The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

Not much work around the house yet this week. Work Tuesday, and then I got called in for a delivery today… and it was almost an hour and a half away drive wise… so a good part of the day.

I did get the rest of this next gabion tied yesterday morning. I got up and the cable was out.. no internet and no cable.. and it being nice out I went out to tie. So Friday I start getting ready to place it. I need to cut a few more trees off the roof.. do some excavating.. put down crushed rock.. and place the basket. Then I can start filling it. I am not sure how long that prep will take.. but wanted a good block of time free for it.

I was running low on wire and picked up some this morning on the way to work. I still have plenty to do on the barn also… so I won't run out of work.

Our ride got rained out last night. We do hope to do the group mountain bike ride tonight.
My appointment was good.. or mostly good. My Blood pressure was up..and I didn't have numbers from home to share with him. It seems to be more erratic at the moment. Although a couple weeks ago at my Urologist.. it was pretty darn good.. and it's usually high at the doctors. Anyways my PCP wants me to take numbers again and check back in a week. Then as he was leaving he said losing just 5 pounds can make a big difference in BP. I don't remember exactly how he said it but it was subtly sneaky..
I thought it kind of cool the way he did it. I am heavier than I was.. and someone looking at me would not say I was heavy. He would not have said anything had my bp been normal. We might have to adjust my meds for it, but he knows.. that I would like, and would do something to prevent that.

I mentioned it on FB and man the reactions. I just thought it was cool the way he did it. Anyways.. all my other numbers were good. Even despite not fasting for the blood work.. my cholesterol was good.. my blood sugar numbers.. my PSA.. everything looked pretty good.

[toypusher]

Yeah, I need to lose some more weight. Have lost about 12 lbs since going back to my doctor in Jan, but need to lose more. Seeing doctor again on 15th. My blood work shows A1C and glucose still a bit high, but hoping that I can manage things without any meds for now.

[Fenlason]

Good job on the weight loss. I want to loose more than the 5 he has suggested. I would like to get back to 175-180. I am not sure how easy it will be.

I did just do my first morning workout. Just a little something to jump start the metabolism for the day. It was just 10 minutes on the rower for a start.

I have a full / regular day at work today. Then perhaps a bike ride with Greg and Judy tonight. So no work here today. I do need to ride more. With all the work we have to do, I won't want to put in the time I had been doing, but more than I have recently been doing should help with the weight loss, and get me in better shape than I am.

Laurie is taking tomorrow off. I am not sure how much help she will be with me on the Gabions or how long it will take to get it placed. If in placing the rock she isn't any help.. I will only get a little put in then move back to barn work.

[lrrowe]

Good job on the weight loss. I want to loose more than the 5 he has suggested. I would like to get back to 175-180. I am not sure how easy it will be.

I did just do my first morning workout. Just a little something to jump start the metabolism for the day. It was just 10 minutes on the rower for a start.

I have a full / regular day at work today. Then perhaps a bike ride with Greg and Judy tonight. So no work here today. I do need to ride more. With all the work we have to do, I won't want to put in the time I had been doing, but more than I have recently been doing should help with the weight loss, and get me in better shape than I am.

Laurie is taking tomorrow off. I am not sure how much help she will be with me on the Gabions or how long it will take to get it placed. If in placing the rock she isn't any help.. I will only get a little put in then move back to barn work.

Glenn...just go off the NutriSystem diet after 3 months and I did loose 12 lbs. Went with a level higher then entry level and it was not too bad. More then anything, it tought me portion control. The cost was perhaps just a tad higher then if I went to the grocery store. Boy it does get harder to loose wgt as you get older, much older.

[Fenlason]

Good job on the weight loss. I want to loose more than the 5 he has suggested. I would like to get back to 175-180. I am not sure how easy it will be.

I did just do my first morning workout. Just a little something to jump start the metabolism for the day. It was just 10 minutes on the rower for a start.

I have a full / regular day at work today. Then perhaps a bike ride with Greg and Judy tonight. So no work here today. I do need to ride more. With all the work we have to do, I won't want to put in the time I had been doing, but more than I have recently been doing should help with the weight loss, and get me in better shape than I am.

