warrior goddess

. . . or something.

So, the story of me and exercise.  In general, I'm not really into "exercising."  I like to walk and bike, hike in the mountains, stay active, etc.  I like being fit.  But I like to stay fit by having a more-or-less active lifestyle.  When I was canvassing for North Carolina PIRG (i.e., walking 20 hours/week), this worked well.  Very well.  But working in an office, even though I bike or walk to work and am constantly running up and down the stairs at the office, does not quite cut it.  Being over 30 may make a difference, too.  (What?  I CAN'T eat whatever I want and not gain weight anymore?  HUH??)  The challenge, of course, is motivating myself to exercise.  Last year my friend Beth and I started running together several times a week, which was great.  We got to the point where we could run 5 miles fairly easily . . . and then we stopped.  Life got busy, our schedules changed, yadda yadda yadda.  This past spring, I decided to have a daily yoga practice for Lent, which worked out marvelously!  I did yoga every day for 47 days and it was fantastic.  Lent ended . . . and so did my yoga practice.  Sigh.

But now I am 32.  And right now, that is enough motivation for me to have a fitness regimen.  I'm rather amazed at myself, actually.  I wake up in the morning and think, "I'm going to do my workout today, because I AM 32!"  And it works!  I get out of bed, put in my contacts, move the coffee table out of the way, and do my exercising.   Who knew?

We'll see how long this lasts, I guess.  There's always the possibility that I'll get unmotivated and just drop it all.  Then again, I will be 32 for an entire year, and that may very well be all the motivation I need to keep this up.

For the past week and a half I've been doing an online workout called Warrior X-Fit.  My good friend Tricia recommended it to me a couple of years ago, and I finally decided to check it out.  I'm enjoying it, though the workouts are absolutely.  kicking.  my.  butt.  Limp, limp.  It's a well-thought out system.  First off, it's free.  Secondly, you get a completely different set of exercises to do every day of the month--that is, you never do the same exercise twice in the same month.  These exercises work every single part of your body, including muscles you didn't know you had (and trust me, two days after doing this workout, you wish you didn't have those muscles).  Thirdly, the only thing you need to do these exercises (if, that is, you need anything at all) is a resistance tube, which you can buy for ~$20.  Lastly, it only takes about 20-30 minutes, and, at the end, a voice proclaims in stentorian tones, "You have fought like a warrior!" Yes, I AM a warrior goddess!

The one thing I've learned, though, is that I can't do it every single day.  Thus, I alternate between Warrior X-Fit and yoga, and it's proved to be a good balance.  I certainly appreciate a morning of calm stretching, balancing, and breathing after a morning of jumping around and sweating. 

In other news, Greg and I have been enjoying an incredible tomato crop.  We haven't yet had our first frost (though we reached 33 degrees the other night), so the tomatoes are still going strong, their well-being assisted by the hoop house that Greg built last year (nicely done, eh?).

As you can see, the tomatoes are pretty happy.  Isn't this one a beauty?

We ordered the variety below from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and are we ever so happy with that decision.  This is a chocolate striped tomato, with gorgeous green and red stripes that looks not quite ripe but is actually fully, deliciously ready to be eaten.  The taste of these tomatoes has nothing whatsoever in common with the taste of the hard, flavorless tomatoes you buy from the grocery store in January.  Biting into one of these delectable fruits is like reaching tastebud nirvana.  Mmmmm.

And, the eggcitement continues . . . with our first BLUE egg!  Isn't it gorgeous?

In non-food news, we have a couple of new acquisitions.  The first was inspired by a Saturday of cleaning, when I decided to wash some of the cat blankets.  Our dryer hasn't worked for months--we rarely used it, anyway--and we've been line drying all our laundry.  However, one of the few times I find a dryer handy is when I want to get all the cat hair out of a blanket, rug, etc.  Additionally, our washer is rather old, a top loader with an agitator, so we decided to go to Vann's and get an energy-efficient washer and dryer.  And hey, if it's a pretty red color at the same time, all the better!  Now we just need to update the basement . . .

Our second new acquisition was free, which is always a bonus.  Driving home from church a couple of weeks ago, we noticed a lovely purple loveseat on a neighbor's lawn.  We walked over to inspect it, deemed it in good condition, and carried it the two blocks home (receiving offers of help from two people on the way).  Basil has already laid claim to it . . .

Here's a view of the Missoula valley and the lovely autumnal hills from the Mount Jumbo saddle last Friday, when Kara and I took a long looping walk through grasslands and forest, and even startled a fat black bear in the underbrush!

And, because such cuteness MUST be shared with the world, Nutmeg and her Buddha expression (and yes, she is sitting on Greg's shoulders, per usual).  Mreow!

harvest time

It is fall, though it doesn't quite feel like it.  We are having unseasonably warm temps--high 80s and 90s--though it's gorgeously cool at night (mid-40s) and the sunlight is beginning to slant in a long, southerly kind of way.  School has begun, Greg is busy teaching, I am busy finding volunteers for MNHC's school programs . . . and we are both busy eating the glorious abundance of food from our garden.  It's tomato season, friends!  And boy, oh boy, are we rejoicing.

