Yukon Do It

I just signed up for our local half marathon, Yukon Do It, to take place Sunday December 28th.

 

This is the race course where I ran my first marathon, December 31, 2011.

5hr 44m 58s

 

It starts in Port Orchard and goes out Beach Drive to Manchester State park & back to town. Almost entirely flat, on previous years it had a negative elevation gain.

It was pretty cheap for a half and today is opening day to register. This gives me something to work toward, I haven't had anything in so long. Irongirl doesn't count, I didn't know if I'd have the day off or not and same with Tri Turtle Tri. I don't actually know if I'll get this race day off either but I'll ask my boss and hope for the best.

Actually, theoretically I'll be signed up for Ironman Arizona 20105 at that time so I'll be working toward that and this will be part of my training.

I guess I better get off my lazy ass and get running.

Today I almost bought a pair of Hoka shoes but couldn't see paying $170 for a type & brand of shoe I've never worn before. I do like my Asics and Saucony.

Check it out, I'm looking pretty damn good. Its about time, riding my bike during the beautiful long summer and now dieting. Pretty soon I'll be riding my bike again and will continue to lose weight. Then I can gain it all back while on vacation.

Chattanooga



This morning while at work, my friends Suzie & George showed up. They were on their way to Chattanooga for Ironman Chattanooga next weekend. Suzie is racing, George is the Sherpa.

I made Banana Bread for Suzie because when she raced in Canada I had made some then and she absolutely loved it and ate some on her run. I hope this stuff is as good as that other bread was.

So I've been thinking about Ironman a lot lately, sometimes I'm like 'I don't need to be doing that stuff' and other times Im all excited and cant wait until I get myself into another one. I do have IMAZ2015 in my sights and am planning on going down to Arizona this November.

Oh, GREAT NEWS: I forked over $1323. somethingoddcents for a COMPUTRAINER. So excited, can't wait for it to get here. Used, on eBay but Windy bought one for $1800 new and got the same thing. So once it gets here I will start riding and she and I can ride together in the comfort of our own homes.

In horse news:
Just my horses in the barn now, no more favors for friends. Sarahs horse stomped on my foot, it hurt like hell, I told her to take that horse out but Renata could stay but she freaked out & took them both out.  Fine by me, my horses will be fine just themselves.

Just Mine

For the first time in a very long time I have just my own horses in the barn. All the boarders have moved on and now it will be quiet.

 

I'm going to reconfigure the pastures and try to make them into the PARROCK PARADISE I had wanted when we first moved in. That should be good for the horses.

 

Here are a few pictures I found online of other properties.

 

I had originally heard of this when I lived at the pony farm, Merry wanted to do this with the ponies and she did do a little for her mare but she never completed it.

 

After we moved in and started fixing fences, Kitsap County Conservation District sent a woman to do a farm plan and she told me I couldn't cut down any trees and I couldn't build another fence within 50 feet of the property borders. Which was a crock of shit because other people at the conservation district told me I COULD do both. Too bad their own people cant get shit straight.

 

In fact, one of the workers herself uses paddock paradise for her own horses and shes got fences 12 feet inside her property line.

 

I think all my horses would be able to get along fine if I had this for them and if they didn't (Joey can be a big old meany) then I'd add a couple gates to separate them.

 

I wish I had at least 10 or 20 acres to do this with.

 

My horses would have this destroyed in no time!

 

I'd just have to use a rail road tie for my hay bags.

 

 

This is my farm, or the barn and horse areas. I could make any changes I want, including making the arena smaller or taking out current fencing.

Tri Turtle Tri 2014

Today was my last scheduled race event of the summer, the Tri Turtle Tri. I've done this race 4 times in the last 6 seasons and its a lot of fun. Today I was the bike leg of a relay team, first time I've been in a relay.

 

This is Dave, then me, Daves wife Terry and Sherri.

 

I think I'm looking pretty good in my tri suit right now.

 

Denise Brooks, Terry Harter, Sherri LaHaie

Team Name: Victorious Secret

Bib:49
Swim( .5 mile): 0:25:59.3 Rank 23  Terry
T1: 0:00:38.7
Bike (15.6 miles): 0:58:38.1 Rank 11   Me
T2: 0:00:41.2
Run (3.4 miles): 0:34:52.8 Rank 20   Sherri

FINISH TIME: 2:00:50.1
18th out of 31 relay teams
131 finish out of 339 total finishers

 

It was a beautiful sunny day spent with great friends.

 

This is the end of my 2014 tri season, tomorrow I start my diet, a new weights workout plan and prepare for our trip to Arizona and then the holidays.

Raspberry Leaves

A few years ago I found out that feeding raspberry leaves to horses will help calm them,

 especially mares in heat, so I bough bag after bag of Mare Magic.

Mare Magic is just dried raspberry leaf, nothing else, and its expensive, like $15.00 for 10oz.

 

You can also buy it online for $11 per pound from a Shelton farm but that's a pain in the butt because they don't always have it available and there is a $10 shipping fee, no matter how much you order.

 So I went out & picked 2 bags of leaves at a small farm nearby.

 

The lady loaned me her dehydrator that's had been sitting in her garage for 4 years and I brought it home to try out.

 

I put my first batch of leaves in & turned it on.

 

 Closed it up and started the process.  

 



 

After about 18 hours I checked them & they are all totally dry. I realized I could put way more leaves onto each of the 6 trays.

 

And also that the stems need to be removed.

This sucked because it adds twice as much work to it but my mares cant eat the stems,

they might choke.

 

Here is the first batch, in a baggie. There have been 3 batches so far and they are getting nicer each time. But Sarah and I got lazy on the last batch, the one cooking now, we just put the leaves on the trays, we didn't remove the stems first. We were on time constraint.

 

 

After we removed the stems and crushed the leaves, these feel just like the stuff we have been buying online.

 

I figure with the leaves Sarah and I picked today and the ones I got the other day that we might have enough for 5 lbs of dried leaves, about enough for our 3 mares for a year, or spring & summer.

 

If we find more leaves to pick before the fall weather hits, we might get enough to process for selling but this won't happen if my electricity bill goes through the roof.



Foal Video

I absolutely LOVE this video.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203123247014504

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203123247014504

 

Crying over a bike

Today Lan asked me how I wold like it if he got me a new mountain bike for Christmas and it made me cry. Not happy tears of "Oh goody, I get a new bike!' but sad tears of 'Oh man, I'm going to miss this bike!'. Its taken me to so many neat places.

 

This is when it was brand new

 

Top of Gold Mountain countless times

 

Banner Forest in the mud 

 

West Side mtn bike series 

 

Ft Steilacoom 

 

Las Vegas, countless times 

 

Damn I was looking pretty good there 

 

Whistler, BC, Canada 

 

Sun Top, Mt Rainier 

 

Montana's Cottonwood Trail 

 

Just think of the places a new bike could take me.