Laurie is taking tomorrow off. I am not sure how much help she will be with me on the Gabions or how long it will take to get it placed. If in placing the rock she isn't any help.. I will only get a little put in then move back to barn work.

Glenn...just go off the NutriSystem diet after 3 months and I did loose 12 lbs. Went with a level higher then entry level and it was not too bad. More then anything, it tought me portion control. The cost was perhaps just a tad higher then if I went to the grocery store. Boy it does get harder to loose wgt as you get older, much older.

Congratulations on your weight loss.
Thanks. I have do have a friend that sells NutriSystem. I do currently make my own breakfast shake. I eat fairly well, my problem is portion control. Bouncing back from doing a lot of training.. to much less is tough. When doing 15+ hours a week of working out, not only can you eat a lot, one needs to eat a lot. Dropping back down to 6.. one needs to change what you eat, and that is hard to adjust to.
Another big problem is the lack of sleep. This causes an increase of cortisol, which causes fat storage to increase.. and the appetite to increase.

I plan to increase my "training". Work on portion control… and I will have to look into the cortisol "situation".

[Fenlason]

We worked on our retaining wall area most of the day yesterday. It started pretty slow. In the location we are working, there is no place to put the dirt after it's dug out. So I would dig with the excavator, then move that out, and take the tractor and take a bucket load and move it around to the other side of the house. That made for a slow process. We did get it dug, a nice layer of crushed rock put down, and then the "basket" placed. I then took some rebar and drove it down through the center of each section. We did get some rock placed in them also. So far I have been able to load the rock by hand into the bucket, and then dump that into the gabion. Some of the rock is pretty big, so that is a bit of work. Of course some rock is too big for that. So I will have to try using the excavator and thumb to move them.

I am pretty sore this morning, but we hope to get back at it.

[Fenlason]

I tweaked my back working on the wall, earlier this morning.

We did get the first row of the wall done. It is full of rock and the back and sides have been backfilled with crushed rock. We will be going higher, which will be tough.. for it will be much harder to reach.. harder to get the rock up there. I will probably do a 3' x the 54" tall section, on the house end. Then perhaps something smaller for the rest of the wall.

[toypusher]

Well, we got rained out Wed and have had to play catch up on lawns since. We will do the last one on Monday after work at the GC though.

Not much else going on here. Sorry about your back. Mine has not been getting as strong as I had hoped by now. Don't want to push it though. Getting control mostly of the weeds, etc. around here finally. Still have some things to dig out. Need to get some more motion detection lights for the detached garage and want some small solar lights for the fence at the driveway entrance to help show where it is at night. Been back on the bike a couple times for very short rides and it is harder than I expected it to be, but just have to grin and bear it until I improve.

[Fenlason]

Well, we got rained out Wed and have had to play catch up on lawns since. We will do the last one on Monday after work at the GC though.

Not much else going on here. Sorry about your back. Mine has not been getting as strong as I had hoped by now. Don't want to push it though. Getting control mostly of the weeds, etc. around here finally. Still have some things to dig out. Need to get some more motion detection lights for the detached garage and want some small solar lights for the fence at the driveway entrance to help show where it is at night. Been back on the bike a couple times for very short rides and it is harder than I expected it to be, but just have to grin and bear it until I improve.

Grin and Bare it…


I tweaked my back pretty good. I did not do much of anything else yesterday. I did periodically try to stretch it out etc. Yesterday and this morning. After a while this morning I got so I could walk some.

I have done some more wiring on the gabion. Laurie and I carried another panel piece over to place on the top.. and I have been sitting and tying that. I plan to put a 4 foot gabion at the house end. I will make something smaller to sit on top of the rest. Perhaps a 2' x2' x 8 or 9'. I will need [or at least want] smaller mess for the smaller one, as well as smaller rock.

I think I will try a ride today, but I will ride inside.. so play it safe.

[Fenlason]

My back is pretty sore in the mornings. Not that it's all that great otherwise either.. Fortunately it doesn't bother too much in bed.

