Life at the top.

[cabe]

This is a thread based on one question.When and how old were you when you realized you had peaked , then started that slow descent into "just not quite being able to as much of the tough work".Her is my example;a couple of days ago my little athlete daughter decides she wants to do push-ups while doing hand stands. I told her when I used to wrestle in school we had to do ten, and before you could count that far I started to show her. Well I gave everyone a big laugh(with me) when I collapsed downward on my head from all the weight. Then like a mighty tree I fell on over to the ground almost taking down a lamp, and my kid.I would have hit her when I fell but she had already fell to the ground laughing . :no: It is funny you see yourself as before, you feel like you used to, but the thing is we were never as good as we thinked we were. My head hurts. Marty.

[BeeFree]

At 42 I started to fall apart.

[Pony]

Well, let's see... I think it was around last year (I was 46), when I fell into that darned window well and damaged my back. I'm only just now starting to get my ol' Pony spark back, but I will tell you that I have loooooooooooow energy. Even being in the garden, which is such a joy beyond words, is work.

Youth is wasted on the young, I tell ya!

Pony!

[Terri]

About 2 years ago, when the Multiple Sclerosis symptoms started.

Until then, greater experience MORE than made up for my aging body. Like fine wine, I was just getting better. I was doing more, and doing it better.

Oh, I knew that I could no longer run as fast or as long, but I could get a LOT more done physically, so I just blew it off.

But, the alternative to aging is dying, and I don't think I am ready for that, yet! :haha:

Even WITH MS, there are plants to be planted and bee hives to set up and kids to raise. Life may be frustrating, but it is very, very good.

I am 50.

[Meg Z]

Ahhhh, the 'Age of Never'.

'It never used to be so hard to lift this.'
'There never were this many stairs here before, were there?'
'I never used to go to bed this early.'

It hit me in my late 30's, about two years before I was finally diagnosed with lupus. I think every one finds the Age of Never at a different time of their life.

Meg

[OD]

50. I think I might have lasted a little longer if we hadn't built this house, but it's worth the pain. At least, I have a front porch to sit on in my old age.
My eyesight started to go at about 35 from too much reading, but you can compensate for that, so I don't count it.
It's a shame that the old body starts to wear out just about the time that a person gets old enough to have the good sense to start trying to take care of it.

[Snowdancer]

I think I hit the top before I knew there was a hill! :haha:

I'm 53 now and can still outwork most 30 yr olds, it just hurts more the next day!

[farminghandyman]

about 44, when I jumped of the bed of my truck and blew my knee to pieces, they worked on it for 6 hrs in surgury, was on crutches for about 3 months, and I used a lawn tractor I had out fitted with a hand clutch for cross country wheel chair to do chores on, it took about 4 to 5 years for my knee to get back to "normal", some times it still gives me a little trouble now and then. but can kneel on it some now, 6 years later, and walk a few miles at a time fixing fence, so I thank the Lord for that.

[Ravenlost]

I would say about age 41-42 when I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. I'll be 46 next month and have recently been diagnosed with arthritis in my knees which has proved to be quite restrictive.

[mpillow]

Well I still got some game left in me....although after yesterday's bout of dog wrestling I am thankful for pain pills! I still milked one handed and did the chickens last night and this morning. Hubby did have to wash dishes last night. '

I'm only 34 but I'm not the fit soccer/basketball player I used to be. I do still play ball with my kids though!

I see my parents though and know exactly what you are talking about....they are in their late 50's and mid 60's and moving them last Spring was hard on them. My dad is a bull though and sometimes suffers for days after trying to do too much like splitting wood.

We have a phrase that we say to my dad " Dad, you gotta work smarter 'cause all you got left is age and wisdom"

[mtman]

being a steam fitter all my adult working life and working with very big pipe and other types of steel i think it helped me a lot to stay in shape at age 55 i dont think i have slowed down or if i have its not enough to notice

[whiterock]

In my mid 40's I started to have pain in my legs when walking quickly or long distances steadily. At 47 I would have to rest after walking 100 ft quickly due to the pain. Turns out I had periperal vascular disease. The left femoral artery was completely closed and the right had two major blockages. Two months after my 47th birthday I had to have three bypasses for my legs (goretex arteries). I can walk steadily now and sometimes quickly but doing things like mowing the yard is now for my wife. I just don't have the stamina I used to have.
Ed

[Ross]

Well I ain't never been "fit" but can out work most of ya. At 41 I feel my peek will hit perty much like my aged and hard workign clan have done at about 58-60. The decline will start about then and only spiral out of control if I decide to quit working. My uncle lost it around 88, but most seem to power through to their mid 90's. My family from all sides is blessed with good health and I don't intend to waste a second of it. Retirement means new tires for an old truck around here

[Wildcrofthollow]

I was a camp counselor for years....
Well now the kids that I taught years ago are the counsellors now. One of them used to always want to arm wrestle me when he was a kid. Last year he challenged me to arm wrestle him again. He is now 22. My God he was strong, but I had a reputation to protect ya know? My arm was darn near useless for 2 weeks afterward. Ah the price of pride!

But I did beat him.....But I'm afraid that those days are gone. Next time he suggests it I'm gonna tell him the truth. Not unless he asks though.

I'm 42 and still going strong, Hanging around with younger folks keeps you going, of course you don't really want to let on that when the day is over and they are going to go to a party, you are going to bed.

[MissKitty]

The big 40!!!!!,,,I am 49 now...MissKitty

[snoozy]

I saw a bumpersticker the other day:

"The older I get, the better I was"

[fordson major]

during my teens had to switch hands due to injury and then at eighteen poped both my ankles with in 6 months of each other ,slowed me down some but at 45 still not "over the hill" just takin longer to climb it!! started to speed up again after too many years of piolting a moving mountain! resemble that toby keith song !!!

[Beeman]

45 was the magic number.

[MarleneS]

Reading your posts has me smiling about never haven't gotten into sports, and at working behind a desk for 25+ years. You see after living such a sedate life for so long - getting into homesteading at nearly 50 makes me in better shape now then I've ever been. I'm still waiting to see where I will peak...when I first started I couldn't even hardly move a 50# bag of feed - forget actually lifting it up and carrying it -- and I needed lots of breaks while doing heavy chores...not so today...thanks for giving me bragging rights.

Of course, I can't stay out all night dancing and younger people make me tired just watching them...have to just keep on looking at the brightside...

Hugs
Marlene

[cabe]

Hey I feel all of you -alls pain.I am 44, and this is the year.Someone asked me the other day how it felt to be "over the hill",and I told them that the veiw from the top was, and had been pretty good.I will just be exploring a little now in this new frame of mind.God has blessed me, I have 4 children and with the farm it gets overwhelming. My son is a big guy, and he hates he cant wrestle dad anymore(even though he wont say it). Our battles when he was in his early teens were legendary --entire sections of barn would be knocked around. The last time we wrestled he nearly tore my arm out of socket, I never said a word.One thing great about all this is , yes it does beat the alternative, and you get to share knowledge you have gained to the up and comings.One day at work I had a new guy tell me he could not do something because it was just too hard. I have never asked anyone in my entire life to do something I would not or could not do, so I was taken aback. I just told him to move on to something else, and I took care of it.But it was simple, and it raised a question in my mind......this new bunch of workers,what is ever going to happen if the electricity or something is off?Will they sit and say we cant sweep the floor or even take out the trash without gadgets,computers or even air-conditioning ?Not my kids, I know some would say I raised all of them tough, but my oldest thanks me to this day for caring enough to let him get a few callouses on those hands.What was my original question?Sorry Marty.