Weekly Review through July 9

Whew! It's been a while since I've done a Weekly Review post! Time to get caught up. :)

Fitness
The bulk of my fitness has centered on training for my upcoming Triathlon on July 17. It will be here very soon! This most recent week, I began my official taper for the triathlon. Here's a breakdown of the past few weeks, since I haven't done a review since June 18.

June 19-25
Sunday- 10 mile hike in Refrigerator Canyon near Helena. READ HERE!

Monday- rest
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT: 14 mile bike, 3.2 mile run
Wednesday- 4.1 mile treadmill interval workout
Thursday- 2000 yards of swimming laps
Friday- rest/Drive to Red Lodge
Saturday- 5 mile hike in Custer National Forest. READ HERE!

This photo isn't from the hike, but Jeff, Tom and I drove to the top of Beartooth Pass and this photo was taken there. 

June 26-July 2
Sunday- 3.5 mile run in Red Lodge
Monday- 7 mile mountain bike ride in Red Lodge
Tuesday- BRICK WORKOUT:  10 mile bike, 3 mile run
Wednesday- I did a TON of yardwork outside today, and 30 minutes of yoga
Thursday- 3.75 mile treadmill tempo run
Friday- 1500 yards swimming, AND 12 mile bike ride

Saturday- rest.

July 3-9
Sunday- 4.7 mile run

Abby joined me on my run while Harvey chose to stay home.

Monday- BRICK WORKOUT: 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run
Tuesday- 8 mile bike, 1500 yard swim
Wednesday- 60 Minutes of yoga-- loved it!
Thursday- 4.3 mile run outside with Harvey! ICYMI, Harvey wrote all about this run and you can read his recap HERE!

Friday- 7.5 mile bike ride
Saturday- 4.6 mile interval run on treadmill

Year To Date:
Running: 313.15
Walking/Hiking: 87.2 miles 
Yoga: 1190 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 156.2
Swimming: 9000 yards

Spring wheat heads are filling. 

Farm
Things have been very busy on the farm, which is partly why I haven't written a Weekly Review post in a while! We've been busy cutting and baling hay, spraying our conventional farm fields, plowing up the rest of our organic land, and cultivating some of our fallow fields. We also moved some of our cows to different pastures, and had a cattle rep out to work out a deal for our calves to be presented for sale in a video auction. It really just seems like it's been a blur.

This is a picture of Jeff driving the tractor and breaking up ground that will be seeded as organic fields.

Life
I can officially say now that I am part of the unemployment ranks. I got laid off from my job in June and my official last day (even though I hadn't worked since school got out) was June 30. The whole situation was a really big mess and I'm not going to go into detail, except to say that I've never worked for such a poorly managed, dishonest company in my life. Frustrating. But, as I've written about before, the school where I worked (the school contracted with my former company and was simply the site of my job)-- the school was fantastic. I'll really miss working there and seeing those kids every day, and the teachers and staff, who were also amazing. I still have my track coaching position in the Spring, so I'll continue to be involved that way.

In the meantime, I've applied for unemployment, which is a hard thing to rationalize in my mind. I've been working steadily since I was fourteen years old. I remind myself that it wasn't my fault that my job ended, I'm a good worker, and I'm simply taking part in a system that was set up for situations exactly like this. It won't be permanent. On the other hand, I'm thankful that this system does exist!

So, I have been looking for work locally and applying for jobs. There isn't a glutton of jobs in Almost-Canada, MT, so there's not a lot to choose from, but I'm hopeful that something will work out. On the other hand, as I've said, summer on the farm is extremely busy and I've found that I actually haven't missed working over the summer so far. I've had plenty to do to stay busy and feel productive around home.


This upcoming week my parents will be here for a visit from Iowa. Jeff and I are looking forward to hosting them on the farm, and they'll also be joining us in Helena to spectate my triathlon. It'll be a great visit!

This is some of our neighbor's winter wheat-- feels like harvest is right around the corner!

