Chores That You Really Hate(d)

[crawlinkingsnake]

Yard work yes. But the one that really gets me is getting fall leaves taken care of. We've got some huge oak and sycamore trees and they drop leaves like nobodies business. Each fall it becomes a major task racking, blowing, gathering, mulching or burning. Unbelievable! And if I don't they'll for sure end up in a culvert, plug it up, and create a flooding situation down the street.

 

[sheeplady]

I grew up on a sheep farm. We grew 90% of our own food, in the Adirondack mountains (read: not much grows there). My two worse chores I hated was taking care of the sheep during or after a rain... they'd be like little cold sponges that would rub up against you then you'd be drenched in cold water which would drop down into your boots. And you'd smell like wet sheep. And because we never had enough farm clothes (typically 2 sets for a season), you'd have to wear your wet sheep clothes outside during chore time until they dried. Which took days because the area was damp and nothing dried and we only could do a load of farm clothes wash every two weeks (and we had no dryer).

My second worse chore was picking bush beans. It, along with corn and squash, were one of the few vegetables that grew up there, so my parents would plant an acre of them (I picked all the vegetables). Because it was so damp, a good third of the plants would rot off, and I'd get punished for not being careful. For my parents, since I took food away I'd have my food taken away. Similarly I'd catch hell if the beans were too small or too big to be picked, so I was out there every other day, often in the rain.

I still refuse to plant bush beans. Pole beans all the way.

 

[tonyb]

Yard work also. And washing dishes, though that's always my chore. Along with the litter box. Disgusting. I don't even like cats.
When I was a kid, it was shoveling snow. I don't mind it now, because the shovel is so light. When Dad made me do it, the shovel was all metal and weighed a ton before you shoveled a flake into it. And the driveway was enormous.

Having relocated three and a half years ago to an area that gets significant snowfall, I got reacquainted with snow shovels, which I hadn't had regular need for since departing Wisconsin in 1968.

Among the questions posed to me by my new cardiologist is what I do for exercise. I mentioned snow shoveling, among other things. She strongly encouraged me to get a snowblower, a self-propelled one, with electric start. Every winter she has patients keel over while shoveling snow, she informed me. So I stopped by Lowe's on the way home.

 

[ChiTownScion]

I hated snow shoveling as a kid. We had a fairly long driveway and a wide garage apron, and it was a grueling task.

The perk was that my Dad- who was the chef at his firehouse- would usually prepare fresh soups and home made bread for a reward. After two hours shoveling in subfreezing temperatures, that hot food was always appreciated.

I now have a self propelled snowblower (electric start) and as far as I'm concerned it's the greatest invention ever. I actually look forward to a foot and a half snowfall: it's a source of pride that I can clear the drive and walks in less than an hour and have it looking like a pro did it.

The riding lawnmower/ tractor is a nice tool as well: always wanted one as a kid and now with about a third acre lot it's a necessity. That or a lawn service, I suppose... and it'd kill my wife to pay a service, methinks. My mom said that my Dad could have a riding mower the day that she got a riding vacuum cleaner. I always thought that ironic, in that it was usually my Dad or I who did most of the vacuuming around the house.

This is something from before the Era, but I wish that I had one: a steam powered lawn mower. It's make the job more fun than running my model trains- the next best thing to my own steam locomotive!

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
My snowblower makes such short work of it that I often clear the sidewalks in front of the neighbors' houses on either side. Local ordinance calls for residents to clear the walks in front of their houses within 24 hours of the snowfall stopping, and the neighbors ain't young, and it takes me another 10 minutes tops. Not even that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Snow shoveling will eventually kill me. I don't own a snow blower, since I have nowhere to put one, so I do it with a shovel and hope I survive. The last couple of winters I've had the brother of one of the theatre kids plow me out, but I don't know how long he's going to keep up that business, and with the winters being what they are here paying market rates for plowing can bankrupt you fast.

