Lurch My Way

Just hanging around

Minor rain this morning, blown sideways on a gusty breeze coming out of the north. It feels good, a break from the heat and humidity of the past couple of days, which itself was a break from the cool cloudiness that defined most of June. It hasn’t felt very summer-y yet this summer, although it was about 85-degrees the day we put up 1000 bales of hay in Lynn and Martha’s barn. We sweated the way you sweat when you’re stacking bales on a hot July day, and it was both exhausting and exhilarating. A good combination, really.

Haying. Logging for firewood and sawlogs. Sawing logs into lumber, splitting firewood. Roofing, the barn now under a protective cap of tin. We slaughtered a beef, put the meat birds onto pasture. Green beans coming on strong, lettuce and eggs and milk out our ears. We’ll sneak some new potatoes one of these days soon, eat them with just-churned butter. Looking forward to that. I tweaked my right knee somehow, so have been lurching about even less gracefully than usual. It hurts like the dickens, but only if I bend it. Still. I am grateful it’s not worse and also that it is slowly improving and even better yet that it hasn’t kept me from all of the above (well, not the roofing… I let Pen and co tackle that).

Perhaps my injury is a predicable side-affect of over-romaticizing physical labor, as some accuse me of doing. Perhaps. On the other hand, I find myself wondering about the over-romanticization of sedentary living, accompanied by the onslaught of once-uncommon diseases and conditions that have become epidemic. There is more to say about this, I am sure, but for now, I must lurch my way into another day.

PS: I find myself second-guessing my request for readers to limit their comments. I don’t want to stifle discussion, but I am still a bit concerned about the comments section being monopolized by certain parties. Thoughts?