in the pool to stop feeling quite so "wobbly". And then I was just exhausted. A 5 hour energy drink actually tasted good! And only lasted about an hour. All in all, it took about 5 hours and one batch of pain pills for me to start feeling human. And my stomach still doesn't like the idea of food but it's taking it.
And the grand prize for not stopping earlier - my braid created a skunk stripe through the lovely sunburn on my back. I originally thought I didn't burn because there was no red, but recent scratching has confirmed that I did indeed burn. Oops.
So tomorrow, I will stop by 10. I am going to set an alarm on my phone to make me pay attention to the time. Two of the remaining beds are really, really bad but the rest aren't so bad because I laid them down and I put very heavy weed barriers down. So they look bad but the weeds pull out very easily. It's the garden beds that I didn't do that are going to be the hardest because the weeds will have gotten through to soil that is hard baked right now.
I will be wearing a full shirt and pants tomorrow. Not the bathing suit and shorts. Well, at least a shirt over the bathing suit, wet or not. And I will have a full drink container of Propel next to me at all times. If I empty it then it will be time to take a break and refill it.
But munchkin thought that this was grand. He got to curl up on Grandpa's sofa and watch movies for a couple of hours. Then he got to jump in the pool and play for a couple of hours. And since he's got the dark italian skin tone he just got darker - no burning. Sometimes I'm jealous.
I'm weeding Dad's garden beds this week. To do this without overheating I'm getting up at dawn - literally - and heading down to their place.
Yesterday I did all the garden beds that are not behind fencing. That took about 2 1/2 hours. The great fun was the saw briar/ jackson vine that I found growing there. The nasty thorny vine was apparently growing throughout a very very large section of one bed. After ripping out quite a bit, I realized that we were going to have to use another option for this vine because otherwise I was going to rip through a lot of landscape cloth and mulching. So I will be teaching Dad what I learned from the nursery, when he gets home.
Anyways, I only stopped because I had to go deal with school officials. My time would have been better spent working on the gardens.
Today I was determined to get at least halfway through the backyard. So I kept going even when it got hot. When I got wobbly, I downed lots of Propel and sat in the pool for a bit. When the first batch of Propel made my stomach cramp I realized that I had waited too long to start drinking it. So I made sure the container was refilled then I went back to it. At about 11:30 I had to surrender at about a third of the way through. I had to admit that I was being overly stubborn. I have several more days to work on this but my one track mind wants it done and wants it done now. So I keep pushing my body to do it.
BTW, these are very, very large garden beds. On average each bed is at least 6 foot across and 40 feet long - at least. Most are actually much bigger than that. They have a very large lot, something like 2 acres.
But my body has limits in heat and I hit them. It took an hour in the pool to stop feeling quite so "wobbly". And then I was just exhausted. A 5 hour energy drink actually tasted good! And only lasted about an hour. All in all, it took about 5 hours and one batch of pain pills for me to start feeling human. And my stomach still doesn't like the idea of food but it's taking it.
And the grand prize for not stopping earlier - my braid created a skunk stripe through the lovely sunburn on my back. I originally thought I didn't burn because there was no red, but recent scratching has confirmed that I did indeed burn. Oops.
So tomorrow, I will stop by 10. I am going to set an alarm on my phone to make me pay attention to the time. Two of the remaining beds are really, really bad but the rest aren't so bad because I laid them down and I put very heavy weed barriers down. So they look bad but the weeds pull out very easily. It's the garden beds that I didn't do that are going to be the hardest because the weeds will have gotten through to soil that is hard baked right now.
I will be wearing a full shirt and pants tomorrow. Not the bathing suit and shorts. Well, at least a shirt over the bathing suit, wet or not. And I will have a full drink container of Propel next to me at all times. If I empty it then it will be time to take a break and refill it.
But munchkin thought that this was grand. He got to curl up on Grandpa's sofa and watch movies for a couple of hours. Then he got to jump in the pool and play for a couple of hours. And since he's got the dark italian skin tone he just got darker - no burning. Sometimes I'm jealous.
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