How to get a workout at the barn

Just like when I was 16, I am always at someplace called The Barn, or talking about what happened at The Barn. I don't shower in the morning and go to an office anymore. There's no point in showering before 6 p.m. and when I do, hay often falls out of my bra.

I told a friend who is a personal trainer I couldn't afford to go to the rec center more than once a week to work out anymore, but still managed to work out at home and at the barn. She was impressed. Thought I was pretty hard core to squeeze in a workout at the barn. I realized then that not everyone does barn chores, not even all horse owners, so they don't know what a great opportunity it is to either get fit or get hurt. Here's how I lost 6 pounds this summer (doesn't sound like a lot, but hey - six pounds is six pounds):

1. Mucking stalls and pens. Mucking itself isn't that hard, but use the big wheelbarrow and fill it all the way. Jog while pushing it to the manure pile, and see how high up on the pile you can get. That's right, I said run up a mountain of sh!t. Then turn the wheelbarrow completely over to empty it. If your form is good and you've filled it up enough, your hamstrings and lower back will feel like you've done serious dead lifts. I need to get photos of this to demonstrate because I can't describe it well.

2. The general rule is No Running in the Barn, but you can run between the barn and turnouts. Our routine involves bringing horses in and turning some out, and the turnouts are spread about the property. So you can save a little time and burn a few calories running between them. I don't recommend running at the horse in the pasture because you'll freak him out and chase him off. And I don't usually jog with the horse in hand either because they'll get nervous, wondering what the hurry is. Although I do sometimes jog a horse in hand or ground drive him (like driving without a cart - you must walk or jog behind) as part of his training. You can score a mile or two per horse this way. However, this often means running in boots. I have no problem with it on soft ground but your mileage may vary.

3. Stacking hay. This shouldn't require explanation. Hay bales are big, awkward and weight about 40 pounds. Good form is essential or you will wind up with a herniated disk.

4. Grooming. Think Karate Kid: wax on, wax off. A mild workout for your triceps and delts.

5. Riding. A half hour lesson is usually enough to make my adductors pretty sore, because I don't ride enough. If you think riding isn't a workout, take a lesson from my instructor.

It's still summer

Never fear, Blueberry Man is here

The sun feels good

 I'm particularly happy with the way this photo turned out, and he actually was wearing pants:

This child appears completely innocent, but is probably not wearing pants

Eats

 Here's a lovely oat flour waffle that Masher makes.

Like a square foot garden, but square inches and not a garden

Children like waffles

The recipe is something like this (vegan alternatives included):
-2 cups any combination of oat and whole wheat flour
-2 cups some kind of milk (coconut, soy, rice, cow)
-2 chicken eggs or Ener-G egg substitute (or replace egg with banana at half a banana per egg); if using duck eggs 1 will do
-3 tbs melted and cooled Earth Balance or butter
-2 tsp baking powder (this is for high altitude)

 Here's my lunch: Sun Gold cherry, Stupice, Cherokee Purple, Golden Jubilee

The big ones are Golden Jubilee, Cherokee Purple and Speckled Roma. The little ones are Stupice and Sun Gold. Golden Jubilee is my favorite to grow and eat, maybe tied with Brandywine. Cherokee Purple is a good producer of large, pretty tomatoes that are sweet and mild but a little more watery and seedy than the Golden ones. Stupice plants produce like crazy and the 2-inch fruits taste decent and are bright red. Speckled Roma will impress your friends with their handsomeness and are tasty raw or cooked. They're my favorite for tomato soup.

Yield

 Here's what I picked this morning:

Lunch

 

 

 I have to pick the tomatoes when they're 80-90% ripe because the second they're perfectly ripe, a lurking grasshopper eats them. It's a very successful method of avoiding loss of what I call my "crops." However, on occasion the bugs score one:

The worm crawls in, the worm crawls out

That little caterpillar didn't do much damage. I've only seen two all summer, and since they weren't in the same room at the same time for all I know they were same one. The Speckled Roma on the left has a little blossom end rot too. I have very little trouble with BER but it seems like all Romas are prone to it and there will be one or two on a vine with BER. I would cut that off and cook the rest of the tomato though. I'm not wasting any part of a stripey Roma. They're good for eating raw or cooked, not like some other Romas I've grown. And even the cut off parts don't get wasted because chickens and goats eat them.