Tri Tuesday! 11 Weeks Until MTWomensTri!

Well, here I am at about eleven weeks from MTWomensTri!

www.mtwomenstri.com

Specific goals that I had for today were as follows:

1) Identify/create a training plan.

2) Buy a swimsuit.

Starting with Goal Number 1- Identifying a Training Plan.
I did a bunch of research on beginner, Sprint Triathlon training plans. One observation about tri training plans is that there are A LOT to choose from. Training plans vary greatly, as do the types of triathlons people train for. The most basic tris seem to be similar to what I'm doing- beginner-friendly, pool swim, sprint tris. Mine is 500 meter swim, 12 mile ride, 5K run. They range all the way up to Ironman distance, which is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon (26.2 mile) run! Holy cow.

In the end, I created my own training plan after looking through a lot of other sprint-tri plans. One good thing is that I already feel like I'm in really good shape for bike and run, as I can cover both of those distances without any problems. So, the biggest opportunities for me are in swim training and transition training.

With the swim, I do have a solid background in swimming, but I just haven't done much of it in recent years. I think swim conditioning will come quickly once I get into the pool. I found a lot of training plans that are geared toward beginners for sprint distance, but the biggest challenge was finding one that worked for my unique situation, specifically regarding swim training. The vast majority of plans had 2-3 days of pool workouts listed per week. Given my distance from the pool, realistically, I think I can plan on one pool workout each week and a second pool swim would be a bonus most weeks. Right now with track season, it would be a long shot for me to make it to the pool at all, so my swim workouts won't pick up until June, most likely.

Transitions are the term for when you transition from swim to bike, and then from bike to run. They're referred to as T1 and T2. Based on the research I've done, one of the best ways to train for transitions and also to work on overall conditioning are through what's called "Brick Workouts," or just "Bricks." Since I already feel comfortable in the run and bike distances, I'm not needing to build mileage at this time, like a lot of training plans do in the early stages, so I'm already going to add in bricks early on, specifically bike/run bricks.

Here's an outline of my training plan:
Week 1 (This week!) 3 runs, 1 bike workout
optional brick: 3x(4 mile bike, 1mile run)
swim if possible
**So far, I've done two runs this week. I just need one more run and a bike, or a brick, and I'll have this week accomplished!

Week 2 3 runs, 1 bike workout
optional brick: 5 mile bike at moderate effort and 3 mile run at 10 min/mile pace
swim if possible

Week 3 3 runs, 1 bike workout
optional brick: Ride 30-45 minutes, run 15 minutes
swim if possible

Week 4 3 runs, 1 bike
optional brick: 2x(6 mile bike, 1.5 mile run)
Swim if possible

Week 5 3 runs, 1 bike, 1 swim (no longer optional!)
brick: Ride 45 minutes, run 20 minutes

Week 6 3 runs, 1 bike, 1 swim
brick: 6 mile ride at moderate effort, 3 mile run at 10 min/mile pace

Week 7 3 runs, 1 bike, 1 swim
brick 1: 12 mile bike, 2 mile run
brick 2: 500 swim, 30-40 minute bike

Week 8 3 runs, 1-2 bike workouts, 1-2 swim workouts
brick 1: 3x(4 mile bike, 1 mile run)
brick 2: TIMED 500 swim, 45 minute ride

Week 9 3 runs, 1-2 bikes, 1-2 swims
brick 1: 12 mile bike, 5k run- practice T2
brick 2: TIMED 500 swim, 12 mile bike, 5K run
~or~
break it up as TIMED 500 swim, 6 mile bike - Practice T1 - (in morning) and 6 mile bike, 5K run in evening - Practice T2.

Week 10 3 runs, 1-2 bikes, 1-2 swims
brick 1: TIMED 500 swim, 8 mile bike - practice T1
brick 2: 8 mile bike, 2 mile run - practice T2

Week 11 3 runs, 1-2 bikes, 1-2 swims
brick 1: 500 swim, 6 mile bike - practice T1
brick 2: 30 minute bike, 15-20 min easy run - practice T2

July 17- RACE DAY!

