Cider Bend: January

 January has been weird on the farm. It's been such a strange winter, that has felt more like spring. We've only got a couple dustings of snow, and only a handful of days in the single digits or negative 'feels like' temps. I've been a big fan, but I know we need the snow, especially in the mountains.

We completed a fun wheelbarrow restoration project! Mark's Dad bought this wheelbarrow new in 1970 for his firewood business. It was purchased before Mark was even born. He remembers getting rides in it as a kid. It served his dad well through a lot of years of his firewood business in Lakeside. Grammy and Papa brought it to Idaho with them when they moved here many years ago. When they sold their Idaho house and moved to Arizona full time, they passed the wheelbarrow on to us. We have used the heck out of it on the farm. The tire went flat and needed to be replaced. We noticed how old and worn the wheelbarrow was getting and wondered if we should just take it to the dump and get a new one. We decided that even though it's 56 years old, they just don't make them like they used to, so a restoration project was in order. We breathed some new life into the old thing, and it looks amazing! We hope to get another 50 years of use out of it now.

We've also been working hard on our compost piles. We have a 3 stage rotation process going. I collect the poop and old bedding from the corrals twice a day and dump it in the poop pile. Once the poop pile gets too full, Mark uses the tractor to bring it to the big compost pile that is breaking down. He uses the tractor to turn it often, and it's fun to see how hot it gets. Once it's all done breaking down, it gets moved to the 'ready to use' pile, and it awaits spring to be used on the garden and fruit trees. It's actually such a cool process.

Since it hasn't been very cold this winter, we haven't had many trumpeter swans hanging around our property. It's been nice when we do have a flock fly by. I miss them being in the snowy fields all winter.

I swore I would never own a pair of crocks. I think they are so ugly. 😅 I started seeing on social media how all the farmers wear them to work on their farms, so I decided to see what the fuss was all about. I'm now a huge fan, and I hardly wear anything else on the farm, including in winter. I officially wore out my first pair, and bought a second pair. Bailey thinks it's so funny that I wear them, so she got me some fun chicken bling for them. 😂 Now they are even uglier, and I couldn't love them more.

Perfect!

It's starting to get light earlier, but I've still been able to catch some good sunrises when I go out to do chores in the mornings.

We've known the Temples since their kids were babies. Kassie called me and asked if Landon could bring his girlfriend to the farm to see the animals. First off, Landon shouldn't have a girlfriend, because isn't he three? Okay, maybe he's a senior, but still! Brynlee was darling, and all the animals loved her!

Holding Tillie

Freda stole the show. She loved Landon, and his arm was the one she wanted to perch on whether he wanted her to or not. 😂

Ace was the usual attention hog. 😆

Donkeys:

2026 started out a little rough. There is so much crap going on in the world, plus I'm injured, so that doesn't help my mood. So this is where I find my peace, and my laughter.

I have a goal in 2026 to get the goats moving more. That means lots more walks for them. I was taking the goats a lot in January, and not the donkeys. Willow got very jealous and had plenty to say about it. She's definitely not afraid to share her opinion. 😅

Willow is the prettiest girl! 😍

I love how fuzzy they get in the winter!

Cute little fuzzy Clover!

Willow still helps me add new bedding to their stall. She takes her job very seriously!

Cows:

Bailey wanted to get the cows running, so she ran around the outside of the pasture with them. It didn't take much to get them all riled up. Nora's giggles in this video are the cutest.

Ace is the biggest, smelliest, attention hog around! 😆

My favorite thing is to watch the cows run in for dinner. They are the cutest! I see some funny jumps and bucks of excitement, but it's hit or miss if I happen to be filming. I've missed capturing some good ones. Here's a few I got this month. 

Goats:

We're working on the goat's figures, so they have been going on lots of walks. Come along on some walks with us.

Chickens:

We got our first sponsor! Roostys contacted us and said they would send us free product if we'd make a reel with it. Sure thing, because our chickens love the Roostys Nesting Herbs. I made a reel and it did pretty good. I can't post it on my blog because I used a voiceover, so I can't download the audio.

