Duck-Farm

I guess fatherhood got so good that I didn’t have time for writing in a blog during the last 18 months! This is certainly unfortunate, because I probably failed to record some great experiences.

Here are just a couple of experiences from the Spring of 2008 that I didn’t write about:

Colin shot a bullseye on the archery range at cub scout camp.

I don't know why I wore my uniform home. I must have been running late and wanted to come straight home without taking the time to change. When the kids saw me, you would have thought they never saw the uniform before. So we all took a picture together. They were wearing boxers because they were getting ready for bed.

Colin and his buddy William riding bikes in the Sly Park campground

It was little league night at the River Cats.... about 105 degrees and we were all dying!

We were studying "botany" and we called this meal the feast of the angiosperms because everything we ate came from an angiosperm.

I fell off the blog a couple weeks ago when I had to go out of town for some training. When I got back, I was so far behind that I thought I would never catch up. Now that I have caught up, it is about time for me to go out of town again! In case I fall off the blog again, here is something to look at while I am gone… a picture of Upper Blue Lake, where Colin caught his first fish in September.

These ducks are two weeks old.

They think we are building a fort.

Since 2005, when we got our travel trailer and started going camping more often, we haven’t hatched any ducklings. Babies require constant attention. Baby ducklings require only a little bit less. But this past spring, something killed off almost all of the adult ducks in our flock. At one point we were down to three males and one female, all Buff Orpington breed.

The Buff Orpingtons are a really tame breed of duck, probably a little too tame for our area, which has a relatively high concentration of predators. So we are going back to the breed we started with several years ago; Indian Runners. They are much more flighty, so they will hold up better against hungry predators.

I finally started writing my Way Too Cool race report. It’s gonna be long. Hopefully, it will be enjoyable reading though…. I’ll probably have it finished in a couple days.

I haven’t been able to get any posts up lately… I like to use Windows Live Writer to compose and post. I have a couple things composed and ready for posting in my live writer program, but they can’t seem to successfully publish to the blog.

I bet that somewhere in the chain, there has been a recent upgrade to something that has effectively locked out my live writer posts. I tried several things but nothing seems to help. So I will have to manually enter my posts until I get it figured out. Stay tuned.

Today was my day. The local running club sponsored a half marathon in which I was a participant. In the overall standings I finished third (from last). And, I have a fight for it over the last 20 yards. On a brighter note, I had run 21km and some change exactly 14 days before and had a time of 2:39, today I completed at 2:22:28. While not earth shattering, it does make a person record. Not every pachyderm is quite so quick.

While not trying to take away from Chris’ most recent and incredible accomplishment I would like to describe this little event. It was held at the sports club at the next village over. To the “way-to-cool’ Chris, this would be the equivalent of the Rescue Half Marathon. I think there were like 100 participants in the half marathon. It was very different from the MCM. Numbers were issued from 0900 until 1025 with the starters pistol at 1040. AT 1030 I went outside. It was cold and threatening rain. By 1040 the threat had abated and there was a nice drizzle. In no hurry what so ever I found myself at the back of the pack. I had decided earlier to wear running tights (stretchy pants) and my old RED jacket that my wife has taken to calling Pinky. I am glad I had pinky, my other jacket was way to warm. In fact if this jacket did not have a significant emotional attachment to me I would have probably would have ditched it. That would have been a big mistake as it was only thing providing me with warmth as we turned into the wind over the last 2 km. Oh yes, thank you Chris, the tip on the gloves worked out wonderful. The drizzle was constant. While not making me think specifically of the Marines per se, it did make me think of many PFTs in a driving snowstorm. By the end, I was soaked through. There was nothing dry on my body. The last two KM were over open farm lands with a driving wind in our face. Did I mention the rain too? Almost the entirety of the rest of the run was through the woods. Pleasing in a way; but with limited crowd support.