Whew. Seems kinda crazy after typing it all out like that. With the "3 runs," I'm thinking that at least one of them will be a long run of distance 5-8 miles. Even throughout the tri training, I'd like to stay in shape to be able to complete a 10K race, and have a few planned in the interim anyway. Also, the brick workouts are not necessarily meant to be separate from the outline of "3 runs, 1-2 bike, 1-2 swim," but could replace those workouts. I'm not super rigid when it comes to training plans. I also find that I can't plan in advance that a certain day of the week is my "swim day," or "run day," as each week varies soooooo much on the farm. I'll just plan on a week by week basis, or try to, and figure out which day I'll do which activity as I go along.

Now, addressing Goal #2- find a swimsuit!
There are no stores within a two-hour drive of my house that sell competition or lap swimming swimsuits, so to the internet I go! I still haven't ordered a suit, but I plan to do that today. I'll probably pick a basic Speedo or TYR on sale from www.swimoutlet.com for my lap swimming workouts. I'm still deciding if I will want to race in my workout suit, or if I want to try something different. I'm sure I'll post more on that later! So, obviously no pool workout this week until my lap suit comes in. :)

Also, just for fun--  Here's a hilarious blog post for people who like to laugh and know very little about triathlons: http://www.oiselle.com/blog/fan-girls-guide-triathlon. I highly recommend reading this one!

Next week on Tri Tuesday, I'll hopefully be reporting about how the first week of training went, and all about my new swimsuit! See you next week!

Tri Tuesday! 12 Weeks to MTWomensTri!

Twelve Weeks Until Montana Women's Triathlon!

www.mtwomenstri.com

With all the enthusiasm and support from you all surrounding my decision to tackle my first triathlon, I thought I'd start a new weekly series on the blog all about my tri training experience. From the signup process to completion of the race and everything in between, check back here each week to see how it's going. I'm calling it Tri Tuesdays! (Yes, today is Wednesday... I wanted to publish my Icebreaker review as soon as I finished it yesterday, so this got pushed back.)

Why did I sign up for a triathlon!? Well, I've always wanted to do one. I have good experience in each of the triathlon disciplines, so why not put it all together? Plus, I am really looking forward to the challenge and problem solving of training for the tri, and the awesome feeling of accomplishment when I finish the race. I'm not doing it to win, I'm doing it to prove to myself that I can. My goals are to finish and to smile. 

Why this Triathlon? I heard about this one haphazardly through Active.com's email blasts. I love that it's women only, it's sprint distance, and the swim is in the pool rather than open water. I've also read and heard over and over that this race is very beginner friendly, which suits me quite well. The distances for this race are as follows: 500 meter swim in an Olympic pool, 12 mile bike, 5k (3.1mile) run.

Montana Women's Triathlon is held in Helena. This will be the second year of this event. I just love the positive vibe that I got instantly from their website. From their site: "Our goal is to empower women to find strength within to live healthy happy lives." Sounds like it is right up my alley!

The Sign-Up Process...
The only thing I have done so far to prepare for the MTWomensTri is...sign up for the race. The sign up process for this triathlon was slightly more complicated than your average small-town 5K race,which is mostly what I run, so I thought I'd share a little about it. Who knows- maybe one of you readers will decide to sign up for your first triathlon and this blog will be a helpful source of information for you!

Ok. So there are a few extra steps and pieces to put into play when you sign up for a triathlon. Obviously, this is the first and only time (so far) that I've signed up for one, so this is the only one I'm basing my experience off of, but I'd assume others are similar or perhaps even more complicated.

First, I found out I had to sign up for a USA-Triathlon membership because MTWomensTri is a sanctioned USAT event. I went to the USAT website to research membership cost and benefits. $50 for an annual membership. Yikes! And, you had to make a written request for an application (who doesn't have an online application in 2016?!), fill it out, and send it back with money. Uffda.

