Clipping away at my stress

Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it ~

Toady I think found the best stress reliever in the world.

I spent two hours, outside, with bugs, and ticks, doing something I generally loath.

I was gardening.

Well before you break out the knitting needles and blue hair dye, hear me out.

I was actually pruning grape vines.

I should mention that this activity is actually as far away from actual gardening that I can get. There has been no planting. Or watering. Or weeding.

Well I was clipping away 1 1/2 foot spruce trees. I guess you can consider that weeding.

The vines have run our property. We havee been tearing them out of apple tress and running them through the chipper for weeks now.

That part I don' t consider gardening. That's actually just general destruction.

It is also the polar opposite of a stress reliever. It's a proven fact that the more time you spend trying to get rid of 100 yr old grapevines, the more they tangle and snag and remind you that they've been around for that long for a reason.

Pruning on the other hand, is tedious, yet insanely gratifying. Like Kinder Surprises, only without the calories. (you may wonder how I can find Kinder Eggs tedious... it is getting the stickers straight, they stress me out, but that's a completely different rant, for another day.)

The vines I've been pruning have been strung up in row, but not much else has been done to them in 70 odd years. Until I got the inspiration that I want to cultivate them to make homemade wine (that is stage two of the stress relief)

It's almost as good as cutting my own hair, only without all the silly walking around like a shorn sheep until a professional fixes it.

In fact, I know just about as much about pruning grapevines properly as I do about cutting hair. I just hack away at what looks dead to me, and try to make it all even.

I should add that my excitement for this new found activity has persevered through two and a half sections of one row.... I have about six more rows with 7-8 sections each left to prune.

I'm considering this as more of a long term hobby, rather than a weekend project.

I also have no clue if all my stress relief is just stressing out the vines. I have to wait until fall to see the fruits of my labor. Or lack there of.

But at least I'm giving my hair a break.