Sunday Funny

In some ways the boys speak on a similar level, in others, River is way ahead of Ocean, as would be expected given their age difference. We've also noticed that because of his speech delays, River completely skipped over some things Ocean does (like animal sounds). Here's some recent little boy words and their translations.

River
otter = water (white, wait, etc ok, just not water)
aprintots = apricots
pubbies =  puppies
nogurt =  yogurt
free olds = three years old

Ocean
deh deh =  pretzels, though it has evolved to mean any type of snack
awdoo = water, though it has evolved to mean any type of drink
hide = outside
nana = banana, breakfast, meals in general
sheesse =  cheese
shoess = shoes, which you need to wear to go outside
haw =  sauce =  applesauce
bo! = no, which he can actually say, but he uses both interchangeably

Little House on the Prairie (Kansas)

Sunshine and River in front of the log cabin

During our last road trip we made a point of visiting a couple Little House on the Prairie sites. We visited De Smet, South Dakota (The Long Winter, etc) and Mansfield, Missouri (where the books were written). There's more sites though, so we decided to try to visit the rest of them this trip.

The first Little House site we went to this time was the old homestead Pa built in Indian Territory. Nowadays it's outside of Independence, Kansas and the original log cabin is long gone. There's an old log cabin on the site, but it's not the original. 

There really wasn't much space in those one room log cabins. 

They were definitely better at minimalism than we are today :)

The original hand dug well is there though, and was used to help determine the homestead site. It's cemented over for safety.

We visited on a Saturday that was also the date of a local fair of sorts. They had petting zoo animals, music performances, a blacksmith, a rope making demonstration, several other period-type demos, and local 4-H groups selling refreshments. 

It easily doubled the amount of time we'd have spent there otherwise :) The demos were interesting and the kids had fun with the animals.

such a cutie :)

Weekly Mileage

Last week was even more crazy busy than the week before, so I only did my 12 mile long run. No treadmill time again, but I did do a lot of random walking that I didn't track.

Since my 11 mile long run was not as relaxing as I'd hoped, I picked a different road to run on for my 12 mile long run. I did my long run on Thursday again while the babysitter was over. I decided to repeat a run that my friend C and I had run back in May, which was a four mile out-and-back stretch, so if I ran it three times I’d have my 12 miles. And these roads genuinely are a lot calmer and less frequented.

C ran the first 6.25 miles with me, then I ran another 5.75 miles and walked just over one mile as a cool down. The cool down brought my total mileage to 13.18 miles, or just over a half marathon.

The route I ran is pretty hilly, but the up hills are followed by down hills, so my pace was a bit faster than last week’s pace. The fastest I’ve run a half marathon so far is 2:29:46. That was almost 9 years ago, but I’m better prepared, so I’m hoping to beat that time. Thursday I ran 12.01 miles in 2:29:10, which is close to what I’m aiming for.

I think in an actual race situation my pace will be a bit faster. If I also keep the walk breaks to a minimum, I think I can run 13.1 miles in 2:29:10. The course does have a couple large hills, but I do feel like I’ve done a lot of hill work recently, so I should be ok. The biggest problem I foresee is the elevation. We live only a couple hundred feet above sea level, but the race will be in the mountains of Montana. I’m hoping that traveling out west ahead of time and running and hiking at altitude will be enough to acclimate me.

We also missed our hike last week due to our busy schedule. However, we made up for our missed hikes this week.

Weekly Mileage

Thursday: 13.18 miles outside

     total mileage: 13.18 miles

300.50 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Ocean loves his sticks, and can frequently be found carrying handfuls of them. On this particular hike, I caught him pointing one stick at me as I took his picture. Good thing he doesn't talk well enough to use "accio camera!"

May Mileage

the road I ran on for my outside run

May is officially my highest mileage month to date.

My grand total was 94.37 miles, which makes 270.2 miles for 2017.

The high mileage has kept my plantar fasciitis from healing and has taken up more time than I really had to spare. I also reached burnout stage at the end of the month. I should have put some more miles in the last week of the month, but I was just too busy and tired, and it didn't happen.

On the other hand, I do feel stronger and more prepared for my half marathon than I have been in the past.

