First day out in the garden
Apr. 11th, 2004 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ambitious_wenchEaster Sunday, 2004
it was chill this morning, and so I built a fire in the fireplace. And noted that the wood rack still is pretty much empty, in spite of the wood I stacked in it not long ago. So I put on the cincher, the work gloves, and headed out to begin the work of filling it.
Understand that I hate stacking wood. It's awkward, I have to load a wheelbarrow at the wood pile on one side of the house and carefully maneuver it through a gate, over holes my dogs have dug in the other side of the yard, and then heave each log over the rail onto the porch. Then climb the stairs to the porch and stack the wood.
I guess it would take about 12 barrows full to stack the rack, maybe less. At least an hour and a half. I started at about 3.
Oh, I've taken sit-down breaks. But what's really holding me up is the fact that I've decided to turn the soil in my garden instead.
It's a bittersweet occupation. This will in all likelyhood be the last tie I plant a garden here in this yard. It's the first time I really use my body to *do* something, other than just keep moving, all winter. I have a wonderful tool called a U-bar digger. It looks like this:
It's fun to use. I can lever large rocks with it, and yes, even 5 years later I am still digging boulders out of the soil. It's not easy at the end of the day, though, when my arms and back are aching from work. but my soil has good loft, fluffy and light, arable land.
Earthworms, everywhere! fat, shiny creatures, curling and writhing, burrowing-blind back into the soil, to nurse at the sweet breast of Gaia.
I stink of sour sweat, acid from my inactivity. My face feels flush, my streaked skin soft smooth, and wisps of hair tendril past my eyebrows and obscure my vision.
My arms tingle.
I have blisters on my heels.
And though my womb grows nothing but stalactites, I feel fertile and full of life. I am my garden.
it was chill this morning, and so I built a fire in the fireplace. And noted that the wood rack still is pretty much empty, in spite of the wood I stacked in it not long ago. So I put on the cincher, the work gloves, and headed out to begin the work of filling it.
Understand that I hate stacking wood. It's awkward, I have to load a wheelbarrow at the wood pile on one side of the house and carefully maneuver it through a gate, over holes my dogs have dug in the other side of the yard, and then heave each log over the rail onto the porch. Then climb the stairs to the porch and stack the wood.
I guess it would take about 12 barrows full to stack the rack, maybe less. At least an hour and a half. I started at about 3.
Oh, I've taken sit-down breaks. But what's really holding me up is the fact that I've decided to turn the soil in my garden instead.
It's a bittersweet occupation. This will in all likelyhood be the last tie I plant a garden here in this yard. It's the first time I really use my body to *do* something, other than just keep moving, all winter. I have a wonderful tool called a U-bar digger. It looks like this:
It's fun to use. I can lever large rocks with it, and yes, even 5 years later I am still digging boulders out of the soil. It's not easy at the end of the day, though, when my arms and back are aching from work. but my soil has good loft, fluffy and light, arable land.
Earthworms, everywhere! fat, shiny creatures, curling and writhing, burrowing-blind back into the soil, to nurse at the sweet breast of Gaia.
I stink of sour sweat, acid from my inactivity. My face feels flush, my streaked skin soft smooth, and wisps of hair tendril past my eyebrows and obscure my vision.
My arms tingle.
I have blisters on my heels.
And though my womb grows nothing but stalactites, I feel fertile and full of life. I am my garden.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-11 04:28 pm (UTC)its nice to get out after a long winter
no subject
Date: 2004-04-11 04:37 pm (UTC)You've never had menstrual cramps. but yeah, it's good to get out and stretch the muscles in spring. Now, were did I put my epsom salts?
Edie
no subject
Date: 2004-04-11 09:02 pm (UTC)