I decided to take my chances and just see what would happen if I signed up for the race first. Luckily, this was the right call. In the process of signing up (online, thankyouverymuch!) for MTWomensTri, they offer a USAT day pass for only $15. Sweet. If I decide I like triathlons and plan to do more, I can even credit my $15 day pass toward the year-long membership fee.

The next thing that came up in the sign-up process was a bike stand. I guess I have to purchase a bike stand???? I'm not sure if it is a single bike stand just for me/my bike, or if I'm paying for a spot on a large bike rack. This was a little confusing, but it was only $5 and I figured I'd rather have it than not, especially if they are suggesting it, so I bought that, too.

Next, they asked for a time estimate for my swim to help seed me in the most appropriate wave of swimmers. The swim portion is 500 meters in an olympic pool. Now, I haven't swam a timed 500 since... probably high school. When I was lifeguarding, I could do it in about eight minutes, and that was yards, not meters. I have no idea where I'd do it today. I put down 12:00 as a shot in the dark. So, I guess now I have a goal for my swim training- be able to swim 500 meters in under 12:00. I'm actually a little concerned that my estimate is too fast. I guess we'll see!

Finally, payment for the race itself was $60. So far, my total is $80 for the race fee, USAT day pass, and "bike rack."

I also made a reservation at a hotel that's near the triathlon start/finish. I can always cancel it if I find someone to stay with later, but I just wanted to have piece of mind that I will have a place to sleep before the race, which starts at 8:00 a.m. on a Sunday in Helena. Helena is a little over three hours drive from my house, so it definitely necessitates an overnight stay on Saturday night.

What's Next?
Next, I need to start working on gathering supplies, and deciding on a training plan. I started researching sprint triathlon supply lists and my head started spinning. Of course, some lists insist upon a very large number of supplies that you "absolutely must have" in order to be successful in your race. I want to know what I actually must have and what is not really necessary, especially for a beginner whose goals are to finish and to smile.

Here's what I know I really do need, as of now:
- swimsuit 
- swim cap
- goggles
- 5 gallon bucket to use as my "transition bag" and hold my stuff
- bike helmet (why do I not already own a bike helmet?!)
- shorts I can wear to bike in and to run in

Other things I would like, but may not be absolute must-haves:
- kickboard for pool training
- beach towel
- fuel/energy gu of some sort
- a borrowed road bike

Now, let's talk training plans. I keep looking for plans for my specific situation- beginner, pool swim, sprint-distance tri. Many plans call for hitting the pool 2-3 times a week, which is not really feasible for me, living as far as I do from the pool. In the end, I will probably work on creating my own training plan, adapted from others that I find online. I'll write more about this once my plan is developed. The good news is that I can already cover both the bike and run distances of this race with no problem. It's really the swim that I need to bulk up on, and to start working on multiple-discipline days, or "brick workouts." (I have learned that in tri lingo, a day when you train or workout in more than one discipline is called a brick day. See? I know things!)

Next Steps:
By next week, I will have decided on a training plan and will publish it here. I'd also like to have researched the Havre swimming pool for costs and lap swim times, and would like to have at least ordered a good lap swimming suit, cap, and goggles.

Your job is to hold me accountable to this!

See you next week with my next Tri Tuesday update!

Weekly Review March 27 - April 2

Another busy week in review comin' at ya here on the Prairie Sun Life! Read on to see how the week went in fitness, farm, and life! 

A view of Sage Creek from our pasture.

Fitness
In addition to continuing Shape Up Montana, I also kicked off two new April fitness challenges on April 1. You can read about them in this PREVIOUS POST, but just to sum it up, they are the Million Mile Month challenge and the #OiselleFullHalf challenge. For Million Mile Month (MMM) I pledged to run 50 miles in April. For #OiselleFullHalf, my goal is to run 13 different runs or treadmill workouts in April. I had two days this past week where I woke up early to get my runs in on the treadmill before school. Not my favorite, but sometimes it just has to be that way.