 Here's a dog's eye view of some of the square foot gardens:

peppers, greens and tomatoes

spinach, chard, carrots, onions, marigolds and....tomatoes

Chives, pepper and you know the rest

I highly recommend building trellises as described in Mel Bartholomew's book. The heaviest of tomatoes and cucumbers stay high and dry, and the trellises support them easily.

Stupice and cucumber about 4 feet off the ground

Everyone's dreams: grunge, zebras, extra kids

Everyone had interesting dreams last night. EG woke up cheerful and said there were little zebras that came into his room. They were toys and he played with them. He said they had instruments, like they were in a band. He was a little disappointed they were gone when he got up.

Masher dreamed he came home and there were three kids in the house: EG, another toddler, and a three month old infant. I told him that someone couldn't look after the baby anymore, and I couldn't turn him away. In the dream he was furious because I'd adopted these kids without telling him, which was funny because he said he wouldn't actually react that way if I did that. I promised I would give him at least a week's notice if I were coming home with any extra kids.

My dream was fun. We were in Seattle, stopped overnight on our way to San Francisco. I joked that I was hoping we'd run into someone from Soundgarden while we were there, so we must have gone back in time. We drove a rental car over a high bridge and I was terrified of falling off it. That part was scary. Then we went to a small venue, like a warehouse the community used for flea markets and other little events. Masher pointed to a guy and said, "There you go, Chris Cornell is over there." He was set up with only a synthesizer, amplifiers and microphone and was doing an impromptu solo gig. People started gathering. He was dressed like a grunge-era teen and his hair was shaggy like Dave Grohl's. Instead of being brooding like I expected he was cheerful, reaching out and shaking hands with people in the front of the crowd. He did some Soundgarden songs and cover songs from pop bands until something went wrong with his equipment and he called an intermission. There was free pizza during intermission so I got some from Masher and EG. I think this was brought on by surfing XM radio from the Lithium channel to the 90s channel to the classic rock channel, which was represented by our destination being San Francisco. I miss the grunge era like old people miss the 70s. I had long, frizzy hair and my laundry was either a load of blacks or a load of plaids. I deluded myself that I was sexy. Soundgarden still rocks. Alice in Chains has been successfully resurrected. I still have some plaid stuff. Maybe we should have a grunge-themed party, minus the heroin of course. That's the annoying part of the 90s - 4 out of 5 of my favorite songs are about being a miserable junkie. I can't relate. I just like plaid and don't like washing my hair every day.

Monster toddlers

I had a dream last night I came across 2 little vampire toddlers and took charge of them. I was looking for a wizard who could help cure them because they were innocent children and I didn't want an angry mob after them. Meanwhile I put little plastic things on their tiny fangs so they wouldn't bite anyone. If you gave them toys to play with they didn't bother anybody. Finally I found that Blade guy from the movie who would help transform them back to regular toddlers, which are only slightly less dangerous. I guess I got to keep them, but I don't know because it was after 5 a.m. and I had to wake up. I did not feel refreshed when I got out of bed. This probably happened because we were talking about Halloween and costumes, not because of EG's behavior.

Victor got up shortly after, ate porridge, and played with toys; he brought me a lego pizza, saying proudly that it has no cheese on half (we order ours that way so I can eat the non-dairy half). He also threw his flash cards down the stairs, but that was good because while we were picking them up I discovered he could read the numbers on them - they went up to twelve. Also he brought a load of straw into the kitchen. All this and more before 7 a.m. I really needed that window between 5 and 7:30 to work and was counting on him sleeping as late as he usually does. Well, it's good to know he doesn't have fangs and is really not evil at all.

EG's recipe suggestion this week is tomato smoothies.

 

Coconut milk instructions

I want to try this:

Homemade Coconut Milk

posted by Penniless Parenting at Penniless Parenting

For drinking or cooking I like the fortified unsweetened coconut milk in a carton, but if you make it with dessicated coconut like Penniless does you can get that rich fatty stuff off the top for vegan whipped "cream." I've made it the whipped topping and it was brilliant.