Monday, July 20, 2009

I'm A Lumberjack And I'm OK

Beware of Daddy Sheep who call you saying that they have a great idea for "blog fodder." It sounds good. You might even be tempted.

However, you will soon find yourself swatting away flies in the woods and wondering just how you evolved into a lumberjack...

Daddy Sheep needed some help clearing brush on the Sheepish Estate and suggested that I might like to help. I'm not really one for manual labor. It's not that I'm against it per se. I support it. I just prefer to observe rather than to actually participate. But I had the time and I like to think I'm a good daughter, not to mention a good sport. I also couldn't foist the whole thing off on Baby Brother Sheep since he'd already taken a turn out in the back forty and his job involved the dragging of mighty trees.

Plus, I took some cold medicine yesterday so I didn't really have any knitting of note going on. I figured I could use the outing. Besides, how hard could it be, really?

So I donned my work gloves, doused myself in mosquito repellent and headed out into the puckerbrush to do my daughterly duty. I figured I'd take it slow and it would be a piece of cake!

Thirty minutes later, I was giving some serious thought to sacrificing a piece of my future inheritance so that we could just hire some strapping young lads to come do this for us. I'd even volunteer to serve lemonade and wipe their manly brows...

After an hour, I was thinking how Agent Orange really got a bad rap. What's the big deal, really? Chemicals are our friends...

Ninety minutes passed and I was ready to approach Daddy Sheep with the idea that selling the house might be the best option in the long run.

Fortunately, I wasn't dealing with the Daddy Sheep from my childhood. That Daddy was of the opinion that hard work never killed anyone and, even if it did, we would have the privilege of shuffling off this mortal coil after having built character.

This newer, retired version is a kinder, gentler boss who appreciates the value of lemonade breaks and sees the noon hour as a good time to knock off for the day so we don't miss our naps. This fits in better with my overall view of manual labor so the whole thing worked out pretty well.

Plus I got a free lunch and Mommy Sheep gave me a bag of her homemade caramel corn. I was hot, sweaty, sunburned, exhausted and carrying a bag of sugar coated popcorn. If you look at it in just the right light and squint a little bit, it's really no different than a day at the county fair...

Not such a great day for knitting though. My hands were a little sore from wrestling with the pricker bushes and yanking on uncooperative vines who thought that remaining where they were was the way to go. Nature apparently has some issues with "change." It also doesn't much care that you have a few projects nearing completion and that you will need working fingers to make the yarn magic happen.

I'll knit tomorrow. For today, I will have to be happy with the satisfaction of a job well done, an early nap and caramel corn.

We lumberjacks are tough like that.

SA


11 comments:

Kath said...

I salute you. I have been procrastinating dealing with the mess of brush and weeds behind my house for far too long. I need to get back there to replace a window screen and though I was doomed to do it this week. But apparently the plumbers will have to get through there to replace my shower faucet on Thursday and since they are big I am sure that will help clear a path for little me.

I bet some ice cream would do wonders for sore hands and muscles!

Mia said...

carmel corn totally rocks - as does a day well spent in sweat producing projects :)

mia

Anne P said...

Did you work all night and sleep all day?

Now I cannot rid myself of that damn song.

sheep#100 said...

I think you have earned a weekday morning of waff-ooz!

PS - I also need to work on the knitting aspect of the knitting blog - but what is a blogger to do when the weather is cooperative and the offspring requires a day at the amusement park? One cannot knit under those circumstances.

Anonymous said...

I forgot to say in my post that Smokey burst into that song when Matthew first climbed on top of Da Jeep.

It is so nice that Daddy Sheep has become a softer, gentler Daddy. All daddies should do that. Especially when they inveigle their sheepish daughters to help in their labors.

Mel said...

I suppose it's up to me to ask what nobody else has. Do you put on women's clothing and hang around in bars?

Karen said...

I think carmel corn is the perfect payment for hard labor.

Donna Lee said...

You lost me at the homemade carmel corn. I just want some. Now. And I have work to do (well, I should do some work since I am at work) and can't make carmel corn. I don't even know how and will now look up recipes.....

knitseashore said...

Ah, pricker bushes. Fond memories of my childhood, LOL.

You are a very good daughter to go in and do battle with them, and I'm glad your dad now believes in the power of breaks and lemonade.

Hope your fingers heal soon!

Elaine said...

Love your squinty-eyed comparison to a summer fair!

Knitting Linguist said...

I sleep all night and I work all day! (Great, now that song will be running through my head all day...) Pricker bushes are no fun -- I'm glad you survived :)