Rockfest

What is your first thought-- old washed up hair bands, AC/DC,  Aerosmith, Iron Maiden????  No,  Rockfest is latest project on the old Fly Farm.    I have been accumulating large stones  since we moved in last December and last week we started to make a water crossing in our stream and also buiding a wall to reduce erosion into our yard.  This is incredibly good excercise for the hips and legs.  Although my back and hands are sore, it is pretty good exercise for strength building. We built the crossing to get our mower to the meadow which we mow and have a garden of pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes.  The first really hard rain we let us know how well we did, this stream can raise 8 feet in level quite quickly.   But today, it looks pretty good as the water tumbles over the rocks.

We had a chance to do some research at the local library on our house.  It was built in 1880 by the Gray Family and later purchased from them by the Jones family.   The Fly family was the third owners but must have been more connected in the community.  He was judge and she was a teacher.  They eventually moved to Florida because the winters were too harsh!!  They heated with coal, hard to believe they could not keep the place warm. 

I was in Tulsa this week and I did get back on time--thank you Southwest Airlines.  I ran two days on a very nice high school track in Catoosa.  The first session, I ran two 300 meters at 54 seconds to get some good work with pacing and did some 100 m on the grass football field.   They also have bleachers that have great steps to run, 60 steps to the top.  I work on hitting each one and making quick controlled foot movements.   The second session was in the evening and it was already dark.  The weather was cool and dry.    I has rained a lot in OK this session and the rivers are full and the fields are green.  In contrast, last season it was brown stubble and sand bars. Getting to the track while it is dry has been at a premium due to the rain.  I ran a mile--which is a feat for sprinters, 800 m, 300m, 200 m in that order.  I was around 8 minutes for the mile, under 4 minutes for the 800 and I ran a pace for the the others.  It was great work out and something I will repeat.  It was great on the heart and still left the legs with some juice.

Linda and I went to the joint surgeon this week and she has scheduled a new knee in late October.   Once she gets out of the hospital, my role will be the basic caregiver as she recovers.  The knee is pretty bad and the pain it inflicts is not improving, I think she will be really happy with her leg tune up.   I am planning on taking off 6 weeks from work using the FMLA.    Hopefully she comes through the procedure without any issues and recovery is quick and complete.    In the mean time, she will be working on leg strength to speed the recovery.  Now that she does not have to worry about using up the old knee, she can do some more aggressive workouts to build leg strength.