Farming, Motorcycling & Running

Laying in bed Monday morning and I hear a tractor out front at about 6:45. Two surprises here: first, rarely is anyone in the field that early, secondly, it's been pretty wet of late. In fact, it was sprinkling about the time he finished up on the other side of the lane. However, it's May, so it's planting time. The ground's probably too cold for planting corn. The daytime temperature only made it to about 42, night time temps are still in the thirties, so the ground is still going to be too cold for corn to germinate. It's supposed to be more inline with our average temperatures towards the weekend. Might be planting here next week. 

I've got some stuff ordered for the garden. I had three boxes set up for the square foot gardening plan but I think I'm going to get rid of those, rent a tiller and expand the size of the garden and till up everything and go back to a more conventional layout. I've also got a couple of other spots I want to till up that were under pine trees that have been cut down. Either seed them in grass or plant some perennials in the spots. Maybe a fruit tree in one spot. I told the Missus to let me know if she has anything in mind. If I don't get any feedback, I'll just do whatever the mood dictates on the day I tackle the job. 

Also on Monday, I was contacted by a guy from out of the past. I used to work with his father and my wife and him have been "friends" on Facebook. He's got a couple of motorcycles that have been stored at his dad's house for about forty years. Mom and dad are in their nineties and he needs to get the bikes out of there. The bikes are local, but he lives out west and has no interest in carting them to his place. He said I could have both of them just to get them out of his dad's place. They both have titles, which is a minor miracle. One of them is a Honda Trail 90 like in the photo. The other a CB 450. The Trail 90 would be just the thing for my cattle round-ups. Of course I don't have any cattle, but you have to start somewhere.

The shirt is from the run last Saturday - long sleeve technical fabric which is nice unless you're a welder. Forty-two years since I ran it the first time. I'm sure that's not any kind of a record, but it gives me a warm and fuzzy. The biggest take-away from this event, however, is that I actually did some running without having any chest pain later. That and the fact that it took me ten years to figure out how to make it happen. I've got two months to train for the 5 mile trail run I'm considering. I want to get back to my race-walking form and train for a couple of bike rides. My running buddy is going on vacation soon, but when she gets back we need to pick a couple of running and cycling events we want to do. That will determine my workout schedule, in the meantime, however, I'm going to alternate between running and cycling and see how I hold up. I'll also toss in some weight training to try and regain some upper body muscle. Sounds pretty ambitious, but it's not all that time consuming if you're retired. Plus, I'll be more inclined to work on the projects if I get up off my ass in the morning and put in an hour or so of exercise every day. Sounds good on paper, just have to see how it works out.