May's mileage:

11 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes + 1 outside run + 2 races (1, 2) + 1 field trip = 94.37 miles

52 hike challenge: 17 hikes

365 mile challenge: 270.2 miles

40 by 40 goal: 47 races

April's mileage:

15 treadmill workouts + 4 hikes + 0 outside runs + 1 race = 73.58 miles

52 hike challenge: 14 hikes

365 mile challenge: 175.83 miles

40 by 40 goal: 45 races

March's mileage:

3 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes + 2 outside runs + 1 race = 25.45 miles

52 hike challenge: 10 hikes

365 mile challenge: 102.25 miles

40 by 40 goal: 44 races

February's mileage:

12 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes + 3 outside runs + 0 races = 54.70 miles

52 hike challenge: 7 hikes

365 mile challenge: 76.80 miles

January's mileage:

4 treadmill workouts + 6 hikes + 1 outside run + 0 races = 22.10 miles total
52 hike challenge: 4 hikes
365 mile challenge: 22.10 miles

June 5k

Saturday I ran a local 5k for the 6th year in a row. Every previous time I was pregnant or pushing a kiddo in the jogger (all three have had a turn now!), but this year it was just me. And my time shows it :) I was able to cut almost 4 and a half minutes off my previous best time in this race and finished in  33:46.

2017 33:46, just me!
2016 39:21, pushed Ocean in the jogger
2015 41:19, pregnant with Ocean (34 weeks)
2014 38:11, pushed River in the jogger
2013 40:02, pregnant with River (23 weeks)
2012 39:23, pushed Sunshine in the jogger

This is a tough race with lots of hills and really no flat portions, but I felt good running. I did have some sore muscles from my 11 mile long run on Thursday (more on that in a minute), but they weren't a problem while I ran.

Usually the weather for this race is super hot and humid, but this time it was unexpectedly cool- in the 50s- and not very humid. The cooler weather definitely made the race a smidgeon easier.

I ran 3.05 in 33:46
1st mile: 10:23
2nd mile: 11:32
3rd mile: 11:32

------

Last week I dialed my mileage way back. It's early to be tapering for the half, but the plantar fasciitis in my feet have been giving me problems and I've been super busy. Between the two, treadmill time just didn't happen.

I did my long run on Thursday rather than try to squeeze it in after the race (we had other things planned for Saturday afternoon), but it meant no hike for the week, since Thursday morning is our hiking time. I left the kiddos with the sitter and hit the country roads around our house. I quickly found out I was mistaken in thinking there wouldn't be much traffic as I was passed by dump truck after dump truck after dump track. They were passing me coming and going, which put me between waist high weeds on one side and two dump trucks on the other side and no shoulder to retreat to. Needless to say, it was not as enjoyable as I'd hoped.

the road looks deceptively calm and peaceful

Despite that, I put in the miles and tried out my race day outfit and fueling and found some things to tweak in this week's 12 mile run.

I ran 11.01 miles and walked 1.3 to warmup/cool down for a total of 12.31 miles. My pace for the 11.01 miles was 12:53, which puts me at a 2:48:46 half marathon time. I'd like to finish around 2:30, but in the meantime it's good to see what I can do when not running race pace. I actually ended up walking about 2.7 miles out of the 11.01miles, so as long as I can keep my walking around that number and speed up a smidge, I should be able to finish in a respectable time.

I'd planned on doing our hike Friday morning, but Sunshine and I were feeling pretty crummy, so we stayed home and rested instead.

Those keeping track will see that this is my 48th race since I turned 38 and started my 40 by 40 goal. There were still some races I wanted to run after I hit #40 back in November, so I kept going. I wanted to hit a nice round number, so I will be running one more 5k in June (#49) and my half marathon (#50) on my 40th birthday. Yes, I am an overachiever. Better than not hitting my goal, though :)

Weekly Mileage
Thursday:12.31 miles outside
Saturday: 4.81 miles (3.05 for race, 1.76 for warmup/cool down)
   total miles: 17.12 miles

287.32 miles towards #365milechallenge
race #48 towards my 40 by 40 goal 50 by 40 goal

Sunday Funny

I recently caught River sleeping half off the bed, and decided it was time to gather some other pics of him and Sunshine and their night time contortions. Sunshine's just lucky her mattress was on the floor when she was River's age. You can go here for more details about her little room.

love the balancing act, but it can't have been comfortable to fall asleep that way

I still sometimes find her asleep with her leg crossed like this

she's definitely lucky her mattress was on the floor

What We've Learned From Raising 2 Batches of Meat Chickens

the chickens enjoyed the larger run we built

Saturday we processed our second batch of chickens.

In thinking over what we've done this year and last, we've learned a lot.

1. Starting them in the spring (this year) was much easier than in the middle of the summer (last year). Last summer's heat and humidity was hard on the chickens. This spring has been much cooler and the chickens didn't suffer from the heat.

2. Last year we lost 5 out of 30 chickens. This year we only lost 2 out of 30 chickens. We ordered from Hoover's Hatchery both times and I would totally order from them again. Though ordering in June was cheaper than ordering in March. I'm sure that has to do with more demand in the spring than in the summer, but something to be aware of.

