First 5k!

On By stefrobrtsIn weight loss2 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’!

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Swallows in the chimney

On By stefrobrtsIn nature1 Comment

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!
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Puppy-sitting!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, navi, pets2 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!!
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Busted, again

On By stefrobrtsIn lawnmower, mustang1 Comment

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.

Just one more thing to keep me from working on the pony…

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Barclay, the great white shark

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi1 Comment

I was playing fetch with the dogs, when I held the ball over Barclay’s head and he gave me this hilareous look, with his eyes rolled back and his tounge lolling out to one side, and I thought – that would make an awesome picture, I’ll go get my camera!

Things are never that simple!
Ball thrower in one hand, camera in the other, ask Barclay to wait, navi is in the background doing that super loud, super high pitched bark which means THROW IT THROW IT THROW IT THROW IT!
** CRUNCH **
Drop it! Now, WAIT!…
** CRUNCH **
Now, wait…
** CRUNCH **
** CRUNCH **
** CRUNCH **
The picture I was trying to get?
Sorta like this…
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The Birds and The Bees

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi, petsLeave a comment

Just having a little fun on a sunny morning, laying on my tummy in the grass taking pictures of the bees visiting the clover. Of course the dogs kept wandering by and interrupting the bees, or trying to eat them (now that would have been a great picture) or licking me on the head while I was busy looking through the camera, but it wouldn’t be the same without dogs helping, now would it 🙂

I took a LOT of shots, but none were quite what I was looking for. Bees have a tendancy to be facing the wrong way, or fly away just as you hit the shutter!

And with so many clover flowers, it’s hard to get the shot where you can make the bee stand out in the field.

This turned out to bee my favorite of the lot…

I got this shot of a rose, straight out of the camera without any messing with the colors – wow!

And our big locust tree against the cloudy sky.

And these tiny, tiny little flowers, hidden in the grass – these flowers are about a quarter inch across – so tiny!

Barclay, hanging out by the fence. They are so happy to have access to the backyard now that the blackberry vines are gone and I’m not as worried about coyotes hanging out back there, lying in wait.

Navi, digging a hole. She stuffs her face down in the hole and snorts 🙂

She’s happiest when she’s getting dirty!

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What to do with those giant brush piles I made

On By stefrobrtsIn dave, lawnmowerLeave a comment

The backyard was full of giant prickly brush piles after all my work last week clearing blackberry vines. Now we need to get rid of them. We don’t like burn piles, so we prefer to haul them away, but to do that, we have to move them around front. First, get a tarp, and tie it to the tractor. Oh, and a husband is handy to have around too!

After letting the piles dry a few days, they are fairly easy to move. Kind of like velcro – they all stick together. If you’re lucky you can just about roll the whole mess onto the tarp.

Away we go! I follow behind and grab the back corner to steer it a bit if necessary, or use my pitchfork to push stray branches back onto the tarp.

All the way around the house and shop…

Line it up with the pile on the driveway, and lift up the tarp to throw the new load on. 

And off he goes for the next pile. I think we moved 5 or 6 piles of brush this way, and now there is a very big pile on the driveway. A friend offered to let us use their farm truck to haul it away, so that’s the next step.

It’s sure nice to have the back yard all cleaned up and mow-able again!

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The Camas Camera Club

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay2 Comments

Last night I went to the first meeting of the Camas Camera Club. Camas is a small town about 15 miles south-east of here. It was held in the library. A friend of a friend started it, she’s a professional dog photographer, and my friends encouraged me to go. There were only five other people there, but it was the first meeting!

Everyone was supposed to bring two pictures, but I couldn’t decide and brought three.

It was fun to see the other pictures people brought. Some of them are quite accomplished professional photographers, people who have had exhibits, stuff like that. I think being able to learn techniques and get critiques from people who know more than I do will be good for improving my skills.

We started out with an assignment to come back next meeting with a new picture of an ‘interaction’ – our choice on how to interpret that. It has already energized my picture taking, I’m eager to get out there and try something!

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