Playing Catch-up

It's been super busy around here, and most all of it good stuff.  So, my plan is to cram a bunch of updates into one post if I can keep my eyes open long enough.  Mrs's Mom is up visiting from Florida for the better part of the month, using FBF as her home base while she goes off visiting.  So good to see "Ma" again!

Very little going on in the garden other than massive bean plants with no flowers yet, tomato plants that hopefully will produce something before frost, same with peppers, and a pile of various herbs taking up most of the rest of the space.  It's not a gardening year, though it appears the weather would have been superb for growing.

The bluebirds vacated the nest last week and the parents continued to use the yard for gathering food while the young ones were tucked safely inside the tree line.  No sign of them today.

The chickadee babies hatched a while ago and they are still in the little box that can no longer be easily viewed among the massive perennial plants.  We certainly can hear them though.

This image was taken prior to the sudden and massive growth of the perennials.  It's a tiny little birdhouse that is really meant for decoration as you can see from the two entrance holes, which are completely impractical for a nest.  But, chickadees being chickadees, they widened the top hole and made a suitable home out of the little box.  I worried about it being so close to the ground, but so far, so good.

Running class (and cycling class, also) has been going very well.  Last week, Coach ran us through some hill work on a rather subtle hill between two fields at the high school four times.  I was not sure how I would do on this run as we had been to the beach the day before and I had a little too much sun, but once there and running I felt beyond great.

Sunday we were coached by Coach's husband, who is also an accomplished athlete and coach.  After a warm up run through the woods, he ran us through a Fartlek workout.  Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play".  We had to run the outside edges of all of the athletic fields at the high school - there are a good number of them and they are pretty big.  The basic idea is to run a slow(er) pace and when the end of the field is reached, turn the 90 degree angle to run another edge at a fast(er) pace, until the next edge is reached and slow the pace a bit, then turn and increase, and so on, until the starting point is again reached.  A little bit of rest, then off again.  Three times around total, with similar or improving times each go 'round.  What a workout!  It's been great getting off the road and into the woods, fields and on the track.  I have quickly discovered that I am WAY overdue for new running shoes, so we have a trip planned off-Cape in the near future to have my stride video recorded and analyzed and other testing to get (hopefully) the proper fit and shoes.

The cycling has proved to be a challenging, but enjoyable workout without having to deal with the big gym crowds.  It's a great way to spend an hour.  These workouts, combined with running on my own, and greatly improving my food intake has worked to drop some pounds and inches off the waist line.  I didn't need to lose much, but felt sluggish and nasty.  Fantastic summer weather is helping as well.  I want to be outside and away from the fridge.

Saturday, July 9th, I participated in the 34th Paul E. White Memorial Road Race in North Falmouth.  I took the weekend off from work to allow for a bit more sleep and also to be assured that I would not be held over for work should someone decided not to show up.

It's an odd distance at 4.81 miles.  Luckily the heavy and long rainstorm we had on the 8th moved out before dawn.  The day turned out to be quite beautiful.  The canon fired at 10:00 am and off we went through North Falmouth.  I was pleased to see how many residents and visitors turned out to watch along the race route and provide water and mist hoses if you wanted to cool down.

 Cape & Islands EMS Coordinator Alden Cook.

 The start!  I was caught a little off guard by the canon for this race.  I am accustomed to some sort of announcement prior to the start, but we just sort of assembled in the street and BLAM!,  we were off.

 4.81 miles and 39 minutes and 34 seconds later, I arrived at the finish (also the starting line).

 Our Falmouth PD escort vehicle.

View of the finish line.

We didn't hang around too long and headed home.  After a quick shower we headed off to Sandwich to poke around and ended up checking out some historical sights that we had not been to ourselves in many years, despite having driven by them hundreds of times.

First stop was The Hoxie House.  It is said that this is the oldest house on Cape Cod built in 1675 in the oldest town on Cape Cod, Sandwich.

With the small price of admission we paid for The Hoxie House we also got a pass for Dexter's Grist Mill just down the road from Hoxie.

The mill is manned during certain periods for information and mill history.  You can also purchase ground corn (organic out of upstate New York) in 2 pound sacks.  Because Cape Cod is limited in elevation, this particular wheel is powered by water flowing beneath it rather than over the top like most people are accustomed to seeing.

Water rushing into the wheel.

Old millstones on display in the mill.

The grinding stone just below the corn hopper.  The spinning action of the oak spindle bumps another piece of wood attached to the feeder which slowly drops corn into the mill stone.  The corn travels outward as it is ground and end up in a container on the first floor where it is packaged.  the stone beneath the spinning millstone remains stationary.

The hopper above the grinding wheel.  We chatted for a good while with the gentleman at the mill.  He was quite funny and a wealth of information.  Well worth the time to see how things used to be done.