Baby Trees!

You can't really see anything in this picture, but we got some new plants for the yard!

Our county had a seedling sale with native plants, so we decided to order some. Then we let them sit in the garage for a week after Tom picked them up...oops!

To add to the apple trees we planted last year (we have a honeycrisp, a red delicious and a granny smith) we added two baby pear trees today. 

Tom put tomato cages around the baby trees to keep Scout from playing with and/or destroying them.  Sticks are Scout's favorite thing in the yard.

The apple trees survived the winter and losing several limbs to Scout. They even have blossoms!

There are also baby eastern white pine trees which will one day form a wind break for the yard.

It's going to be a few years though, they're pretty tiny!

The dogs were sad they couldn't be outside while Tom mowed the lawn this afternoon, so they found the sunniest spot in the house to nap. Please ignore the piles of Scout hair on the floor. The second I vacuum it up it just comes right back. He's been shedding like crazy and I can't figure out how he's not completely hairless at this point. 

Apples!

So, I think my leg is improving. I want it to magically just be better, but I know that isn't likely to happen.

I switched to the one pair of "support" style shoe that I have (and never ever wear because they're really heavy) for my run today, and it did seem to help a bit. I initially got super frustrated and angry and almost turned around in the first quarter mile, but I made myself keep going and ended up running 3 miles.

They weren't my best 3 miles ever, but they were a major improvement on what I've been able to run lately.

I (re)started doing the Lunge Matrix before my runs this week. I'm also trying to get back to doing the Myrtl routine post-run. I was really good about it for a while last year and I figure a little strength/mobility work can't hurt.

We went to a plant sale over the weekend. Apparently all the crazy plant people were there before we were, because it was pretty picked over by the time we got there. We ended up getting a few tomato plants.

We also got a little apple tree (not at the plant sale though)! It's going to have 3 other apple trees to keep it company pretty soon. If you need any apples, we're going to have more than we can ever use once they start producing fruit.

It's going to be fun to have them grow into our own mini orchard!

Cruising Speed and Literally Tons of Gravel

I'm not happy until I hit about 4 miles. The first few miles of my run, I want to turn around and go home, walk, or sit down. I'm creaky and tired and whiny. Somewhere around 4 miles, my body is awake and ready to go. That's when I can slip into what I call my cruising speed and actually enjoy my run.

Cruising speed varies from day to day. Some days it is a 10:00 mile, some days it's an 8:00 mile. It doesn't matter. It's the beautiful spot where my breathing is even, I'm not pushing myself, I'm not plodding, I'm just happily running along. Sometimes it takes thinking about a song (I've been running without music lately) *ahem, Lady Gaga* that just has the right beat to keep my mind busy and my feet moving.

One of my running buddies (man, I miss them!) has told me that the fact I'm not happy running until mile 4 tells him that I'm going to make a good marathoner. I hope so!

It's supposed to be HOT the next couple of days, so I actually woke up early for my run this morning. It was a cool 60 degrees when I woke up, 62 by the time I finished my coffee, and 70 by the time I finished my 6 miles for the day. Good thing I started early!

Tom rented a tractor the other day and ordered a bunch of gravel for the driveway.

Friday morning he was already up and outside laying out landscape fabric before I woke up. I joined him, coffee in hand, and tried to be useful. I'm not very useful first thing in the morning.

We got most of the fabric down before the first truckload of gravel arrived.

Yes, we had more than one truckload of gravel delivered. We had about 42 tons of gravel delivered.

Tom spent most of the afternoon spreading the gravel out, and now we have an absolutely enormous driveway. We've been parking on the grass, so this will be a nice change.

Buddy is getting more comfortable in his yard, though he still doesn't go very far from the door if he's out there on his own.  It's fun to actually get him running around, and we're working on his fetching skills. He's not very good.

But he's having a good time!

And he's a little crazy.

He also ran through the screen door yesterday. It's a good thing he's cute!

