Yardwork

Yardwork is exhausting hard work, but so satisfying when it's done-- just like running! Speaking of running, on the first day of summer break, we did a cross country team 5k time trial down Scoon Road: we drove the kids 3.1 miles up the 1% grade of Scoon Road, dropped them off, and they ran all the way back to our mailbox to see how fast they could run a 5k with a small downhill boost.

My makeshift starting line, carved into the dirt orchard road with a stick and marked with a few rocks and an old tuna can that I found nearby.

Early in the morning, before the team arrived for their time trial, I ran up Scoon Road to map the precise GPS 5k distance of 3.125 miles from our mailbox to the dirt orchard road that Scoon Road becomes about 3 miles north. I jogged at an easy pace all the way till my watch said 3.13 miles, then stopped and used whatever I could find to carve a starting line into the hard packed dirt road. For a visual, I added a nasty old tuna can that I found nearby. Then I did my own personal 5k time trial down Scoon! I had no idea what to expect from myself, since it had been nearly a year since I raced at all. I surprised myself by holding a sub-6:30 pace for the first 2 miles! I finished my 5k with a time of 20:33. I was so surprised and happy! It was a bit of a tentative 20:33, if that makes sense: I knew how hard it felt to run at PR pace, so I backed off of that a bit since I didn't think I was fit enough for that high speed. Lo and behold, I was a mere 40 seconds off of my 5k PR! Woot!

When I got back from my run, the cross country kids were arriving. After they warmed up, us coaches drove them to the starting line I had just made an hour before, and they were off! Jeff and I waited at the halfway point to cheer them on, then drove to the finish line by our mailbox to write down times. Jay ran a PR of 18:03 with a massive blister on his heel. After two weeks off post-track season with zero running followed by one week of running, this was a very encouraging time for Jay to have this early in the summer training! 

AMBER finished the 5k in 24:32, close to 5 minutes faster than she's ever run before! And she hadn't been running in nearly a month! That girl runs just like her dad. She was so sore for the next few days, it was hilarious hear her groans and descriptions of her sore legs. Amber beat Rose by 15 seconds! We had Rose's bloodwork done a few weeks ago and learned that she is low on ferratin, which is the long-term storage of iron in the body. She started an iron supplement five days before this time trial, so it didn't have time to kick in yet. We were still proud of Rose for pushing and finishing under 25 minutes! 24:47. Hopefully the iron supplement will build her up by the end of the summer! It will be so much fun to see what an iron-fortified Rose can do!

Nine other kids from our cross country team ran, and almost all of them got 5k PRs! It was a great morning. I love summer cross country training the most. It's laid back and just fun. After the team was finished running, Jeff decided it was his turn. He did what I did: jogged 3.1 miles easy up Scoon Road, then turned around and blitzed the 5k back home. He pulled off an 18:55, which is super impressive since he only just started running regularly again two weeks ago.

The team on the starting line, ready to roll.

Jeff, watching Jay approach the halfway point.

Go Jay!

Kennedy led Amber and Rose in the downhill charge. These pictures kind of show the gradual-ness of the "downhill". It is enough to give a welcome speed boost but not so much as to completely skew times into unrealistic territory.

Wahoo! Go Kennedy, Amber, and Rose!

Jeff and I were somehow both surprised and not surprised to see Amber running with the varsity girls.

Away they go!

The homestretch! Amber, with Rose trailing behind.

Amber, finishing her 5k--her anguished face says everything.

Rose, gutting it out in spite of her low ferratin inside sabotaging her efforts! I love my strong girls so much.

Sunday, June 14th was Shaina Day: the only day of the whole year that is completely my own. This year I felt less in dire need of Shaina Day, which made the day feel more relaxed. Jeff and the kids gave me gifts: a battery powered food thermometer, a pair of socks, a box of Asian snacks, and a split squat foot rest. They also cooked the dinner of my choice: herbed brown butter pumpkin gnocchi with chicken apple sausage, with blondies for dessert. Yum! I felt loved all day long. As always, the most decadent part of the day for me was leaving the kitchen before dinner and watching an episode in my room while everyone else made dinner. 

This post was supposed to be about yardwork, but clearly I found something more interesting to talk about! Hah, well I wanted to document all of the yard STUFF we've been working on, even though it's not as exciting as 5k time trials and personal records. Yardwork is backbreaking and exhausting, but I have come to appreciate the feeling of satisfaction that comes from working outside with my hands. Bringing a little bit of order and beauty to our corner of the world is happy work. Sweaty work, but happy too.

Confession: we had help! While the landscapers were here installing irrigation for the fruit trees out front, we had them scoop out the rest of the rocks from our front and side flowerbeds. 

Finally, I had a blank slate for my floral hopes and dreams!

The landscapers also planted a row of trees along our driveway. They are so pretty!

"On my way" out of the shed one day, I spent some of my time, energy, and my lower-back's wellbeing on hacking/weeding "the dark side" of the shed. I got halfway through the shoulder-high weeds before my body demanded a full stop.

I live in fear of a tangle of weeds taking over my nemesis-flowerbeds, so I spent four hours on Saturday laying down landscaping fabric to keep the weeds at bay while I plotted and planned what to do with my plot of land.