We got another sponsor too, but I still need to make that reel, so stay tuned.

Cats:

Stormy likes to sit on the tractor right after Mark uses it because it's nice and warm.

Cute little Stormy!

Just Mark and his bff sitting at the bar. 😂

Floof makes himself comfy in whatever room I happen to be in.

We got the cats a new feeder. This one automatically weighs out the food and distributes it as often as we want. Michem was getting huge, so we thought this might help. We are going through a lot less cat food, and in the first month Michem lost 1.2 pounds. Yay, it's working! She has about another pound to go, but she's looking so much better.

Cutest little besties!

I spy a Floof!

That's about it for January. I'm curious to see what the weather does in February.

Mark's Birthday

Mark celebrated his 52nd birthday at Disneyland! I can't think of a better place to be than at the 'happiest place on earth' with your grandkids. Bailey decorated our hotel room, Nora sang happy birthday to him, and he even got to where a 'birthday boy' button around Disneyland. 😂

When we got back home, we met Sawyer and Amanda at Fujis for a birthday dinner. Then on Sunday Amanda surprised him with a very yummy cake. It was chocolate cake with lemon icing and a lemon curd in the middle. So good!

Fujis!

 

😋😋😋

I was going to wait and post when his birthday present came, but it will take 3 weeks, so I'll just do another post when it comes. He got a functional trainer for our home gym. It's a cable machine that he can use for upper and lower body, and pull ups. He's wanted that addition to our gym for a long time. Now we just need to get a stair mill, and we will be all set. We really do have an awesome gym that we both love. Now it will be even better!

Happy birthday Mark! I feel like it's gonna be a great year for us!

January Adventures

 Bonehead:

We kicked off the new year with our annual trek up Sunnyside. I was still healing from the cow kick, so I just walked. I still got 5 miles, but it's definitely not how I planned to start the year and my training cycle. Walking with friends was better than nothing.

The Butte:

We planned a group run at the Butte. We had a great turn out of about 15 people. It was my first run in two weeks. It wasn't fast, but I'll take it. I was pleasantly surprised at how good my leg felt. Hopefully this is the start of some good training.

Terrible picture, but great company!

We climbed up in the dark with a full moon.

Once we got to the top, we had a beautiful sunset going along the top of the Butte.

Hamer:

Joyce and I meet every Wednesday for our midweek mileage. We go to random places to claim territory for the INTRVL app. IFTR is top 10 in the world right now, so we are working hard to get to number 9. This week we ran a very cold 10 miler out in Hamer. Nothing but farm land.

Do we look cold, because we were!

I wasn't kidding when I said nothing but farm land.

Bigelow's X2 & Little Kellys:

We have some big stuff coming up, so we're trying to get in all the winter elevation that we can. Ashlee and I climbed Bigelow's twice and then ran down Little Kelly's.

We had an awesome sunset!

Ashlee-Tricia

Palisades:

Bailey and Mason were coming into town for Jonnae's baby shower, so we couldn't do the Saturday group run up Palisades, so Mark and I did it on Friday instead. It was so beautiful, but that much snow makes for some hard miles. We made it a quarter mile from the lake and had to stop for a moose traffic jam. We only went 8 miles, but this one pooped us out!

The first two miles were a perfect amount of snow, but then it got deep after that.

We love seeing moose on this trail, but this mama and baby were not about to get off the trail for us. We watched them for a while and then just turned around and headed back.

I made a reel of our adventure.

Little Kelly's & The Goats:

Tonya and I set out to run Little Kelly's and Biting Goat one evening. Little Kelly's was good, packed, runnable snow, but once we turned off onto Biting Goat, it got interesting. No one had been on it, and it was a lot more snow than we anticipated. We post-holed for a mile, and then went off trail to the dirt road and could run in the tire tracks. It wasn't the run we were hoping for, but we had a gorgeous sunset up on the ridge, and still managed 7 miles.

Little Kellys

The sunset on Biting Goat.

Mud Lake:

Joyce and I claimed 12 miles of territory around a very frozen Mud Lake.