3. Cornish Cross chickens really are food obsessed. Last year I struggled with knowing how much to feed them and I feel like I might have underfed them a little. This year I found a "how much to feed them" formula from our feed company and I felt much more comfortable about how much we fed them. We might even have over-fed them here and there, though you wouldn't know it since they always acted like they were starving.

4. Cornish Cross may be food obsessed, and you do have to be careful about over-feeding and helping them act like chickens (they can be pretty sedentary if given the chance), but getting them to full weight in 8 weeks is worth the trade-off in my opinion. We can raise a year's worth of chicken in 2 months.

5. I put the chicks in the outdoor brooder at about 2.5 weeks old, with a heat lamp, and they did fine. I was worried about how they'd do with the cooler temps, but I couldn't handle the mess and smell in the house anymore, so out they went. I've heard many cautionary tales about fires started by heat lamps, and we don't actually have electricity in the chicken coop or the garden shed next door, so I had to run our heavy duty extension cord from the house to the chicken coop. Double whammy of things I didn't really want to do, but everyone survived and the chicken coop didn't burn down.

6. Even though I'm not happy about the chickens not being as free-ranging as I'd like, they were able to scratch around in the dirt and underbrush for bugs and leaves. And we fed them a good quality, non-gmo, organic feed rather than the cheapest feed we could find. It's tempting to cheap out, but I do believe that what goes in does affect what comes out.

7. We bought a second kill cone and it sped up the process, though I think we could even add a third cone next time. 

Speaking of next time, what will be different next time?

1. We won't be doing meat chickens again until we live on a property with actual pastures. We want to do rotational grazing and we just don't have the grassy space for that here. We have a decent size yard, but it's mostly moss, not grass, and wouldn't survive 30 chickens, even if we moved them frequently. I thought we could work around that by fencing in a large outdoor run in the woods, but even with the significantly larger run that we built this year I don't think it would last 6 weeks of 30 chickens going to town. They were in the large run three weeks and they stripped it down quite a bit. When we have a pasture to rotate our chickens through, we'll do a chicken tractor and electric poultry netting rather than a stationary coop.

2. I still don't think electric poultry netting would work well on our current property. That was another idea we'd considered, but there's too much deadfall from all our trees and the fencing would have been shorting out at inconvenient times. And there's a Great Dane next door that likes chickens and I don't think electric poultry netting would keep him out if he decided he really wanted them. Best not to provide too much temptation.

3. This summer we'll get a few laying hens and a guard goose if I can find a breed that will start laying before winter. Otherwise we'll get them early next spring. I think our current setup will work fine for a smaller flock, and I'll put an internal divider in the large run so we can rotate their dining area. What wouldn't work for 30 meat chickens who only think of food should work just fine for 5 or 6 layers who aren't food obsessed.

4. I was going to get fodder started to supplement their feed, but never quite had time. Part of this was also the lack of a greenhouse to get it started in and my reluctance to start plants in the house with little boys who insist on climbing on everything. I hope to start growing fodder for the layers this summer or early fall, but it will probably be in conjunction with the greenhouse that we still have plans to build.

5. Last year's average weight per chicken was about 2.75 pounds. This year the average weight was a smidge over 3.5 pounds. That weight is still lower than I'd hoped for (between 4 and 5 pounds), but a definite improvement over last year's average. This year's chickens were doing great and I think they could have kept growing for another week or two, except this past Saturday was the only day we had time to do the processing. Our schedule will be pretty busy from here on out and won't be calming down until the second week of August.

6. I don't think 12 hours was long enough to restrict food before processing. All but one or two of the chickens had very full crops still, even though they hadn't eaten since the evening before. So feeding them less, and earlier in the evening would be advisable.

7. I'd be interested in doing a couple of ducks sometime in the future. Our neighbor came and helped us process our chickens and we did two of her ducks at the same time. She's got more ducks and geese than she has space for, so she had to cull a couple. The fat on the ducks was much more than is present in chickens. I like cooking with duck fat, and rendering some duck fat would be an interesting experience.

