Too Late Wise

Our temperatures are in the low 70's, Monday's snow has melted, the garden calls. So I spent some time at our plot in the community garden, working on replacing two of the beds. That is, replacing the sides of the bed. Reston Association runs the garden and requires it to be organic. 30 years ago or so I was the first or second gardener to set up a raised bed. At that time treated lumber was fine for use in making beds, but over the years RA has changed the rules so new treated lumber is a no-no. So far they've grandfathered in the wood in the existing beds.

The site of the garden is on the right of way of a set of pipelines which run through Reston. A few years back the pipeline company ran their "pig" through the pipe and found some weak spots. So they had to dig down to the pipeline and fix them. Naturally one of the weak spots was below our plot, so we lost most of the good dirt we'd built over the years and had our beds deconstructed. After the repairs were finished, we rebuilt the beds, but somehow after doing the first 4 beds we ended up short of wood for the last 2. So, being too cheap to buy untreated 2"x10" lumber which would rot, I bought some man-made "wood" trim material and used it for a couple years. But it's not satisfactory, so this year I'm planning to replace it.

That was my goal today. So some digging of old sides, measuring new boards, (hand) sawing of new material, etc. ensued. Long ago, back on the farm, doing outdoor work the first days of spring I likely would have raised blisters on the sides of my thumbs. But today, not so. I'm home with hands which tingle a bit, but no blisters. Was it the wisdom gained by age that saved my thumbs? No, fraid not. Because I've lost whatever endurance I once may have had, my get-up-and-go left before my blisters developed.