Ashton:

Joyce and I moved on to Ashton for territory. She maps out routes, and I meet her up there to claim those sections. We had a very foggy and cold 10 miler.

Bigelow's X2 & Little Kelly's:

Joyce, Tonya, Mark, and I did Bigelow's twice and came down a very icy Little Kelly's. I wanted to push myself on the climbs, so I went hard and then circled back for everyone once I got to the top the second time. It felt good to push my body, since I haven't been able to for so long.

Very foggy!

Joyce-Tonya-Tricia-Mark

Sunnyside-Eagle Pass-Kepps:

This was my longest and favorite run of the year so far. I've been a little stressed about where my running is at because since November it's been one thing after another keeping me from training hard. First I got sick, and it took me 3 weeks to get over it. Then I pulled a muscle in my back from coughing so hard, and then I got kicked by Ace. Ugh! This was a 17 mile group run up Sunnyside, down Eagle Pass and Kepps, and climbing back up the back side of Sunnyside to finish it off. It was a lot of hills! I started with the speedy ladies, but my plan was to circle back every mile and collect anyone behind me, so we would all stay within a half mile of each other. I did this the whole way up Sunnyside, and ran the entire 6 miles of uphill. I felt so good! Then I continued on and did that the rest of the way. I got in two bonus miles from doing it that way. I never stopped to walk, and I kept a nice steady pace. I was very surprised with how well my body did. It was a good confidence run for me.

Everything was so frosty and pretty!

We had cool fog hanging on the back side of Sunnyside.

It was cold! I was very frosty at the end.

That's where the fun ended, and now I'm sick again! I seriously want to scream! I just can't catch a break!

Speed Pyramid: Freeman Park

I tried a speed pyramid at Freeman Park with Ashlee and Ashley and it was a mess. I coughed my guts up.

Ashton:

There is no way I could keep taking time off with the big stuff I've got coming up, so I'm trying to run through the cold I have, which is not the best idea. Joyce and I did a freezing cold run in Ashton to grab another 8.5 mile section. The Tetons looked pretty on an overcast day.

Women's Runs:

I had quit going to the Women's Runs for a while, and I started back up again at the first of the year. It's good to be back.

Water Tower Farewell Run:

The city's old water tower is being torn down in January, so we did a farewell to the water tower run.

This picture shows the old and new tower.

Strava T-Rex:

I met Steph at her work and we ran to the start of the women's run. It was the annual strava T-Rex. By the time we ran back to our cars, Steph and I had 10 miles!

We had a nice sunset on the way there.

The T-Rex crew.

Sunnyside Canal:

The last Women's Run of January was a nice 6 miler on the Sunnyside Canal.

Antelope Island:

Our last run of the month was our annual trek down to Utah to run Antelope Island. We did 20 miles around the island with perfect temperatures. This one was a rough one for me. I had a constant death rattle in my chest and coughed so much. I felt like I did good and kept my spirits up pretty good under the circumstances. It was a huge mileage jump for Mark. He increased by 7 miles, so he was definitely feeling it by the end. It's always a good time when we run down there.

Our car load stopped for a picture by the sign.

Jenn-Mark-Tricia-Steph-Joyce

Cris, Mike, and Tonya came down too. Such a fun group!

It was a very smoggy day.

Elephant Rock

It's been fun running with Mark again.

Passed some bison at the end, and one of them had some bird hitchhikers on it's back.

My death rattle got worse on Saturday night, and it was starting to sound scary. Since I have a really low white blood cell count, I decided to go see a doctor on Sunday. He listened to my chest and ordered chest x-rays to make sure I didn't have any fluid in my lungs. Luckily no fluid, just a lot of gunk and inflammation in my lungs, throat, and head. He said it would probably take a couple weeks to get it all cleared out of there, but said he was gonna hit it with everything he has. He put me on an antibiotic, a steroid, a cough suppressant, and a whole slew of over the counter medications. For a person who doesn't like taking medication, I'm pretty drugged up! I was desperate though, so hopefully it will start clearing up quickly.