RV Tour

driver's side: with two slides

This post is mostly pictures of our new RV. I only took pictures with the slides in, so I'll do another round of pictures later with the slides out. I talked a little bit about our RV here.

passenger side: no slides

first view indoors

view to the left, from the top of the stairs

doorknob is for the bathroom, mattress folds in half when slide is in, unfolds when slide is out

lots of storage in this RV- those upper two doors both open into the closet (easily 3 or 4x as big as our closet in the trailer)

bathroom, with laundry basket in the shower (isn't that where everyone puts their laundry basket?)

medicine cabinet above toilet

that shelf slides out for extra space for clothes and such

closer view of the bedroom

there's cupboards above the bed as well

there's a convection/microwave oven and a gas oven under the stove 

our trailer only had a regular microwave and no oven

frig/freezer plus pantry. I found a trash can that just fits in the space between the cupboards when the slide is in. I need to rig a padded strap to keep it in place when we're driving.

view from the bedroom, kitchen on the left, door on the right

sofa and storage next to the frig in the front slide

the J-lounge just in front of the door, with the extension in and without the table up

extension out for more seating (the front seats will also swivel to face the rear for more seating)

J-lounge with the table in place and ladder up to the over-cab bed also in place

handy netting for keeping small kiddos from rolling out of the bed in the middle of the night

there's a large tv that swings against the wall of the bed, then swings out for watching

view from between the two front seats, looking back and to the passenger side

view from between the two front seats, looking back and to the driver's side

We're really happy with how much space there is in the RV, even with the slides in. You don't feel super cramped moving about. I'll post more about what we do and don't like as we spend more time in it and get used to using it. One thing I will say: that mattress in the back has got to go. It's hard as a rock and super uncomfortable.

Weekly Mileage

we've had a lot of rain lately, but the sun managed to come out at the tail end of our hike

such gorgeous colors!

Last week was supposed to be my highest mileage week in my half marathon training cycle. It might have ended up that way, but I'm not sure. I had three days where I didn't do any running or walking on the treadmill, but I did lots of walking in other places.

Monday I did my usual laundry/treadmill routine.

Tuesday we walked all around IKEA, getting organizational & kitchen items for our RV. I brought my Garmin, intending to track how far we walked, but I completely forgot to pull it out of my bag and start it. And I don't know that it would have worked in the store, anyway. Regardless, I walked a lot.

Wednesday the kids and I spent an hour or so walking around the RV lot, killing time while they did a little bit of work that they didn't have time to do when we bought the RV. We walked around and climbed in and out of RVs and travel trailers and it was much less stressful than trying to keep the kids quiet and still in the small sales office. We failed miserably at that while filling out the paperwork and I wasn't anxious for a repeat. I again forgot my Garmin.

Thursday we went for a hike, but it was a short one because we got a late start and had to be back before the the four hour window of time when the electrician was supposed to show up, and of course he didn't show up until almost the end of that window. But if we hadn't made it home in time he'd have been there on time, so we hurried.

Ocean loves exploring outside, and he loves being able to walk for part of our hikes, but he does get distracted by wildflowers

Friday I ran 10 miles on the treadmill, with a couple warm up and cool down miles for a total of 12 miles. I discovered that while our treadmill will keep running after 10 consecutive miles, the computer won't track it. I had to turn off the treadmill and re-start it in order to finish my workout. This is good info to know as I still have a couple long workouts to do before my half marathon.

Saturday I intended to go for a run outside, but by the time we finished processing our chickens and cleaning up the mess, I was just too tired. I did lots of walking and lots of standing, and my feet were killing me. So I didn't go for a run. My feet were still sore on Sunday, so it's a good thing I didn't do any more.

As I mentioned Wednesday, I've changed my running plans and this week showed me the wisdom in that. Once I run my half marathon in June I will be giving my poor feet a chance to rest and heal.

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 5.58 miles walked on the treadmill
Tuesday- walked around IKEA for a couple hours
Wednesday- walked around the RV lot for an hour or so
Thursday- hiked 1.12 miles
Friday- ran 10 miles and walked 2 more for a total of 12 miles on the treadmill
Saturday- walked around while processing chickens
    Total miles: 18.70 miles (I'm only counting the miles I actually tracked)

hike #17 towards my #52hikechallenge
270.2 miles towards my #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Two months ago we picked up our chicks from the post office. The next day I caught River sitting next to them reading books (that top one is a Star Wars book, the bottom a first words in Japanese book) to the chicks. I love that he thinks they'd be interested in Star Wars or Japanese :)

Should I Run a Full Marathon This Fall?

peaceful gravel road- perfect for a late afternoon run

About a month ago I started seriously considering running a full marathon in November. After all, I'm training for a half at the end of June and another half at the end of August. It wouldn't be that difficult to keep training and run a full marathon.

However.

The last couple weeks have shown me that it's just not a feasible plan right now. As my workouts get longer and longer, I have less and less time to do other things, like run my businesses. Work has slowed to a crawl since my mileage picked up because I just don't have the time or energy to spend on work-related tasks. Since our goal is for my businesses to replace Mr M's income, I really need to be spending more time building them into successful, profitable enterprises.

