Stormy Weather

We’re experiencing our first severe storms of this young spring. There are tornado watches out  for most of south central Virginia until 10pm. The sky is really dark.

Before the storm arrived, I managed to get my garden spot cleaned out and hoed up and the grass that’s been mulching over one end of it all winter spread out. I’m hoping to put in some lettuce by this weekend. When the lettuce is done, I want to focus on herbs for that little spot, and do all my tomatoes in buckets.

The 17 day diet is going great so far. On this first 17 day cycle the food is much like the primal diet I was eating, except fat is greatly reduced and yogurt and fruits are added in. This means cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast, fruit for a mid morning snack, salad for lunch, yogurt for a snack, lean meat and a variety of veggies for dinner and yogurt for a bedtime snack. I updated the weight-loss badge in the sidebar to reflect that I’ve started over. I’m not disregarding the 100+ lbs I’ve already lost, but just felt like starting fresh. I have much more motivation at the beginning of a journey than I do in the middle or at the end!

In the next 17 day cycle, which will begin on April 6, I will be able to add in two servings of healthy carbs like grains and beans, and higher sugar fruit like peaches. On that cycle, you alternate the way I’m eating now with the higher carb menu, which adds variety. I’m really looking forward to some cream of wheat for breakfast!

I know I already posted crocuses, but here are some more. Purty!

Out and About (or, Oot and Aboot)

Beautiful baby girl!

 

Another Day…

...Another Diet

First Day of Spring

It was chilly and overcast, but we still got in a walk, and worked off at least part of the huge turkey dinner we ate! Steve and I were both very productive. He got the old computer put away and the desk the way he likes it. I got the taxes ready to mail, the veggies processed for at least most of the week and Steve’s hair cut.

Since I was too busy (apparently) to remember to take a picture for today’s post, here’s a blast from the past; January 7, 2006, to be exact.

The bitterly cold day we met an awkward, gangly 2 yr. old Sully in Morven, Ontario, Canada, about 20 minutes from our 3-months-in-the-future home in Deseronto.

How Fruity

How a dieter handles a sweet-tooth.

Spring Clip

 

Happy St. Paddy’s Day

The first of my crocuses made an appearance on this sunny, nearly 70 degree day. Sweet!

 

And, Sully appears to be using the spring. Success!

Battle of Wills

So my horse and I have been having a battle of the wills. I think he should drink out of the spring that I went to the trouble to incorporate into his paddock, and he thinks I should deliver fresh well water to him by the bucket.

While I know that a horse can’t reason and hasn’t taken a stand against me just because he’s too lazy to use the spring, sometimes it feels like that’s what he’s doing! I know that there’s a reason why he’s reluctant to drink from the spring, and I realize it is not situated ideally for an animal that is both instinctually a herd animal and a prey animal (read that, buffet item), but it is still frustrating because I can’t pinpoint the exact reason for his hesitation.

The spring is sunk behind a bank in the bottom-most corner of the paddock, and the farthest spot from the barn. It is in the woods. When he steps down into it, he is vulnerable to attack from a predator such as a cougar. When a cougar attacks, it lies in wait until the animal passes below it. It then jumps on the horse’s back, wrapping powerful forearms and killing claws around the horse’s neck and either bites into the prey’s jugular or snaps its neck. Predators are also known to lie in wait at popular watering holes, as prey animals are at their most vulnerable when drinking. So there are two counts against us.

Slobbering, drooling toothed and clawed monsters aside, there is also a great deal of mud. Sully sinks to his knees in it, and it’ll pull the boot right off your foot. I thought this could be contributing to his hesitation.

Lastly, is he lazy? Well I fixed that yesterday by stringing some more fence yesterday in the pouring rain in order to make a pen for him at the bottom that incorporates the spring.

So while I’m not clear on just what the problem is, I decided today that there is but one of the problems I can do anything about, and that is the mud. I headed down today with a shovel (this after a 30 minute strength training workout this morning, and immediately following an hour long power walk with Mom, Jenny, Alan and Savannah) and moved about a million pounds of heavy goopy clay mud (only a very slight exaggeration!) Here is a before picture. How kind of Sully to stand where he could offer some perspective, teetering on the brink of that horse-swallowing hole!

And here is after. While it quickly became clear that removing all the mud that he sinks into would be impossible, I did realize I could channel the water nearer to the edge of the drop, so that he can reach it without bringing his hind end all the way down. I reckon this posture makes him feel like he could make a quick get away if necessary.

The things I do for this tiny-brained equine.

 

March 15

Rough day?

Uncle John

No, that’s not a smaller version of my dad; that’s Uncle John!

Photo credits go to Jenny. Thanks, Jenny!

(Uncanny though, isn’t it?)