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Showing posts from June, 2018

Gardening is hard work!

Gardening is one of my favorite activities. It can be hard sweaty work but I enjoy it. Beginning this past spring I began reworking the backyard. A few men were hired to do the heavy lifting and digging. They began a retaining wall, dug out a new patio and a firepit. I have finished the retaining wall including a bridge and steps. Added pavers to the new patio. Planted hydrangeas and lavender. Still need to backfill behind the retaining wall with dirt the men threw up onto the hill. The hydrangeas are becoming a problem. One is blooming and doing well. The other two are suffering from root rot. I dug them up and made the hole bigger with gravel in the bottom for drainage. But the soil is clay and the water has nowhere to go. I pulled them out of the ground again and will be working on making the hole bigger with more drainage. Hopefully this will be the last time. I may even put in a drainage pipe and connect it to a French drain in the yard. Maybe. It probably would be a lot of h

Back at it!

My life has changed again. My mother under went a hospital stay and is now living in a skilled nursing facility. She is receiving excellent care and I am able to return to my old life. This means returning to activities. Currently I visit my mother most Tuesdays and Thursdays then go to Planet Fitness for a 30-minute walk on a treadmill. It is surprising how much stamina is lost in six months of staying home. It feels like starting from the beginning again. Thirty minutes and a 3.0 speed makes me sweat. So, sweat I do. Hopefully the speed will begin to move up as time goes on. Additionally, I am doing a mini cross-fit workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. There is a pet park two blocks from home. It has a circular track which I walk around one time then do 5 jumping jacks. Then walk again followed by 5 squats. This routine continues through pushups and squat jumps. It adds 3,000 steps to my day. The plan is to add one repetition each day. Yesterday 6 repetitions of each cal