Sunday, July 06, 2008

Manual Labor



As soon as I resigned myself to the fact that I'd be taking the day off, my Dad starts chiseling away at the brick in their basement, where the old coal stove used to be. After a few bricks, he said it was taking too long, so he was off to rent some power tool that would make the job easier. I should have let it go at that, I would have been driving home before he even got back, but instead I headed downstairs and started chiseling away.

It certainly wasn't an easy task, but one that not only required physical stength endurance but also a little bit of thinking. I watched the breaks in the cement start to form, noticed pockets of air that made some of the demolition easier, and strategically chose break lines that removed several bricks at time. All in all it was about 400lbs of brick. Still have some fatigue in my right hand, but by the time we were done breaking the bricks, and hauling them out of the house, and up to the barn, I had worked for a little over an hour, and was glad to be able to help, and get in an unexpected workout.

2 comments:

DrDamien said...

You should have tied a 24kg kettlebell to a rope, and blasted that sucker in one swing!!!!

Pamela MacElree said...

Ha! That probably would have worked.