Yardwork Hurts More the Older You Get

Published: April 17, 2023

As the weather starts to warm here in New England we change our focus from clearing snow from our property to cleaning the mess that the last five months of hibernation allowed to accumulate. From branches to dead leaves that somehow make their way back onto your property, even though your had cleared every one of the little suckers back in October and November.

This weekend I started to tackle my yard. We have lived in this house for almost eighteen years now and it seems that our yard gets bigger every year and this year is no exception. Well, maybe it is… The yard seems MUCH more this year.

We are still feeling the effects of the Gypsy Moth invasion of 2016 (https://youtu.be/qZjRF9pOBIo). I have never had so many tree limbs and branches down in my yard. We even had a rotted out tree fall across the road behind our house completely blocking the road. There have been so many trees that have died and are falling across roads, luckily, there have not been any major injuries that I know of. The worst part is that the outbreak of Gypsy Moth Caterpillars are usually every 7-10 years, so we are due for another outbreak!

The amount of twigs and sticks that I picked up this weekend was incredible. I am going to have plenty of kindling for campfires for the rest of the year. The yard has been raked, and dethatched and is now ready for some seed and fertilizer.

With all of this work done this weekend, I hurt so bad trying to get our of bed this morning. Every day my body has to remind me that I am no longer 21 anymore. When I sat up, every joint in my body cracked! It sounded like my wife had served me Rice Krispies in bed! Then I made some noises as I was walking to the bathroom that I remember my Father making, I spun my head around to see if he was in my bedroom. I think, at that point, if someone Freddy Krueger started chasing me, I would not have been able to move. The part that is most annoying is that a few years ago, this pain would have subsided within a day. Last year, it took 3-5 days for me to be able to move my arms again. This year, I feel as though I should be in the ICU… Getting older really sucks!

So I’ll be popping Ibuprofen and slathering on the Aspricream and Ben Gay for the next couple of days. The worst part is that I get to do it all again next week because I was not able to finish the whole yard.