Category Archives: sisters

Becoming an Outdoors Woman Part 1

Part 1 of 3 so you don’t have to spend 3 hours reading my post! I had a great weekend becoming an outdoors woman!  A nice 3 day weekend, too 😀

There are different BOW programs in other states and Canada, most sponsored by the DEC.  Classes range from archery, shotgun, kayaking/canoeing, campfire cooking, map & compass, hiking,  biking, fishing, and lots more! I would highly recommend trying a weekend!

There were women of all shapes and sizes – and ages!  The oldest woman there was 90 years old, and there was an 83 woman who did the air rifle class (who was affectionately called ‘grandma’).  She rocked! There were approximate 118 women at this workshop.

We stayed at Silver Bay way up north on Lake George – a YMCA facility.  It was beautiful!  This was the inn, which I was not staying in.

Front porch of the Inn:

What a nice way to destress and unwind:

This was my building:

Accommodations much better than my last outdoor adventure!  I was totally expecting to be roughing it.

It pretty much rained all morning, but it really did not rain much in the afternoon, which was lucky!  We had a nice lunch. It was buffet style with salads, soups, and sandwich fixin’s.  I decided on egg salad, a salad-salad and some baked potato soup.  Tres delicious.  Oh, and a pear in the background.

Then it was time for my first class.

We spent time learning about how to prepare for a hike, what to bring and the types of equipment available for various hikes.  Then we did a short hike on one of the trails.  My class had about a dozen women in it.

It was very well marked.  There were white diamonds on the trees to mark this specific trail, plus a really nice branch pathway, which you can see at our feet.

Poison ivy anyone?

Even on well used trails, you have to be really careful.

We ended up near the lake and saw the kayak class:

I want to do that one next time!

Even though we are close to July, it is still really, really green around here.  All the soaking rains recently helped with that.

We did around a 2 mile hike.  It was nice.  Very easy terrain.

Then it was dinner time!

And dessert:

They fed us well this weekend.

And I went out for more pictures of the grounds:

The ubiquitous Adirondack chair!

I had to use the zoom lens – this kitty wanted no part of me :mrgreen:

Ladies Mantle:

You all expected flower pictures, right? 😉

Allium with some asian lilies in front.

Then I listened to a talk on invasive plant and animal species.  That was really interesting, and I should mention more about it some time and how we can all help prevent the spread.  I found out I have one in my garden!  The burning bush – oh no!

Then my sister got there!

44 and 43, respectively.  LOL!  I think I am the bigger goober.  We had a least 5 times where people asked us if we were sisters.  I was saying to Colleen that almost never happened before I lost all my weight. Now it happens all the time.

Next post tomorrow will be Wild Infusions and helping my sister set up her deer hunting class (she taught).

St. Patty’s and Doggy Diplomas!

Slainte!!  I love St. Patty’s Day!  We have an Irish family, and I have that wonderful pasty, freckled skin 😀

It’s lifting day, and I needed to work off the nice dark chocolate binge I had last night.  It’s not the chocolate stash of mine, but the stupid dark chocolate chips that John snacks on.  They were up high, and I was up there getting some chocolate down for my mom and of course, I snagged some from the bag, and then snagged some more.  I think it is the tinyness of them that makes them so snackable.

It was about 35 degrees when I got up, so I decided to bike to the gym.  I was okay until about 1/2 mile in, when I realized it was pretty darn cold LOL!  I had on double gloves, too.  It’s only 1.7 miles away, so I toughed it out.

Had a nice tiring session today:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1
  • Barbell squats:  10 at 45#, 10 at 75#, 8 at 95#, 6 at 105#, and 4 at 115# (YES!!)
  • Seated rows: 3 sets of 10 at 60#
  • Barbell chest press:  10 at 45#, 8 at 55#, 6 at 65#, 4 at 75#  (YES!!)
  • Good mornings:  3 sets of 10 with 45# bar
  • Supine Row:  3 sets of 6 with body weight (These are really hard)
  • Decline sit ups:  3 sets of 10.
  • Front raise:  3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs
  • Hammer curl: 3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs
  • Bench dips:  3 sets of 10 with body weight.

