Senior Olympian Sprinter

The state meet is fast approaching and I am working on getting my body ready for a two day meet.  This week I ran two days in a row at a very nice high school track in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  The football field is brand new sports turf and the track is a very nice synthetic that is open to the public.    On day one, I worked on the first speed work of the season, I did several 50 meters sprints at 95% with spikes and spikeless running shoes.  After the 8th one, the right hammie was starting to whine and that was that.  The next day, I ran on the field at 80% to make sure the hammie got some work but was not too mad.    I worked hard on stretching keep the legs as loose as possible.   For the first part of the workout I did run barefoot which is always  a thrill.   The new turf was a little too prickly and I had to get the shoes back on.  Day three I rested and traveled home and will work out today, which will be day four.  I am going to run on the track at Ravenwood and get in some

                                  This weekend,  I did the final connections for the new irrigation system that will supply creek water to the gardens and yard this summer.   As the picture demonstrates, it is a long way up the hill to the house, and the digging was an adventure due to rock and limestone shelves that hinder any efficient trenching.   But, it is all done except for the backfilling.   My old trailer that I used to move dirt and debris around, has finally died and when my new trailer gets to the dealer, I can pick it up and finish the job.  I am using some old roadway dirt/stone to backfill and using the nice silt from the trench that is displaced to improve some yard up in front of the house.     I am getting closer and closer to be a snobby yard person.  A lot of trees and unwanted yard stuff has been removed and we finally can have a nice yard space.  I now have a very low cost water supply and can irrigate to my heart's content get some nice green grass.    

      You think you would get to a point in your life that you have done and seen basically everything that you are interested.  Well, I can testify that something new and crazier is around each corner.   I am currently working on a project where I am burying a water line from the stream to our house so we can pump water during the dry season and water the flowers and vegetables without buying stock in the Brentwood water plant. Water is 1.5 cents per gallon by my calculations.   Part of this project is removing an old driveway that ran through the yard (it is mostly limestone) and using this material to back fill the water line ditch.   I then use the material removed for the ditch to replace the road material and make for a much better yard.  I call this process "soil exchange".   During this process I looked up and there was  the world's tallest groundhog or "the beaver"!  Damn, the beaver is back!!  Last season, "a beaver"  managed to eat