A couple of weekends ago, we received a call for help from my ranching in-laws. They had 1400 feet of 6 inch PVC pipe that needed to be laid in trench they had dug to deal with the overflow of their artesian well during the winter months. It had frozen out at the ranch that Saturday morning. My husband’s father didn’t think he would be able to get in the pipe in by himself in the few shorts weeks he might have left before winter truly set in.

It took the entire Saturday of me lowering each section of pipe down into the hands of my husband and father-in-law. And though I did my best to ignore the growing ache in my arms and back from the effort, I know my husband and father-in-law’s job was much harder. The mud in the trench was pretty deep in places and had to be shoveled out in others where the dirt walls had collapsed.

The saddest part, I’ve spent months getting my body back into shape, pushing myself to the limit in every workout I do, and still I wasn’t strong enough to not hurt the next day. And I’m not talking oh-I’m-a-little-stiff pain. Oh no. This was a I-didn’t-even-know-it-was-possible-to-hurt-in-so-many-places-at-once pain. I didn’t even want to get out of bed, yet I can guarantee my father-in-law got up the next day and still took care of the daily farm chores. He’s in his seventies and can work circles around me. Ugh! Farmers and ranchers don’t need weights, gyms, or personal fitness instructors to workout, their daily routines are already extreme enough.