A group of us went to help a man level off a space for a garden. He had been working on it for a couple of weeks, and we thought that we could help out by multiplying hands. Altogether, we were 12 people, 3 wheelbarrows, 6 shovels, and 2 pickaxes. We stirred up dirt about 200 yards away, shoveled it into the wheelbarrows, and wheeled it up to the garden area. I was under the impression that we were going to work - hard - for 2 or 3 hours, eat a picnic lunch, and trek back home. Nope – we stayed until the work was done (we were gone from 9-5). Yay for manual labor and sore muscles.
That said, there were some weird experiences along the way. For starters, when I was with the wheelbarrow, I was told *multiple* times that women shouldn’t use wheelbarrows because it leads to infertility. “You will never be able to have children! Stop!” (yeah, and sitting on concrete, and having cold feet, etc. have the same results…). Reaction one – The shrug: You believe it. I don’t. I can make my own choice. This was met with someone standing on the front end and not letting it move (which is harder on my back than any other work…). Reaction two – Education: How many women in the States use wheelbarrows…and still have babies? What scientific evidence do you have? Why do you think that way? Reaction three – submission: Okay, I’ll use the pickax and shovel; you wheel. No problems. (this was met by people saying they didn’t want to wheel it, either…so work halted for a bit). Reaction four – find someone on my side: Person who lived in Germany for awhile and thinks this mentality is as much rubbish as I do (this worked well – but it required rearranging our little working system).
That said, there were some weird experiences along the way. For starters, when I was with the wheelbarrow, I was told *multiple* times that women shouldn’t use wheelbarrows because it leads to infertility. “You will never be able to have children! Stop!” (yeah, and sitting on concrete, and having cold feet, etc. have the same results…). Reaction one – The shrug: You believe it. I don’t. I can make my own choice. This was met with someone standing on the front end and not letting it move (which is harder on my back than any other work…). Reaction two – Education: How many women in the States use wheelbarrows…and still have babies? What scientific evidence do you have? Why do you think that way? Reaction three – submission: Okay, I’ll use the pickax and shovel; you wheel. No problems. (this was met by people saying they didn’t want to wheel it, either…so work halted for a bit). Reaction four – find someone on my side: Person who lived in Germany for awhile and thinks this mentality is as much rubbish as I do (this worked well – but it required rearranging our little working system).
It’s not my problem if people didn’t want to work as hard as I wanted to. Frankly, I miss that type of work, and it’s been tricky trying to find opportunities like this. So just don’t get in my way! :P I try not to get on women soap boxes too often – although it matters to me, other stuff matters more (at least for now). But occasionally it’s just too much…
(I only let myself think for a second about how handy a skidloader with a bucket would’ve been – or that dandy John Deer that I got to drive for a few summers. Yep – only think about that for a second…equipment, equipment!!)
(I only let myself think for a second about how handy a skidloader with a bucket would’ve been – or that dandy John Deer that I got to drive for a few summers. Yep – only think about that for a second…equipment, equipment!!)
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