Sandals and Scythes Don't Mix

Today, I nearly cut my toe off. Well, not really OFF but it's a deep cut. Dh and I were sitting on the deck early this morning, drinking hot tea and coffee. I was enjoying the peacefulness and the unusually cool morning when he said "do ya want to go scythe?". I couldn't wait, I mean, who could resist an offer like that?

Dh has been off work due to an exacerbation of his arthritis so we've been able to spend the days together for a change. He is very stiff and has lots of pain in the mornings and it takes him several hours to loosen up. It helps him to be active and one of his [seemingly] favorite things to do is chop down the weeds on our land. Dh is as concerned about the environment as I am and even though we have a gasoline powered lawn mower and a big weed eater on wheels, he insists on doing as much of the chopping as he can with a scythe.

If you've never experienced the benefits of using a scythe, according to dh--besides the fact that we're not using fossil fuels and polluting the air--it's a great workout and it's therapeutic. I've been married to this man for 22 years and still can't figure him out but I do know he's got more energy in his pinky finger than I could muster up in a week. There are occasions when he simply has to have an outlet. We don't go out to eat or to a movie for fun like normal people, we do things like lift weights, paint the house or go scything.

Now, most people I know don't even own a scythe. We have 3. This morning at 7am, we were out on the hillside, scythes in hand, swinging away at the ubiquitous weeds. Most of our land we are allowing to naturalize but dh has blazed hiking trails and keeps the area around the tree swing, littlewho's fort and the zipline cleared away to keep the crawlies off of the kids.

Although I was very eager to spend quality time with my hubby, I was not really dressed to go scything; I was still in my pajamas and I was wearing a pair of sandals (Mr. Safety is slacking). After about 10 minutes, I was really getting into it and was aggressively swinging my tool, actually enjoying the work. Unfortunately, during one misdirected return stroke, the scythe hit a rock, bounced off and sliced into my 2nd toe. I threw the scythe down and started hopping around in agony, afraid to look down for fear my toe was no longer attached.

After a few minutes, dh had me sit down long enough to look at the damage. The toe was still there but had a deep cut and blood was dripping from my sandal into a pool on the ground. It could have easily used several stitches but ya know, it's just a toe.

Dh was so disappointed that he now had to scythe on his own, he woke ds21 up (who just recently moved back home) and took him out to the meadow to put him to work. Reluctant to lose another scything partner, he insisted that ds put his tennis shoes on. I have a feeling ds will have a job and his own apartment very soon...............