When I passed the 11km marker I turned off the Ipod and did some quick math. I can normally run a consistent 7 min KM, slow but effective. My time at 11 KM was 1:08; Nearly a full KM faster than normal. I was running too fast. Where was my pace man Leroy! So, I struggled at slowing down until the last 5 KM where I struggled to keep up. The finish was fun. One of the ladies that at the back with me slowed down inexplicably at the 100m mark. I had been walking a lot do I was rested. I just kept rinning at that point. No sense in slowing down when the barn is in sight. At the end I heard her friends cheering and heard her coming up from behind. In a fit of competitiveness I picked up the pace and finished about 1 foot in front of her. Not very chivalrous, I know.

We had a bit of problem with logistics too. I told my wife that I would shoot for 2:30. So, after waving me off, her and the kids took off to do wife things. They came back 2:20 later. I saw the car pulling in as I battled for my third to last finishing position. Since we had no plan for meeting we walked around the building several times afterwards looking for each other. I was also a little miffed at the aid stations. They had no water! Just warm sweet tea that gave me a stomach ach. Even at the finish they had no water, just more nasty tea or bubbly water that you buy. I did not want to make a Jacuzzi, I was parched. Next time I will carry a bottle of water in my ‘kit bag’ just in case and create a proper extraction plan. Thank god that I had my own water bottle during the race.

Driving rain and all, it was a great day to be alive. Nothing like a little liquid sunshine!

–
Buford
AKA “The Pachyderm”

By now, many of you may have heard the rumor that I came from behind and won the Way Too Cool 50K in dramatic fashion with a 7 minute per mile pace over the entire 31 mile course, winning an automatic entry into this year’s Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run in June.

Those of you who have only known me for a little while probably dismissed it because you think I am way to slow to ever pull it off. And those who have known me for a long time may have raised an eyebrow because you know there was once a day when I could probably run a hilly mountain course faster than a lot of people, but then you remembered that I am not above starting an audacious rumor about myself in order to increase my popularity. So you dismissed it as well.

With many rumors, you often find upon further investigation that there is an interesting bit of information even in the midst of all the falsehood. So it is in this case.

You see, the winner of the Way Too Cool 50K has the same last name as me and his number was only one digit from mine. So that is probably how the rumor got started…. you can all relax now. I won’t be running the Western States 100 in June.

Details later this week when I have more time.

A cheery greeting to you all from the far side of the planet. Contrary to rumors I was neither abducted by aliens nor have I fallen off the edge the earth. Before I was able to squeeze a few ramblings here and there while at work. I can do this no more. Turnover has nearly doubled my daily workload. I am longer able to work smart in place of working hard. Nor am I able to simply work hard to accomplish everything. At current I am prioritizing each task and moving through queue as time allows. Often I am at work more than 9 hours a day and have done absolutely nothing but the bare minimum and still have mountain of queued problems to look forward to the next day.

After the Marine Corps Marathon I ran once to loosen my legs and then ran once more a week later. Then, I proceeded to exercise only my mind by thinking about running. Naturally, over the course of the holidays I looked a few beers and my weight began to blossom. So, in early January I began my walking again in a silly attempt to get things under control again. This helped to some degree. Soon, I was starting to think about riding my dirt bike again this spring. Just about this time my wife suddenly found a local half marathon for me to run. At that time it was in 9 weeks. I did the math and figure I could train enough to make it with a few weeks cushion. It is in 10 days. Unlike tackling a major event like a 50 km hill climb I will be participating in a 21 km gentlemen’s stroll. Oh yeah, a significant portion of this jaunt will be over my normal training area. Since the run starts and finishes 2.5 km from my front door I am debating on driving or walking to the start/stop line. 2.5 km is at least what we meandered on the way to the start of the MCM.

Last Sunday I completed my last big training run of 21 km. Due to family considerations I have taken running in the dark. My night vision is coming back, it is generally cool out and there is little traffic. Last Sunday I started at 9:15pm and finished just before midnight. I made it to bed and sleep a fitful 8 hours. At 2:39 I should be able to handle the run in 10 days with not much problem. Unless I get sick I should be able to zing under 2:30.

