Wife on the Farm

Springwater Corridor

Did 11 miles with my son Greg and my BFF Corie on Saturday. Sunny day, not a drop of rain, and such a nice view along the Springwater Corridor in Portland. Went across one bridge, down the west side, then back over another bridge and then south on the Corridor. this has to be my favorite route of all.

Four Miles

Gorgeous morning for a four miler. Lake Labish is filling up again but we're hoping for a warm, dry spring so we can plant down in the lake field on time this year. The past two years have been so rainy!

Fog.......Again

Did my four miles in super dense fog this morning. And it was 35 degrees. But I enjoyed it because I was listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo's latest album and my average pace was the fastest in months!

Lazy Girl Gets Punished

I was lazy on Monday and didn't work out. So now, on Wednesday, in the midst of a storm packing 45 mph winds, I had to do my four miles. I caught a break in the rain, but it sure was windy! That'll teach me. All the roadside ditches are almost overflowing. By the weekend, I think some roads near us will be underwater.

Walking Ahead of the Storm

The forecasters are saying that a bit of snow is headed our way this weekend, so I got my 3.5 miles done today. I enjoy walking in cold weather but not on icy roads.

8.5 Miles

Mt. Hood doesn't show up very well in this pic I took with my cell phone camera, but it popped through the trees several times during my run/walk today. Mount St. Helens was out today, too. Perfect afternoon!

A Very Nice Day for a Walk

My daughter-in-law inspired me to go a little slower on my run/walks and see if I could find interesting things to photograph like she does on her stunningly beautiful blog at Jolie's Walking Blog. She inspires me frequently anyway because she's creative, talented, and fun. So I slowed down today and did find a few interesting photo opportunities on my 7.5 mile workout.

This filbert orchard is just down the road from our farm.

 

 

 

This is a small privately-owned forest about three miles from our house.  It's used sometimes for weddings and other events, but every time I walk by, it's quiet and peaceful.

There are three really old school houses within a couple miles of our farm, and there's also this cemetery, where many of the grave stones are over a hundred years old.   

One day, I will take the time to walk through this cemetery and see how many pioneer names I recognize.

I've taken pictures of these two trees and their brothers, the silos,
several times before.
 There used to be a barn next to the trees, but it burned to the ground about five years ago, leaving these two trees looking rather lonely.

 

Out here in the country, we don't have too much fancy infrastructure, like in the cities. Farmers tend to prop up drainage ditch pipes with rocks from their fields.  This farmer added a few slabs of concrete for good measure.

 

A New Year

Since the beginning of a new year is a good time for reflecting on the year just ended, I’ve done a bit of thinking about what I would have changed about 2011 – actually, what I hope to change during 2012.

I constantly feel frustrated that I don’t seem to have enough time for all the priorities in my life. I tend to be a list-maker, a schedule-follower, a task-check-off kind of person. I think that’s part of the problem. If all the boxes aren’t checked at the end of each day, I feel frustrated that I didn’t get it all accomplished.

So, I’m going to try really hard in 2012 – and hopefully, beyond – not to be so hard on myself about getting it all done every day. The things that cause creep in my schedule are frequently things that I either really enjoy doing or things that I decide are a high priority regardless of what else is scheduled for the day.

I really enjoy listening to music – lots of it – in almost all genres. I have several sources on my computer and cell phone for listening to music. So if I get side-tracked for an hour from my financial statements or my because I’ve found myself caught up in a new album, it’s okay. Music, to me, can be soothing, happy, thought-provoking, soul-souring or just plain fun to hear and appreciate the talent.

I really enjoy walking and running. I’ve only been doing it seriously for two years, but I’ve found that a good four mile run/walk can clear my head, relieve my stress, change my mood and hopefully, it’s making me healthier, too. I try to spend an hour run/walking at least three days a week. And when I’m training for a race, it’s easily double that. But I love it enough to let it take up so much of my life.

I really enjoy reading. Sometimes, it’s an old-fashioned book with real paper pages. More recently, it’s become a hobby that I do on my Kindle, or online, or even on my cell phone. I don’t keep track, but I know I spend hours each week reading. Every book rewards my efforts in some way, because I love to learn and love to discover. And it’s not always books that I learn from – I’ve discovered cool places like Pinterest and Flipboard and the web sites for National Geographic and Discovery Channel and Food Network that I can spend hours browsing.

I really enjoy spending time with my grandchildren. They’re growing up so fast and the window of time where they enjoy spending time with me is ticking by so quickly. Their schedules are sometimes even more hectic than mine, but I want to try to spend more time with them while they’re young. The oldest one will be driving in a couple of years and after that, grandmas drop a few notches on their list of priorities. It’s a natural stage of growing up, and I remember that I went through that stage myself, but I don’t want to look back ten years from now and regret not spending more time with them.

Sometimes, my farm-wife responsibilities interrupt my carefully-planned schedule. But being a good wife to my farmer is one of my highest priorities. Helping him to manage the farm is important to me. My farms tasks are usually behind-the-scenes data entry or report-generating or financial analyses types of things, but I also devote a chunk of time during the harvest to managing and working at our farm produce stand. Sometimes, the farmer needs me to drop what I’m doing and help him. That can be anything from writing a check to a vendor, to throwing together a lunch for him, to driving one of the farm trucks to the field to pick him up after an evening of plowing or planting. I made a promise to love him and support him in his job and that’s always going to be a promise I’ll keep.

I want to get it all done – everybody wants to get it all done. But I’m going to be okay if it doesn’t all get done. My new mantra is that it’s better to enjoy my life and not complete every single task on time than to stress myself out over things that ultimately aren’t life or death issues anyway. Besides, I don’t really care if I get all my closets cleaned out this year, anyway.