I Worked Hard Today

I worked really hard today. Les worked hard to, but he is more used to hard physical labor. I'm not.
A few years ago, a friend who was impressed with all of my "skills", when she found out that I can cut hair, said, "Is there anything you can't do?! I quickly said that I can't do anything requiring manual labor. My daughter added, "Or anything requiring coordination." She's right. I do not have good coordination, or rhythm. Every time we go to a wedding reception or party with dancing, my daughters have to teach me how to do the Electric Slide AGAIN. Of course, in my Baptist world, we don't go to a lot of events with dancing. Les is a great dancer, and all of the girls are, too. Not me. I love to dance, but with no rhythm or coordination, I'm a clutz.
But, that is not the point. Today, I spent the whole afternoon doing really hard manual labor. We worked clearing out the brush on the back of the lot. There is a nice open space, but about 6 feet lining the fence on the East of the lot is covered with brush.

 Today, we went to work on this area. Les used the chain saw to cut down the big branches, I used the hedge clippers to get the smaller stuff. The worst thing was that the vines were covered with thorns. No roses or anything else pretty, just vines covered with thorns.

 

 

 In case you missed the point about the thorns, here is a close-up. Those things HURT.

LOOK !! This is the area we got cleared out. 

 

It is beautiful. When the trees are green it is really going to be nice. I got on the mower and mowed the back area while Les cleaned out trash and rock. Here are some of the piles of brush we have collected.  

And, look at the metal Les collected this afternoon. 

This yard is hard, a lot of work, and hard on equipment. The mower ended up with a piece of wire in a tire. 

Besides the trash and the briers and overgrown bushes and grass, there are rocks everywhere...little piles of rocks, huge rocks laying all around, little rock walls around what must have once been flower beds...as well many tree stumbs of all sizes which makes mowing difficult. 

So, after an afternoon of hard work, I cooked some supper and took a shower, but my arms were too tired to fully dry my hair, and typing is extremely had for my arms, which feel like spaghetti. 

I was just about to check my spelling and post this, when  I saw my friend from Nepal, Aspara  stop and wave from the sidewalk.She stopped by last week and her 2 year old, Cipdi, had a ball playing with Aspen. Cipdi calls me Ama, which is Nepalese for Grandmother. Apsara says we are family, since her family is so far away. She told me that her husband was very happy when she told him about meeting us before, and she took my picture to show him. 

So, of course, when I saw her,  I went out to visit. God gave me the strength to play with Cipdi, and have a nice visit with Apsara. I showed her the work we did today, and she said she will come help tomorrow, except I told her we will be going to church tomorrow and not working. So, she worked today, pulled a ton of weeds! An unexpected blessing.