No Pain, No Gain

I hurt...   Oh the ache of muscles not used much since last fall...  And a little sunburn...(I have never had a sunburn in March before!)

Ah but the satisfaction of a weekend spent working hard and crossing long-neglected tasks off the list...

My younger brother was bribed with the promise of a trip to the ice rink to come help us work on straightening up the property and outbuildings.  Amazing how much we got done with my dearest husband and brother really putting their muscle into it - would have taken me the whole weekend just to get one of the flower beds cleared by myself and we knocked it out yesterday in an hour.  Also got the barn, garden shed and garage tidy and the guys had to fix a sudden leak in the garage roof where we had lost a couple of shingles in the last storm.  Then the mower deck broke (I didn't hit anything with it I swear!) and dear hubby had to take it to my folks and weld it back together.

The most enjoyable part was the ice skating where my son, who is going through a rough streak of the Terrible 3's lately, was soooo patient and persistent the entire nearly 2 hours we skated (skating is loosely defined of course!).  As much as he fusses about the rest of life lately, he is utterly obsessed with hockey and skating and no matter how many times he fell he just got back up and kept trying.

My poor daughter, unfortunately for her, has inherited my total lack of coordination and while she can ride a horse like she was born on one, she is relegated to shuffling along the boards of the rink so she found it less enjoyable.  Skating lessons for both start in a couple of weeks so we'll see how that goes.  I managed to stumble around a few times and almost made it the whole session without a fall - until the last time I stepped on the ice and managed a prolonged fall much like that of Bambi (only less graceful).  Laughed so hard I couldn't get back up without my brother's help.  Then he challenged me to a race - asked if I could make it just to the blue line before he could do a full lap - smartaleck 15-year-old who plays high school hockey...  At least I beat him...and nobody was taping when I fell again trying to turn back too sharp...don't laugh...too hard...while I pop another Tylenol...  ;)

(Sorry for the angle on the video - can't figure out how to get it swapped around.)