Windy Windrows

The farmer from next door was over this afternoon raking the hay in our field into windrows in preparation for baling. It brought to mind our horse owning days - days when we'd keep the hay and it was so important to us. Terry would call us at work in the afternoon to let us know he was heading over to bale. We'd rush home anxious to get there in time to unload the first hay wagon. There were only three wagons so we'd have to work like crazy to keep up with the baler.

The first few years Carm and I did it ourselves but after that we tried to get help - often boys from the local group home. Once Kirsten and Deirdre also came out. It sure helped to have extra hands. Often I'd be in the wagon unloading it to the ground. On a good year I'd hoist 20 to 30 thousand pounds (in 40lb chunks) in an afternoon. Then there was the year that I had to get on top of the stack in the barn and Carm would hand them up to me. That was the last year I wore shorts for this job! If you've never handled hay lets just say that I had a million little cuts on my legs. And then I put Solarcain on them - stupid! I thought the agony would never end.

It was always very satisfying to see the barn brimming with enough neatly stacked hay for the winter. But it was a job that we came to dread so we started to get large square bales done. These would be stacked in the paddock and covered with tarps. As needed, a bale would be dragged down from the stack, sometimes with ropes and people power, but sometimes we needed to get the truck down there to pull. Then we'd cut the strings and flake by flake drag it into the barn and stack it ready for use. It was still lots of work, but spread out over the winter so easier to manage - and not all done on the hottest and most humid day of the year!

This afternoon is really the first time that I've spent any measurable time on the swing. Grace was beside me in her outdoor digs, playing and chewing on sticks.  It always amazes me how strong she is - the acrobatics that she can do with her little stick legs is amazing. I forgot to mention it the other day but she turned 14 on Sunday!  She's not even middle aged.

I've been a bit discouraged the last few days... as many of you know I've been working with my doctor to drop one of my medications. This is a painstaking process with month(s) between each small increment. Well, I was down another increment a few weeks ago and since then I've had periods of anxiety, and it is getting worse. I'd just be standing there, with nothing in particular on my mind, and this wash of anxiety would descend - not at all pleasant. So... after discussion with my doctor I'm back up to the last increment.  I had been hoping to be totally off by the end of summer but that won't be the case now. I'll try again in a few months after the summer madness has passed.

Today I did another 10K on the treadmill! I shaved off 4 minutes from my last time so finished it in 86 minutes - whew. I ran more than I've ever run in any length of time. The problem with these big workouts though is I'm STARVING for the rest of the day. DQ Ultimate burger anyone? (I resisted with great difficulty)

Wednesday I had lunch with some friends from work - my old coffee group. We went to a Thai buffet... need I say more? I LOVE Thai food, it might even be my favourite, and this buffet is particularly good. It was hard not to gorge, and I'm sad to say that I did (gorge myself that is). After lunch and my doctor's appointment we went to Marks Work Warehouse to check out what they had on sale. The next day they were having a 20% off the price, including the sale price so we wanted to figure out what, if anything we wanted to buy. As luck would have it we talked to a sales person and she suggested that we put everything on hold and pick it up on Wednesday. I can't believe the clothes we got for the price. We aren't big clothes shoppers (Costco is usually where we buy our stuff), so it was good to get a few other things to tide us over till we are skinny ;-)

Dreams are necessary to life.
Anais Nin

And the Rain Came Down

And ruined my peonies - sob.

The other morning I was walking on a little path Carm had mowed in the hayfield, when I turned to go back there was a little garter snake writhing on the ground. It was all coiled and moving on itself. I stopped dead in my tracks and took a step back. The grass was high on either side of the path, and I couldn't work up the nerve to step over it... As I stood there feeling stupid I remembered back to the time I fed Kirsten's boa constrictor.

