Insanity all the Way!!!

Shaun T says that in his Insanity workout.  It becomes kind of a mantra and helps motivate me for the next workout. 

When my Beachbody coach signed me up for a couch to 5K program in February, I never guessed that by April I would sign up - of my own volition - for a half marathon. But I did!! I really have gone insane, I'm sure of it. 

My half is in October and I've been semi-training for it since I signed up. By that, I mean I've continued running and doing Insanity -- and I ran in a second 5K. I was concerned, though, that I'd have to give up doing Insanity when I started seriously training for the half. I mean, running over 13 miles is a big deal, and I need to really focus on running, right?

Well, I did some research and discovered that I don't need to run 6 days a week to train for a half- doing that can even work against me. Cross training is important for building core strength so I don't get injured while running. Believe me, I don't want to get injured. It hurts, first of all, but it will set me back so far on my fitness journey, secondly. So yes, please, sign me up for cross-training. 

One of the coaches in the group found this for me and I'm SO EXCITED!!! And scared to death. But excited! 

See that? It's specifically designed to use Insanity as the cross training portion of a half marathon training plan. I was able to customize it for my dates and everything. I start in two weeks. 

TWO WEEKS-holy moly that's really soon! And did you SEE that plan?! It's so intense. 6 days a week, serious business. I mean, Insanity is six days a week, but just one workout a day, and I'm kinda used to it...this "kicks it up a notch" as Emeril would say. 

I started hyperventilating when I studied this plan last week. Some days are running and a workout, every day is important-I need to focus, stay on track, follow this plan so I can succeed in my goal of running 13.1 miles without stopping. It's daunting, I admit.

But I realized something. Last week I ran 6.5 miles. That's half of a half. I'm halfway there already!!! And I've done all of these insanity workouts-many of them many times. I can do this. You know what?! I CAN DO THIS!!!!

I have huge support from family and friends and a couple of Facebook accountability groups. I have people cheering me on from across the country-literally!!! I am very fortunate to have all of that support. I don't want to let anybody down...least of all myself. I'm running a half marathon in October. 

I'm getting ready, y'all!!! Insanity all the WAY!!!!

Big Mama and her Babies

I went to check on Big Mama hen and her two chicks that hatched on Sunday. She got mad because I had to reach under her to get them: 

You see she's aggravated with me. She pecks HARD, in case you wondered. But not bad enough to draw blood so, I reached under and got them anyway. 

The yellow one hatched from a blue egg and it could have been Big Mama's own egg. The gray one hatched from a brown egg and that had to be Niquie's egg, because Sassafrass was too busy raising her brood to lay eggs until just this week. Niquie decided she'd go broody, too, but not until Big Mama was already setting on that brown egg. The hens don't care-the babies they hatch are theirs. 

When I put the chicks down, one went straight back to Big Mama.

The other decided to go a-visiting:

Niquie says hi. The babe took that as an invite in.

Chick raising can be a communal effort. Niquie didn't mind at all when the little one climbed on her.

You can barely tell, because the chick blends, but she's burrowing into Niquie's feathers.

And that's one reason why raising chickens is so fun. Happy Tuesday!

Gina Marie went insane...Part II

My cousin Renee had been in touch with me for several weeks about her new Advocare business. She wanted me to try some of the nutritional shakes and drinks. So of course, I did. And I like them-especially the shakes, but I wasn't ready to go all in and try the 30 day challenge they have. Nor did I think selling Advocare was for me. But I was and am very happy about Renee's success. I'm so very proud of her. She believes in the products whole-heartedly and she is building a strong business for herself with it. That is so completely awesome!

During the course of our conversations, she started talking to me about working out. She's a runner, but she also trains at a gym with a trainer because she works with horses a lot and she needs strength. So she knew I had gotten pretty sedentary and she asked me about have I done this and that, and did I know what burpees are? Well, I had done a lot of this and that when I was doing Insanity. I wasn't sure what burpees were, so I asked Josh, and of course he had heard of them, also called pukees, but when he demonstrated, I recognized them as suicide drills. I hate them, by the way. But I had done those in Insanity, too. The more Renee and I talked, the more I got to missing doing Insanity, and I told Renee that I was going to ask Josh to get it for me for Christmas. 