Also, the weather has been nice lately, and Jeff and I were able to fit in a long bike ride on Easter Sunday-16 miles. My longest ride ever on a mountain bike. I was tired at the end, but it felt good.

Here's a screenshot of my route from Strava.

I'm also fitting in slightly more yoga lately, as I've been leading more sessions myself! I lead a brief 15 minute after-lunch yoga session for students every Tuesday at the Elementary School, and we've been incorporating yoga into our Track workouts (I'm a coach on the local high school team) at least once a week. I find that I really enjoy sharing yoga with others, and the kids are really liking it, too!

Here's how the week went:
Sunday- 16 mile mountain bike ride, 3 mile walk in town
Monday- complete rest.
Tuesday- 45 minutes yoga
Wednesday- 3.1 mile treadmill run before school. That 5:15 alarm is harsh!
Thursday- 15 minutes yoga
Friday- 2.8 mile treadmill run before school.
Saturday- 2 mile walk with dogs

Kicking off my April challenges! 

And, here are the Year to Date Stats:
Running: 137.7 miles
Walking/Hiking: 37.2 miles
Yoga: 655 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 26 miles WOOHOO! Movin' on up! 

Farm
We are really starting to transition from calving season into the beginning of Spring farming and seeding. The cows are still up in the corral area- not out to pasture yet- and we have about eight more animals that still need to calve. We continue to feed hay bales every day, but the calving has slowed down enough that we thankfully don't need to walk through and check them so often. So, my morning cow checks are done for the year.

Jeff spent some time on the disc last week to prepare our newly tilled organic farm ground for seeding later this spring. The disc is an implement that is pulled by a tractor and works to break up ground. We have some newly leased farm ground that we have decided to farm organically, and we're really excited about the new challenge and opportunity that will bring. Jeff and Tom also spent some time preparing the sprayer (sprayer only to be used on non-organic, or "conventional" fields!) and other implements for spring work. We will likely start seeding peas first, probably later on this week. This year, we are again seeding yellow field peas. They are primarily ground into flour for human consumption or processed into snack foods.

Life
Jeff and I were able to attend the Montana Farmers Union Young Producers Conference this past Friday and Saturday, along with our good friends Dan and Adria. It was a nice event and we enjoyed spending time with them, and meeting a few new people, too. I'll do a separate post about it soon.

One key takeaway was that people in agriculture can and should be using social media to tell their story. We had more than one speaker who addressed this, and they were convincing enough that my husband has started his own Instagram account! Now, you can follow BOTH of us on Instagram @katie.r.bangs and @farmerjeffinmt  -- Look us up!

Here's a screen shot of one of Jeff's recent Insta snaps. :)

Have a great week, everyone! 

Harvey, Iggy, and Abby on a recent pasture walk with me. 

Weekly Review February 21-27

Can you believe we're already done with February?! Here we are with my eighth Weekly Review of 2016! Read on to see how the week went in Fitness, Farming, and Life!

Just loved the clouds!

Fitness
We've now covered four weeks of Shape Up Montana. I really haven't written much about SUM yet this year, so maybe I'll dedicate another post specifically to it soon. This week, I started off with another 10K training run that didn't go so well. With about 1.5 miles to go, my hip and knee all of a sudden started to hurt very badly and I had to walk/jog the rest of the way in. That meant the rest of the week I spent considerable time stretching and doing things that weren't too stressful for the knee. Yes, I did do a couple more running workouts, but they were at very slow pace, with no incline, and included lots of walking. I'm frustrated that I keep having bouts with this hip/knee thing.

Vizsla selfie after one of our runs!

Jeff and I also went for our first bike ride of 2016! We did an easy 10-mile loop "around the block" where we live. I should say that the first 5 miles were easy but as soon as we turned south, we were headed into a strong SW wind for the remainder of the ride. The wind had DEFINITELY picked up from when we left the house. The last 2 miles in particular were pretty much head-on into the wind and were very miserable. All the same, it felt good to use my biking muscles.

