my-life-in-appalachia-a-day's-hard-work

My typical work day mostly consists of me sitting behind a desk pecking away on a computer. Yesterday I enjoyed a refreshing change of scenery as Chitter and I worked at home. We mowed, weed-eated, moved a stack of used lumber from where it’d been sitting since last summer, made a new garden bed, and got Granny’s lettuce and onions planted for her.

I certainly work when I’m sitting behind my desk on the job, but it’s a different kind of work somehow. There is something so very rewarding about using the strength of your body and the sweat of your brow to accomplish things with your hands.

Tipper

Appalachia Through My Eyes – A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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14 Comments

  1. I agree that “physical” tired is much better than “mental” tired — but both kinds of work are satisfying.

  2. There was a time when I could do a day’s work in one day. Now it takes me about a week with another week to get over it.

  3. Tipper,
    It’s a good feeling to get things done that need doing. I bet Granny was proud to see her lettuce and onions in the ground. I use to love it when it got dry enough to plant things. Many times after I had it plowed, I’d have to wait sometimes a week and I’d be chomping at the bits to get in there and mix it up some.

    In the Springtime there are some Cool Spells that usually don’t last but a couple or three days. The first one is Dogwood Winter, then in about a week or two there’s Blackberry Winter, then not
    many folks know it but there’s Whippoorwill Winter. (thanks to B. Ruth) …Ken

  4. I too worked behind a computer for years and I would leave work mentally exhausted, many people can’t grasp this. There is a wonderful difference between physically and mentally tired. I too prefer the physically tired and call it the “Good Tired” and can go to bed at night and sleep so well where the mentally tired tends to keep you awake since your mind is still trying to work out problems you my have encountered during the day.

  5. Amen to the comments about the satisfaction of working outside. It’s tiring and causes a few body aches, but it is oh, so satisfying.
    I think there’s something similar about office work and housework. Although one is physically active, keeping up with the laundry, dusting, sweeping, running the vacuum, cleaning the kitchen and the bathrooms, mopping the floors – it all takes daily repetition to maintain the house – and yet – I can’t tell you how many times my Dad or my husband would walk in at the end of the day and say “Guess you’ve just been sitting around all day reading magazines and talking on the phone again,must be nice!” That seems to have been a common misconception among men where the so-called traditional household involved Mom staying home and Dad working in the fields all day or going into town or the factory to work. My friend’s older 3″. kids once accidentally caused a skillet fire in her kitchen. Their ensuing efforts to put out the fire before she got a whiff of it and finally put it out caused quite a mess. In the midst of it all the youngest one had run down to get me. I arrived as everyone was stopping to catch their breath. I offered to help clean (I’m tall – she’s definitely not – and the cabinets and the ceiling needed a lot of attention!) Through grimmaced teeth she emphatically growled, “No!” Apparently her husband just that morning had given her a lecture on making good use of “all her spare time”. She decided to leave it as it was so he could get an idea of what she was doing “with all her spare time”.

  6. It’s still to early to start working up here. Although really nice yesterday, it snowed Wednesday. But, we porch sat last night for the first time since October. I think we’ve turned a corner!

    1. I was thinking that very same thing….or worse I’m a skeerdy cat of black widow spiders….starting to nest this time of year…ewww!

  7. Tip, my experience working behind a desk is that you rarely see any real accomplishment. Outside work gives you fresh air and sunshine plus you can see and feel things changing before your eyes. Instant gratification, so to speak!

  8. Hi Tipper,Wish I could have worked beside you yesterday! I do love the outdoors.Those days are gone ,tho I hope to have a little above ground garden once we move back to the mainland.God Bless,Jean

  9. I agree. There is much more satisfaction in doing something we can look at and say, ” I did that ” I spent a lot of time at a computer to but it was never fulfilling.

  10. Yea, I’ve wondered what it would be like to sit at a desk where it’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter, dry when it’s raining, Hmmm, nahh, not for me.

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