Some people resort tp deep sighs and groans when you talk about "having to do yard work," but I'm one of those people who actually don't mind yard work.
Yesterday, I determined that I was just sick to death and bored with writing, social media and computer related work in general... so I set everything aside and went outside, largely with the intention of grounding myself by getting my hands in the dirt. Sometimes it just feels like these "virtual lives" we tend to live reach a point where I lose touch with an essential part of what it means to be alive.
We don't have a huge piece of land — it's about 3/4 of an acre — but we live in a part of the world where things pretty much grow if you just look at it for a few minutes because the weather tends to be mild and rain is plentiful. Our property consists of essentially two parts: our vegetable garden where we try to grow as much of our own food as we possibly can... and which is perhaps our most enjoyable outdoor activity... and "everything else."
Because we tend to be rather busy with our assorted online businesses, writing projects and other ventures, it's usually the "everything else" part that ends up suffering the most in terms of being neglected when there just isn't enough time.
Tearing at Blackberry Vines and Frustration
As I started tearing at the wild blackberry vines that seemed to be slowly creeping into some of our trees I contemplated the fact that "not enough time" has often been the primary go-to rationalization in my life, when coming up with reasons for not doing one thing or another.
"I'd love to do that, but I really can't afford to because I have to spend my time in income producing activities!"
Truth be known it's an old excuse I've used for most of my adult life, and the core of its truth is that I have very rarely been involved in any kind of work related activity that belonged on the "well paid" end of the spectrum. In fact most of what I've ever done for work has been on the minimum wage end of the income spectrum — or, when it was a business I started for myself, one of those fields that didn't have much competition simply because most people couldn't make a living at it.
All in all, it felt good to take out some of my frustrations about life in general on those blackberry vines, along with a bunch of other things that seem to grow to four feet in height just because you turned your head for 30 seconds!
Lather, Rinse, Repeat...
It wasn't really my intention to do yard work for two days straight, but after we had a late breakfast this morning Mrs. Denmarkguy allowed as how she really needed to get outside and start doing some yard work because — much like me — she felt kind of tired of social media and everything related to it.
So I decided "well, what the heck, no why not go out and keep her company and get a little bit more done?" and so we spent the entire day working rather hard too make things look better, particularly out towards the street.
Beware the Hedge Police!
One of the "joys" (NOT!) of living in a neighborhood that has a Homeowners' Association is the fact that we have what we (tongue in cheek) call "The Hedge Police," which are actually people who are on some HOA committee, and they make it their business to drive around and make sure that everybody's yard is in compliance with the rules outlined in the Homeowners Declarations. That includes such things as how much margin is supposed to be between where you are growing anything like shrubs and hedges and the side of the road, and how tall your hedges can be, and all that kind of stuff.
For people like us who are essentially "Urban Homesteaders," it is a little bit frustrating to have the Hedge Police interfere with our trying to make the most out of what we're planting and growing, but on the other hand we do enjoy the fact that we're not living next to a meth lab or somebody who has 15 broken down cars in their yard.
You pretty much get what you pay for!
So at the end of day two and a couple more dump runs, with some additional brush to take to the dump tomorrow... the property definitely looks like people who care live here, at least out towards the street!
A sense of accomplishment to be sure, but above all the benefit was that the cobwebs and slight feelings of irritation and depression that were starting to take hold of my brain have been blown away and I feel far more capable to get seriously started on the business of life tomorrow!
Even if this wasn't directly "nature," nature does have a lot of healing power.
Thanks for reading and enjoy your Friday!
How about YOU? Hate yardwork? Don't mind it? Love it? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220825 23:28 PDT
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