Getting our own Exercise

A few years ago, when my Dad was still on this earth he volunteered to bring his farm man Bill and a tractor to come plant about 30 shrubs I needed planted. My Dad could have just sent Bill with the truck and the tractor on a trailer, but my Dad came too. He sat on my garden bench and supervised and took Bill to lunch each day, since it took them two days to complete the job.

Bill lives in the country. Everyone in Bill’s family works hard for a living. He was not used to a neighborhood like mine. As he worked digging holes and planting shrubs he noticed many women walking by my house. Sometimes he saw the same woman walking the same direction multiple times.

At lunch on the second day Bill asked my Dad a question he had been pondering. “Where are those women going who walk by Dana’s house all day.”

My Dad replied, “They are just taking a walk.”

“But where are they going? They seem to be going the same direction every time they walk by, but they don’t come back the other way.” Bill puzzled.

“They are making loops,” my Dad told him.

“But where are they going?”

“No where in particular. They are just getting exercise.”

“Can’t they get exercise at home?”

At Bill’s house, they get exercise by working on his property. I took his observation as a good lesson. I can get exercise by doing work on my own property.

So today Russ and I spread about 25% of the mulch. I had spread some yesterday and Russ spread most of it today. We did the hardest part, spreading around the mondo grass. We still have 15 yards to go. There will be no way we can get it all done, but we have easier places to spread.

It’s best to do our own work and get exercise at the same time, rather than paying someone else to do our work and get the exercise we need.