So I won't be running a full marathon this fall, despite the timing initially seeming good.

In fact, I've decided I won't be doing the second half marathon at the end of August either. Time for work is again a consideration, but so are my feet. The plantar fasciitis isn't going away (not with all the mileage I'm putting on them) and continuing to train without giving them a chance to heal just isn't smart.

I'm not looking at these decisions as failures on my part, but as opportunities to redirect my focus and energy.

I'll keep running, but at a lower weekly mileage and after giving my feet a chance to heal properly. Mr M took our bikes to a local bike shop for much-needed tuneups, which will allow me to do some cross-training as well.

More time and energy will allow me to focus on my businesses so I can really dig in and make some progress. Lately I've been feeling like I haven't been making much progress and as a result I've been feeling dissatisfied and frustrated with my entrepreneurial efforts. I'm not hitting my timeline goals and I have some catching up to do.

It's important to be flexible in life. Changing my goals and adapting to our current circumstances is just one way I'm working on being more flexible.

And I'll be running more half and full marathons in the future, when my schedule isn't quite so busy.

Quarry 5k

the size is deceptive- the tires on this truck were taller than most men

Saturday I ran a 5k that started outside a quarry, ran down into the quarry, then ran (ok, I walked this part) back out of the quarry and past piles of gravel, processing equipment, and really large trucks and through the finish line.

I left the boys home, but they would have been in raptures over the big trucks and diggers they had sitting out for people to climb on

The last two 5ks I’ve run had difficult uphill stretches that totaled a mile in each race. This 5k only had a half mile up hill stretch, but I feel like it was more difficult than the other two. I blame the heat. Not that it was actually that hot where we parked our cars (about 70*), but it was a lot hotter in the quarry. I think all that rock was soaking in and radiating the heat back at us.

towards the beginning of the race, skirting the edge of the quarry

As I was running, I was thinking about why I was doing this particular race. It’s further from home than I usually go for a 5k, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a quarry 5k to my list of different races I’ve run for my 40 by 40 goal.

running down the half mile to the bottom of the quarry

the guy coming towards me was the lead runner

I knew it wouldn’t be an easy race (though the quarry wasn’t as deep as I was expecting), but I knew it would get me out of my comfort zone. One of the side goals of my 40 by 40 goal is to run a variety of race distances and locations. There’s nothing like facing the fear of the unknown (just how hard is this race going to be?) over and over to get you out of your comfort zone.

almost to the bottom of the quarry

I ran 3.03 miles in 35:20. I maintained a good pace the first two miles, but the half mile uphill in the third mile killed my pace.

1st mile: 10:21

2nd mile:  10:45

3rd mile: 14:01

running across the floor of the quarry, just past the water stop

My running mileage still isn't as high as I'd like, but I'm still fighting my plantar fasciitis and just can't manage more. At least I can still walk my mileage. I'm disappointed though, as it means I won't be as well trained as I'd originally planned.

it was a long walk back out of the quarry

On Monday I crawled around in the chicken run, nailing the fencing to the board supports. It wasn't much mileage (unlike when we worked on it last Saturday), but lots of twisting and bending. Oh, and poison ivy. I now have poison ivy blisters in more places than I'd like. Blech! And all the leaf mold I kicked up went straight to my sinuses and made me feel icky. Double blech!

I had planned on doing my long run on Wednesday so I could get an uninterrupted long run in, but I woke up feeling so tired. Not food related tired (been there, done that, know what it feels like), just tired. Part of it was my allergies still in overdrive, but a good part of it was my mileage. My mileage has been creeping up as my training progresses and I think I've passed my sustainable weekly mileage limit. After I'm done training for my half marathons I'll be keeping my weekly mileage at a lower level. I did manage to get a long walk in on Wednesday, but there was no running involved.

looking down into the quarry, opposite of the first pic looking down into the quarry

Thursday we skipped our usual hike because we had a field trip in the afternoon and I had things that needed to get done in the morning. So much to do, so little time.

Saturday after returning home from my race I hit the treadmill for some more miles. It's not ideal to split up a long run like that, but that's the way it sometimes has to happen.

Weekly Mileage
Monday: 6.14 miles walked on the treadmill
Wednesday: 6.25 miles walked on the treadmill
Thursday: 2.1 miles walked while on our field trip
Friday: 4.25 miles walked on the treadmill
Saturday: 3.03 mile race + 6.37 miles run and walked on the treadmill
     total miles: 28.14 miles

251.5 miles towards my #365milechallenge
race #47 towards my 40 by 40 goal