The October long weekend might be my very favourite long weekend of the year. The days are longer. The sunshine is (generally) out and glorious and burning off the winter blahs. The gardens are blooming and everything is fresh and bright. It’s all the very best of spring and slow living blended together, and is all-round magical.
This year it was no exception. We are lucky enough to be out of the Covid hotspots, and were able to have as normal a long weekend as is possible in 2020. There were slow starts and long cooked breakfasts. My to-do list had had some larger jobs on it for a few days, that I wanted to get stuck into before the heat really set in. Two loads of trimmed branches and two loads of rocks later, a spot of whopper snipping until I ran out of fuel, and the boring housewife got that still has to get done, no matter how tiny the house or how long the weekend, and I decided to claim the afternoon for myself and some creative play. Sunday was a perfect day for a barbecue in the shade of the orchard with visiting family, supplemented with a quick trip to town followed helping Miss9 set up a new easel she bought with her birthday money and just had to have then and there. And then to wrap it up, apparently Labour Day is for labouring, and it was time to rock my best lumberjack cosplay, helping the mister cut down some pine trees in the back forest – there a many along the fence line that were killed by both drought and fire, but underneath the charcoal bark, the inner timber is fine and perfect for building projects. I was on spotting duty as the trees were felled, and then relegated to bark stripping. Ten poles later, my back and arms were screaming for mercy, and just as I was trying to decide if I could come up with a decent excuse to disappear, Mr12 went splat in pretty spectacular fashion, and I was called to nurse duty. Getting him set up on the lounge, the afternoon was spent bouncing between changing up ice blocks for his leg, a couple of wagon-loads worth of weeding, building a shade shelter for the chickens, and ending the day with a cup of tea and piece of cake by the fire pit.
As tiring as all that yard work was, it was also really satisfying to see progress in various spots around the place, and to feel rather accomplished to cross those jobs off my list, even though I am still feeling it in my upper arms and my back today!
Of course, with all the aches and pains and sneezes that come with a productive weekend in the garden, I was constantly reaching for my oils. From hand cream to seasonal irritants, I was doterrarising myself pretty much every time I walked in the door.
My long weekend yard work essentials:
*TerraArmour – to discourage any buzzing little critters from getting too close.
*Peppermint Touch – to roll on the back of my neck for a cooling effect as the days heated up
*IceBlue Touch – for the little aches and pains that come with carting rocks, lifting logs and swinging an axe.
*a cooling & energising spritzer I made up with peppermint, citrus bliss and frankincense – depending how desperate I was, I would either spray it directly on my arms & legs, or spritz in the air in front of me and step into the droplets
*body butter – I use this on my hands for a super dooper hydrating treat after yard work; when they are dry and aching, it is nice to take a moment to massage and soothe
*rose hand lotion – my daily go to hand cream that lives on the school trolley and gets used constantly. Today I put in on as soon as the body butter was absorbed for an extra dose of moisturising
Not shown above is my Magnolia Touch roller – it’s one of our most used oils, and doubly so on weekends where we are particularly active or doing bigger projects. On Saturday, in my usual coordinated way, I was taking down some frames from around a couple of fruit trees that had grown beyond needing additional support. I removed one without incident, moved on to number two, pulled some poly pipe off a foot-high star picket…and promptly smashed my shin into said star picket when I forgot it was there. Yes, forgot about the picket I literally has just pulled pipe off. I really am a special kind of talented. Once I’d stopped hollering and sat down to inspect the damage, I sent the boys off to collect the Magnolia for me to roll around my injury, on the unbroken skin to help soothe the area.
Even with an extra day, long weekends insist on being like normal weekends, in that it disappeared far too quickly! The children are still adjusting to daylight savings so our Tuesday is off to a slow start, giving me a chance to get some work done, including setting up a custom starter pack with my favourite oils listed above, including free postage, free rose lotion, and bonus 50 products credits worth $60+ in products of your choice. You can find the pack in the shop until Saturday 10th October.