To Chris, good luck and god speed. I will be cheering for you from afar.

http://home.arcor.de/tsv1913harreshausen/volkslauf2007.htm

I have been less than enthusiastic to write blog posts lately because I am working on two term papers as well as assignments for the associated classes. When it is over, I think their will only be a few small things to take care of and I will finally have a bachelors degree. Maybe I can get it for my 40th birthday!

Oh yeah, the classes, and trying to train for a 50k now. I had a seriously hard 14 mile run in the Middle Fork Canyon of the American River on the Western States Trail Saturday, followed by a moderately hard 8 mile run from home on Sunday. 

IF I can stay healthy and happy, this week that we are in right now will be my highest mileage week ever… I have never broken 40 miles. The closest I have come is about 38 miles. If I do all my prescribed mileage this week, I will do 40.   

Steve, if you read this, your wife needs a blog! Set her up, man! We shouldn’t have had to wait till Christmas for all that! This is the information age, bro!

CJ on his new bike.

Colin is ready for battle.

Sometimes you just “know”, you know? I just knew I was going to get the Crime Prevention/Environmental Design sergeant’s job, and I was right. That’s what I get for trying to be a rennaisance cop, I guess. Environmental Design Sergeant.

In a hyper macho environment like a police department, there are plenty of really fit, really bold, really brave people. So in order to set myself apart from the crowd, I have tried to maintain a high level of fitness, boldness, and courageousness, while still patiently thinking things through, remaining tactful in difficult situations, and then appropriately applying knowledge to make good decisions.

A couple years ago, I got a Bronze Medal of Valor for fighting a crazy guy with two knives. At the same award ceremony, I got a Distinguished Service Award for converting the the Sacramento Police Department’s volumes of policy manuals, numerous volumes, into a searchable PDF system.

Fighting the guy with knives was something everyone at the ceremony understood. “How come you didn’t just shoot him,” they asked. It would have been easier. Converting the manual system to PDF’s was like magic to those same people. “How did you ever do that,” they asked?

So now I am rewarded with a seriously cushy desk job, a flexible schedule, and a GREAT boss (more on that later). I will be in a position to learn unique things about how the city will grow in the future and what it will take to police it.

I was hoping for the more tactical Criminal Intelligence Position. It would have been less comfortable, more stressful… more like a job that requires you to keep your finger on the trigger. Oh well. I guess I have created my niche as a nerd… Environmental Design Sergeant. I’ll write opinions about how buildings in Sacramento should be designed to deter crime.

I am going to be seriously tempted to write things like this:

“The proposed facade is unacceptable. Evenly spaced Doric columns are recommended to provide multiple positions of cover for intersecting fields of fire. An open trench, at least 10 meters wide and 3 meters deep, around the entire foundation is required to prevent the approach of vehicle borne IEDs.”

My mission is clear.

I used to hate dealing with the leaves every year. But now that we have kids, it is a little more fun than it used to be. This afternoon, I got some plastic garbage bags, cut holes in them for heads and arms, and then CJ and Colin and I proceeded to glue leaves to the bags in order to make camo pullovers. Erin was at WalMart and knew what we were up to. She saw some camo balaclava’s in the sporting department and grabbed a couple. Right now, Erin’s parent’s are camping at the coast. We can’t wait for them to come home because they are going to get seriously ambushed when they come up the driveway!

Noa played in his first soccer tourney last weekend with kids from his kindergarden. the team was called the Wild Dwarfs.

This is Noa in action.

This is Noa’s team. They won first place.

Probably due to all the development in recent years, I am seeing more bucks than ever this year. In fact, one came barrelling into the side of my car about a month ago and did $2000 worth of damage. Thank God for insurance. At the time, I thought that it was the first buck I have ever seen in our area that I thought would be worth the effort required to put it in the freezer. Since then though, I have seen several. I saw a big one yesterday morning and another medium sized one this morning. If you look at this picture, there are two bucks in it. This was taken on our road. I can only think of three reasons for the sudden increase… 1) Development has given them less open area and made them more accustomed to people. 2) A decrease in predators, or 3) An increase in predators in open areas has pushed them in toward people a little more.