Then I walked on the treadmill until John met me at the gym for breakfast! We elected to stay close to home, as it is a busy day for me, and biking to bagels would take a long time with Ridge St closed.  So, we went to Cafe on the Park!

This place does it old school.  My breakfast was 2 eggs with toast and home fries, plus coffee – all for $2.99!  Can you beat that?


Nom!

Then we biked home.  It was warmer, but still a little brisk.  Sunny, though.  Makes me want to play hooky :mrgreen:  But alas, bills must be paid.

Since it is St Patty’s day, I decided to have Irish Steel Cut Oats for lunch – pumpkin style!  These are the quick cook steel cut oats.

Working all day trying to get as much done as I can.  Pixie visited and this was the best I could do dressing her up in green:

Can you believe I can still get the laptop on my lap with her there?  She makes it hard, though 😀

Afternoon snack: 

I just set it on my thighs to preview how it will look after the chocolate ends up there anyway :mrgreen:

Quick dinner before dog training tonight!  Chicken on a bagel thin.  I don’t even want to use the word bagel with these.  They are just sandwich thins with a hole in the middle.  Lame….

Final dog training class tonight. Storm being very good here:

Storm and Georgia with my sister and I:

Tonight is graduation night for the doggies!  They all did a good job.  I made homemade biscuits for them last night, too.

John came with tonight to see the graduation.  It was a family affair as my parents were there with their dog, my sister and my niece!    John and I headed out to Starbies for a cuppa after class and had a special cookie from my mom (came from QVC).

Skim latte and cookie.  They cancel each other out, right?  Think I need a detox tomorrow or something.  Phew….  I at least need to refocus.

Catch you all on Thursday!

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/HipFlexors/WtDeclineSitup.html

Locks of Love and Lattes!

Happy Saturday!  Thanks for all the guest post offers!  If you want to get them to me by Friday – that would be great.  I might actually save some and run them after we get back 🙂

Got some good sleep last night – yay!  Gym doesn’t open til 8, so I could lounge around in bed for a bit, which was nice.  Then I got up and ate a balance bar before heading out to run!  I couldn’t resist wearing my new Sauconys! :mrgreen:  They are comfie.  I hit the treadmill for 6 miles again today.  Had an interesting comment from a woman who was walk/jogging next to me for a while.  I was in the locker room and she came in and said “I don’t know how you can run for so long without your knees bothering you.”

I don’t know why my knees are fine running.  I have chondromalacia, and my knees sound like rice krispies – but they never hurt.  Maybe because I don’t run all that fast.  Maybe it’s the biking or the strength training.  I talked with my sister about it, and she had read that if you start running later in life, you have less knee problems than those that run starting from a young age.   Interesting.

Came home to protein waffles!

I had to consciously slow down eating these, because I wanted to wolf them down.

My sister,Colleen, has been growing her hair for a long time.  She decided to get it cut and donate the hair.  She asked her girls if she should donate to women or children, and they voted for the children who had cancer.  That means Locks of Love.  They basically provide wigs to children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy treatments.  When donating hair, it must be 10 inches or longer.  Colleen called around to a few salons to make sure they knew how to properly cut the hair for the program and made an appointment for today and asked me to come take pictures!  Here she is with the long hair:

Now her hair is measured with the rubber bands.

This stylist made it so he could cut the required length, but leave some length to work a cut with – rather than just putting the hair in a ponytail and hacking it off.

Snip, snip

Colleen and her finished ‘do!  Sophisticated and shexsy!

Of course, sisters have to have coffee!  We headed out to Fortunate Cup and had a couple of lattes.  This is a picture of her latte, as it was prettier than mine.

Plus a scone.  Yum.

We are the twinsies now!

I think she secretly wants to be me anyway….. :mrgreen: