Yesterday afternoon, I worked around the deck, clearing vegetation (our weedeater died the death five years ago, so...you can imagine). We've had a week of daily rain, so the ground was soft, muddy, and mucky. Lots of bugs and other critters have made their home in the rotting vegetation, so...instead of getting down on the ground, I bent over, leaned over and twisted around, and stuck the snippers under the deck, cut the stuff, then hauled it out. Still bent over, still twisted around.
My back started screaming at me after less than twenty minutes, so I quit and came in.
It is no better, now. In fact, it's a little worse. I move my arms much, my back screams at me. I try to stand up, and it takes half a minute to straighten up. I hobble instead of walk.
Next time, I'll take a bit of the ground cloth we got, put it down on the ground, and lay on it to shove the shears under the deck. If I don't, in fact, simply take a sledgehammer to the whole thing and have done with it.
1 hour ago
You can get a new weed eater at Home Depot for about forty bucks. Back pain is no joke, it would be a good investment under the circumstances. Hope you get to feeling better.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was cutting was mostly saplings as thick as my thumb and one volunteer grape vine, a bit thicker than that. Not sure a weed-eater would have done any good, at that point.
DeleteI've spent way too many years of my life fighting vegetation that could have been removed with some herbicide and a sprayer.
ReplyDeleteIt works. Get the strong stuff, don't dilute it quite as much as called for and spray on a hot, dry afternoon; with no wind.
My other half is going to have to crawl around under there to try to jack the deck up to place supports. No way am I going to have him crawling around in poisoned vegetation.
Delete(Otherwise? Hell yeah, I would. And have. And will again, once repairs have been done.)
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