Little Update

School has started, sort of. We're still figuring this all out. Tomorrow is Day 5.

The farm work continues, even as the plants are starting to slow down. I'm happy to go on my assigned days and happy to leave when my time is done. They've had me working a lot more with the other farm hands this year. Not as much solo time. That means I'm rarely alone enough to play podcasts or get lost in my own thoughts. It's not as rejuvenating that way. I do get to learn new skills, though, and witness employee management up close and personally. It reminds me why I generally prefer to work alone :) Some days I feel like an imposter because the other folks do these farm tasks 5 days a week and I'm only there for a couple mornings. Other days, like today, it's clear that a few of the farm hands have little experience and they don't have a clue how much time is wasted because they don't listen to instructions. Repeatedly. Siiiiiigh. I'm not immune to this phenomenon, of course. It's just easier to see in other people ;)

My team bike ride across America has only 2 weeks left and it looks like we might actually make it to the finish!! When I pulled this team together, I would have been happy just to ride across the first state in two months. 3045 miles later, here we are. I've logged 490 miles on my bike since July 11th and I've grown closer to these awesome, inspiring women who accepted my invitation to ride. Even as we each ride alone in our respective states. This has been a great experience!

My backyard garden is still producing plenty of veg for my own use, and then some. I've been able to give away about half of it to friends, neighbors, and community organizations. I'm learning to incorporate more of it into my menu planning, too. There are three fantastic ways to prepare/use up an assortment of veggies I might have on-hand at any moment: pizza toppings, curry/soup, and just plain roasting. Between those three, I can pretty much use anything I grow. Oh, and eating fresh. And deep frying. Polar opposites in many ways (e.g. amount of time needed, mess created, and nutritional value), but both quite delicious in their own ways.

*Almost* 100 miles

For my birthday, I decided I wanted to try and ride 100 miles on my bike in one day with my friend Rachel. It was a pretty ambitious goal considering the longest distance I had EVER gone on my bike was 40 miles and I had only done that twice in my life. I didn't work up to 100 miles slowly, I didn't train for weeks to condition my body or fine tune my nutrition/hydration plan. Nope. I just thought, "It can't be that much harder than 40 miles, and plenty of people have done it."

Well, my body let me know at 70 miles that it was done. My quads were cramping and even getting off my bike to walk was more painful than riding through the pain itself. I got the message loud and clear! Our car was waiting at mile 86, so I had to keep going, but only because there was no other way home. I eventually reached the car and stayed there while Rachel finished the course, accomplishing a 101.5-mile ride in 8 hours!! She's one tough lady, that one.

A few things I will take from this experience:

--Cycling with friends is a whole lot more fun

--Training matters. A lot. Build up to 100 miles over time.

--Hydration, hydration, hydration.

--Snack throughout the ride to keep fueled, don't stop for a regular lunch.

--Maybe try an official event next time with regular snack/hydration stops and bike support. There's a momentum and energy that comes from organized events like that. The additional support also means less to carry on my back and less on my bike.

--Curate a wider selection of things to listen to.

--Take more pictures. Remember to enjoy the ride, not just the destination.

So, I will try again. I haven't selected a date or organized a training regimen yet, but this is very much a task left undone.

Here's a picture of Rachel heading through one of the tunnels on our course.

Yup, I'm 41.

I had my 41st birthday last week. What a day! First off, I had to pretend it WASN'T my birthday, which was kinda hard at first, but I got the hang of it by the end. Birthdays for me are all about maintaining realistic expectations and coming to appreciate the life I'm living right now. When I keep that perspective, my birthdays are really quite satisfying.

It started with James making me a fruit smoothie for breakfast. He had a big plan, made a big mess, and drank more of the smoothie than I did while I was getting everyone else their breakfasts, but that was okay. It's not like it was my birthday or anything. I got to see James get excited about making food and learning something new ans serving his family. That was pretty cool.

Then, like every Thursday morning, I went to the farm. We harvested a bunch of stuff: scallions, sweet peppers, tomatillos, and three kinds of basil. I learned about cut-and-come-again scallions, which is BRILLIANT! You grow the scallions (green onions) like usual, but instead of pulling up the whole plant when you want scallions, just cut them off right at the soil line. They'll grow back! That's 2-3 harvests from a single seed!! I love learning at the farm.

After the farm, it was a long, unscheduled day with lots of time doing the things I love with people I love. I ran a bunch of errands with James and Matthew. They were good sports about wearing masks and following directions. I had to get tested for Covid-19, too, and they cheerfully volunteered for nasal swabs as well. Matthew sneezed six times after that sample was taken! 

