Inadvertent Gardening

There's something very relaxing about strolling round the garden. Although lately I've found this not to be quite the case. Mum's been worried some of our trees have grown a bit much, and could clip lorries on the road, so my brother's been up a ladder cutting them down. So on Thursday and Friday afternoons my strolls were interrupted by seeing this, and a recognition that I need to help out. We have moved a lot of branches, mostly small ones, though not all. We have coal fires, so this will also be a helpful thing come winter. As you can see below, we'll seem extremely posh with oak burning on the fire.

We shifted about ten or fifteen times the weight of the branch below, but it was the largest single thing I moved. I had hacked and sawed in half the branch my brother had lopped off the tree, and didn't fancy cutting it down further. So I balanced this thing on my shoulder, and carried it around the house to the outdoor woodworking area. For scale, that's a standard pallet about three foot on each side. I have a new-found admiration for folks who toss the caber!

Not exactly light wood!

Hulk Smash!

As I resolved at the beginning of the year, I have been working out more. I have been trying not to let this get in the way of the blog, but it has rather delayed yesterday's entry. So this is just to let you folks know that there'll be yet another terrain tutorial along shortly. I am pretty cheered by how well the exercise is going, though yesterday morning I over-exerted myself, and spent the afternoon lounging about. It is mainly weight-lifting I have been concentrating on, and I can report substantial increases in the abilities of every groups of muscles I have been training thus far. For reference, I think that's all of them! I have been most pleased by the improvement in my deadlifting. For years I had been stuck at about 70kg (c.154lbs). My back wasn't greatly impressed, but my forearms simply weren't able to do more. In these last few weeks, however, I have been following the advice in Arnie's mammoth New Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding, and specifically training the forearms. The result is that I am now managing deadlifts of 110.1kg (c.243lbs) in 3 sets of 10, then 6, then 4 reps. Two friends with more experience have recommended straps, but I have yet to get my head around them.

I shan't bore you with the remaining details (for now), but rest assured that since tomorrow is a rest day (I'm working out 3 days, and taking one off), I should be able to get some essential 'gaming-based work done. Right now, though, I'm going to do some leg exercises. Until next time, happy gaming, folks!