Fortunately there are no sidewalks on my street, but I do have to shovel out the theatre. And I won't mind so much if that's what kills me, because at least I can get workers comp.

 

[1mach1]

Snow shoveling is a list topper for sure, along side scraping and painting anything.

 

[tonyb]

Snow shoveling will eventually kill me. I don't own a snow blower, since I have nowhere to put one, so I do it with a shovel and hope I survive. The last couple of winters I've had the brother of one of the theatre kids plow me out, but I don't know how long he's going to keep up that business, and with the winters being what they are here paying market rates for plowing can bankrupt you fast.

Fortunately there are no sidewalks on my street, but I do have to shovel out the theatre. And I won't mind so much if that's what kills me, because at least I can get workers comp.

The last of the Old Man's money-losing enterprises (wouldn't wish to break such a long and storied streak) was a snow-removal business he did for a couple-three years before he got too decrepit for it. To his credit, he did it mostly to give himself something to do during the winters in that pretty little resort town he lived in over on the cold side of the Cascades, something that wouldn't demand too great an initial capital outlay. And, to his credit, he took out only a few mailboxes and one carport over the life of the enterprise. Knowing how reckless he could be with potentially deadly equipment, I call that a low casualty count.

He got a strong running if not good-looking old four-wheel-drive Chevy pickup he found fairly cheap and a brand-spanking-new plow setup, complete with flashing lights for atop the cab. That wasn't cheap. But knowing him as I did, I'm confident that being out in the wee hours plowing out parking lots and driveways, with those lights flashing away above him, made him the star in his own movie. So wotthehell if it wasn't such a great money-maker.

 

[HadleyH1]

I do not like this forced thing.....that I have to go shopping for food weekly ....or I starve...

I know it's a strange hatred....

I resent it anyway....

lol (but I do it of course)

 

[1mach1]

I do not like this forced thing.....that I have to go shopping for food weekly ....or I starve...

I know it's a strange hatred....

I resent it anyway....

lol (but I do it of course)

You are not alone in that love/hate relationship. Well, forget the love. [emoji14]

 

[3fingers]

Snow shoveling was an ongoing misery for sure. Still is, even though I do have a blower now. From childhood, cleaning out he chicken house, snapping beans and shelling peas were things that brought no joy to my days.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I do not like this forced thing.....that I have to go shopping for food weekly ....or I starve...

I know it's a strange hatred....

I resent it anyway....

lol (but I do it of course)

I go to the supermarket probably every other day as I just buy enough for my dinner and it's only a five minute walk from my house. However, I do hate buying paper towels because we go through them so fast.

Nowadays you can order online from many supermarkets and they'll deliver it to you.

 

[tonyb]

I go to the supermarket probably every other day as I just buy enough for my dinner and it's only a five minute walk from my house. However, I do hate buying paper towels because we go through them so fast.

Nowadays you can order online from many supermarkets and they'll deliver it to you.

I hit the supermarket probably five times per week on average. The lovely missus often has specific requests for her dinner (I do the cooking) and it's often for the sorts of foods that don't "keep."

To your other point ...

Every supermarket around here is now offering online ordering and home delivery. Haven't tried it myself yet (I wish to see the very sockeye salmon filet or rib steak I'm buying before I decide), but I can see how it might be big hit with large swaths of the population.

There are now businesses offering meal kits -- all the ingredients and step-by-step directions. And they come to your door. People who have stayed in our short-term rental unit in the basement have availed themselves of these services. Judging from all the packaging I'm left to dispose of, it impresses me as quite wasteful. Gel packs, insulating foil blankets, and paperboard boxes. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the cost of packaging and shipping exceeds the cost of the food itself.

 

[Zombie_61]

...From childhood, cleaning out he chicken house, snapping beans and shelling peas were things that brought no joy to my days.

