Last weekend I realised how much more fit we were when everything was about frugal living and self sufficiency. You see, from part time olive farmers, part time vegetable growers, part time builders and full time “never really go anywhere as there is no money for fuel” type folks, we have moved “up” in the world, to become full time laptop typing folks making a living at home. Yep we still do work on the land and we still do some building (the house will never be finished), but never for so long every day as we once did.
It appears we are in danger of becoming office workers (well dining room workers, the office is one of the un-finished bits) with fat bottoms and no stamina.
Last weekend was a birthday weekend, and being September it was time for the first “real walk” with the dogs for a few months. In the summer we get to enjoy the pleasure that is three dogs too hot to bother doing anything other than sleep. Come September, and cooling temperatures exercise is the order of the day.
So one “real walk” that ended up being half as long as it should have been owing to too large a birthday breakfast, and slightly too cool a northerly breeze, and knees were stiff and legs were tired.
The rest of the long weekend was taken with cleaning beams and tiling floors for him, and excavating much chicken poo from the hen run, digging it into vegetable plots, and preparing the ground for some swanky new block built compost heaps for her.
Not an awful lot of hard work then. Much coffee was drunk, rests had and so on. But it appears we are far less fit when we spent all day every day moving things (as chief labourer all I ever did was move things and mix concrete).
The last year has been such a change from that with nearly all our time spent tip tapping online so that neither of us will have to venture out into the real world “off-mountain” to get a real job, and of course having no cash to spend on materials, that very little has been done requiring physical effort.
Now though, with business establishing itself allowing a little more time for non laptop activities it is time to get back to the land, properly.
No I shan’t be shunning the internet business and the money it gives us. But I shall be giving myself some proper projects to do to get me stronger again. He’s alright as he has many months of tiling to go as far as I can see. But I shall be endeavouring to get the vegetable plot looking a little less rustic. I need to get out there in the fresh air and build frames for netting, maybe consider some form of wind-break and definitely actually build the new compost heaps. Our old ones, made from many pieces of rotten timber are slowly falling over. They served us well and were basically free (in fact they have been somewhat of a home for surplus blocks, wood and chicken wire for such a long time, I will have lots of bits of old junk to find homes for). But it is time for the veg plot to look less like a run-down shanty town and a little more like somewhere you would want to pick food from.
The bonus is I get to skive from indoor computer activities, and get a little fitter.
Plus of course I will have something rustic to write about at a Self Sufficient Life!
New compost heaps sound like an honourable goal to me! I think everyone at this time of year looks at their garden with critical eyes. Gone is the fresh green growth of spring and we are mostly looking at the tattered, rusty and mildewed leaves of the curcubit family. I’m itching to chuck mine on our less than state of the art compost bins, we still have cucumbers and squashes coming though so that will have to wait until the frost probably. Look forward to seeing the results of your efforts and here’s to a fitter era!
Buggar – I’ll really have to build them now won’t I? Found an excuse to get rid of our tatty courgette plants – no room for planting lettuce and cabbage seedlings! Things look far prettier with them gone.