The next thing I knew, a Beachbody box showed up at my house, and it had the whole set up- the discs, the mat for the various floor workouts, the big schedule on a poster, for checking progress, the fit test, a body fat measuring device, and a nutrition guide. I thought at first that Josh got it for me, but when I said something to him about it, he said I needed to talk to my cousin. Can you imagine? She bought me the whole kit and caboodle as an early Christmas present. It was mid-November. I was overwhelmed with emotion over it. That she cared that much, and acted on it...I don't know many folks willing to do that. I was so grateful and I knew that I could NOT let her down. This time, I would complete the program, no matter what. 

I wasn't going to wait, either. I resolved to start the next Monday, so my rest day would be on a Sunday. Josh's new position requires he travel a lot, so he couldn't do it with me this time. That's sad for me, but I do understand. Everyone has their own fitness journey, and he will have to work on his in his own way. Meanwhile, I wanted so much to set an active example for my son.

It was frustrating at first, because I couldn't do the moves or the workouts as well as when I had stopped doing Insanity before. Of course, I had put on a LOT of weight, and my knees seemed especially weak. There is a lot of jumping in Insanity, so I would wear knee braces. When I had done it before, I had at least gotten to the point where I could do the entire warm up without stopping. But this go around, I had to do the workouts for two weeks before I got back to that point. 

I started seeing progress in my ability. This was super exciting to me. It turned out that a co-worker of mine is a Beachbody Coach. She was running a private Facebook Group for folks wanting to do T25, which is the next program that Shaun T, the trainer in Insanity, had put out. She offered to add me to the group for motivation and support, even though I was doing a different program. 

The folks in that group were so helpful! Everyone had similar experiences loving and hating Shaun T. Everyone would encourage everyone else on a off day. Everyone celebrated the little successes and achievements. It was so wonderful and exactly what I needed to stay motivated through the holidays. I ended up completing the program at the end of January. I was so proud! I lost 18 lbs and 13 inches over all during that first round. I was feeling so good about it, I decided to do another round of it. I was very motivated because of my success and because at the beginning of January, my workplace started a weight loss competition. I won it, because I was consistent with doing Insanity! I would get up at 4:30 in the morning to make sure that I had time to complete the workouts before getting Mo up for school. 

I was surprised at the support I got from Mo. He's a very generous and sweet boy, but he blew me away. One day, a couple of weeks after I started Insanity, he asked me why I was doing it. I was just about to work out on a Saturday and he wanted to watch and he asked me why. I told him it was because I was fat, and I didn't want to be. "Mama!" He said, shocked. "You shouldn't say 'fat', that's not a nice word!" Well, I had not taught him that, but it's true. Then he said, "You should say 'plump' instead." That made me smile, but I answered him, "Mo, it's true that 'fat' is not a nice word, and I hope you never call anyone that, because it's hurtful and mean to do that. But I AM fat, it's a true thing. And I don't want to be--I want to be healthy. So that's why I'm doing this. To get myself healthy." He just looked at me for a minute. Then he said, "Hold on, Mama, I'll be right back." He ran off to his room and I had no idea what he was doing, because he was gone for more than a minute. But he came back in sweat pants and sneakers and said, "Ok, now I'm ready. I'm going to do it with you!" And he did, for about five minutes before he was over it. But to me, it was a HUGE gesture, and he made it at five years old, which is what was so special to me. I hope and half expect my husband will be supportive. But I never in a million years thought to get that kind of support from my child. 

So that became an even stronger motivation for me to do this--get Mo involved in a healthy and active lifestyle early on in his life! Shaun T has a program just for kids and Mo wants it. I'm going to get it for him, too. And if he wants me to do it with him, in addition to my own workout, I will.

When I completed the program, I decided to do it again. I still have a long way to go before I get to my goal, and so I started over. It was fantastic! The first month's workouts were easier because I had just completed the harder second month. I still would have to stop and take rests, but I stopped using the knee braces all together. Then my coach suggested I try the couch to 5K program. Run? Me? I hadn't in a LONG time, and I didn't consider myself a runner. I told her, no thanks, maybe later in the year when I had finished Insanity again. She wouldn't take no for an answer and signed me up to her facebook group and told me to find a 5K to sign up for. She wasn't kidding! I could have really balked, but she said something that made me think hard. She said, "You'd be surprised at how well Insanity has already prepared you to be a runner." Wow. If she had that kind of faith in my ability, then I should really consider it. Ok, I'll do it. Renee is already a runner, so I made her sign up with me. She even got two other folks from her gym to run also. 

