I’m still recovering from the hip injury I suffered in a bicycle fall three weeks ago. Since then, I have graduated from a walker to a cane, and therapy is helping, but I’m far from being completely mobile. Today, I decided on a good future test to see if I have regained enough mobility for normal living.
About a week after the injury, my brother asked if it was keeping me from doing anything I need to do. Since I can drive, shop for food, take a shower, do laundry, cook, and let the cat in and out, I said no. I didn’t say that some household tasks are difficult, because, injured or not, the real reason might be that I don’t like cleaning the house. I also didn’t let on that the injury is keeping me from doing a few things I want to do.
In an earlier post, I wrote that the portion of the Mud Bay shoreline I can see from my kitchen is like a front yard and I do my best to keep it free of trash and ugly branches that drift in with the tide. If the tide doesn’t clean up the shoreline by itself, I sometimes intervene to “help.” The branch shown in the photo has been there for several days and looks to have settled in despite 13-foot tides this week. It would take considerable wind and wave action (unlikely in Dyes Inlet) to move that bad boy out of here. Mother nature might need some assistance.
For the surefooted, aiding the tide is easy. Trim the side branches (which act like grappling hooks in the dense pickleweed) with lopping shears and cut the main log into shorter lengths with a Swede saw. That’s the key. Shorter and straighter are better when you want branches, which, after all, are wood, to float away. If necessary, drag the resulting pieces closer to the main Mud Bay channel. The tide will do the rest. Pass it on, no return.
But I’m not surefooted right now due to my hip injury. Trying to access the log in my current condition by walking across the mud and pickleweed is a bad idea. Plus, I would need to be able to stand securely on both legs, unaided, to do the cutting, trimming, and dragging. The log’s position is safe for awhile.
The day I can deal with the log is the day I’m going to declare myself mobile. If that happens before the end of February, great. It will be a sign I’m ready for other maintenance and yardwork tasks that typically arrive with spring.
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