This brought memories of my own childhood, things I haven't thought of for a long time. Dad grew up on a farm somewhere in Nebraska and he brought much of his own childhood to California, so for a while we had a chicken coop in the back yard and a couple of strawberry patches in the front yard in addition to the variety of fruit trees on the property. He also worked in the fishing industry, and every year the appetizer for our Christmas dinner was shrimp cocktail. I mention all of this because, unlike raking leaves which I usually did alone, the chores associated with the things I've listed here--cleaning out the chicken coop, maintaining the strawberry patches and harvesting them when they were ripe (in addition to the fruit on the various *trees), and so on--were chores I performed with Dad. He was a hard worker and was regularly away from home at his job six days a week, so I valued the time I was able to spend with him even if that meant working alongside him performing these chores. To me they weren't "work" as much as they were simply time spent with Dad doing something he appeared to enjoy, and as such they became fond memories. And looking back as an adult I realized he was also passing down his strong work ethic, something which has served me rather well during my adult life.

Oh, the shrimp. They were cooked in the shells, which needed to be removed before the shrimp could be eaten, so a portion of every Christmas Eve was spent with Dad standing at the sink in the garage shelling those shrimp. He also made his own shrimp cocktail sauce, and I wish I'd written down his recipe because it's still the best I've ever eaten.


*We didn't harvest the avocados when they were ripe. Nine trees that produced a lot of fruit was too much for the two of us to handle, so Dad would call his "contact" when they were ripe and within a day or two a crew would arrive, harvest the avocados, and pay Dad whatever they were worth. Considering the trees needed very little maintenance aside from raking up the leaves that fell, it was a relatively easy way to make a little extra money. Smart guy, my Dad.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

I spent a summer harvesting avocados. You don't just pick them. You have to cut the stem, leaving about an inch of stem intact. I swore off agricultural labor that summer. Still like guacamole, though.

 

[1mach1]

I spent a summer harvesting avocados. You don't just pick them. You have to cut the stem, leaving about an inch of stem intact. I swore off agricultural labor that summer. Still like guacamole, though.

I don't envy that job! [emoji54]

 

[2jakes]

Shaving in the morning.
I'm not fully awake and always manage to cut myself.

Washing Machines.
Sometimes,I forget to separate the colors from the
whites and wind up with pink underwear.
I use Clorox to remove the color but sometimes I have
a heavy hand when pouring the bleach.
The clothes disintegrated within minutes, no kidding.

Yardwork
It's not so much the yardwork but the mosquitoes.
No matter how much mosquito repellent I use,
they still bite.

Possum traps.
I have a cage that catches annoying possums and raccoons.
The trap is not meant to kill but capture them.
The chore is having to take them out of the cage without hurting
either them or myself and going out in the wilderness to set them free.

Pots and pans.
Have a bad habit of burning pots and it's a chore to clean them.

As a kid, I worked part-time after school and on weekends
for Coca-Cola and 7-Up.
I helped collect the empty soda bottles which were in the rear
of the store or saloons.
(Mornings the bars were closed and I could go in)
The soda bottles were sticky plus the smell of empty beer bottles,
cigarette smoke, urine and vomit was sickening.

On the plus side, I always got treated to a delicious lunch
at a favorite local diner by the delivery man that I worked for.

 

[1mach1]

Crawling in the crawl space that my Dad was too big to navigate. Upon doing so, I really wished I hadn't watched those Twilight Zone episodes.

 

[2jakes]

Crawling in the crawl space that my Dad was too big to navigate. Upon doing so, I really wished I hadn't watched those Twilight Zone episodes.

At work...
Taking an old elevator the size of a telephone booth with no vents,
just walls. Took forever to get to the
next floor. Had to focus on something
otherwise I would've freaked out and
gone bonkers!
I hate being in tight places.
I believed it probably began when I was playing around as a kid and somehow I got rolled up inside a floor carpet.
Also...I hate coffins!

 

[2jakes]

If I could, this is the way I would love to make my exit with those babes next to me!