One of those days

Here is the crockpot soup pot. I'm leaning towards a potato soup. I started the morning by looking up recipes. And then decided to follow one sort of and add my own touches.

Shredded fresh carrots, shredded onions, and celery. Chicken stock, whole mini tators...cook all day with seasons. Add milk, cream of mushroom soup, and shredded cheese later. It was good!

I was waiting on a delivery that needs a signature. FedEx. I don't know if they can find my house. 

Through the Red Cross I signed up for Facebook Portal and they were going to deliver today.

That meant I had to stay near the house all day watching for the truck.

So I decided to try out the new fangled tool and go at the Elderberry trees that are crowding the wooded pasture west of the house.

First I picked up dead stuff. Then I went after the elderberry trees. Some people love them. Mules don't eat them so it is not pasture friendly to me. They grow and kill the grasses, they spread by seed and root. What a pain. Lovely to look at the flowers, but a pain.

The pile kept growing! I added boxelder shoots and dead branches. I even added a couple of busted up logs that I could pick up. This area of the pasture never got cleaned up after the 2007 storm. 

I hope I can burn small piles next to the large old logs this winter and burn up the old logs.

We shall see.

It is close enough to the house that hubby can open a window and holler at me if he needs my help.

That was fun! There was only 30 minutes between the first photo and the second one!

Love this tool!

I wore the battery out and decided that I'd better go ahead and burn a little pile before I let the mules back in this section. They would just re-arrange my burn piles for fun. Those mischievous long ears!

Both of those piles are gone this evening. There will be winds the next few days. So no brush burning for a bit.

It is a handy tool.

Friday is a day off I think. My friend Bill is doing much better from his hip and sciatica problems and we are going to meet up at the Reserve. I'm going to show him the trails to the Ice Caves.

Time for a break from all the work in the woods.

Oh.

The soup was great! We have enough so I won't have to cook Friday and we will have some to freeze too.

The warm homemade bread was a bonus also.

It was one of those days where I won all the way around.

The FedEx guy did show up after supper. 

He was a bit hesitant about coming down to our place, but I'd left lots of lights on so he could find us.

So why do you CrossFit?

So the title is not really proper. I know that CrossFit is not a verb, but it has changed so much for me.

Let me be frank. Last year on my 62nd birthday I started to feel a bit fluffy around the middle. Others might not have noticed it, but I did.

The idea of 'going to the gym' was already in my head but ... that was for later, when I had time.

Sure. When does one get that time?? I certainly was too busy for that time. I struggled through replacing some fencing that had to be re-done after the Bulldozer guy came through and knocked down two dead ash trees.

I only had 5 posts to pound back into the ground, but I struggled after each one and had to rest. After two posts were driven into the ground I had to quit for another day. It took me 3 days to pound 5 posts into the ground. I was surely a super wimp.

The post pounder that my husband made doesn't have handles. It is a heavy metal tube with an end on it. He made two of them. Last summer I used the lighter one because it was almost too difficult to lift the pounder over the T-post.

Last week I pulled 10 t-posts out of the ground and reset them.
Bam
Bam
Bam

I literally pounded my way across the top of the creek. 10 posts in no time flat and I wasn't out of breath nor was I fatigued.
I couldn't have done that a year ago.


My hand strength....

My osteoarthritis in my thumb joints and fingers had rendered my hands weak and tender. Some mornings it was hard just to make coffee.

I had some concern with this when I started doing CrossFit.

I told the coaches about my hand issues and they found some modifications for me to do.


I've done modified push ups, pull ups, I've lifted weighted bars and sometimes my hands ache after a work out. However not too long ago, I accomplished a hand stand against the wall. I hadn't been able to do anything like that in years!

I went from not being able to turn a door knob easily to...

Being able to repair a barbed wire fence by cutting it and making loops with MY hands.
Something else I couldn't do a year ago.
As I bent the wire and twisted it ...with nice thick gloves ... I thought about how many times I'd grabbed something and grimaced. I know I am hesitant about my hands but the our coach looks at me, smiles and says *Lubricate those joints!*

I have to say I was pretty damned pleased with myself.

Am I happy?
You bet I am.
Oh these hands still ache like crazy some days. But I'm no quitter.

For *CrossFit-ing* has made a huge difference in this 'ol' lady's life.

I'm thinking about getting that post hole digger out and finally putting up ta new tie rail for the mules next to the outhouse.

I thank all my coaches and workout friends for all of their encouragement.
And my son for his encouragement.

The never ending farm job

I know that it seems that I am always doing something to the electric fence. It seems that it is a never ending job sometimes. However, spring clean up is always a must.

I use endurosoft electric fencing. Sometimes when the deer jump the fences during the winter months they stretch a wire or pull it off an insulator. I generally walk the fences once a day anyway in the summer to check on them. 
Yesterday I had both Charlie and Dixie helping me out in the woods.

The temperatures were quite warm and the 'kids' helped me by just being there. I talked to them asking them to inspect and of course they did. Dixie stuck her wet nose on my glasses while I was hooking up a wire and Charlie crawled up onto my legs.

When we were finished with a section of the fencing, I took them back to the porch so we could all have some water.

The kids started to play with a raccoon squeaky toy.

Dixie would take it and Charlie would try to get it back.

What really surprised me was how gentle Dixie was about the whole thing.
Neither dog growled, but played for quite a while together.

Eventually Charlie laid down on the rug I'd put on the porch and Dixie sat near him. I think eventually they will be an inseparable pair.

I let each dog rest and gathered my things to do some more fence touch ups.

I had a venison roast in the oven and garden veggies ready to eat with it after chores. It is nice to eat a whole meal gathered on your own land.

I guess that is why I keep up with this never ending job.

Wild Flowers and Still Life

A quick walk in the woods with Mr. Morris the other day during a brief hour or so of sunshine revealed another change in the woods.

Gone were the Virginia Pinks ~ they had faded into the forest floor. The black berry bushes were leafed out and hidden among them were wild columbine. I stood still and simply looked around carefully. Wild columbines were everywhere dotting the forest floor.

Morris and I moved along at a quick pace. At one point Morris went off somewhere by himself. He normally doesn't do that, but now with the greenery in the forest much taller, I have a hard time keeping an eye on him.

The little Stinker!

I found the May Flowers blossoming. It is no mean trick to get down under those leaves and get a shot though.

Yesterday was more of the cold wet monsoon season. So after morning chores I came in and dried out. Then I set some things up in The Creative Room and thought I'd try a bit of Still Life.
I hadn't done any of that in a long while.

I experimented with a speedlight as if was so dark anyway that I'd have to add light one way or another.

I then decided to move to the kitchen and wake up my husband. He'd been resting after a rather few very busy days.

His work gloves caught my eye.

Particularly the ... tag that says "Genuine".

Today is lined up to be busy also despite the rain that is to come off and on.

The farrier is coming to trim donkeys. As soon as it is warm enough again, all donks are getting baths and haircuts. It has been a wicked winter and a mucky spring.