Training for the 5K did eat into my Insanity schedule a bit. So this second round of Insanity is taking longer than the first, but that's ok. I WAS surprised at my ability to run. I can run over three miles without stopping! Holy cow!!!! Or I can run intervals...4 minutes of running for every 2 minutes of fast walking...it's great! Renee pushed me to try harder and she gave me some tips on breathing which helped a ton. My coach, Melanie, encouraged me every day, and on the day of my 5K, she was glued to Facebook, cheering me on, and waiting for my post to say I had finished. I did finish! I ran the whole way and Mo and Josh were there to cheer me on. It was fantastic. The only thing that I was sad about is that Renee got sick and couldn't run her race the same day. But she's a runner at heart and she runs a 5K just about three times a week anyway. I was the VERY last runner to cross the finish line. Some walkers finished after me. But I did finish, and I met my goal of running the whole time, and I'm already signed up for another one. And, because I've decided that this running and Insanity combination is working for me, I've signed up for a half marathon in October. I got this amazing training hybrid with Insanity and running as a 12 week training from one of the other coaches in the Facebook group. It's perfect and I'm excited. 

Going Insane is so much better this second go around. I don't complain about working out, like I did the first time. I've started implementing the nutritional meal plan, and I'm getting better results. When the folks in the facebook group post a workout challenge, I'm interested in trying it just for fun instead of thinking, "are you kidding me?" It's a crazy new me. I love it!

After I complete the second round of Insanity, I'm going to try T25 before I start my half marathon training. When I do that, I will post my before and after Insanity pics. It will be a few more weeks. And I'm still not at my goal. But I've already come a long way and I'm excited about where this fitness journey will take me.

Gina Marie went insane...PART I

In July of 2012 -- 18 months ago now -- my husband and I saw the infomercial for Insanity with Shaun T. We watched the whole 30 minute thing and I said, jokingly, "maybe we should try that...those people had tremendous success." Josh said that he knew someone who bought it that we could borrow it from. Then I didn't hear about it for several days until he brought it home. It sat on the table for two weeks. Then he said, "Monday, we start." I wasn't too sure about it, but I agreed to give it a go. I kept a journal while we did it, and I entitled the first day, "My journey into Hell." Because that first day was the hardest workout I'd ever done to that point, and it was just the fit test. I knew it was going to get harder from there.

I originally wanted to go ahead and put the journal into this post, but it's 9 pages, so really entirely too long. However, I'll give you the gist of it. We started on July 31, 2012. I weighed 212 lbs at that time, and it had been about a year since I had done Weight Watchers and lost 40 lbs, most of which I had gained back, but not quite all. I was wanting to get back down to where I had gotten, and maybe even make some more inroads into my goal weight. This has been a recurring theme with me. Josh wasn't supremely overweight, but he wanted to lose some, and I think he was sure I wouldn't try Insanity unless he did it, too. Which is entirely true. So we did it together, and we did it after work. 

It was hard. I couldn't do the moves, I felt like I was failing every workout. Josh could do it much better than I could, and he didn't seem to hurt as much. I was sore every day for the first week. It got easier as we kept at it, and I began noticing little successes. For example, I could do the stretching moves pretty well, and here's a little quote from my journal on that point: 


Today I could do every form and even hold many of the stretch poses. Some I couldn’t hold NEARLY as long as the instructor wanted—a couple of the squat poses and lunge poses required a holding stamina that I just don’t have…yet. I’m sure it was only about 30 seconds, but they felt like 5 minutes. I credit shaving my legs with giving me the balance to do some of the poses. I had to stretch a leg out and reach high and hold it for a while…there’s lots of stretching and balancing in the shower on one foot in shaving legs, just saying.   

That was a good bit of progress for me at the time, because before that, my journal is mostly full of complaining about how hard the workout is. So, I started noticing improvements, and then I began to have knee pain, which bothered me. I mean, of course it bothered me, but I was actually more worried that it would make me quit, and by that time, I didn't want to quit. Josh was having knee pain, too, but he had knee surgery right after our son was born, so he had an excuse. We got knee braces. They helped tremendously and we kept going.

We started off doing the workouts every night after work, before dinner. But I didn't like that schedule because of my son. He was four at the time, and making him wait for dinner was really hard on everyone, and it felt mean and selfish. Plus, that time after work was my time to spend with him, and working out was seriously cutting into it. Waiting until after he was in bed at 8 was not a great option, because I was already tired from working all day, and by 8 really tired, plus would have eaten already. I don't like working out after I eat--it makes me queasy. So Josh agreed to get up in the morning and do it before work. That was an improvement, and we kept going some more.

