Archive for April 8th, 2025
Taxing Effort
It took a toll on our patience and stamina but yesterday, we finished installing barriers to all the rafters under the overhang to stop pigeons from roosting there. Our hands took a lot of abuse from the stabbing ends of hardware cloth we cut into short pieces we attached to the beams.
Amid the clatter of banging aluminum ladders, two cursing adults, and my noisy power driver, the horses accepted all the racket as white noise to help them nap.
I quickly realized how much of a total body workout it is to work overhead while standing on a fully extended ladder. I had switched from a staple gun to driving screws to secure the pieces of metal mesh. Reaching above my head meant I barely had enough leverage to put sufficient pressure against the head of the screws. That forced me to flex every muscle in my body to stiffen up enough to keep the driver engaged with the screw head.
Meanwhile, the bottoms of my feet on the ladder rungs kept getting increasingly irritated from needing to hold all my weight on such a narrow portion of my sole. When I climbed back down to solid ground, my right knee let me know it was unhappy with the stress of standing on the ladder.
All that abuse sure better produce the result we are seeking. We’ll soon find out if the pigeons will get the message we are sending. I’m looking forward to working on our next project with my feet on the ground.
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Written by johnwhays
April 8, 2025 at 6:00 am
Posted in Chronicle
Tagged with barn overhang, body aches, horses, ladder work, napping horses, pigeon proofing, project completion



