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 ...