We made it through the first two weeks, only missing one workout, which we made up on the 'rest' day. We took the fit test again and saw some improvements, but neither of us had lost any weight. I had even gained two pounds. That part was discouraging, but everyone was saying "you're building muscle", etc. And I felt like we were eating more, because all the working out made us hungrier, so I resolved to cut back on the calorie intake. I did have a lot more energy, and could feel a difference in my willingness to get up and do things -- like my outside chicken chores, etc. So we kept going.

Then Josh quit halfway through a warm-up, leaving me to finish the workout on my own. I did, but I was worried about him. He was super sore, especially his knee, but also his ankle.  So I made him take a hot bath, which helped a little. Here's my journal entry from the next day:

I thought for sure I would be sore all day today, since I hurt so bad yesterday after the five hour zoo tour/killer workout combo. Surprisingly, when I got up this morning, I didn’t hurt at all. My husband’s knee felt a little better today, but his ankle and muscle down his leg is hurting him. I tried to get him to go to the doctor, but he didn’t want to go. Today’s workout was the pure cardio plus cardio abs one. So my husband wanted to do the abs first, since he was hurting too much to do the other. Which we did, and I guess because I was more rested than the last time when we did the abs AFTER the cardio, I was able to do the moves a bit better. So naturally I felt the workout in my abs WAY more than I did before. Wow. He did very well during the ab workout. And he started the cardio, but had to quit again once the bouncing jumping jacks started. So he watched me finish. And complimented my form during the stretches, which did make me feel very good. But I still am worried…I guess if he can’t do the workouts, he can cheer me on through them and that would help me in my selfishness—I really do want to finish all 60 days. But I wanted him to do this, too. It’s more fun to do it together—misery loves company and all that. Actually, I was really enjoying our progress and sense of accomplishment that we were sharing. So I hope his body will cooperate and let him continue this exercise journey with me. I hurt tonight from the workout—my right shoulder especially. But I’m proud that I did it all. And I’m looking forward to my favorite “cardio recovery” tomorrow. Maybe he can do that one, since it’s less bouncy and more stretchy. We’ll see.

But the next three days he didn't work out, either. Then he started back with me after the next rest day. And we finished week four together, and he noticed that I had improved a lot more that he had on the next fit test. He remarked that his days off made a huge difference, to his detriment. We were looking forward to the recovery week. Here is my journal entry about that:

Today was day 27 and tomorrow is a day off. So I’ve been officially doing this for four weeks. Next week is the recovery week, which I don’t expect to be EASY exactly, but it shouldn’t be quite as hard. We do the same workout every day for six days next week. What’s supposed to happen after that is we go into month two, which kicks it up a notch, into MAX INSANITY or what I like to refer to as “WE HAVE LOST OUR DAMN MINDS”. However, my husband made a proposal the other day. He started it off like this: “Since we were both SO out of shape to start with,” which of course made me really want to listen to the rest of what he had to say. I wanted to retort with “speak for yourself, Buddy.” But of course, that would have been a lie. I was woefully out of shape. I’m not sure you can consider me “in shape” now, but I’m “more in shape than I was” which is progress. So instead of biting his head off, I listened to the rest of his proposal. After the recovery week, he wants to start back over at DAY 1 instead of moving on to MAX INSANITY. Then after repeating the previous 28 days which we just accomplished, we would then have another week of recovery and then LOSE OUR MINDS.

            Well, I was initially completely against the idea. I’ve come so far! I’m nearly half done! Why would I want to ruin my progress? What is he thinking? I mean, why would I want to turn a 63 day goal into effectively a 98 day goal? Are you kidding me? No way! So I stewed about that for about a day. But, here’s the thing. He’s not been able to quite do the first 28 days completely. Though he did take a DVD with him on his business trip, and he did work out, he only did the 17 minute abs workout, which let me tell you IS a workout. But he didn’t have time to do the pure cardio along with it. He did work out with me when he got back, but last night he only did half the workout and today I did the workout by myself because he’s off gallivanting out of state for a shooting competition. I don’t know if he’ll do the workout when he gets home or not. Plus he took about half of last week off as well, due to his knee and ankle hurting. What this amounts to is while I’ve done 28 days, he’s done about 20 and maybe he’s not feeling confident in his ability to lose his mind yet. Plus, I really don’t want him to get hurt. His knee seems better, he’s wearing an ankle brace, too, now. I think it’s helping. But I notice he’s careful with it.

