So yesterday I used a journal entry from last February (2007)....today I'm not quite so chipper about the spring yard work.....I also remember writing in one of my first emails to friends and family after our move about how the reclaiming of the landscaping was "a joy to me, not yet labor". Today, well....I'm looking at the weedwacker and I'm very glad that Dallas is home for two more days.......
There's a lot of weedwacking that has to go on around here.....we'd discovered that fact rather quickly after moving here when we'd hear the scurrying of little feet (field mice) and sometimes have a slithering feeling across our flip-flop covered feet (rat snakes) if we ventured too near a ditch or the shed and barn....so we went to the good ol' depot and bought me a small, lightweight, battery operated weedwacker to keep those areas inside the ditches under control. David and Dallas would keep the much heavier weeded exterior areas (ditches/driveways etc) under control using the much heavier pull start gas one.
Things went rather well in the beginning; my little weedwacker came with two batteries and the instructions said that their "memory" would increase according to how much I used them.....I thought, okay, let's make these babies last as long as they physically can. So I weedwacked until those suckers were dead every single time and then I'd charge them up. I even did some of the ditches and driveway areas to get those batteries to have the longest charge possible on them. I thought I had this yardwork thing down pat.....I'd weedwack on Wednesdays and get out the riding lawn mower on Thursdays.....
But one of the batteries died within six months or so, refusing to hold a charge...by that time, I'd gotten the other one to about a 40 minute charge and that was enough to keep my portion of the weekly chore under control. Until that battery slowly began to lose its own charge....within about 10 months of purchasing that wonder tool that was going to make my life easier, I could only get about 15 minutes out that battery, meaning that I had to weekwack a minimum of three times each week to keep up my end of the deal.
So off we went to the depot to get a new battery.....the first day, I sailed through the interior boundaries...this was more like it I thought.....but then the next week, I only got about 35 minutes out of that new battery and each week, I got a little less time until once again, I was getting only about a 15 minute charge.
Obviously, it was time to re-think our weedwacking needs.....I have never in my whole life been able to pull start anything, so a pull start gas wacker was not the answer...which meant that I had to get an electric one and drag an extension cord all over the place....I wasn't a happy camper but I knew that that was essentially my only choice unless I wanted to only be able to weedwack on someone else's schedule (in order for that other person to pull start the dang thing for me)
So, we went back to the depot this spring and got me a wonderful (~~) electric powered weedwacker. I thought that pulling that electric cord around would be the worst of the switch-over, but I was wrong. I hadn't factored in that the new fence was going to increase my weekwacking chore because now I have to do the interior of the fence and along the exterior as well.....the lawn mower used to take care of those areas. This new weedwacker is heavy, even though we bought the smallest and lightest one available, and it's awkward, and it would have been difficult enough without the added frustration of the additional areas around the new fence. With one arm that is kinda damaged from a break that took place five years ago, I struggle with this darn weedwacker and have to take breaks every fifteen minutes or so and afterwards, my arm is pretty much useless for a couple of hours. As I struggle along I find myself wondering if I should just go back to my battery charge lightweight one.....
There's a lot of weedwacking that has to go on around here.....we'd discovered that fact rather quickly after moving here when we'd hear the scurrying of little feet (field mice) and sometimes have a slithering feeling across our flip-flop covered feet (rat snakes) if we ventured too near a ditch or the shed and barn....so we went to the good ol' depot and bought me a small, lightweight, battery operated weedwacker to keep those areas inside the ditches under control. David and Dallas would keep the much heavier weeded exterior areas (ditches/driveways etc) under control using the much heavier pull start gas one.
Things went rather well in the beginning; my little weedwacker came with two batteries and the instructions said that their "memory" would increase according to how much I used them.....I thought, okay, let's make these babies last as long as they physically can. So I weedwacked until those suckers were dead every single time and then I'd charge them up. I even did some of the ditches and driveway areas to get those batteries to have the longest charge possible on them. I thought I had this yardwork thing down pat.....I'd weedwack on Wednesdays and get out the riding lawn mower on Thursdays.....
But one of the batteries died within six months or so, refusing to hold a charge...by that time, I'd gotten the other one to about a 40 minute charge and that was enough to keep my portion of the weekly chore under control. Until that battery slowly began to lose its own charge....within about 10 months of purchasing that wonder tool that was going to make my life easier, I could only get about 15 minutes out that battery, meaning that I had to weekwack a minimum of three times each week to keep up my end of the deal.
So off we went to the depot to get a new battery.....the first day, I sailed through the interior boundaries...this was more like it I thought.....but then the next week, I only got about 35 minutes out of that new battery and each week, I got a little less time until once again, I was getting only about a 15 minute charge.
Obviously, it was time to re-think our weedwacking needs.....I have never in my whole life been able to pull start anything, so a pull start gas wacker was not the answer...which meant that I had to get an electric one and drag an extension cord all over the place....I wasn't a happy camper but I knew that that was essentially my only choice unless I wanted to only be able to weedwack on someone else's schedule (in order for that other person to pull start the dang thing for me)
So, we went back to the depot this spring and got me a wonderful (~~) electric powered weedwacker. I thought that pulling that electric cord around would be the worst of the switch-over, but I was wrong. I hadn't factored in that the new fence was going to increase my weekwacking chore because now I have to do the interior of the fence and along the exterior as well.....the lawn mower used to take care of those areas. This new weedwacker is heavy, even though we bought the smallest and lightest one available, and it's awkward, and it would have been difficult enough without the added frustration of the additional areas around the new fence. With one arm that is kinda damaged from a break that took place five years ago, I struggle with this darn weedwacker and have to take breaks every fifteen minutes or so and afterwards, my arm is pretty much useless for a couple of hours. As I struggle along I find myself wondering if I should just go back to my battery charge lightweight one.....
For today, I'm awfully glad that Dallas is here to do my chore for this week anyway; next week I'm on my own (he's decided to go back up to Georgia for the summer term)....and next time I measure Hunter on the "growth wall" I won't be quite so saddened by his height increase....cuz just an inch or so more, and he'll be tall enough to handle that weekwacker and its electric cord.....
And today, I'm exercising the prerogative to revise my earlier statement.....the gardening and yard work around here is mostly joy, but some of it is now labor....make that LABOR.
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