We have a windy showery day on tap for today, which I guess fits ok with not being able to do much with the back. I think it is supposed to get better through the day.

I did get a bit of tying done yesterday, and hope to get out and do some today.

I just learned another cycling friend died last night, a heart attack. He is a bit younger than I.
I also learned yesterday that a class mate had died. Last week we also learned that one of Laurie's Aunt's cancer has gotten worse, and they are stopping chemo.. and going into hospice care.

[toypusher]

Sorry to hear about your friends and relatives.

Hope you back is feeling better. I am not working at the GC today. The boss had me work yesterday because of a big tournament that was held yesterday. So, I have today off, but have go about 9:30 to mow lawns today. We normally do not mow on Mondays but we did a couple yesterday that will save us some time today and again on Thursday.

I will due a bit of laundry and have to water all the flowers the wife put in over the weekend this morning before heading out. It is supposed to be a beautiful day today with low humidity!

[Fenlason]

I am angry.. anxious and depressed.

I think I am just getting overloaded with stuff. We have been working a lot here at the house. Some very physical.. the roof work stressful in it's own way. My back.. No sleep.. all the recent deaths / health stuff.

One I haven't talked of.. is the logging out back. The land right behind us is being logged. The last time.. they selectively cut, and did a great job.. so depite my issues with loggers / logging. I was optimistic. Well they are trashing the place… which again is their right.. there property. We have some trails through the area.. but more just local snowmobile trails that head out to the main trails. Well recently they cut up on the line.. talking a big line tree [illegal] and left debris on us, and marked up our trees [falling their trees in our direction] Not finding any logger we went to the land owner [who is known and a jerk and bully] He said he would look into it [the next day] but I knew he was just blowing us off.

A week later.. nothing is done. I have gone to the Maine Forrest Service [our law enforcement for these issues.] So far we have been playing phone tag.

The clean up isn't huge.. but it's more the point of it… and at this point if I do nothing will it just embolden him?

In the mean time another huge parcel [someone else] is being flagged for logging.

[Fenlason]

Nice.. I am in a not so great space.. and now a co-worker.. sent me a message on FB complaining because I didn't pick up all the tools on our shared work bench. I sat on it a bit.. biting my tongue.. then said F it. I wrote back and blasted him. I didn't get personal.. there are plenty of things I could complain about. It's not like I routinely do it. We were busy.. very busy and I didn't get to it.

[Fenlason]

Yesterday was an ok day at work. I was in early and my boss was there. I have not seen him in maybe a year. It was good to just talk.. and I got to talk to him about my paycheck. My hourly rate was off. Perhaps all last year and this.
Paul.. the one that gave me crap the other day was fine. He was maybe a little guarded to start the day off with.. we were busy with customers.. so didn't really get to talk much. I can go back to normal after our previous problem.. and he is much better about that than my other co-worker would be.

Angela had asked about riding last night.. so she and Laurie were at the house and ready when I got there. I just asked that I not have to lead.. Actually we made Angela lead some of it.. which was interesting because she rarely knows where she is. [on our trails] Laurie led some.. I did occasionally direct or suggest… we didn't stop much and kept a pretty decent pace going.. and had a blast. It was a good ride.

I slept better last night.. although I was still up some.. 3:00 to maybe 4:30… before napping again.

I am still sore and pretty tired today but getting some stuff done. I have my next gabion tied up and ready for rock. then a couple of little projects.. my mail box was loose, and I had to refasten our kitchen garbage "can" to it's cabinet door.

We are to have a gorgeous weekend. We hope to get this next gabion filled, but I am not sure what else we will work on.

[Fenlason]

We got the next gabion filled, and then back filled with crushed rock. I have the top cut out and in place, just not tied yet. We mowed most of the lawn, and did some earth work beside the porch. We placed and leveled 4 deck blocks, for the wood shed construction. I did get out and do a little trail mowing. My back was a little worse.. and I wasn't feeling all that great either.. so we weren't as productive was I would liked to have been.

I will try some trail work today.

Happy Fathers Day.