Healing In Jeep Country

Today I tried to push myself a little further.  Still coming out of the chemo funk, I started the day off again by taking the basenjis on a long walk around the yard.  Benny wasn't quite chasing as many invisible rabbits as he had yesterday, so he was only bouncing around at the speed of sound rather than the speed of light.

During the last storm, one of our apple trees split in two.  Yesterday my mother in law discussed taking it up to the burning pile.  Her idea was to cut it up into pieces, pick the pieces up, throw the pieces into the lawn tractor's trailer (which means the pieces would be only slightly larger than a loaf of french bread), take the trailer loads up to the burning pile (which since the trailer has the capacity of a five gallon bucket would be approximately 134.5 trips), pick up the pieces out of the trailer, and throw them all the burning pile.  This would involve me running the chainsaw, which I am still afraid of.  As I have said before, motions that require me to move in one direction haven't seemed to bother my surgery.  Motions that require multiple directions, such as holding back a ricocheting basenji, do tend to put stress on my stitches.  Holding a chainsaw up in the air, moving it back and forth, and fighting the kickbacks and dodging the tree as the weight shifts as it twists and turns on the ground, would probably not be the wisest thing for me to do just yet.  So, my solution was hook the Jeep to the tree, drag the whole darn thing up to the burning pile where it's out of sight, wait until we get enough rain to actually be able to burn the burning pile (which will be a long time) at which point I will be able to hold the chainsaw, make a few cuts and just lean large pieces against the pile.  She wasn't on board with my idea, because she didn't think of it.  So as we discuss which is easier, otherwise known as why we should do it her way, she happens to mention that we can't do it today because she has a doctor's appointment.  BINGO!

So, while my mother in law is at her doctor's appointment, I hook my tow strap up to the tree.  There is one limb buried in the ground from the fall that I will have to do something with before I hook up to it.  I carefully put my weight into the tow strap, and after rocking the tree a couple of times the limb snaps and the tree lays flat on the ground, and more importantly, I don't feel any sharp pains in my side or groinal area from pulling on a tree.  I then get the Jeep and pull into position.  I go to put it into the very powerful Four Wheel Low.  Jeep must deem this way too powerful to actually use, because first you have to put your transmission in neutral, then you have to let the  Jeep roll very slowly, then grab the transfer case handle and move it down, sideways, diagonally, and down again before you actually engage Four Wheel Low (I am not making that up).  I imagine corn mazes are easier to negotiate than shifting in to Four Wheel Low.  I then start to back up, when the transfer case pops out of Four Wheel Low.  I guess I didn't correctly navigate the maze.  I again, shift, push, twist, angle, curse, shove, and pop, and now Four Wheel Low is engaged.  I back down the hill to the tree, which I swear was moving, because no matter how many times I backed up, I was always about four inches from hooking up to it.  I finally hook up (pray) and start up the hill.  The Jeep chugs on like it's not a problem at all.

Now there is a reason Jeep makes it so hard to get into Four Wheel Low.  The top speed is around twenty miles an hour in low, which isn't that fast, but you could run over the cast and audience of the View and not even notice, or pull half an apple tree without a problem.  I get the tree to the burning pile and unhook.  I feel good that I finally did something!  I decided I will put all my gear back together later on today when I wash the Jeep.  I go back to the house to cook lunch.  My mother in law comes home, glad to see the tree is gone and still wonders why we didn't do the multiple cuts, multiple trips, and multiple handling of each chunk of tree that she suggested.  

Feeling good that I have done so much already today, I decide to take a break before I wash the car...until it's dark.  BUT, I managed to stay awake all day, and that is an improvement.  And I did do some physical activity today which is also an improvement.  I am getting back to myself slowly but surely.  I am sure I will get the car washed tomorrow, provided the U.S. Forest Service doesn't call me asking me to pull some Sequoia's out of the ground.