Free-Range Buddy

It's official - Buddy is no longer an on-leash all the time dog. Now he's a free-range dog! You know, within the fence.

Tom worked his butt off in the heat/humidity for a couple of days, clearing the areas where we wanted to put the fence and pounding in all the fence posts. He was determined to finish the fence yesterday, so I tried to be helpful. After a long, hot, humid afternoon, we had the fence up.

Buddy isn't quite sure about his yard yet. He doesn't like to go outside by himself, so he stands and stares at the door for a while if we don't go out with him.

He keeps checking out all his escape routes, just to see if there's fence there, but otherwise he hasn't touched the fence at all.

And now we're working on fetch. He's not so good with the bringing the ball back, but he loves chasing it and playing keep away.

I think he's still adjusting to all the extra activity. :)

Yard Work and a RunnerBox

One thing I will say about our yard - any work makes a big difference.

The yard right by the street was lined in pricker bushes. They suck. There were also some giant bushes and a little tree blocking the front of the house.

After a long afternoon of work, it now looks like this:

It's starting to look like an actual house! I love how much more open it is now. Some of those bushes on the right will be coming out too. And just wait until the fence is up - it's going to be so cute!

I actually managed to do some Piyo this afternoon - I know, I'm proud of me too :)

I also got my first RunnerBox in months (I stopped it for a while when I wasn't working), and had fun looking through it.

I love new snacks!

I'll let you know if there are any stand out winners in the box.

And Buddy wanted you to know that he is a lap dog, even if he doesn't really fit.

Working in the Yard

We have a really big yard.

It feels bigger because it's been pretty much left to its own devices for the last few years. Once we get things a little more tamed, it won't be as difficult to maintain.

This used to be a huge, fenced in garden area. Now it's a big mess of weeds.

Tom mowed it the other day, but there was still a TON of dead grass and other plants. I have spent hours over the last two days raking the dead things up, and leaving piles everywhere that Tom later disappears into the brush. I've only made it about halfway, and it mostly just looks dead, but eventually it will look better.

This picture is obviously from a different angle, but you get the idea.

This tree has all kinds of problems. it apparently had a rough winter. 

After a lot of cutting and pruning, it finally looks like a tree again. 

There were a lot of dead branches, and there were tons of little shoots at the base of the tree that we cut back. Hopefully now it can focus its energy on growing up and filling out.

Can you see the broken part of our umbrella? It fell over in the wind during a thunderstorm the other day. It went through the screen door on its way down. If you look closely you can see our temporary duct tape patch. Very fancy.

Buddy has been supervising.

It's exhausting work.

A Humid Run and Yard Work

Holy cow it's been a busy few days, and we're just getting started!

I made it out for my first run in our new neighborhood yesterday. It was also the first run since the race last weekend - there have just been so many things going on!

It was a pretty warm and humid day, but I went out without a real plan, and ended up having a really good run! There are a lot of rolling hills around the house, but not much traffic, and plenty of shade. I ran just over 4 miles at 8:58 pace - and it didn't feel like I was killing myself.

Marathon training official starts on Monday - I took this week as a moving/rest week in between training cycles. Hopefully that means I'll be ready to go come Monday.

Tom has been having fun getting new things. He got this grill which took us far less than the estimated 4 hours to assemble. It's currently the only way we can cook anything - thank goodness it's summer!

And he got a fancy new lawn mower.

Tom would like me to point out that he is in fact wearing pants in that picture.

We have a lot of lawn to mow.

And that's not even all of it! The yard is looking much nicer though. We spent most of the day working on clearing out the overgrown garden areas and picking up trash and sticks.

For now, we're trying to find a balance between not feeling like we're camping (though we are sleeping on the mattress on the floor since our box spring didn't fit up the stairs), and not unpacking very many things. The work is going to start on the house fairly soon, so we don't want to unpack just to pack things up again.

We're all a little tired from all the changes.