Training for the Hippie Chick Half

For the past couple months I have been training for the Hippie Chick Half Marathon, which will be at Champoeg Park on May 10. The half marathon is 13 miles. In March I walked a total of a little over 60 miles. At some point in there, I think after I did a 9 mile walk, my foot started hurting and I had to take it easy for awhile. I learned a couple simple exercises from Patty (weight class instructor) and my foot got better.

So far this month I have walked almost 57 miles, including 10 miles last Saturday and 12 miles today. It took me 3 hours and 11 minutes to do 12.06 miles, and that includes stopping at McDonalds's to pee. I started out going out Old Yamhill Rd and then Tangen Rd. to North Valley Rd., then down Cullen Rd over to Chehalem. Cullen Rd. is a gravel road with big orchards. I came to this one house and these 2 enormous great danes came running out. I started turning around and yelled at them to go home, which they did. Then I didn't know if it was safe to walk past their house or not. So I picked up a bunch of rocks, just in case, since I had forgotten to bring my pepper spray, and decided to brave it. They came out again, but didn't seem menacing. So I just yelled at them some more, and then someone stuck their head out the window and called to them. So I didn't get mauled by giant dogs, which was nice.

Then, a little further on, on Chehalem Drive, I got a migraine, so Rich had to bring me my migraine medicine. He brought my pepper spray too, but I didn't need it at all the rest of the walk.

Feeling good! Feet a tiny bit sore but not bad, and now I know I can do the half marathon! The 12 miles today was easier than the 10 miles last Saturday. Next weekend I'll do 13 miles, then for the 2 weeks until the marathon I am only supposed to do short walks to rest I guess.

Just got hailed on for a couple seconds today, and rained on another little bit. Decided to go today and get it out of the way because the weather is supposed to be crappy all weekend. We have the quilt sale at Baba's house on Saturday and we're going to Eugene on Sunday.

Goats, Goats, and More Goats!

Since Plato the sheep passed away in November, poor little George has been so lonely. Pretty much he hung out by the fence in the corner, next to the sheep next door. I thought about finding a new home for him. Then I had a better thought. More goats. Lots of goats are a good thing, right? I mean, look how well behaved George has been. Nothing like those old Bill and Hillary goats we had once. They were bad goats.

So, I decided to get cashmere goats. Nice soft wool to blend with some of the sheep wool I have sitting around and make nice blended yarns. We found some nearby for not too much. We wanted to get two, but ended up with three. On March 23 we went to pick them up. We brought them home in the pick-up, backed it up into the back field, opened it up and let them out. Within minutes they found George and made friends. He was so-o-o happy - doing his happy dance all over the place, and running around crazy. For a short while George was the head guy, as demonstrated by the highest position on the board pile, but within a few days the big new guy, Capricorn, became the leader. Capricorn is a wether male, about 4 years old. He is 3/4 cashmere and 1/4 angora. In the photos he is shedding, but we were finally able to catch him the other day and comb him, so he looks much better now.
Then there are the two little girls. The little white one is Eos. She is just about a year old I think, pure cashmere. We missed out on combing her - she was losing her wool when we got her and we haven't really been able to catch her yet, but it's all off. She is pretty brave though - she has eaten out of my hand a couple times. Then the other one is another little girl, also about a year old. She is dark - black and beige-ish. She is EXTREMELY shy. She will take some work to catch. I think she still has some good wool on her. Her name is Nyx. She has a little white star on her forehead. She's the one hiding behind the tree in the picture above.
You can see her better in the feeding photos. I have to give each one of them their own dish, or it just turns into a butt-head party and only the big guy would get anything to eat.

So I think we're in for some fun times!

Here's some more photos...