Nothing like a good yard workout to remind us of our need to do it more often. A body in motion is easier to keep in motion. Laurie, I'm proud of you for taking on the task!

Flip ... I don't have any problem with keeping my body in motion. Not not at all. I garden on a slope. When I think about it ... and I don't ... I garden on seven levels. The thing is my body and my mind are in total disagreement about what is doable and I still haven't convinced my mind that I really do need to learn the skills needed to pace myself. Fool that I am.

I have all of these fantastic projects that do require a significant amount of labor and there is only one little old lady to do the work.

I have been waiting for the high summer temps to pass to start my dry creek bed to solve a water drainage project on the house pad level. Those high temps are almost past. It doesn't hit the high 90s until about noon, (it was 103F yesterday afternoon) so I have the morning so to work. My mind says "multitask" ! Oh, yeah !

Saturday ... I got started. I was deep watering roses on the lawn level which meant going down stairs to move the hose about every half hour .. that's ok. I had stuff to go down for a dump run and material to come up for the dry creek bed. I was moving rocks on the house pad level for the project between trips. While I was at it, I decided to deep water the shrubs at the top of the slope that were water stressed ... a hour each. Just a short climb up the slope stairs to move the hose eight times and I could haul down some mulch materials I was going to need later. More multitasking.

I was moving and multi tasking. I worked at my normal, younger, steady pace for five hours before it got too hot to work. I had gotten most of the roses out in front deep watered. Most of the shrubs at the top of the slope deep watered. A lot of mulch material down to the house pad. A lot of stuff for the dump run down to the carport ready to go and a lot of rocks moved to the area for the dry creek bed. Yes, I used my wagon to move the rocks. I hadn't touched the boulders or sand and gravel I still need to move, but I had most of the smaller rocks and cobbles near where I needed them. I still have to dig and grade the trench.

No, none of tasks were completely finished, but I had a pretty good start on all of them and I felt like I had made a lot of progress. .... until I stopped. OMG. That's when my mind reminded me that I was working in an older body. I had to practically crawl into the house. I had forgotten to take breaks. I had forgotten to eat. I was over-heated and I was more than pooped. As long as I was moving. I didn't even notice any of those things. Go figure. It took me a day and a half to recover before I could get started again.

If I could just pace myself and work at a steady pace, life would be so much easier. I used to be able to work like this and was happy working this way, but I think I need to learn how to work differntly ...

My body has been in motion all summer mowing the lawn 2 times a week, edging once a week and blowing the heck out of the debris all week. Yet, my arms and lower back never seem to get used it ?

My husband's personal moto for work, "fake it till you make it" comes to mind.
I also have had those hard days.
After my father in-law was diagnosed with COPD, he lost the ability to work on his two acres... for nearly 5 years.
When my hubby and I moved in to help, I ended up having to tear down a large section of land that was left alone for too long. Let's just say the 30ft by 20(ish) ft piece of land was so bad, the vines had traveled up the nearby telephone pole, and nearly reached the lines before I tore it down.
That's when I discovered poison sumac. (The hard way) a weekend job turned into a month. (That's just the cleanup!)
It got done, and the jungle is now a blueberry/blackberry patch. (No more vines! Never again)
If you drink protein powder the same day as the work, and stretch before, your muscles will handle the strain better.... and ibuprofen works wonders too!
I feel your pain!
Go job!

I've been reading this and I've woken up gripped in the pains of regret many times. Mostly due to being an uncoordinated spaz, not from attempting physical endeavors beyond my limited abilities as a person with a small frame and several previous injuries that persist in being painful. I usually work in repeated minor efforts vs. trying to even pretend there's going to be any acts of brute strength.

But Saturday... it was limb-pulling day. Sounds weird, and it is. DH cut down a mimosa tree but, as I knew from trying to kill one for years by constant defoliation, that didn't kill it. Not even close. It keeps sprouting a ton of branches at the top of the cut like a truffula tree. It's in the back yard where only we can see it, not a visual problem since it still just blends in with tons of other tree mass, and DH offered to get more aggressive with some kind of poison but I said just let it go until I get sick of harvesting the organic matter it produces in such great amounts so quickly. The top is about eye level, and eventually it will be a plant stand and hanging pot support...