            Bottom line is, I need to stop being selfish. I mean, what’s the REAL goal here? To do this for 63 days just to say I’ve done the insanity work out? Is that really it? Well, no, actually that’s secondary. The goal is to get in shape and lose weight. Would adding another 35 days do that? Of course it would. I would go into the MAX INTENSITY even stronger, even more fit than I am today, and hopefully weighing much less than I do now. I’m just getting a bit of confidence in the moves we have to do for the first month’s workouts. Doing them for another month will help me get even better at doing them and hopefully by the end of doing them I’ll be able to keep up in every workout without cheating or taking breaks during the exercises. I’m better. I don’t cheat as much—when I can’t do a move, I do the best I can instead of doing nothing. I’m always moving. But for example, I can’t always do the power squat with a hop in between squats. Today I did in the first and second sets of the circuit, but I couldn’t do it in the third. This IS an improvement. But doing this rotation again should enable me to do it every time and maybe even more and faster. So ok, I’m on board with the extension of the workout.

 

That is what we did...we did the recovery week, then started over with the first day's workout. We did it for a couple more weeks. That is, we sort of did it. It got to be too hard to get up. Josh didn't want to do it--he was hurting. We had to go out of town for our vacation. I vowed to start back over again when we got back. He promised to do it, too. But we didn't. Then we had to give the DVDs back to the people we borrowed them from. So we quit. I lost about 10 lbs total, but then I wasn't working out anymore and I gained it back over time. It was dark after work, and before work, so I didn't go outside to walk like I had done in the past. I pretty much just gave up. I had all kinds of excuses, but the truth was, I gave up.

I gained more weight, until I was heavier than ever at 220 lbs. It took a long time--over a year. But I was pretty much eating whatever I wanted, disregarding whether it was healthy for me, and not working out in any way. My clothes became too tight, but I refused to buy a larger size, so I just was uncomfortable. I was NOT miserable. Please don't misunderstand me. I am a happy person, and I am very happy with my husband and my son. We have a great life, and no one was critical at all of me in my heavier state. I was tired more, and fatter, and not happy about that, but I was in a lot of denial about my health and physical state, more than anything, so I was not miserable, and it didn't take up a lot of focus in my life. If I thought about it, it was that I was frustrated with my clothes, and my lack of energy. I did want to keep up with my son, and that was becoming physically harder to do. But I didn't dwell. I just coped. I didn't realize that I was missing something. Then, my cousin contacted me. 

To be continued in Part II.... 

Mama gets a new pair of shoes!

So...check this out: on the advice of my cousin Renee, I decided to get good running shoes. I wasn't having problems, but I've not been running long, so I thought, why take chances? 

I decided to go to the New Balance store that I've heard so much about, and let them do their gait analysis. 

This charming sales clerk took some measurements, had me walk for her several times, and had me stand on a machine which analyzed the pressure points of my feet. She determined that I have a high arch which causes my feet to lean in when I walk-she called it pronation. I did actually know all of that-I've seen how my shoes wear. But it's good to have it confirmed by people who make this their living and more importantly, she found shoes that are designed to support my feet in the exact way they need. For only $120ish. 

Josh was so impressed that he had her do a gait analysis on him as well, and while he did already know that he has the flattest feet on the planet, he did not know he's been wearing shoes one to one and a half sizes too small...for YEARS! He bought new shoes, too. She was GOOD at her job!

We asked her to do an analysis of our son's gait as well. He will need extra support as he gets older. This is good to know. 

Anyway,  we shopped for like two hours after that, and my shoes felt great. I decided that was sufficient to count for my walk/run today, especially since I carried my 50 lb son around for awhile as well. But then on the drive home, as I knitted and thought about it, I felt like I really wanted to run. 

So I did. 

2.78 miles, 43:47 was my time. Here's how it went...there is a route I like, which I've walked for years, which is quite hilly. My recent runs have gone about two thirds of that route--skipping the largest hill. Today I decided to run the whole route. I walked the first three minutes, then started running, breathing deeply and slowly as Renee told me. There are four major inclines as I run there and back. On hills one and three I did have to slow to a brisk walk for one minute each time to control my breathing. On hill two and four, I was able to run through, though I did have to slow my pace. Just before hill four, around the two mile point, I started feeling it in my thighs. Not pain, just fatigue. I mentally heard Shaun T saying, "Push through" and it became a point of pride that I run the rest of the way home. I did it! I ran the rest of the way. Then to cool down, I walked another half mile at a moderate pace, but that's not part of my time.

