29-year-old chooses not to spend Memorial Day weekend marking trees and widening trails at her sister’s 80-acre off-grid property: ‘I do not want to spend my whole 3-day weekend doing physical labor in the heat’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
May 27, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Few things test the bonds of kinship quite like the group project disguised as family fun: a "long weekend" spent turning your sister's remote, tick-infested wilderness into something resembling civilization. Behold the dream! Eighty acres of uncharted mosquito sanctuary, accessible only by a rickety bridge with the structural integrity of a bad promise—so far out, the power company had to consult a map from the last century just to run a line.

While most people use Memorial Day to grill, nap, and perfect the art of pretending to care about yard games, your family's idea of leisure involves marking trees, hacking trails, and clearing brush that hasn't seen a human since the Eisenhower administration. Sure, your sister sweetened the deal with the promise of grilled meat, chilled watermelon, and a freshly cleaned creek. Translation: "Bring sunscreen, and don't ask what's lurking in that water."

Having already put in your time with pre-season trail hikes, animal tracking, and the noble act of puzzling out property markers, you now find yourself comfortably absent—and just a little guilt-ridden—as your relatives sprint between the barbecue and the mosquito clouds. Instagram lights up with smiling cousins in the creek and sunburned aunts waving around loppers, and you wonder if you're missing out or just dodging a weekend of involuntary CrossFit.

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  • Aitah for not helping my family work on my sister's property?

    "It's Memorial Day weekend, but I kinda feel bad now because I'm not there to help"
    via MabelAmber
  • I am 29F, my sister is 33. My sister (and her husband) bought a property about a year and a half ago. Now the property she bought is completely wooded. It's
    via Regular-Service3593
  • way off in the sticks. It's a 30 minute drive most of which is in the middle of nowhere, just to get to the dirt road and another 15 minutes to get from the start of the dirt road to her property. You
    via Regular-Service3593
  • Cheezburger Image 10510699008
    via DanFLCreativo

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • minutes to get from the start of the dirt road to her property. You have to go over a crappy rickety bridge that feels like it's half way to collapse. There wasn't even power lines run that far out. The power company had to run them.
    via Regular-Service3593
  • So far she has picked a spot for her house and put in a " driveway" that is a glorified 4 wheeler trail. This weekend my
    via Regular-Service3593
  • brothers, parents, a few of my cousins, and my Grandpa are helping her get the property ready for the company that is
    via Regular-Service3593
  • Cheezburger Image 10510699264
    via KellyvanDellen
  • coming this week to clear it. my family is basically marking trees they think should be kept in the
    via Regular-Service3593
  • area she's clearing for her yard and working on widening the driveway and everything.
    via Regular-Service3593
  • Before that she and I literally walked the entire acreage (she bought 80 acres) inch by inch mapping it out. Seeing what trees are there and what kind of animals are coming through. we
    via Regular-Service3593
  • put up some trail cameras and found the property markers that were put down when she was getting ready to buy the place. So I have done some work out there.
    via Regular-Service3593
  • Anyway this weekend my sister is doing all that, but she brought the grill and a ton of food and drinks, some watermelons that have been chilled, and she got
    via Regular-Service3593
  • the creek that runs through the property cleaned up so anyone that comes to help has a spot to take a swim if they get too hot.
    via Regular-Service3593
  • The thing is it is memorial day weekend. I do not want to spend my whole 3 day weekend doing physical labor in the heat while
    via Regular-Service3593
  • being eaten alive by mosquitoes and probably ticks and everything else. However near my entire family is there and I kinda
    via Regular-Service3593
  • feel bad now because I'm not there to help. My mom posted pictures of all of them swimming and having fun in the creek and I
    via Regular-Service3593
  • feel like I probably should have gone. Aitah for not going?
    via Regular-Service3593
  • EllysTURN You're not wrong for skipping this weekend. You already put in work mapping the property and setting up cameras, that's more than enough help.
    via EllysTURN
  • Memorial Day is your time off too. Just because everyone else chose to spend it sweating in the woods doesn't mean you had to. The creek looks fun in pics but we all know it was mostly hard labor with bugs and that terrifying bridge.
    via EllysTURN
  • Your sister has plenty of help already. Maybe next time you can join for part of it, but don't feel guilty for wanting actual relaxation on your holiday. Family projects shouldn't feel like obligations.
    via EllysTURN

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