Lastly, I was in Bozeman over the weekend and my sister-in-law and I tried a yoga class at a studio downtown called Your Yoga. The class was called Weekend Restore and was very restful. It was sort of a Yin Yoga style class-- not too many poses, none too stressful, held for a long time. I think it was just what my hip, knee, and lower back needed. I felt very "zen" by the end of the hour. Your Yoga had a ton of classes listed and classes cost $10. I'm definitely going to keep this studio in mind for future visits to Bozeman!

Here are the stats from the week:
Sunday- 6.2 mile run
Monday- 1.2 mile walk, 50 minutes stretching.
Tuesday- complete rest.
Wednesday- 2.7 mile treadmill run before school
Thursday- 3.2 mile easy run in the afternoon after a day of working cows, also 45 minutes of core and hip strengthening exercises
Friday- 10 mile mountain bike ride on gravel roads!
Saturday- 60 minutes yin yoga

And, YTD through February 28:
2016 Year to Date, through 2/28/16
Running: 91.95 miles
Walking/Hiking: 20.7 miles
Yoga: 395 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles (since I started tracking mileage on 1/17) 
Alpine Ski: 3 days
NEW CATEGORY--Mountain bike: 10 miles! 

Harvey basking in the sun outside the corrals. 

Abby trots up to say hello! She can't resist an opportunity for kisses.

Farm
After Jeff and I spent a day last week prepping for calving, the action is now starting to ramp up. As of this morning when I did the morning check, we had 9 calves. That means we have 87 to go, still. The weather continues to be pretty good and warm, so that means we don't have to do too many overnight checks. Jeff goes out at about 10 p.m. and then at around 2:00 a.m. Then, I get up a little earlier than I normally would and do a check at around 6:00 a.m. before getting ready for school. This morning was my first morning check. It's kind of a nice way to greet the day-- with a short walk, looking for newborn animals.

This calf was about five minutes old when this picture was taken!

Life
Yes, I was traveling again over this past weekend. I was in Bozeman for the baby shower of a good friend. My sister-in-law Katie planned it and held it at her house. The party was baseball-themed and was very cute. Katie did an excellent job planning and executing the event, and the Mama-to-be seemed very pleased, too! She got a lot of nice gifts. :)

The mother to be with some of her gifts and some of Katie's homemade decorations!
Photo credit: Katie Strissel

A big highlight Saturday night was the MSU Bobcats Women's Basketball game I attended with Tom and Carol. It was a hugely exciting back-and-forth game against the Idaho State Bengals. The Bobcats hit a couple of key 3's to send it to overtime tied at 66, and then momentum carried them through a late surge from ISU to finally come away with the victory 82-80. It was possibly the most exciting basketball game I have EVER attended!! Here's a game recap from the MSU Bobcats website, in case you'd like to read more detail: Late Game Heroics Give Bobcats Win Over Bengals On Senior Night.

Tied at 66 -- headed to OVERTIME! 

Montana Class C Divisional Basketball Tournament was also held over the weekend in Great Falls. Interestingly, the Class C Girls Divisional Championship game between Belt and Box Elder drew 2500 fans in Great Falls while the MSU Bobcat Women's Game drew 2100 in Bozeman. People really love their Class C hoops in this state!

Looking ahead this week, Jeff and I are both off to the Twin Cities for the National Farmers Union Convention March 4-8. Looking forward to connecting with friends form across the country and talking about farming!

Peanut, our last remaining cat, enjoying some evening sunshine on the porch post.

REMINDER-- The NEXT POST will be my 400th post and I'll be switching the URL to the new Prairie Sun Life link!!! Be on the watch for that! 

Have a great week! 

Thankful Thursday ~ School's Out For The Summer!

School's out for the summer! Our last day of school was actually a few weeks ago, on May 21. I spent that first weekend at State Track and in Bozeman and then all of last week was spent catching up on housework and me-time. Yes, I'm posting my Thankful Thursday post on Friday (sometimes that happens. I don't have all my shit together all the time, but who does? That's why you like this blog, right? Because I'm real? I'll tell myself that anyway... ;) ) and today I'm thankful that school's out for the summer! 

