Project Updates

     Projectwise, the weekend was pretty good to me. Jeri Dawn got up early and left to help a friend with a garage sale. By 9:00am, the girls were too awake for me to stay in bed. After breakfast, I decided that I would try to finish cleaning and organizing the garage. The girls were good and I got a lot done by 11:00am. Just as we were leaving to go get free raspberry and strawberry plants, Jeri Dawn got home. So we all went to Wellsville to help an older couple thin out their raspberries and strawberries. They had placed an ad in the paper that Jeri Dawn told me about - I was one of the first to call, and after 20 people they had to start telling people that they were all out. We ended up with well over 30 raspberry plants and at least 25 strawberry plants!
     We had a little lunch and I went back to the garage. Jeri Dawn planted most of the strawberry plants, then I did the raspberry plants and the rest of strawberry plants. The garage is almost done! I can access almost everything easily, I have room to work on projects, and I still have shelf space available!
     After all the work, it was 6:30pm, so I lit the briquettes and made some burgers! Steven came for the BBQ and brought a delicious watermelon. We discussed the upcoming solar projects and set some deadlines to get things done. I've decided that I'm not going to listen to Christmas music until my Solar Air Heaters are installed - quite a sacrifice but hopefully a good motivator. I also found at least 2 alternatives to purchasing the polycarbonate sheets online - both of which are cheaper and cheaper delivery! I previously planned to spend around $350 to get 3 sheets, then $215, and now there's a possibility that it will cost just over $100! This news came while working on a scout fundraiser at Anderson Seed and Garden "fluffing" Christmas trees. Their green house is made out of the material I want to use and Mark Anderson (the owner) thinks he can get it for $18 less per sheet and minimal shipping costs. I'll find out more soon.
     Unfortunately, in all the fun on Saturday, I missed my long training run for the marathon. So this morning I put in 14.1 miles before work. My average mile time was around 7:28 - a little slower than I had hoped. I did run a route that included the last 7.2 miles of the TOU Marathon - that took 53:48. I guess if I'm going to qualify for the Boston marathon, I'll need to be at the 19 mile mark before 2:17:12 to complete it by 3:10:59.
     My swim training didn't go as planned on Thursday. Apparently the outdoor pool is closed so some swim team was using 3 lanes and an aquatic aerobic class also started the same day. I spent the first 40 minutes at going back and forth less than 1/2 the length of the pool. I did get my goggles adjusted pretty well - it's more enjoyable to swim without water in my eyes! After the swim team was done, I did 13 laps (2x25 yards) in about 40 minutes. I didn't use a kick-board at all, but did stick with the pull boy. In 2/3 of the time, I did 3/4 of the laps compared to the previous week. I suppose that is an improvement!