Nature Photo

First 5k!

Posted by Anonymous Posted on 13:57 with No comments

Me, Sandy, and Heidi

Last week I celebrated being 40 pounds down from the beginning of the year! I am really happy with my progress! Thanks to the tools and advice on SparkPeople and my great husband who has been so supportive of healthy meals and getting out and exercising more, I'm certain I can meet my goal to be 60lbs down by the end of the year. There's still more to lose after that, but that's a great start.

I am still working my way through the Couch to 5K running program, and today I had my first 5K race. I signed up for it months ago, and I wish I'd have known I was going to pull a muscle in the back of my leg last week playing tennis, because I would rather have not done this today. But it wasn't so bad, and after I got warmed up it didn't bother me much. I couldn't run far though, so this turned out be a 5K walk.

My friends Sandy (one of our 4H moms) and Heidi (from our theater group) also signed up, so we could walk/run together. The race was in Yacolt, WA, which is a tiny town right up the road from me, for their 4th of July celebration. We got there and there weren't a lot of folks there, which was nice because I hate crowds. By the time the race started there were maybe 100 runners - probably more like 50. Lots of friendly volunteers helping. The race was out and back on country roads. It was a beautiful sunny day, not too cold, not too hot.

At the finish line!

I think we finished in 47 minutes. Heidi and I walked at the same pace, so that made the race go faster and took my mind off my pulled muscle. The organizers had water along the way and snacks (like fruit and bagels) waiting at the end. All in all, I was really happy with my time, and I'm looking forward to doing one again - hopefully one I can RUN next time! It's really not that long a distance (3.1 miles) so there's no reason why I can't get to the point of running that far.That's one nice thing about getting in shape, there's always something to work towards.

Yay - survived my first 5k! Still Smilin'!

Swallows in the chimney

Posted by Anonymous Posted on 15:40 with No comments

Every year brings something new and unusual. This year we have swallows nesting in our chimney! The little purple guys who flit back and forth over the pasture every summer (and who I built a nice set of bird houses for over the garden after the old martin house they'd been using since before we moved here fell over) have set up a home in our chimney, apparently right on top of the closed flue, because we can hear them loud and clear in the living room. In fact we first noticed the occasional chirping a few weeks ago, but now the chicks have hatched, and every 20 minutes we here the raucous calls of the babies crying 'FEED ME! FEED ME!' when Mom and Dad come back.

Yesterday evening I sat outside watching the chimney hoping to get a picture of the parents coming back to feed the kids, and this shot of a parent leaving to hunt for more food was the best I got. I'm going to go try again tonight, because they make an amazing big loop and swoop straight down into the chimney, which is pretty cool looking.

After the chicks are out and on their own we'll have to see about getting the chimney cleaned and replacing whatever is supposed to be on the top to keep birds out, so next year they'll have to stay in a bird house like the rest of the birds!
_

Puppy-sitting!

Posted by Anonymous Posted on 22:04 with No comments

We have company!

Yup, Sake and Sitka are back, so we now have FOUR ESKIMOS for a couple days - poor Jack is SO outnumbered!

Well, we know he really loves it!

Time for a water break!

Oh, Barclay's got his eye on the next target!

Run, Navi! Barclay is going to get you!

She can protect herself!

Sake gets into it by grabbing his brother by the tail!

I love this shot of Barclay.

And this one of Sake!

Sitka couldn't hold still for pictures, he was too busy!

And off they go again!!

Busted, again

Posted by Anonymous Posted on 10:52 with No comments

Our 'new' lawnmower had a catastrophic failure a couple days ago. It started by throwing a belt. I replaced the belt and couldn't see anything wrong, but when Dave took it for a test run it started making horrible noises, so I took another look and found the bearing had blown apart on the big double pulley that runs the deck.

That assortment of bearings, snap rings, and spacers on the floor is what used to be the bearing assembly. The pulley itself got pretty chewed up too, so I ended up buying a new pulley as well. A bit of shopping around on the net brought the price from about $175 down to $120. I just have to figure out how it all goes together when the new parts arrive.