Oh, My Aching...Everything!

After finishing four blogs for a new Elance client (who is elated with my work - YESSSSSSSS!) I joined Phil, Wendy and Jackie in our back yard to tackle the brush along our perimeter fence. Remember a couple months ago, I was out there cutting blackberry bushes down to the nubs and pulling their long, scraggly vines out of overhead tree branches? Well, today's foray was the beginning of the tail end of that job.

A customer of Jackie's loaned her a lethal-looking mowing/chopping machine that cuts down serious stuff -- brambles and branches, tall grasses, even pipe if you're not careful!

Phil was put in charge of the menacing mowing machine. (The fellow who loaned it to us said, "This machine won't hurt you -- it'll KILL you.") The rest of us worked ahead of him as he mowed (75+ feet ahead of him, to avoid being slain by flying pieces of branches, rocks, and other detritus that falls into a glade over the course of ten or fifteen or more years), raking into piles the downed blackberry vines and other bushy stuff I cut down a couple months ago. Half of it was dry as a bone; the rest of it was busily sending out shoots and leaves. We needed to get as much of it into piles and along pathways as we could so Phil could get to it easier with his blazing blades.

We all went to work, in very warm weather, and got a good percentage of it done. Then Phil borrowed the mower and went over to tackle his mother-in-law's lawn/field because they're having some kind of bash there tomorrow. (Oh, wait! Maybe that's where we're having Jamie Lee's 5th birthday party, now that I think of it...). By the time they get back, I'm sure Phil will be pretty much exhausted and finished for the day. He has been at it for more than six hours, and the mower is not easy to navigate.

The area we have finished looks fabulous. People pay good money to have a little park area like the one we're making, where there used to be impenetrable blackberry vines. There are some old stumps with moss on them, ferns, and apple and plum trees which we couldn't see or get to last year after we moved here. You'd swear it's perfect habitat for leprechauns; just lovely. It'll be worth the time we've taken to open it up and make it accessible.

I hopped into the tub and soaked afterward, so right now I feel human again, but tomorrow morning may be another story. But if I'm crippling around tomorrow, I'll just go for a walk -- that'll work the kinks out.

I'm bruised and areas of my legs are torn from blackberry thorns, but what the hey... it's all in a day's work! (Fortunately, days like this only come along once in a blue moon; that's why I can be so cheerfully circumspect about it!)

Don't forget my interview on STARR TALK WITH SONNY STARR tomorrow night at 9 pm Pacific Time, and the upcoming, 2-hour LIVE interview with me on Wednesday from 7 to 9 Pacific Time. I would really love it if you would call in and say hi and/or ask me a question or make a comment about De.