She was looking after her then boyfriend’s snake while he was at university. The snake needed feeding and neither she nor my mom could do it,  so I made the trip to Montreal, went to the pet store, picked out a rat, and then travelled to the house with this rat on my lap. Hummm... grossed out yet? Anyway, when we got home Kirsten took the snake out for a little slither around her room. It came over to me and I realized that I must smell like rat! Yikes. Did I mention that this snake was over 6' long (hence the rat, not a mouse)? Kirsten put the snake away and then left the room leaving it up to me to put the rat in the cage, and then watch until the rat was safely consumed. Sometimes the snake gets a bad grab and the rat can chew at the snake, leaving it pretty injured. What I was supposed to do if that happened I have no idea! This whole endeavour was not a job that I ever wished to experience again... it took the snake ages to finally grab the rat, and then watching till the rat was fully consumed was just gruesome. No pet snakes for me!

One more snake story and then I'm done. My brother Graham was into reptiles as well and had a stream of lizards, snakes and other creatures. One day he came home with a 12' (I kid you not) boa or python... It was disgusting... I think it was overweight as it was so big around - it probably could have swallowed a basketball with no problem, and certainly the family dog and cat were in danger! Mom gave him a couple of days to find it a new home... which really goes to show how cool my mom is that she even let him bring it into the house at all!

Sunday we went to the Saint Anthony’s day parade with Carm’s family. This was one of Carm’s dad favourite times so it was special to spend it together as a family. The parade is much smaller than Carm remembers from his childhood – he recalls up to 20 bands – Sunday there were only 2 (and one of them had bagpipes!). Different groups walked by with their own special banners.

I'm now down 30 pounds from when I was working! I still have 15-20 left to lose, but I feel pretty good :-)  I'm trying to add more intensity to some of my treadmill sessions - today for the first time I was able to run for 1/2 mile straight. Of my 60 minutes on the treadmill today, 1 1/4 miles of it were done running – this is a big thing for me. I've been doing some weights too and am starting to see the results. It is so cool to see muscle definition starting in my shoulders and arms! And my abs are getting stronger too. I've never done this sort of exercise before and I'll have to say that I'm loving it :-) Of course it doesn't hurt that Carm is always saying how great I look (very motivating!).

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
Anne Frank

If I Had a Million Dollars

I went out to our garden today to do a bit of weeding... I've gotta say, gardening is just not my thing. Some people have almost a meditative experience working in their gardens, but it just doesn't happen for me. I LOVE enjoying the garden, smelling the flowers, etc. but if I won a million dollars the first thing I'd do would be to hire a gardener. Carm likes growing things much like his father did, but he's not totally committed to it either. It's amazing that our house isn't one of those ones with the grass that grows right up to the foundation with not a flower or shrub in sight!

Carm was busy today opening the pool - it is summer! And the never ending task of cutting the grass. I should really help out with this, but he seems to like doing it. It's a great workout as we only have a gas push mower (not self propelled) and about 4 hours worth of cutting. With all the little hills and trees and other obstacles there are only a few places where he can just do a straight push.

I made another kind of cookie today. They are Peanut Butter, Banana and Oatmeal cookies. Not bad for a cookie with the only sweetener being 2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup! No added fat either. They are simply peanut butter, bananas, maple syrup, vanilla, almond milk, oatmeal and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour. I'll post the recipe later. They obviously aren't super sweet but I think we'll get used to them. Carm rated them a 4/5. Of course they don't hold a candle to the ones I made last week, but those had 1/2 cup maple syrup, some canola oil, and all whole wheat flour, no rolled oats.

I wrote some of this sitting on the swing, enjoying the late afternoon birdsong. I see robins flitting about, I wonder if they are this year's babies. The grass is no longer vivid green as the seed heads have emerged. Instead there is a slight pinkish tan colour over the fields. They look plush, almost like velour. I love seeing how the Earth's cloak changes as the seasons roll by. I feel lucky to be living here where Nature is so present.

Last night Carm saw a deer just outside our front door! She was standing eating our little elm and then one of the apple trees. From Carm's description she didn't sound very big - I wonder if she was a yearling from last summer. Or a young doe with a fawn hidden somewhere. It is a thrill to see nature so close to us, but I couldn't help but think of the deer ticks which can carry Lyme disease... The dogs have their Advantage tick stuff, but it isn't 100%.