I hired a 17 year old High School boy to help me in the garden this past weekend. He showed up on time and said he was ready to work for 4 hours. After showing him around and providing an overview of all the areas to weed - we both started to work side by side. He was not working very fast and needed coaching on what was a weed versus a flower - but that was my expectation for a first day on the job.
It's a highly repetitive job - find a week, bend over and pull it out, place it in a bucket. Move to next spot, pull out another weed. Full bucket? Walk over and empty bucket in refuse bag. Repeat. Over and over again.
He asked lots of questions about how long I was going to work outside that day. I said 5-8 hours. He had signed up for 4 hours that day too. He started slow and then slowed down! After 45 minutes he called it a day - he thought it was too much hard work. OK gardening isn't for everyone - I get that. But what he was complaining about was the physical work. He said it was too hard for him. I said no worries, paid him for the hour and sent him on his way. I feel kind of sorry for him in that for the rest of his life he might recall that one day where an obese senior citizen outpaced him.
This is that the day in the garden looking like - 26 thousand steps and nearly no rest time the entire day. This is a new record in terms of steps. And more amazingly - not a single sore muscle the next day!
 |
| Full day of gardening! |
