Good Benefits

What can possibly be the benefits of spending five hours on a warn humid day, laboring with a spading fork? That was a question I pondered in my mind after about two hours of exertion in my garden this morning.

Some of you might not know what a spading fork is. Mine is shown in the following picture. You can push it into the soil with your foot, pull back some on the handle to break the soil lose, and twist or rotate the handle some to break up the soil. After some practice you can make good progress.

I saw the benefit of the spading fork as a garden tool one day in China. When I got home I added one to my collection of tools and find it to be a very useful for loosening up soil and removing weeds and grass under certain conditions. One of those conditions was today in my asparagus patch.

Remember several blog entries ago when I showed a picture of my weedy asparagus patch? I will refresh your memory with the following picture. As you can see cultivation was long overdue.

The soil had dried out enough after many weeks of rain so I could easily work it and with the forecast for rain for the next three days, now was the time to work. In the following picture, I was about half way down the first row of asparagus when I started thinking of all the benefits of what I was doing.

The first benefit was to the asparagus patch. Completive weeds and grass are gone, the soil is lose and open, and the patch looks good. Are there any benefits to me? Exercise is free and uses many different mussels, I am burning calories I shouldn't have eaten, I am enjoying being outdoors hearing the sounds of nature as well as manmade sounds, I am relaxed, I have time to think, and I can be quiet and listen for God to speak to me.

My son-in-law stopped by as I was working - exercising - and I shared my list of benefits with him. He felt I was right as long as I didn't see what I was doing as work. When it becomes work then some of the benefits won't be so clear. After about four hours at the end of the handle of the spading fork, I began to see what I was doing as a bit more work than when I started.

After five hours of hard exercise - maybe some work - a dark cloud formed over head, indicating that I might get wet soon. Just as I finished it started to rain. I took in my garden tools and called it a good day. A job well done as seen in the next picture. I still need to work up a three foot border around the patch. I will use power equipment to do that tomorrow if it doesn't rain tonight.

As a young kid growing up on a dairy farm, I learned to work hard. I have enjoyed working hard physically ever since. The five hours spent digging in the soil, removing grass and weeds, is not work to me, but a healthy way to live. It is good clean exercise that keeps the body healthy and strong.