A brief rest in my lower garden bed.

One more 22' x 15' flowerbed to cover!

Success! I had to leave a rocky border on the front because the ground staples wouldn't go through all the rocks.

Triumph!

Our well pump, pipes, and tank needed to be replaced last week. That was a fun adventure with low water pressure or no water for hours on end! 

Amber and Rose with their friend Elsie at the annual ward walk to the park breakfast: we walked 2 miles from the church to the park and had breakfast. It's my favorite ward activity of the year!

After the ward walk to the park on Saturday (June 13th), Amber and I went to Walmart with a $100 flower budget. I pulled out my phone calculator and we meticulously selected as many pretty flowers as we could squeeze into our budget: snapdragons, marigolds, verbena, dianthus, yellow bidens, begonias, salvia, and more! We used $91 before tax, but had to go back later and purchase $20 of mulch. $91 of flowers didn't go very far in this 22 foot wide by 8 foot deep flowerbed, but we spaced them as widely as we could and made it work.

It was hot and sunny while we planted. Amber said "this reminds me of when I used to dig in the dirt a lot." She enjoyed carefully digging perfect holes for each plant on her row. She was a great help!

We are amateurs! But we had fun planting our flowers!

After the flowers were planted, Amber went inside and I finished up planting 3 blueberry plants and 3 strawberry plants that I had purchased on a whim earlier in the week, plus six tomato plants and 3 cabbages that my friend Danae gave me from her extra stock.

Looking down on the lower garden bed: tomatoes on the left, strawberries on the right, blueberries barely visible up high. 

Mulch!

Now that it's all planted, we get to live with the constant mystery of what will live? And what will die?

Meanwhile... it begins again.

Nutella raspberry toast!

Here's a journal excerpt from Monday, June 15th:

It was day 27 for me today, and what a rollercoaster. It was a rollercoaster without the high happy fun parts, only the awful cranky pathetic downward spiral parts. Bleh. I had an unsatisfying run as a coach this morning. Coach running is rarely satisfying because I can't go my own pace. Today it was just a slow meh run, and that mood carried through the morning. 

Before practice, I put out all the mulch around our new flowers that Amber and I planted on Saturday. Then we had practice at the park (cue the "meh" run). When we got home, I started changing water filters. The pump guy told us to change the filters a few days after the new pump was installed, to give the debris that fell in the well time to be filtered out on old filters. Our water pressure inside the house was pretty low with the full clogged filters, so it was time to switch them out. We have 3 filters: one in the basement and two in the pump house. The basement filter about did me in, spraying water all over me, the floor, and the wall. But I managed to get it put back together properly after much tribulation. Sweet Amber offered to give me emotional support while I worked. She sat at her computer nearby while I worked and every now and then when I grumbled or gasped she told me "you can do it, Mom!" 

When I emerged from the basement wet from head to toe, I decided to go straight out to the pump house and finish the last two filters while I was wet and in work mode. I was feeling emotionally fragile and frustrated, but I thought I'd be able to change the filters pretty quickly since I had already done it once in the basement. First I turned off all FIVE valves in the pump house, cutting off all water flow. The filters in the pump house are twice as big as the basement filter, and I couldn't get them to budge. I closed all the valves as best I could, but when I finally twisted off the bottom of one filter, high pressure water started spraying out hard, all over the floor, filling my 5 gallon bucket in about 5 seconds flat. The pressure never subsided! The water pooled on the cement floor of the pump house and sloshed around the plywood walls. It was several inches deep within a few minutes! I panicked and called our plumber, but he didn't answer, so I called Ivan the pump guy. While it was ringing, I went to the barn and got Jeff to come help. While Ivan was telling me what to do on the phone, Jeff walked into the pump house and calmly turned the one valve that wasn't fully off. The water stopped. I thanked/apologized sheepishly to Ivan and hung up. By this point, my emotional state was utterly frazzled and frayed to bits. But the job wasn't done yet!

Jeff and I wrestled a clean new sediment filter into one of the casings, but realized after removing the second casing that we needed a 24 inch carbon filter, not another sediment filter like we already had on hand. So we drove 2.5 miles to Ace Hardware...and they didn't have what we needed. An Amazon order wouldn't arrive before we left on our upcoming trip. Back home, we put the old used carbon filter back in the housing and now we'll deal with low water pressure until we can get the new filter after our trip. Sigh. 

Jeff and I were both cranky by the end of this ordeal, and we still had to move the rusty pipes from the old well pump off the grass. They were heavy and gross! We could only carry two at a time together, so it took several trips. Jeff was being onery and I was whiny and desperate. Ugh, I'm glad that's over. My shower after that ordeal was a trickle.

Later, Rose and I planted pumpkin seeds in the side flowerbed and watered them. Every single thing I did today was frustrating. I did not play the piano because I didn't want to be frustrated at that as well! Sigh. 

I mean, clean water is important, but this ordeal was rough. Even better: we get to change these filters every single year for the rest of our lives! Hahaha. Clean water. Clean water. That's my mantra.