Estonia Lifestyle walking through life

Let’s do it, Estonia. Clearing the forest around a secret pond

“Let’s do it!” cleaning day in Estonia

The beginning
The beginning

Have you heard of  World Cleanup event “Let’s do it!” where people around the world get together to clean up the garbage we, human beings, have made and left on the ground, in the sea or forest? This massive, worldwide campaign got started in Estonia on 3rd of May 2008, where more then 50 000 took a day to clean up our beautiful country. And no, it is not because we make the most garbage. Maybe we are forerunners for digital garbage since we are such an IT country. Anyway, back to 3rd of May.

Creatures f the forest
Creatures of the forest

Since 2008 the day -3rd of May – is synonymous for being with your friends, family or local community, making teams of people and cleaning up a piece of land, building something or even making decisions of a better life, as it was “My Estonia” day on one year (you could also use it for a cleanup), where we had “thinking sessions” around the country to spark good ideas to make our country a better place. Everyone can sign up and offer a topic or a place to start a community clean-up event and lots of people do this now as a habit.

From am to pm

But no “am to pm partying” but 11 am to 6 pm hard physical working, cutting trees, carrying branches and logs, making piles, picking up smaller and bigger branches on our “Let’s do it! 2014” day at my friend’s summer home. More logs. More branches. All 12 of us working and walking and lifting. One would think that since it was more like a fun event, we would take it slow, but there is no rest for the wicked. Estonians are born hard workers. And after all, who wants to show that they cannot handle the heavy lifting anymore?

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Work line.
Work line.

Water break.
Water break.
Energy bars from oatmeal.
Energy bars from oatmeal.
A break.
A break.

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We got it clean ...
We got it clean … very pleased
After such a hard work, food was in order
After such a hard work, food was in order
The pile just grew higher and higher
The pile just grew higher and higher
Barely managed just before the rain.
Barely managed just before the rain.

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Have a Twix. With compliments from the organizers of Let's do it! campaign
Have a Twix. With compliments from the organizers of Let’s do it! campaign
First grill of the year 2014
First grill of the year 2014

Estonian guys are the strongest and most gracious forest creatures 🙂

After 6 hours of work, everyone was really tired and worked on “fumes” of the lunch (no alcohol during work, only the strong and clear water from the well and homemade apple juice and some of my precious energy oatmeal cookies). You could see the light fading from the eyes, everyone was quiet and dealing with the branch at hand. Literally. When we noticed that the rain was about to hit the site, just in time for our planned finish time, final energy resources were mustered somehow and the boys even managed a sort of catwalk with the logs on their shoulders.

Have a look yourself

Training with tree-logs

Since my friend had been cleaning the forest for weeks and complaining about the muscle pain, we thought it would be fun to encourage people to do house (forest) work out sessions. Good use of local resources everyone has access to. So here is a little video training with a tree-log. Notice the “music” behind. Love it!

Work sets you free. It was good to take a day doing physical work. I believe we walked around 20 km throughout the day, adding constant bowing and picking things from the ground, it was a very good workout in the fresh air. I only wish we had a massage therapist with us (not me). Smoke sauna did help, though, got the muscles all warm a fuzzy again. All in all it was avery cool day with very fun people and I cannot wait to reap the fruit of my labor soon.

Walking lifestyle – keeping you fit, mentally and physically

Don’t forget we all need time-off from our daily lives. Walking is the easiest and accessible thing to do that. Go out for a walk, share your thoughts and inspirations with me via e-mail. My aim is to show how easy it is to find little walks, little time-off-chunks in life to keep you mentally and physically fit. Wherever you are.

Have questions about walking lifestyle?

Drop me a line at liisitoom(at)gmail.com.

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About the Author

liisi

Performance coach, blogger and activist.

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