Spring Workout

I went for a dress fitting (I'm a 'groomsman' at my friend's wedding in the fall) and discovered that I'm 3 inches thinner than ususual. I think that it is due to my 'homestead workout plan'.
The tractor isn't working so I've had to mow the grass with the (environmentally friendly) 4-stroke push mower. I then had to rake and haul all of the grass ( about 9 yards worth). That would be my cardio routine.
We've also been building the raised beds for our garden, and decided to buy a 4-in-1 organic garden soil, which gets delivered by the yard. So, I've spent the past couple of weeks moving 6 yards of dirt by hand. I considered this my strength training.
Then there has been the rapid planting of the plants my friend Lucinda gave me, all which involved digging, amending the soil, planting, watering. A bit of interval training.
Finally, there is the daily routine of watering all of my newly planted vegetables. Since our rain barrels are gravity fed, this is done mostly with watering cans and so a lot of walking back and forth from bed to barrel to bed. This could be described as endurance.
All of this on top of the every day activities like cleaning, working, shopping, laundry, etc. It feels like I have been constantly on the move for the past 4 weeks (and thankfully I've been on 'vacation' for the past 3). In fact, I feel like I've been on the move since we moved out here.

The vegetable garden is showing promise - after a slowish start the peas are pulling themselves upward, the carrots have germinated and the 1st radishes and salads are almost ready to harvest. I planted out the tomatoes, and the peppers and basil will go into the ground in another week or so. The raised beds have really been great in that the soil has warmed up really quickly, so I'm a bit ahead of the game. I put my first succession of beans in yesterday, and will put another 2 plantings in over the next few weeks. Cucumbers will come next, once the weather is really warm. I have noticed that the raised beds require more watering than I would have thought ... even with the vermiculite that I incorporated into the soil, the beds seem to dry out pretty quickly.

Given that this is my first year gardening on such a scale, I'm a bit uncertain as to my eventual success rate. But the PROMISE of success (and envisioning the towering plants in a couple of months time) certainly is worth the effort.