But back to Saturday, it was time to yank the latest batch of branches off of the trunk, but I'd let them get quite a bit bigger and much more force was required to snap them off. To get the needed leverage, I put one foot on the trunk and was yanking the branches toward the ground... and lost my balance in slo-mo! The initial force was sending me straight back but my mind screamed "plants there!" So I managed to throw myself back toward the trunk, but sideways, and still on 1 foot. I grabbed the trunk at a funky angle and slid in a slow but unstoppable spiral down the trunk & landed - YES! - NOT on an important plant. I didn't realize I was even scratched at all until I was sure I didn't have an unplanned propagational emergency to attend to.

Luckily nothing hurts internally & some scratches on my hands, arms & legs are minor. Nobody saw it, that's the only sad part. It deserved a huge laugh! Especially for those who know me well enough to notice how I was checking the plants when & as I was picking myself back up.

purpleinopp said:
... To get the needed leverage, I put one foot on the trunk and was yanking the branches toward the ground... and lost my balance in slo-mo! The initial force was sending me straight back but my mind screamed "plants there!" So I managed to throw myself back toward the trunk, but sideways, and still on 1 foot. I grabbed the trunk at a funky angle and slid in a slow but unstoppable spiral down the trunk & landed - YES! - NOT on an important plant. ...

The Gardener's Pole Dance!

Oh falling.....what a slow motion, visually disorienting, high adrenalin experience. I hope you really did get away with not actually hurting yourself.

Husband fell out of the car tonight afterwork. I don't know quite how he managed it. Your fall sounds just brutal, but Tiffany, you are so right about having someone see it to laugh at you. Falls make us laugh, somehow they are freaking hilarious. I know was in stitches laughing tonight at poor Dan. He was already spewing every blankety blank cuss word he knows, as he was getting up. I did ask him if he was ok, and was truly concerned, I just did it while unable to stop laughing.

Laurie ... I read the title of this thread tonight and had to laugh at myself ... again. I started the week with four projects I wanted to finish. All of which I though would be "easy" projects. Oh, yeah. What was I thinking ?

It is now going on Friday. I now have four half finished projects and it is getting colder ! For reasons known only to the garden Gods, each of the four projects ended up having unforeseen obstacles that made them more difficult to complete. I want all four done by tomorrow. My self imposed deadline.

We shall see. Temps dropped by 30 degrees, but they will jump back up by 35 degrees by Monday. I'd rather work on the cooler days. I really want to get this work done before it gets hot again. That doesn't even count the rest of the fall chores.

Oh, and I need to take time out to go down the mountain to go grocery shopping. I think it's time to have things go easy for a while ...

There was a trick they taught in a spinal rehab hospital. I swear they did it to make the paralyzed people feel more in control when they took a fall. (Also, the worst thing you can do after losing balance is to try to RESIST the fall. That almost always makes it worse.)

As soon as you feel yourself starting to fall, (if their training kicks in), you were supposed to call out "Falling!" as if it had been your idea all along and you were just sharing the experience. You don't resist while you're saying "Falling!"

It turns off the panic-freeze reaction. It even cuts down on unwanted laughter!

It MAKES you calm, because you want to SOUND calm.

And once you're calm, you remember all that stuff about not hitting your head or elbows, bending at the knees, curling, and taking it relaxed instead of stiffening up so you fall like an oak tree and bounce your head off the pavement.

Another trick was to "Help your butt take the shortest, straightest path down to the ground". As if you were just "melting down" to sit gently on the ground. (This also makes you relax.)

Also, for some reason, "try to LOOK at the spot where your butt will hit. (I think it curls the spine and bends the neck.) Somehow it tends to keep people from spraining wrists, shattering elbows and whacking heads.

They had a million tricks!

Lyn, @RoseBush1
I totally relate. I noticed you were wrote "self imposed deadline". I was glad to feel you know you can control that. Nothing is cast in stone, you can change the rules for a year or so. Staying busy is a very good thing, staying too busy probably will bite you in the butt in the end. If you get two things sortof done, out of the 4, I am betting that is more than a lot of us get done. Hope you have a productive but not overworked weekend.

Laurie B

Laurie ... I am beginning to think I need to wear blinders like horses do in horse races so that I can stay focused ... Each of those projects keeps morphing into bigger projects than I originally planned. It's one of those "while-I-am-working-here-I-might-as-well-fix-this-problem-that-has-always-bothered-me" kind of thing. arghhhhhhh. I am forcing myself to work on one level and only one level at a time. That is helping me to stay more productive and more efficient.

