about walking..

   It has been wonderfully warm and the ground is mostly open with some small hummocks of ice in patches.   A couple of friends were telling me about their new treadmills and elliptical machines that they have.  One friend works out on her elliptical for an hour every evening and is pleased because she has lost 17lb since October.  My neighbour was worried about his risk of having a heart attack when he will have to drag calves around at calving time this Spring.  After walking 5 km every day on his bowflex treadmill he said his exercising heartrate rarely goes over 125 now, apparently at first it was up to 135 beats per minute.  I believe that exercise of any kind is good for the mind and body but I think walking outside every day is good for the spirit as well!
  I love walking outside and this has been a great winter for it.  It does help to have company though.  Whenever I suggest a walk to the dogs they jump around so eagerly, wagging their tails and then their whole bodies until they are wriggling with pure joy.  Even if I am feeling ambivalent about a walk and especially when I don't feel like going that day, just  knowing they are waiting outside and expecting me is the motivation I need.
   It also helps to have a wonderful place to walk in which I think I do: No traffic and exhaust, no hard pavement or other people in sight.  Just creeping juniper and native grass poking up through the sandy soil and an open view in every direction... I like to walk a different way every day, I don't have a plan in mind, just start walking and go wherever my fancy takes me.  If it is really windy I try to walk into the wind on the way out, learned this the hard way in really cold weather, I walked too far away from the wind and had a terrible time keeping my face from freezing on the way back.
One thing I really like out here is there are very few worries about large predators.  Where we lived in B.C. it would have been smart to pack a rifle at certain times of the year as bear and cougars were common.
 I usually try to cover an outer circle all around our home place every week, I think it may help to keep the coyotes and foxes away from discovering our free ranging poultry as the dogs mark their territory all around as we walk.
  Today we saw several mule deer, I haven't been seeing many deer lately. The sun is out and there was lots of frost on the grass, it was down to -10 last night.
   I seperated the silkies into their own pen under the nest boxes so their eggs will be pure for setting.  I am getting kind of anxious to start hatching but the plan is to wait until March 1 to get the incubators out.

  I have been looking through a couple seed catalogs, found a couple that sell only open pollinated, heirloom varieties so I can save the seed.  I  planted some last year and it was fun to share the seeds with other people like this really meaty pumpkin, a very old variety from France.