I pulled weeds in the front yard, built a bike ramp for James to ride over, coerced him to try Robert's larger bike (which he loved!) and went for a ride with all three boys. Matthew was in the trailer behind me and Robert and James rode on their older siblings' bikes. They felt so fast and free and tall. Their excitement reminded me of how I felt on my first test drive of a real road bike from a real bike shop. It was like flying. I had never gone so fast with so little effort before. I do enjoy a good ride with my kids.

Later in the afternoon, James and Matthew went to Erin's house, so I had some time to hang out with just the older kids. Alice and I hung out on the back porch talking, playing video games, and eating candy. She convinced me to buy her a Studio C t-shirt and a BYU t-shirt. She is so, so, so excited to get them this week.

For dinner, we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. It's not my ideal dinner, but I like it every once in a while and it makes a lot of other people in my family happy. Instead of birthday cake, we put a candle in some Luigi's Lemon Ice and ate it out on the back porch. 

I've come to love my back porch this summer. In the afternoon, about 2 or 3 pm, shade reaches the swinging bench and it's a lovely place to watch the outdoors. By 5:30 or so, the concrete is all shaded and cool again. All I hear is birds and wind and the occasional car or airplane. Even on really hot days, it's a refreshing break from the indoors. 

After dinner, I walked to Erin's house for a guitar lesson with her and our teacher over Zoom. I stayed afterwards to chat. Erin sees my kids often enough to know them very, very well. She's an empathetic ear, someone I can be honest with, and she has really good ideas. 

Then I spent the rest of the evening with Bobby, watching some of our favorite shows together. 

It was a satisfying day. Normal and special in its own way.

Shopping Buddies

 

Garden in August

It's halfway through the month and I finally got around to taking a photo of the garden. It's a busy time of year.

 

The potatoes, onions, peas, carrots, melons and cilantro have been harvested and replaced with collards, kale, Michili cabbage, carrots, turnips, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and head cabbage.

Saturday's harvest (L-R): Chinese yard-long beans, a little rhubarb, green beans, slicing tomatoes, a medley of cherry tomatoes, and a good little pile of ground cherries (aka Physalis, husk cherry, Inca berry, Cape gooseberry). Missing from the photo: 5 okra, a half gallon of Michili cabbage and curly green kale.

The okra was eaten immediately. Didn't even make it into the house. The ground cherries and rhubarb went into a lemon bundt cake. Mmmmmmm. The lemon and sugar overpowered everything :( so I'll have to try again with a different ratio. Half the beans went to our neighbor in exchange for jalepenos. The slicing tomatoes will ripen another couple of days on my counter before going into the freezer. Cherry tomatoes will get eaten fresh and donated with the other half of the beans to Solidarity Gardens. Leaf cabbage and kale will get eaten today.

All in all, my garden this year has produced a nice little pile of veg every week. More than we can eat fresh on our own, anyway.

Turkey Run State Park (Indiana)

Our family took a couple days at the beginning of August to visit a local-ish forest preserve for some end-of-summer fun. The weather was PERFECT for hiking, canoeing, and fishing. Maybe even a little cool. Matthew said he was "cold" at one point. Crazy. 

We had reserved the "Family Cabin" so we could stay far away from other people. As it happens, the Family Cabin's renovations were behind schedule and they offered us a small "rustic cabin" or a couple rooms in the Inn instead. We opted for the Inn, since the "rustic cabin" was really, really small for a family of 6. Even for one night.

 

 

 

 

The suspension bridge

It's going to fall on us!

Awesome hikers. They went for our longest distance yet: about 3.5 miles. Bobby was prepared to carry Matthew for the last half, but he didn't need it. As long as I kept playing his imaginary game about bees being in a forest of flowers, he was totally energetic and happy. The jelly beans midway helped, too ;)

The hike was forested and it ran along Sugar Creek. Cool cliffs.

Cheesy poses by one of the covered bridges.

Inside one of the covered bridges.

Resting in a strip of shade waiting for our canoe trip to begin.

Canoeing down Sugar Creek! We only had one paddle per canoe, but that worked out for the best because it forced Bobby and me to sit back and chill. The kids did the majority of the paddling. The creek was low and slow. It took us 3 hours to go 5 miles. Alice only fell out of the canoe once :)

Canoeing took longer than I thought it would, so it was already 3pm or so when we stopped for lunch. The tire pressure warning light had come on. We could hear air hissing out of the tire. The closest tire place was 7 miles away, so we filled up the tire the best we could and prayed. It held out pretty well, actually, and the tire place was able to squeeze us in half an hour before they closed for the day. Small miracles. We got home safe and sound and tired and happy.

Happy Birthday :)

It's far too late to start a blog post about today, I know, but I'm putting a marker here for now to let you know that I had a great birthday today. It was a real cross-section of the activities and people that I love. More to come later.

Buzzing

 I'm in a buzzing good mood today. 

We got back yesterday from a little hiking/canoeing adventure as a family. It was awesome! More details and pictures coming soon.