I have high hopes of finishing ONE of the projects tomorrow !

I have to try to do "one useful thing every day". More, and my muscles cramp... Kneeling and twisting around doing weeding is the worst.

The health sites say "drink more water" But my body says "you do that and I will get you up every hour all night long". You can't win.

@RoseBlush1, Just like Dug, the dog; in the movie up, when he sees a squirrel???? I do exactly that, and dh has nicknamed me Dug when we are in the yard working, and not so much in a precious lovey dovey way, more of a "here we go again" way. Pretty sure that is why I was on my own tonight with the chores.

@RickCorey "Falling!" good one. My Dh is handicap and falls every once in awhile. His phrase is "I'm going DOWN!!" Sorry, but that makes me laugh. He yells it in PT. He yells that at home. I tried to catch him ONCE and got hurt being squashed on the sidewalk. Now I just get out of the way. He is 6'3" 240lbs. I am 5"3" and none-of-your-business. But too small to catch a falling man. So now I just stand back and laugh. Maybe one day I will have a camera on me and film him, then wind big money! In the meantime, I will pass on some of your hints to him for his next fall.

And yes, @yardenman if I accomplish one great thing per day, I feel like Wonder Woman when I complete two! And if I complete three things? Well, you just can't touch me! ha!

@lauriebasler The yard is a good place for my ADD. I mean, it all has to get done anyway. Who cares if something gets halfway done here and there at any given time. You know with ADD I will get the other half done eventually.

This morning I was so ADD, I kicked off one garden shoe, saw something for work (on Tuesday) that had to be done (right THEN, Cheryl??)and did it wearing one garden shoe. Who DOES THAT?!

>> His phrase is "I'm going DOWN!!" Sorry, but that makes me laugh. He yells it in PT. He yells that at home.

I like his phrase. Not many people would get it if we called out: "Dive! Dive! Dive! Arrrooogah!"
Plus it would take too long.

How about this? "NAP TIME!!"

>> I tried to catch him ONCE and got hurt being squashed on the sidewalk

Unnh-ohh! ONE of you has to stay unbroken at any given time!

I was giving blood once, and the petite nurse took one look at me and said "If YOU faint, I'm getting out of the way!" The same thing makes me crazy during fire drills. 300 people crammed on the stairs, hurrying, and I know I will be like a bowling ball if I trip. Hint: DON'T go to the head of the stairs and wait for the crowd to subside. EVERY person in that crowd will try to get you onto the stairs no matter how shaky you are. HIDE from uninformed well-wishers until the crowd subsides.

>> I will pass on some of your hints to him

The biggest one is: once you start to go down, DON'T RESIST falling. Just bend your knees and waist, then go down gracefully while calling out your "cri de plop".

And "look at where your butt is going to hit" has some kind of magical effect.

Rick .. great advice. I love it. Safety first.

I have become an expert at tying myself to a tree BEFORE I work on the slope. Yeah, sometimes I still have to do a few things up there even tho' I never want to do them. Just part of living here. I do call a friend and tell her I am going to be working in the "danger zone" and have a specific call back time. That, too, is a must do when one is living alone. Otherwise, no one would know where to look for me ..

Funny how I never even thought of those things when I was younger and didn't break quite so easily ...

MY biggest yardwork problem is when I twist around pulling weeds. THAT is when the side muscles cramp. Oh I hate that so much. It's not lack of regular work, it's not lack of bending and stretching during the day, it is just that ONE moment when I twist to far and rib muscles complain like heck!

And then its like that for a few hours on and off until I lay down in bed and then the CALF muscles cramp. It is always the same pattern.

Lyn, I love the idea of "If I don't call back, I must have done a "Jack-and-Jill fell down the hill..."

My DSO tells me to always carry a cell phone if I might fall down out of sight of neighbors. But I'm bad about that.

The only time I really almost cracked my skull, a neighbor that I almost never see out of the house limped over to me (still on the ground, dazed) to make sure I was conscious. He was a better neighbor than I had known!

(I was pulling a tough weed wrapped around both hands, hunched over and "putting my back and legs into it". When the weed came out, I did a half-backwards-flip, and I am NOT athletic! Fortunately my "tuck"reflex from "look where your butt will land" training was still working, so I landed on my butt and the base of my spine, instead of whacking my skull at high speed onto an upright concrete paving stone. I think my head would have splashed like a pumpkin.)

You got weed-whacked! Good save!