I have been working on a customized header but I haven’t had time to learn how to really plug it into the blog CSS. So in case it never sees the top of a page, I figured I would share it:

Well I figured out how to get the author and date at the top of each post but now I can’t figure out why it’s adding the categories! It shouldn’t be doing that!

I need to figure out how to make this blog say who posted the article automatically. If anybody is following it, there are three people who post: Chris (Me), Steve (Buford), and Curtis. Curtis seems to have fallen out the game for a while. He got a new puppy so I guess he is distracted!

Chris

I usually run long on Saturday mornings, and this year with two kids playing soccer, that has caused me to miss a couple soccer games. Actually, it hasn’t all been the fault of running. The kids sometimes have games spread far apart, and Erin has not wanted CJ to go to the field at 8am and start playing soccer with other kids when we get there, when he doesn’t have a game until 1pm! So I have stayed home with CJ while Erin takes Colin. Consequently, I hadn’t seen even one of Colin’s games this year until today. I post-poned the “long run” (it will only be ten miles) until tomorrow and went to both games.

In between games, CJ and I watched an older-kids game while Erin and Colin went to the store and got lunch. It was great. CJ has not switched on this year at all. Last year he was the older side of the age bracket. This year, he is the younger side of the age bracket. And it is really showing. Last year we had to take him out after he got four or five goals in a game. Last year he got a goal on the first kick off of the season. This year, he is intimidated by the older kids. He runs along side the opponents without ever aggressively trying to take the ball. Oh well, he has a blast. And, if nothing else, I can focus on the fact that the older kids aren’t out-running him.

Erin is coaching his team, and all the kids on the team are six year olds playing in the under-8 age bracket. Only one seven year old on the whole team. So they had not won a game until today. I am glad I was there. It was a great game, both team were evenly matched. Cj’s team won 2-1. And a lot of credit goes to their little six year old female goalie. She is going to be the only one from the team to go to All Stars. In the process of watching all that soccer, I got scorched with sunburn…. gotta love California. Absolutely fried on October 14th.

More great news… Sears has bought K-Mart and now all the K-Mart stores are getting loaded up with Craftsman tools! This is excitement when you live in timbuktu! The K-Mart in Placerville is a nice store, much better than the Wall Mart in our opinion, because Wal Mart is filled with dirtbags. There is a Sears outlet, which means, until now, you had to order your Craftsman tools from the Sears catalog and go to the outlet in Placerville to pick up your tools. So a K-Mart full of Craftsman tools is Exciting News.  :-)

Going 10 miles on Cronan Ranch tomorrow at sunrise.

Run long and taper.

Chris

A couple weeks ago I posted about running on Cronan Ranch, and how I thought it might be the most beautiful place in the world. In the course of that post, I said that I thought if Hollywood ever found out about Cronan Ranch, they would be all over it. Too late I guess. Last night I found out from a guy who is on the El Dorado County Trails Commission that Oprah Winfrey is going to use it for a movie set. He didn’t say when, and he didn’t know the name of the movie…. stay tuned. 

Chris

Thanks for keeping the blog going Steve. All my writing energies have been going in to a class I am taking that has about 25 pages of writing due in the next two weeks. It’s a class on Stress. I think it has been very effective at teaching about stress because it is the source of massive amounts!

I fell apart on my long run Saturday but I seem to have recovered better than I did from any of the previous long runs. I usually wait two days and then run six miles on the third day after the long run. Usually, I struggle on the six miles after I go really long. This morning I felt great. It may have helped a little that all of my running partners are now training for the California International Marathon so they all went longer than they have ever run before on this past Saturday, which was 13 miles. But it made me feel like I was running really strong. For once on a Tuesday, I wasn’t struggling to keep up!

Chris

Well, I’ve been rather tired since my big breakthrough 18 miler. I ran six miles on Tuesday and 8 miles yesterday, all at a slow pace. When I finished yesterday, I could feel that my legs were still deeply tired. They feel a little better today, but I think I will keep my overall distance rather short tomorrow, like no more than 10 miles.

