Homestead Fitness

This is my latest article in The Harrowing Times - 

I lay there out of breath on the straw, a lamb lay unnaturally at my feet. The sheep turned her head away from me and I shifted my head from looking at her.

The night air hit me then, I realised that the wind was blowing icy, it would be a heavy frost, I could see that already in the moonlight, from the makeshift shed I sometimes used for tricky lambings. It was four in the morning and I started to chill quickly, I’d been sweating without realising it, I’d layered up my clothes to keep warm, but I hadn’t had time to strip down before trying to help this ewe.

I’d found her down by the brook, she was struggling, pushing and groaning as she did so. She needed my help, but if I took a step towards her she’d bolt, so I had to be tactical. I headed her towards the shed, where I had the gates set like a funnel for just this occasion. I’d got her in easily, and shut the gate behind her. I’d grabbed the gloves, the lube, and set to my work. Never a nice job, but I’d grown up doing this.

There is a moment, when it’s four in the morning and everyone else is fast asleep in bed, when you question what you’re doing with free time. But you carry on, as that’s what you’ve always done.

The lamb had a leg back, it wasn’t going to be easy, in the end too much time passed, I had to us string, the lamb was dead before I started. It was never going to be a story to tell over the dinner table.

But it was after I’d failed this sheep that I realised I’d done worse than that. I shifted my body once I’d got my breath back, I lent over to give the girl a rub and tell her it’s okay and not her fault, and then I realised. I’d done something to my back. I could barely move without shooting pains going up my whole body.

To get out of that pen, I had to roll full onto my front, into the straw and climb up on the gate, then shuffle my way back to the house. I got into bed full clothed, saying nothing to wake my wife or the children.

When I woke in the morning and the three children came rushing in, I was quick to tell them not to jump on me. I rang a chiropractor, nearly in tears, telling him I’d do anything for an appointment (it was a bank holiday as well). He said I could either rest up, or keep moving, and with more sheep to tend I chose the latter.

I think looking back that was probably a tipping point for me. I’ve always been really strong. It’s not an idle boast, I’m a carpenter by trade, and grew up on a farm, you just have to be strong to do what I did on a daily basis. Whole body fitness on the other hand has come and gone in waves, I did a lot of martial arts when I was younger. But it’s quite intense and injury never seems far away, something that is quite important to be mindful of when you’ve always been self-employed. And having children seemed to stop that for a while especially when they were really young. I’d also had an accident fitting a flight of stair in France in my mid 20s as well, which had hurt my back, I’d kept working and probably made things worse.

My dad’s mantra of “You don’t need to exercise if you’re working hard enough,” would always be in my head. And if you ever spend time with my father, who has just turned 70, you can soon see why people mistake him for a much younger man. But I’ve taken a different approach, I wanted to make sure my whole body was as fit as possible, I enjoy this lifestyle and what I do, but I also understand it’s very dependant on my health and fitness.

My chiropractor had said that my core was the most important, and I wanted something fairly low impact. At the time my three children were having swimming lessons. Growing up we never had much money and the only lessons I’d ever had were at school. This meant I could swim, but not very well. So, I enrolled myself as an adult into swimming lessons.

I turned up, as nervous as a child starting school, stood there in my trunks as dozens of people swam lengths up and down. The teacher, Kate, looked me up and down, “you’re a big guy, you can swim?”

I nodded, “yeah, I can swim…” I trailed off.

“Do a length up and down, we’ll probably start you in intermediate,”

I slipped into the pool and somehow got to the other end, then made it back, more by the waves of the others than my own swimming.

She lent down to me, in a low voice, “I think we’ll probably start you in beginners…”

That was 7 years ago, I still have lessons every week, but now I’m not struggling to swim a length, I’m swimming 80. I’m now the one the teacher uses as an example of good technique, and when I see someone learning to swim as an adult I go and say how bad I was when I started.

I also run, I’m not going to be doing any marathons, and I don’t want to, but just a little bit every few days. The Couch to 5k app was the way this became easy. During covid, I’d run 5km every other day, my wife would do the same and we’d call it “running from the ‘rona.” This is a short amount of time to invest, far easier than driving to our local town for a swim.

I also visit the chiropractor regularly, not just when I have a problem. He has become part of the system I use to keep my body healthy. He spots things I might not notice, gives me exercises and stretches to keep me standing tall, especially as a lot of my day is spent hunched over a workbench.

They’re just little things that, along with eating well, keep me healthy and keep me working, at my job and on the smallholding.

I also like to think we’re setting good examples for our children. They emulate what they see, it’s why I have a 14-year-old who hangs out in the greenhouse as much as she does in her room, or a 12-year-old who thinks knocking up some sourdough is easier than driving to town to buy processed bread. I’m hoping that as they get older, they’ll see that a bit of exercise, even if it may be a little reluctant sometimes, is essential to living a healthy happy life.