My home garden has managed to provide veggies for us AND a good-sized donation to a nearby free produce market every week. That makes me happy. James and Matthew like to help me harvest and prune (aka "use the sharp clippers"). My favorite time in the garden is puttering around (pulling weeds, harvesting, grooming plants) and having the kids chase grasshoppers or find a baby toad. I love it when Matthew begs to harvest more potatoes. I love it when James can spot a ripe husk cherry (ground cherry) and pick it, even if he thinks it's a little too weird to eat. They're deliciously fruity and bright, by the way. All of that happened today.

I've had some really positive interactions with people at the farm this week and last week. There's something about me that you may have noticed once or twice *ahem*...I tend to be pretty quiet and cerebral and intense, drawn to understanding a person's motives, asking questions that tend to dig deeper than your typical conversation. In my dreams, sometimes, other people will dismiss those earnest questions with something like, "Oh, that's just Susan being Susan," and I'll nod my head and shut up, remembering that not everyone appreciates my particular brand of conversation. This week, though, in real life at the farm, a couple people expressed to me how their conversations with me had helped them see themselves better/differently. They appreciated my questions. They felt heard. They liked the "Susan being Susan" bits.

I've been a little more productive the last few days due to a new app on my phone: Habitica. Habitica is designed to build better habits. You get points every time you check things off your to-do list (read scriptures, practice guitar, care for the chickens) or avoid poor habits (Sims...so. much. Sims.). It's also a game. The points I earn can be spent on gear for my avatar. I'll eventually get to fight dragons and do magic and such. You can even team up with friends! External accountability is a powerful motivator for me when it comes to building new habits.

Wonky Tomatoes

 I was at the farm picking tomatoes in the high tunnel and found these little beauties:

Heirloom varieties...you never quite know what you're going to get.

Cycling Thoughts

This team challenge to virtually ride 3700 miles across the continental U.S. has been great for me. I love my team. I love that we're in this together. I love that every mile benefits everyone. My sister started an email chain for our team that's been very, very motivating. I've shared a couple experiences with them that I'd like to record here. I'm leaving out the other team members' communications to protect their privacy.

24 July 2020

Cautionary tale: My road bike was in the shop today, so I rode my daughter's mountain bike instead. I figured she wasn't THAT much smaller than me since her's was an adult-sized bike. Holy frijoles, ladies, I have never before learned so painfully how important a good fitting bike is. *groan*

So glad my bike is back and I get to ride it again tomorrow! Gonna do my best to get in a few more miles across Idaho.

If R didn't just cycle a century last weekend, I'd only be 10 miles or so behind her *SIGH*

29 July 2020

I love the pictures and stories!

H, that could have gone SO much worse. Whew.

I don't get to do much off-roading here, but there's a lot of gravel and glass on the road shoulder. I have recurring, persistent thoughts of popping my tires and/or getting those bits of shrapnel flung into my eyes as a car speeds by, or losing control and slide falling onto them, embedding them into my skin *shudder*. I have recently started wearing eye protection when I ride, but there's no way I'm cycling in leather

On my Saturday ride, I was heading south (when everything is flat, flat, flat, the wind direction dictates my route), not really sure where I was amidst miles of corn and soybeans in every direction, when suddenly I saw a steeple and stained glass on the horizon. I rode to it and discovered this pretty little church, school, and cemetery out in the middle of nowhere called St. Mary's. No one was around. It was so, so quiet. Kinda inspirational, too, and I may have said a prayer.

I tried to find it on Google Maps when I got home and it wasn't there.

Ghost church.

1 August 2020

Hey H, I took your Spotify playlist on my ride this morning and got a little teary hearing:

I won't give up, no, I won't give in
'Til I reach the end

And then I'll start again

(Try Everything, performed by Shakira, Zootopia Soundtrack)

I felt a mix of feelings. It's easy to understand how cycling again and again will make me stronger and help me meet my goals. I don't want to give up. I want to get stronger. That was an empowering thought.

My new life in a Covid world, however, is stressful and hard and I really, really want to give up and give in some days. But I can't. There's no way out of it. I start again every day because I have to. That made me intensely sad.

Empowered and sad all at once. *sigh* But only for a moment.

Some of the Epic Instrumental pieces were spot on! I was going up the last little rolling hill before home. I was so tired. My legs hurt like crazy. And an Epic Instrumental piece came on and put me in my own inspirational cycling commercial. Loved it!

It was a great ride with the music and I'm really glad you shared, H. Thanks!

I'd love to hear any other playlists y'all like to listen to during exercise!

Look what I learned!!

They're not very big onions (I've got more to learn about growing them), but I learned how to string them up:

So satisfying and beautiful, even if it's more work to prep 4 small onions rather than 2 medium ones.