Woodland workout

Another blue-sky day.

Need a good calorie-burning, heart-rate-raising, muscle building and strengthening workout?  Come with me to the woods where all those things and more will be provided, free of charge.

Little suns lighting up the pond on the way to the woods.

The sky is clear, the sun is shining on the pond, and it’s a good day to work outside.  Remember that old maple tree we had to have cut down to preserve the dam at the back of the pond?  Well.  The guys that cut it down for us left the branches and logs lying higgledy-piggledy in the woods.  Some of the piles of wood and branches are okay where they were left.  Some are blocking the walking paths.

The rather large stump left behind when the maple was cut. M wants to make some sort of sculpture out of it.

Who needs a gym when you have the woods?  I had originally planned a weight workout for today, but M wanted to do maple tree clean-up so off we went this morning to do just that.

Blocking the path.

The above rather large (HUGE) pile of branches was blocking one of our entrances to the woods.  We moved it, branch by branch, to a better location.  The ground in the woods is muddy so our legs got a great workout going back and forth in mud.  The branches were long and heavy, helping to build and strengthen arm, back, and core muscles.  And the sunshine provided Vitamin D.

The new pile, about half way through the process of moving it from one place to another.

Without someone standing there to give you some perspective, I’m not sure you can appreciate how high the pile of branches is at the point when I took the above photo.  It was already much taller than I am.  M showed me how to balance the thick end of the branch so I could toss it like a javelin.  Eventually I had to give up and start piling the branches to the left because I couldn’t toss them high enough to get them on top of the pile.

While I moved the long branches, M chainsawed the bigger pieces and stacked the heavier logs.  We’re going to seal the ends of some of the biggest logs.  Those logs will be taken to a local sawmill where we’ll have them cut.  The plan is to make some maple cutting boards, a few bowls, and I have no idea what else.  M said something about a guitar.  I’ll believe that when I see it.  (And won’t be all that surprised if he does manage to do it because he’s the type of guy who does what he says he’s going to do.)

Staring at the cloud reflections on the pond.

We took a short break about half way through to rest, get something to drink, and stare at the pond.

It took about two hours to get everything moved that we planned to move today.  When we finished I took myself and my camera over to the creek to see what was happening there.  Not much, really.  It’s a mess.  Muddy, trash-strewn from when the creek was at high levels.  I don’t know why people throw their trash in the creek and woods.  Well, that’s not true.  Some of it is ignorance (“we’ve always done it this way”) and some of it is lack of money to pay for garbage pickup (living in a rural area, you have to pay to have a private company pick up your garbage).  If it dries up enough by the creek, I’ll wade in and pick up the trash.  If the creek rises again, it will end up elsewhere for someone else to pick up.  Or not.

My shadow-self at sunset yesterday.

Working in the woods didn’t make me as tall as my shadow-self.

My really flexible shadow-self.

It didn’t make me as flexible as my shadow-self either.

But it was a great overall workout, and after getting a few household chores done, I can spend the rest of the day and evening relaxing in that loose, easy, and wonderful way that happens after lots of fresh air, sunshine, and hard work.

Yesterday's sunset.

I guess that’s it from the Bogs for today.  I’ll have some pretty pictures for you tomorrow.  Something caught my attention on my way back to the house after I finished working and exploring in the woods, and I’d like to share it with you.  In the meantime, I hope you’re having a relaxing and most enjoyable weekend.

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