of scythes and bifocals

Second day of morning mowing.. I cannot go for more than a couple of hours, it seems. Some of that is on account of not being at all in shape, and my arms (yea I know you use your UPPER BODY not your arms to do the work, but you still have to HOLD the thing!) never have been my strongest part. But another part is that I have gone out over dressed both days... once I get going I need only a lightweight pair of slacks and a short-sleeve t-shirt. Even if it IS 50 degrees..

I mowed a bit more along side where I was working yesterday and then decided to try cutting by the east fence. the neighbor has an electric fence for her horses (it is not always turned on, but when it is tall weeds touching the wires tend to short it out. and there is a whole section that looks as if it has never been mowed. Now, mowing straight into head-high growth is something different! LOL but I did about half of that part (maybe about a third of the way back from the "lawn" part to the back border, but at one point the horses were allowed to graze in the way back, so that part is less in need of cutting.) I got more practice at putting my blade right next to a post or a tree trunk and cutting the grasses away from it, as I did a similar motion along the border under the fence when the horses came to investigate my work. No desire to whack a horsie. LOL would annoy the horse and really anger the neighbor!

When they found that the process did NOT involve good things for horses to eat, they wandered off...

Now onto to bifocals... I had my eyes examined last month and had decided that it was time to add a bifocal to the glasses collection. Yeah soon I will have three pairs to choose from. I really like being able to see correctly at a distance over all my vision (and as my distance vision had "changed" a lot -- actually I think the previous $20.06 special eye exam was screwed up and the prescription was WRONG from the get-go ) I ordered the new distance and bifocal glasses first. Of course the bifocals got here first... found the best deal on non-lined ones from an outfit in NY while my regular ones I ordered from the place in FL where I had been buying them... and since I wanted the proper distance Rx, I started wearing them.

Not really all that hard to get used to, though I do have times -- like when I get up in the morning or swap out from my computer glasses (I NEED my full vision correct at screen distance for my work, so I am maintining that option as well) and see something relatively close that is in focus -- like the items on my night stand -- it does confuse me a bit. It is really nice to be able to see the veggies I am chopping, or cleaning -- or for that matter my supper! -- in focus!

But I will be glad when my new distance glasses get here, for driving and especially for mowing. The bifocals are disorienting a bit there, and with a very sharp blade, uneven ground, etc... well... I am being cautious.

I had a request for a photo of the scythe, and I will post one later, honest. I was hoping to get K to photograph me at work, as well.. but he was feeling poorly enough yesterday that he did not even get to the dining room window during daylight hours to look out and see what I had done.

Hopefully he will be well enough to at least take a few shots of me working from the craft room door, as I believe I had mowed enough that the lilac bush out there will not block the swath I have next to cut. and I will get him to shoot me just holding it as well.