Back Problems

We haven't had much rain this year or last. At the post office today I was told we are only up to 3 inches this year. Well this week we were due for a storm. On Monday it felt like rain was near so I decided to do a few things that I wanted done before the rain arrived. I loaded up two tractor scoops of compost into the truck, grabbed the chainsaw and a shovel and headed down to the house. We have about 15 fruit trees that I shoveled compost around and during that chore I was feeling my back might not last the whole day. Once the truck was empty I was ready to fill it with firewood.

Pepperwood - Bay Tree

Last year a huge bay tree came down and I have been working on cutting all the small limbs and moving them to burn piles. With the small limbs out of the way the remaining branches are suspended from the ground drying. It is simple to start at the end of a branch and buck the limbs into short lengths. Once the limbs are cut the wood is loaded into the truck and taken up to the barn to be stacked under cover. At the end of the day I knew I had gone too far so I lied on my back to give it a rest. I had a hard time getting back up, once on my feet I could hardly straighten out. Last February my back was so messed up it would spasm and drop me to the ground in pain, I feared this might happen again. Luckily it didn't get so bad and this time I treated my back a bit differently.

I am not one to take pharmaceuticals, but before bed I took two Aleeve's and slept with an electric heat pad under my back. The next morning I did some stretching and went for a walk. I took it easy this day and before bed took two ibuprofens and again slept on a heat pad. The next day some more stretching and core strengthening exersizes and went for another walk. This day I did some work in the shop and had four different meetings throughout the day and evening. I skipped the medication this night and slept about half the night with the heat pad.

Sills for Shower

Today I was feeling much better, did some stretching and went to work in the shop without going on a walk. I have been working on the wood parts for the shower at the house. Today I applied two coats of shellac on the parts and took them to the house to install. Once at the house I realized the jambs couldn't go in until the curb was tiled so I switched to tiling and Becky joined me after her meeting. The curb tiles are now set and I can't wait to install the jambs, sills and caps. At that point I can measure for the sashes and the rest of the tiles can go in.