Thursday we spent the day with our friends. Friday my pilates instructor ramped us up on our weights and challenged us with more advanced moves. I loved it because after a year and a half of going to these classes I am doing stuff I didn't believe I would ever do. Now I am just going to have to work on the mental more than ever so I don't limit myself, remembering that I am no longer that painful, limited of movement body. I just can't believe how long it has taken! This was after the long hike on Wednesday and my heat exhaustion, so I am excited about my bodies healing.
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| My tools |
Saturday we had a birthday party to go to at a neighbor's place, we have never been there before. I made zucchini bread so we could take a loaf, picked and put together a bouquet of flowers and unearthed my giant knitting needles to whip up a scarf for a gift. It only takes a couple of hours to do.
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| The flash washed out how pretty the colors were. |
We get over there and someone else was arriving and she mentioned Steve's birthday...the rat had told Larry in jest that it was his wife having the 60th birthday. I wonder if he'll wear the scarf when he goes deer hunting this fall...hahahaha. They've lived over there 15 years and have done wonderful landscaping. They have a pool that has a spa and a man made stream flowing into it and it looks like rock inside and out. Different levels of decks and grassy areas and another man made stream into a small pond. This is besides the large pond we can see from the road, the man apparently likes water. For dinner he had been smoking pork for pulled pork sandwiches, smoked 20 hours, it was the best ever!!! We had a nice time, stayed about four hours and missed the cake and gifts, oh well, but it was long enough. 
Sunday we were up before six a.m. so I could make that hike up the big hill again. Gracie stayed in her bed until we left. That dog does not like getting up earlier than she is accustomed to. The hike was so much easier. The cooler temps made a huge difference and I actually went farther, 4.75 miles. We were home by 8:30. I don't remember what time I hit the trail. Larry left first, he likes to go further, and I meet him at the trail head, but I kept up a good pace. We made a blackberry snack stop at one place that still had a lot of berries easy to get to and I rested a couple of times going up the big hill, but a fraction of the stopping and resting I had done on Wednesday.
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| Flowers on the trail |
I still had no pain in my hips. I feel like being melodramatic and shouting, it's a miracle, but I have worked hard since Jan. of last year, so it is and it isn't a miracle. I plan on continuing as I have because I still have many goals for my body. My abs still aren't where I can do roll up and roll downs without grabbing hold of my legs (basically a slow controlled sit up). And though I can now do a plank I still can not go down to the floor in a controlled manner, I get to a certain point and then plunk to the floor. There are more but I won't bore you with all that.
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| Yummy blackberries |
I took off after her with the big flashlight. I shined the light across the meadow and to the right where the garbage cans were on the street for the morning pickup and there was a very big bear having a snack! No Gracie. Shit, was my first thought. Big Bear! They are so damn silent, it just moved away and up the hill. Still couldn't see Gracie, so I swept the light back the other way and there she came trotting from the neighbors yard to my left. I was really afraid she would see the bear and take off again, but she, taking her sweet time, finally got herself up to where I could grab her and throw her inside the garden. Who knows what she took off after, if it was a baby bear I would think the BIG Bear would have taken after them. It could have even been a deer. Larry snooped around a bit but we didn't see any more of the bear. Gracie was on edge all night, doing her low woofs every time she heard something with her huge bat ears or her nose caught the scent of something through the windows.
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| Larry picking blackberries, Gracie even had a few. She even tried to pick her own. |
This morning Larry is looking out the kitchen window and saw what he first thought might have been a chicken in the bushes, but he realized he was seeing the red head of a vulture. There were a few in there eating something. Larry eventually went down to see what they were having for breakfast and it was part of a baby deer. Just the head and front legs. Now, no telling what got it, could have been a coyote or a bobcat. It's not likely the bear killed it, but it could have come across the kill and eaten some of it after dragging it off. The bear may have not had anything to do with any of it. The coyotes are through here most every night, so are fox.
In talking to our neighbor across the street a week or so ago one of the two twin sets Mama disappeared and the other twins Mama was nursing all four. One might have been sickly, weak or just was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe one doe can't defend four babes, just nature. Not a good year for deer around here.
Larry walked the property and didn't find the rest of the carcass or bear scat or anything else interesting.
An exciting weekend of living in the country.
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| Larry got a picture of me on Sunday's hike. I look kind of weird, that is my cap in my left hand and I have two bottles of water in the pockets of my cargo shorts. I had my phone, a nut bar and tissues too. I was doing a weird pose...so yup, weird looking. |
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