So what does school being out mean for me? In actuality, I still have to work over the summer. I'm not a teacher and I'm not employed by the school, I just work in the school environment most of the time. My co-worker and I are actually running a summer program for the kids in our program. So, we meet with them two days a week and continue therapeutic services, interventions, and a whole lot of positive skill-building throughout the summer. It's a little like summer camp or day camp for the kids. We do crafts, activities, and have deep and meaningful discussions and sharing circles. It's pretty fun, actually. Even though we're the ones as adults who are supposed to be serving them, and we are, often times it's the kids who teach me something. I get just as much "therapy" from them as I hope they get from me. That's definitely something to be thankful for.

In our first week of summer program, the kids painted flower pots in "a way that represents their personality," then they got to plant flowers in their pots and we had a discussion about what it means to take care of something, and empathy.
This is my flower pot, which I painted to match my patio furniture. :)

I'm also spending a lot more time with Jeff, which is awesome. Last week I helped him with several cow chores, including feeding range cake, some fencing, and setting up back-rubbers out in the pasture. I've also helped him with some farm and crop-specific stuff, too. It feels great to be involved and know that I'm helping out with our operation in a tangible way.

Cows eating cake. Love these ladies! 

Here's my arm, holding some barbed wire as we stretch it across the creek. I'm a RancHER. :)

Scouting out the pea crop. What do you think, Harvey? 

I'm thankful for more time during the summer for outdoor recreation and fitness pursuits! And again, thankful to be able to do more of that with Jeff, and Harvey of course, too. Last Sunday we went for another pasture bike ride. We think we covered between 8 and 9 miles. Photos from our previous pasture ride can be found HERE. The weather was warmer this time, so we made sure to find plenty of water stops for the dogs...

Harvey and Abby are enjoying some wading and a drink in the creek that runs through the pasture.
Jeff and I opted to remain on the bridge.

Of course, I'm getting in more running than I did during the end of the school year. I'm thankful that I have a little more flexibility to fit in some runs, and more time to fit in longer runs. Governor's Cup is just over a week away!

Here, Iggy is accompanying me. We officially adopted Iggy earlier this summer.
He's old, but he still likes to go for runs at his own pace.

And I've also been helping Carol, Tom, and Jeff with finishing up with planting our garden. We've got our raised beds full and the seeds are sprouting and yesterday we transplanted our tomatoes and peppers. We're all set, just need to keep up with watering and weeding and we'll be enjoying bountiful harvests, soon! We have already been eating the spinach from the garden and I think there are radish sprouts ready, too. I'm thankful in advance for the yummy veggies we'll have all summer long! Can't wait! 

Also, thankful for honeybee pollinators! Look at the size of those bumbles! 

Big bumblebees on chive blossoms! Seriously. We did NOT have bumblebees this large in Iowa! 

So many things to be excited about and thankful for when it comes to summer time! What are some of your favorite summer activities? What are you thankful for this week?

Harvey is thankful for pickup rides. I'm always thankful for Harvey!

Weekend Happenings

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a nice weekend! My weekend was pretty good around here, though busy. The major highlight of the weekend was that my birthday was on Saturday! Woohoo! Today's post is more or less a recap of the weekend's activities, which were many and varied, and also of what's going on on the farm.

The crabapple tree bloomed (early!) in time for my birthday this year.

Birthday Happenings
Saturday was my birthday. Yay! I celebrated with Jeff, Tom and Carol on Friday evening. Tom and Carol had a nice meal of grilled steaks, tossed salad with volunteer spinach from our garden, potatoes from the grill, a nice crusty bread, delicious wine, and some cheesecake squares for dessert. It was low-key and nice to get together and share good food and good conversation. Saturday, my actual birthday, I got to take a group of Junior High kids to their track meet in Cut Bank, along with another Coach. It was a long day, but good to be with some of these youngsters as they're discovering the sport of Track and Field. They surprised me with a nice birthday card and some singing of Happy Birthday. Pretty thoughtful for a group of pre-teens, right? Made me feel special and appreciated. :)

It was a pop-up card- my favorite! :) Delivered on the bus ride home.

