I fell down again

I thought I slept enough last night, but the way I felt this morning was an affront to that thought. Getting through breakfast was easy enough-The C made it and all I had to do was shovel it into my mouth. Coffee helped, but its effects seemed to have worn off by the time we made it to our work farm for the day (paying gig!). The C went inside to vacuum and I went out to pick up small wrist-sized tree cuttings to place them in piles. Odd note: all people we've worked with seem to think that only I can do the physical work. That The C can't, or should do the easy stuff. Odd, sure, especially since the people giving us work direction have been women. It's a matter of time until The C explodes.

As I stumbled my way over the uneven rocky lava terrain, trees whacking me in the head and every third step sending me sprawling, I realized my tiredness. However, there was nothing to do but press on. So I picked up the sticks. My first load was cumbersome because of course I grabbed too many. Some tried to sneak out of my arms, others tried to grab standing trees or the rocky ground, all intent on making me trip and fall. Despite their best efforts I made it to the wall over which I was to toss them. Adjacent to the chest high wall was an easily scalable rock atop which I found myself. Thinking I'd make the short hop over to the wall and simplify depositing the sticks I leaped without foresight.

The wall onto which I jump was made of lava rock. Lots of lava rocks, ranging from baseball sized to almost torso sized. Nothing is used to hold the wall together except friction and gravity. Just before my foot touched down I thought of this, and wondered how stable it would be. In my mind I was sure all would be fine.

All was not fine. The wall gave immediately. My foot slid forward with the surface rocks while the rocks below caved and rumbled down. Somehow I landed on my back with only a bruised elbow and a few bruises on my shins and knees. One foot was under the rubble but not so badly that I needed to cut off my foot to escape. It was a mess, but it woke me up! I tried rebuilding the wall to cover my blunder, but to have made a great work out of it would have been too time consuming. It now stands, better than it did after I got to it, but not as good as before. Ah well.

The rest of the day went well. Some logs got split, more pruning, some planting and lots of sweating. My pants, which I'd sewn, again (third new split since getting here), held together. Now the other knee is sprouting a hole which will require more needlework over the breakfast table.

Did we get paid? Yupper. In cash and Kona coffee! Love it.

And finally, for the first time since we got here 2 weeks ago, I took a nap! It was glorious!