Feeling a little hemmed in by the corn.

Usually the thing you feel most at the farm is open expanse, and a pretty rural view of the surrounding area. Now that the corn is up over seven feet tall the farm feels closed in, and claustrophobic, if you can believe that! Still has a tonne of open sky, but across the ground the view is limited to a giant wall of green with golden yellow tassels. The soya bean fields are green and only eighteen inches or so tall so you can see a good long way with those growing. No problem there.

Oddly enough even with all this heat and smoke the mosquitoes are still terrible at the farm. However, I was not bothered by them at all when we spent four plus hours harvesting the garlic last weekend. They were nowhere to be found then. A blessing really, because it was a hard enough task without being eaten alive by ten thousand buzzing winged bastards.

I was up early to walk the dog, and running a few loads of laundry through the wash to start our week off right. Mine should be done by now, so I can go sort it after I grab some breakfast. I should also make sure to take a vitamin while I’m in the kitchen. I’d love to report some downsizing on the weight front, but I don’t feel like looking, in case it has gone up, or worse, gone down but not by enough to be a cause for positive reinforcement. Negligible decrease is just as bad as further gains or no movement at all. I do not know why I feel this way but I do. I was successful at not snacking last night, which is the bigger win I think. That will be a nightly battle that I do not expect to win 100% of the time. Honestly if I win 60% of the time or more that would be a bigger improvement than the added walking. Come September we go back to climbing twice a week, and if work is slow I will be able to go back to wood splitting by axe for 90 minutes each morning when it isn’t raining too heavily. That does wonders for the shoulders and grip strength training.

We went bouldering on Saturday afternoon, which was a lot of fun. Change of shoes and some chalk and off you go. It’s harder and more technical than the auto belay I prefer, but a switch up sometimes is a good thing. Plus it made our stop at the gym shorter because we got tired so much faster. I would like to spend a little time with free weights, but I don’t want yet another membership or subscription to hit my account each month.

Come September I would also like to spend a few hours working on some furniture projects in the woodshop. Collapse the massive dog crate, and open up the front hall a little more. We don’t crate the dog at all, and as the kids grow up space is at a premium in our teeny tiny house. We also need some organizers and other helpful doodads around here that I can make over a few days time.

I need to get moving on some Markham Fair entries too, if I want to have something brand new to take in to show off this year. Lots to do. Have a solid Monday. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!