Goose Egg

Peep, our barn goose, left us an offering today for the first time in months. Does that mean that spring is on the way?

February 28 Snow

It was one of those mornings when one cannot believe how beautiful the land one lives on all the time can look.

Saturday, February 23

Well, I am having a good day so far today. I started off with what was supposed to be a 25 km run. It turned out to be only 24.76 km but I did not complain about it or run around the parking lot to make the full distance either. I am pleased to still be able to walk around this afternoon.

After the run, I went to the SPCA to get our new dog. Fleur-Ange went early yesterday and had the first walk with her and paid for her as a birthday present for me even though I thought we were splitting the cost as we do for most things. Turns out that this dog is a very special present indeed. OK, we might just be in honeymoon period, but our first afternoon together has been very nice. Our new dog, a shepherd/lab cross, is female and 2 1/2 years old. She is very friendly and met most of our animals already with only long looks and offers to touch noses. Only Gertrude, our older goat, took up Sadie on the nose touching but it seemed to go well. Our donkey, Leroy, and Alice, our younger goat, kept their distance but Sadie did not bark at them at all. She also just looked at the chickens and did not look like she wanted to do any chasing. Not sure where Peep, our goose, was hiding but I am sure we will see her later. When Sadie tried to touch noses with Princess, our indoor cat, Princess swatted her. Sadie just backed off and then did not get close to her the next time she passed by. We have not seen our ourdoor cat yet. Inside, Sadie walks about quietly and has only knocked a few things down with her happily swinging tail. No problems yet.

I am not sure how good this photo is as my glasses are in at the shop and I have a choice of very old glasses or my contacts and neither give me the sharp vision I need for camera or computer work. Looking forward to new glasses early next week.

Monday Morning

Several cardinals, some chickadees, two crows, and a great horned owl greeted me as I had a short walk to enjoy the -12 temperature before breakfast this morning.

Trail Run

I attempt to run three days a week.

On Tuesdays I have been running at the indoor track at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre mostly because I am tired after my half day work at the Plan B organic farm.

Thursdays were my outdoor 6 k running days during the fall and early winter but for the last several weeks I have been doing that one at the Gretzky track also due to cold, windy, snowy weather.

Saturday is my usual "long slow run" where the distance increases most weeks with the odd one being a shorter distance just to let my legs recover. The goal is to prepare for the 30 km "Round-the-Bay" race in Hamilton in March of this year.

Today, being Thursday, I decided to try running outdoors again and I really wanted to run on the trails instead of the road. I have "Yaktrax" [http://www.yaktrax.ca] which is a bit like having chains on my running shoes. They are excellent for keeping one from slipping on hard packed snow and ice. That being said, the trail was not nice today. Instead of nice packed snow and ice there were ruts from a 4-wheeled vehicle that had been over the trails for some reason. The tracks were a bit too narrow for me to run inside and the part in the middle was anything from loose snow to lumpy snow with very few areas that were packed. It was probably on of my more difficult runs for the year.

Below are snapshots of the 7 hills that I ran up today on my 6 km run. I made it up all of them, after stopping at the bottom for quick photos, but it was tough going. I think I will be on the roads next week.

Aspen Buds in February

As I was doing my morning walk, still without a dog, I noticed these Aspen buds starting to open. It is way too early in the year for them to be opening. I have also heard that  apple buds are opening. That may mean a second year without local apples and another disaster for the fruit growers in our area. The weather continues to be full of changes with temperatures going way above the freezing point and then way below and then way above setting high temperature records on various days. I wonder too about the Maples. Will the sap start and end too soon for maple syrup gathering?

Weekend

Had a long 2.5 hour run on the indoor track on Saturday morning as I did not want to run on the roads with so much snow and ice still on them. I hope I don't have to do that again for a while. 2.5 hours is a long time to run in circles. I did get to look in on two hockey games that were on the ice below the track but mostly just had to watch the track as there were lots of walkers.

During the afternoon, Fleur-Ange and I visited our farrier as she was having company over for sleigh rides. There were two or three other horse and sleigh teams in addition to hers going around the fields.

Fleur-Ange got to drive one set of horses for a few hundred yards. She did well. We did not tip over or get lost.

Spent almost all day yesterday working with Fleur-Anges on her art project. My computer/technical/slide show/video skills seem to have met their match. I am beating my head against an electronic wall. My only luck so far has been bad luck. Sigh!

OK, a few more details: she wants a video of a slide show with text and audio alternating in three languages, English, French, and Mohawk.  We have the texts all written. We have the audio all recorded. I have, I think, figured out how to put them all together on the computer. The main problem is getting them to work on a photo frame. I can get slides to work. I can get audio to work. I cannot get the video to work and I cannot get the slides and audio to work together without putting them on a video.

The good news, I guess, is that my swearing skills are getting a good work out and may be improving.