another trail race, another fall

Maybe if I ran a sedate 10min/mile pace I wouldn't have these calamities, but today I ran the Great Pond Mountain Conservation Trust trail race, 6.3 miles and took a tumble. The race went up a mountain so steep that I was walking the last bit to the top and then down on single track paths that would have suited a mountain goat. At the bottom of the first mountain as my friend Dave was catching up, I slipped and lost all the Gobstoppers in my fist (my shorts didn't have pockets) as I hit the dirt. Luckily I didn't hit any rocks and my only injury was a tiny cut on my palm. I was sure that we were mostly finished, but his handy GPS said we had only run 3.2 miles at that point. We ran a little flat piece and then up another large hill and flew down some wide paths to the end. I finished 3rd for the women with a 8:11 pace. The second race in the trail series is next week, a 4 miler that supposedly is even more hair-raising than this one. I can't wait.

stiching overtime

I finished up my 3rd unfinished challenge project a few weeks ago, a king-sized star quilt for my sister-in-law's Christmas present. I did show her the quilt as well as the beach glass modern one I had in the state show and let her pick which one she wanted. She chose this one that I quilted in a large overall teardrop pattern, which was fun and easy to do. I think I really like doing overall designs that some think you can only achieve on a long-arm machine. 

 For Christmas I am also making Julia Ellen a pink twin size quilt made from a Bonnie Hunter book I bought before taking her class this past spring. The Turkey Trot blocks and border are string pieced, using up every bit of pink scrap I owned as well as a lot of pinks in my stash. Every few days for the past 3 weeks, Julia Ellen has asked, "Are you working on my quilt?" Yes, dear, and now the top is complete and almost ready to quilt. 

My next project is to quilt Maggie's purple and white top, all basted and purple thread purchased. I think I will attempt a vine and spiral overall design. I still have a long list of quilts to work on, including the school auction quilt due in May and our guild's row by row quilts we are working on over the course of the winter and spring, but I'm making progress.    

speedy kids

I am so proud of Maggie for her efforts this year in cross country. She has been an encouragement to her teammates and a natural leader, despite being only a 5th grader. Last week the girls won the Inland Schools Championship and Maggie was one of several girls who broke the previous 5th grade mile pace of 7:15. She and Charlie got up on Sunday morning to compete in the Black Bear 5K, knowing they could run 3 miles well (they both did phenomenally well in the Harvest Run 5K after running the 1 mile race). Both kids placed 2nd in their age brackets. I came in 2nd overall for women (21:11) so we came home with numerous University of Maine t-shirts and backpacks. Charlie has 11 points in his age group in the Sub5 series, despite competing against 19 year olds. I am very glad that I have such great kids who want to be outside, away from the TV, and sharing a sport I so love.    

221

That is the number of eggs we have collected from our chickens during October and we still have another 12 days to go. The lights go on in the coop at 3am so they think that there is 15 hours of daylight and will not go into a molt and stop laying. Every morning I go out about 6:30 with a bucket of fresh water and my Italian egg basket that I bought 13 years ago in anticipation of this task. I pour some crumbles in the outside feeder, refill the water, throw a handful of buckwheat in the run, and let the girls out for the day. Most days I gather the first eggs and let the children go periodically down to the coop to gather the 4-5 eggs that are produced later in the morning. 

What have we been doing with almost a dozen eggs a day? Boiled, fried on toast, or poached is now standard breakfast, and then I went through the Betty Crocker Cookbook and made a list of all the yummy dishes that require many eggs. Quiche, french toast, pumpkin bread, and almond pound cake are among the favorites. Maggie loves to make cookies so we have been eating lots of chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles, and snickerdoodles. But we still have lots of eggs, dozens of eggs, so I'm taking them to school on Fridays to sell. Hopefully I can build up a steady clientele who want farm fresh eggs to reduce our stock and the school gets a little extra in the petty cash drawer. 
  

busy week

Last week the children's auntie came for a visit to Maine and somehow we managed to not only attend 2 soccer games, 2 cross country meets, 2 road races, but also took the little kids on 3 field trips. We suspended school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to visit Moose Point State Park, the town of Belfast, and Fort Knox. While we didn't see any moose, we did see cormorants, a great blue heron, a lobsterman pulling up his catch, and several photogenic children (oh, we brought those with us). Belfast's candy store has expanded to a soda fountain, where Cheryl and I came out eating pistachio and salted carmel ice cream cones. The kids brought their flashlights to see in all the dark corners of the never-completed structure in Bucksport, designed to protect the surrounding area from the British. 

The last Saturday in September Maggie, Charlie, and I ran a 4K in Blue Hill, where all 3 of us won our age brackets. My legs hurt for days afterwards due to my blistering 6:02 pace. Then this past Saturday we were joined by Timmy and Mary to participate in the Harvest Run, benefiting the girl's school. I won overall for women, Maggie won her age bracket for the 5K, and both Charlie and Maggie ran both the 1 mile and the longer race. For the past several days my knees have been hurting, I guess running on wet grass isn't good. Now things are settling down to normal with both sports finishing up in the next few weeks and no races until Oct 20th.