Pounds upon pounds of tomatoes, guarded by Basil:

And here, those same tomatoes cooked into sauce, along with our very own onions, peppers, garlic, basil, oregano, and parsley (the only thing in this sauce that did not come from our garden is a tablespoon of olive oil!):

Beautiful corn, tomatoes, peppers:

A meal made almost completely of veggies from our garden (except for the eggs): corn on the cob; an eggy scramble with tomatoes, onions, and peppers; and a saute of kale, onions, and carrots.  Yum.

Our own personal "CSA" box for my birthday weekend in Hamilton:

And, oh, yes, let's not forget about our Very First Peach Harvest--two, count them, TWO, peaches!  Yeah, they didn't last long.

And, perhaps most exciting of all, is this little brown jewel we found in the henhouse last week.  Folks, the ladies are layin'!

YUM.

Tonight we had edamame made with our very own soybeans (a new crop this year), and we are almost ready to harvest all our dry beans--black beans, red beans, yellow Hungarian beans, garbanzo beans.  Our onions are drying, we have fall carrots and beets and spinach and broccoli planted, and we are overwhelmed with cherry tomatoes.  I am amazed by the abundance.  Some crops have done much better this year than last year; some have done worse.  But we are still growing a satisfying amount of food.  I love being hungry and not having to go farther than the backyard to satisfy that hunger.  Isn't it incredible?  And we even have the ability to preserve our food, so that we can enjoy the tastes of summer in January.  We've blanched and frozen spinach and garlic scapes; frozen rhubarb and raspberries; cooked and frozen tomato sauce; canned crushed tomatoes; dried garlic and onions; put potatoes and beets into the cold cellar.  Isn't food amazing?  And isn't it amazing that we can grow it ourselves?  It still seems like a miracle, even after our third summer of gardening.  

The biggest of excitement of last week was, of course, the EGGS.  We've been caring for our ladies since they were four days old, in mid-April, and now they're grown up and starting to lay eggs.  We THINK it was Buttercup who's been laying the eggs, but it's hard to tell since we're not always around when the eggs are being laid!  The first two were laid right in the nest box, where they were supposed to be, but the third was laid in the middle of the coop (after a day's hiatus), and today there were no eggs.  Greg and I are sincerely hoping that the chickens aren't eating their own eggs (which we've heard they'll do sometimes), but we're a bit confused about the lack of eggs these past couple of days, especially when Henrietta and Buttercup are squawking and clucking emphatically about once a day, as chickens generally do before (and while) laying eggs.   Any insight from chicken owners out there?  I'm sure it will all work out, but I'm impatient to start eating eggs exclusively from our very own chickens.  Fingers crossed.

Here's to fall, to harvest, to life and abundance from our beautiful earth.  Here's to the richness and sweetness of this part of the cycle.  Yum.

impending 32ness

Today is Saturday, September 3rd.  Two days until my birthday.  Two days until I turn 32.

Most people, it seems, see 30 as a seminal birthday.  My 30th birthday was less than a month before my wedding, so I had other things on my mind.  Besides, 30 has never been as much of a landmark to me as 32.  To understand why, we have to go back a few years . . . 19, to be precise.

7th grade.  Junior high.  I'm in Mr. Crull's math class at Sioux Center Christian.  A few decades before THAT, Mr. Crull himself was in high school, and his basketball jersey number was--you guessed it--32.  It became his favorite number.  Years later, as a math teacher, he created math problems that used the number 32 incessantly.  Use your imagination.  Suffice it say that when I was in the 7th grade, 32 was a number I detested.  Enough, already, Mr. Crull!!

But then 8th grade rolled around.  I still had Mr. Crull for math.  And he still used the number 32 . . . again, and again, and again.  And I was just too tired to spend my energy hating that number.  I figured, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

The rest is history.

So, for the past 18 years, this beautiful, balanced, elegant number has been a part of who I am.  I am A Person Whose Favorite Number is 32.  I am a 32-Lover.  I feel much affection for this number that keeps showing up in my life in myriad unexpected ways (but always, always, the number of ways is a product of 32 . . . or has a 32 in it . . . or is related to 32 in some way.  ALWAYS).

When I talked to my parents this past week, they mentioned that they had had the opportunity to talk to the Crulls.  And apparently my impending 32nd birthday came up, and the fact that this birthday is an important one.  Funny how everything comes back around.

So, in two days, I turn 32.  I'm excited, but a little nervous.  Turning 32 feels like a lot of pressure.  Pressure to make this year special, to make it different, to somehow manage to do all the thousands of things I have been wanting (and meaning) to do for years.  Write a novel.  Have an essay or three published.  Succeed brilliantly in being the new editor of the Montana Naturalist magazine.  Do yoga regularly.  Run regularly.  Travel to some exotic place I've never visited before (Uganda? Crete?  Svalbard?).  Study a new language (or learn a formerly-studied one better).  And the list goes on . . .

Instead of feeling pressure, though, I want to feel freedom.  The wild wonder of being that magical age, of embodying that magical number 32.  What can I do with this year?  What can I begin?  What can I accomplish?  Perhaps, just perhaps, turning 32 will be the motivation I need to embark on a new venture (or seven, or--wait for it--32).  What wonders will this year hold?  I am so looking forward to finding out.