I have to say...I'm feeling pretty good about the 5K on March 22nd.

Country SNOW!!!

This is our second snow of 2014 already. It's only February, though, so we could have another before it's all said and done. Our storm in 2009 was in March--just three weeks before Mo's first birthday. So it could happen.

I have this friend in New York City who LOVES snow. She recently posted on her blog several really wonderful photos of the city in snow. It's beautiful! So, I promised her that if we really got snow as the weather forecast predicted, then I would post photos of the country in snow. 

Mo and I took two walks. One yesterday, and one today. Both lasted about an hour and covered a couple of miles out from our rural house and we went in one direction yesterday and the other today, just for variety. I needed the exercise and Mo definitely needed to run off some of that boy energy that he has! 

Josh was stuck in Texas, but luckily got home today. One day late for our 9th Anniversary, but one day early for Valentine's Day, so I'm a happy wife. He missed the walks (I say tongue-in-cheek, because there's no way he'd have gone with us, short of death threats, but I digress.)

This snow was really perfect--it was heavy enough to shut down school and work, but not so heavy that we lost power or were otherwise miserable. So I enjoyed the time with the boy, and also knitting and watching Olympic ice skating. 

On to the photos! Here are the ones from yesterday.

Mo gets ready for a snowy adventure!

But we can't leave without making a snow angel first.

We live on a dirt road...currently a snow road. I love the name of it: Bald Eagle Road. Josh's grandfather named it. 'Bald Eagle' was his CB handle, but he mostly liked that the name was patriotic. 

The field next to our house. Last summer it was planted in corn. That was great because the crows scared away all the hawks which kept my chickens happy. But I'm betting they'll plant something else there in the spring. Crop rotation is important.

Rose Conley Road...the road to the Cherokee Rose Rodeo

The Chicken Farm across the road. They have commercial layers, and it's a serious operation. Nothing like my rinky dink flock of blue and brown egg layers. I don't go on his property for biosecurity reasons. But it's nothing personal. He's our neighbor on the other side of the corn field.

It was snowing the whole time we were out, so it's hard to make out the house on the hill. But it's there!

Here's the rodeo--our main destination for this walk. Mo loves the rodeo and the last time we went, Curly and Lisa let Mo sit on a horse. They've promised him a ride in the donkey cart next time. FUN!

Panoramic pic of the rodeo.

Oh, look! A horse across the road from the rodeo.

Ah, another one!

They came up to the fence as we approached, hoping for treats. We got to pet their noses and everything. But when they realized we didn't actually have any treats, they moved on. Mo loved having their undivided attention for five minutes, though.

Headed back home. He was in the middle of the road at first and I said, "Mo! Get out of the muddy slush." "Muddy SLUSH!" he echoed in delight. I rolled my eyes and he moved over to see how deep the ditch snow was instead. Boy fun.

The view of the rodeo from the other side.

Catching snowflakes.

Here's our house. We have 3 acres. I love it!

Chicken coops and pen. Plus feed barn on the end. That was last year's anniversary present. Josh knows what I want. (More chickens....)

And here are the photos from today:

Bald Eagle road going in the other direction. The sun was out today.

Yay! Our neighbors built a snowman!

Snow covered hay. I love the tractor!

Dilapidated farm building. It looks less sad in the snow, and more rustic.

I just thought this looked cool.

Today's destination--the bridge over the creek!

Panoramic shot of the creek. When I first moved here, this ONE LANE bridge on this dirt road had no railings. I think they were added just a few years ago. In extra rainy weather, the creek rises to the bridge.

Just two weeks ago we saw a great blue heron in this creek.

Mo wanted to get closer. Um, no. Not today, buddy. But in the summer, my mother-in-law and her sister brought Mo down here to collect blackberries for jam, which he then helped her make. I'm so happy about that, words can't express it.

Headed back to the house.

Mo was pointing out the pond to the left, which is just visible in the photo. It had geese honking and cavorting in it. I wish I could have gotten closer for a photo of that.

Better shot of the pond.

I just liked this view.

Back home.

Why does he not look worn out?

We did have a great time on walkabout. We saw a bunch of animal tracks in the snow--dog or coyote, tiny bird tracks, rabbit tracks, deer, and turkey! It was fun to identify them all, and Mo was quick to point out nice views for photos. 

There you have it...snow in the country!