the definition of perseverance. or insanity?

the definition of perseverance.  or insanity?

not sure if it’s the definition of perseverance, or insanity, to run 10 miles the day after running 11 miles. in 28°F temps. with 20mph wind gusts. in the first snowstorm of the season.

on the upside, i’ve now lost 80 pounds which is 5 more than the the recent fitness milestone and means i’m still on track to hit 90 by the new year! it’ll be a squeaker.

i’ve now lost so much weight that it’s getting harder and harder to maintain losing 3-4 pounds a week. i think i now have to run 10 miles more a week to make up for how many less calories i burn now that i don’t have to lug around all that extra weight!

finally, fresh eggs from The (new) Girls!

finally, fresh eggs from The (new) Girls!

some time ago we gave away The Old Girls to a nice farm in the country. after two full years of laying they weren’t producing many eggs anymore and were old enough that they probably wouldn’t have tasted any good on the dinner table. as luck would have it, a local organic pumpkin patch was looking for friendly hens who were used to being handled by children to add to the friendly farm ambiance for their customers. a win-win for old girls!

we wanted to get some new girls that were close to laying age and got a tip that if we hung around the poultry barn at the end of the county fair we could probably pick up some 4H hens after the poultry competitions were over from kids who didn’t want to take their chickens home. so we did! and we did! we got the blue ribbon winning blue-laced wyandotte and an americauna that took second place. later, we bought two year-old black marans to round out the flock.

i haven’t taken many pictures because right after we got them they went into moult, lost a bunch of feather, stopped laying ( this is a perfectly normal seasonal process ) and looked rather pathetic.

but now after about 2 months, they’ve got their feather back and have started laying again! so we’re very, very happy to once again have a supply of super fresh, super tasty and super colorful eggs ( the americauna lays blue eggs, the black marans lay the chocolate brown eggs and the wyandotte lays regular browns ).

is too much running bad for your health?

everyone and their brother is asking me if i have seen the wsj article “One Running Shoe in the Grave” with the eye-catching quote from an editorial to be published next month in the british journal heart, “Running too fast, too far and for too many years may speed one’s progress toward the finish line of life…” yikes! the folks at runner’s world provide some context to the research in their response, “The Too-Much-Running Myth Rises Again” with the “well, duh” conclusion, “if you exercise for an hour a day, you’re likely to live longer than if you exercise less than an hour a day.” ( i run, on average, 45-60 minutes a day ).

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

day 3074: a doubleheader in onalaska!

coming off their exciting first tie game in black river falls, odin’s hockey team played a doubleheader in onalaska, wisconsin today. if you’ve ever skated up and down “full ice” a few times, you might have a sense of how exhausting two games can be so a doubleheader is a good way to see how well the team can play while tired ( incidentally, odin almost never played in the game because he/we forgot to put his skates in his hockey bag and the arena is an hour away from home. luckily and unusually, the arena has a pro shop with rental skates that was open on a sunday so he played in skates that seemed to have never been sharpened 🙂

the first game was against the onalaska squirt “b” team which means they were playing against mostly older and more skilled players ( although the official designation doesn’t exist, odin’s team would be considered squirt “c” since it has a few new 8 year old squirts, including odin, who moved up to fill out the roster in lieu of having enough 9 and 10 year olds ).

odin played defenceman which is his comfortable position and he did a fine job. here he is coming up behind the net going after the puck in the defense zone.

not unexpectedly, they lost but only 2 to 0 which is an awesome score for such a young team.

in the second game againt the onalaska squirt “c” team, odin played the offensive right winger position for the first time! every so often, he had a little trouble remembering exactly where he was supposed to be on the ice but that’s certainly to be expected when you’ve never played ( or practiced! ) the position before. still, he made some great plays and even had a shot on goal! he claims he loves playing offense way more than defense now so it’ll be interesting to see what he settles into over time.

even though it was their second game, the team played well and controlled the ice through all three periods and won 2 to 1!

so, three games into the season they’ve tied 1, won 1 and lost 1 which is an excellent start against some great teams.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. I.

it’s the holiday season which means it’s time for another trip to snowy ridge our favorite christmas tree farm! only there wasn’t any snow. boo. at least it wasn’t muddy.

odin picked out a fine looking white pine for our family tree.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. II.

he’s holding the tree while i lay in the ground with the saw after he gave up trying to cut it down himself. maybe next year! of course he’s totally used to me saying, “oh hey, wait, let me take a picture!”

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. III.

haulin’ the tree out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IV.

time to start the process over again with the second smaller tree that will go in odin’s room.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. V.

he gave another go at cutting down the tree and almost made it through before running out of steam. i bet he’ll do it next year and this will actually end up being the last year i cut down a tree for a while 🙂

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VI.

happy to be haulin’ both trees out…

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VII.

it’s a long walk back to the car so i guess i should lend a hand. but just one. the other one is for the camera.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. VIII.

then it’s finally time to ride the zipline! they took the tree down and built a bigger platform.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. IX.

we’ve been doing this for six years and i still marvel at the genious of combining a christmas tree farm and a zipline. it’s a magical memory maker.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. X.

seeing this treehouse every winter partially inspired our wanting to build a treehouse with a zipline.

day 3073: christmas tree hunting on a not-so-snowy ridge. XI.

as we do every year, we ended our visit in a cabin warmed with a wood fire and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and more than a couple of cookies.

thanks once again to the folks who run snowy ridge for all the great memories.