Farm Happenings
We are officially DONE with seeding. The winter wheat was, of course, seeded last fall, but we still had lots of spring wheat, peas, and barley to do this spring, along with some land that we re-seeded into grass. Overall, seeding went well with little to no machinery breakdowns. The biggest news related to seeding is that we purchased a new blockage monitor system for our air-drill (seeder) this year, which is a little hard to explain, but helps show the person who's running the drill if the seed is flowing through the implement and into the ground as it should be. Jeff, Tom, and Stephanie (when she was here) installed sensors on each hose of the air drill. Each sensor is monitored using an iPad app that Jeff or whoever is driving the tractor can view. The app would buzz if it sensed that no seed was flowing through a hose on the drill, and would indicate which hose was blocked. Then Jeff could go out and see what was up, or how that particular hose was blocked, clear the blockage, and get back to work. The system worked very well and definitely ensured that seeding continued to run efficiently. Without a system like this, a person could have a blockage and not know for a very long time, which means that part of the ground goes un-seeded. So, with this system in place, we know we didn't miss any ground. Pretty cool how technology can work in agriculture and improve productivity, and therefore yields. Now we just need some rain. Seriously, folks, pray for rain!

This is what an air drill seeder looks like. Normally, it's hooked up to trail and seed behind a tractor.

Fitness Happenings
Shape Up Montana ended last Thursday. Overall, I'm happy with my own performance this year. I wanted to make it to 500 miles and I eclipsed that and then some by reaching 565 or so. As a team, my team did awesome, too, and I can't wait to see where we finished in the team standings. I ran and biked quite a bit more this year than in previous years, and already have a 10K under my belt, so I attribute that as a big reason why I scored so many more points this year. Over the weekend, I ran on Friday and Sunday. Friday was a windy uphill run of 3 miles or so in the afternoon, and Sunday was an easy walk/jog combo of less than two miles. I was pretty sore for some reason yesterday morning, plus I knew that Jeff and I were planning our big bike ride for that afternoon so I didn't want to overdo it... I am planning to do the 10K at the Buffalo Jump Race Series in Ulm, MT on May 17, so I do need to concentrate on keeping my mileage and training up this week, then "tapering" next week in preparation for the race.

I love this logo for the Buffalo Jump races!

Bicycle Happenings
Jeff has a fitness goal this summer of getting in a lot more mountain biking. I told him that for my birthday I didn't want any presents, but let's plan to go on a long bike ride instead. So, Sunday afternoon, we spent about an hour and a half on our mountain bikes. For the first time, really, we rode through our pastures instead of on the gravel roads. We mostly followed cow paths, which are a lot like single-track, except where there were no trails, then we just picked our way carefully through the grass. We left from Tom's house and made a big loop heading out to the Southwest, crossing the creek, then by the tepee rings, across the Inverness Road by the gravel pit and reservoirs over there, then crossed back into Chuck's pasture, and headed toward home. We think we covered about 8 miles. Harvey and Abby came with us and particularly enjoyed all the creek crossings and reservoirs. We had a great time!

Our first creek crossing of the afternoon. 

Stopping at another reservoir. Dogs went for a swim. :)

You can see how brown the grass is in these photos. We really need some rain. 

The narrowest, most harrowing portion of our ride. Barbed wire fence on one side, steep drop off on the other...
No big deal, right? We made it through with no spills. :)

 It was a jam-packed, but awesome weekend of work, play, and celebration. How was your weekend? Did you do anything exciting? Happy trails, everyone!

One of my favorite views on our entire farm. Actually in some pasture that Jeff and I rent. Sage Creek with the Sweetgrass Hills in the background.