Both kids have started soccer, which means we have soccer three nights per week. Erin is coaching CJ’s team. Last night, Colin’s coach didn’t show up because he was stuck in traffic, so Erin and I coached the practice. It was a lot of fun but my voice got hoarse from yelling! Even still, Erin was the more hard core coach. She made those poor little four year olds do jumping jacks when they screwed up. They loved it!

Chris

I was lucky this morning! It was wonderfully cool compared to how hot it is right now, sitting here on the patio beside the beckoning pool. It feels like it might be near 100 today.

My run was rather uneventful, which is actually eventful if you consider that I had no pain in my leg that was worth whining about. It would seem the stiff leg is finally loosening up. I noticed my heart rate was a bit high at one point and realized I was taking slightly longer strides, so I backed off. It’s not 100 percent yet and I really would like it to be 100 percent again soon. So no point in being stupid. I ran 10 miles on a five mile out and back course.

I can still feel the 16.2 mile run from last week in my legs. My resting HR was 56 this morning when I got up though, and that is about as low as I ever get. So recovery has occurred since that long run. Next weeks 18 miles is going to be very tough. I have to have a good week mentally and physically between now and then. It won’t be easy. Both Colin and CJ seem to have caught a cold…

Chris

I didn’t edit that last post because I was really tired after going out Saturday morning for 16.2 miles in the Lotusgebirge. The .2 was for the Corps. I went slow and it took me 3.5 hours. I haven’t looked at the GPS total, but I think I got at least 1500′ of climbing in that distance. In addition to the terrain motivating me to go slow, I went slow in order to preserve my stiff leg as much as I could. After a great vacation, it felt much improved. After a week of work, it felt like I had gone backward considerably. I took off feeling very unsure about it. Quite interestingly, by the end of mile ten, there was no pain there. In fact, over the next 24 hours after my run, there was zilch for pain. The key seems to be that sitting, and DRIVING, really cause it to tighten up. The running actually loosened it. Maybe I should start riding the bus to work so I don’t have to wiggle my foot in traffic for an hour each way! As I sit here typing, I can feel it tightening a little. I followed the guidelines of the UCD Nutritionist and had zero weight change over 16 miles. In fact, it was the first time I have ever gone out for a run and come back feeling very much like I used to feel after a long bike ride, which is to say that I was muscularly hammered, however, I wasn’t horribly drained or pounded.

Chris

This weekend I completed my half marathon run in 2:38.  My target distance was 2 laps of 11.6 Km.  My target time was 2:20-2:50.  I literally gave out 1.6 Km from the finish point.  This means I completed 21.6 Km or 13.3 miles in 2:38.  The pachyderm pace I set was, as always, 7 minutes per Km (including a 1 minute walk break for every 6 minutes run).  I managed this pace out to around 15 Km and started to slide down hill from there.  Amazingly enough, the training target for this run was 13-14 miles and my distance fell squarely inside those bounds. I am disheartened not from the point I gave out at or the excessive time I took but from the fact I gave out.  I can offer no excuses as why I gave out at this stage only that I will be better prepared and will hit my target next time.  After all the years of ‘do, or die trying’ it is hard to accept retreat as a viable alternative to success at meeting your goals.  In my new post-endo life I am learning to approach things differently and keep the end goal in sight as well as each of the mile stones.  So, I guess I can claim some honour in this retreat.

Now, as to the run itself…  .  I got up early to beat the heat.  I started at approximately 0630. Due to LeRoi’s recent post on nutrition I decided I would try something new and had an apple and banana while walking the dog before the run (about 200 calories).  Also, I have bought the mega jug of Hammer gel and carried a five shot squeeze tube with me.  The first lap I took four one ounce shots at roughly twenty minute intervals.  While this stuff does not come back to haunt you it does leave a sticky sweet after taste in your mouth for about 10 minutes.  Nasty.  I also carried a 800ml water bottle with about 700ml in it.  I also put a single Elotrans package in it to help with electrolyte/mineral loss.  At the halfway point (1.17) I refilled and dried off, I did not change my shirt.  Mistake number one. Whle not feeling great, I did not feel drained as I normally would at this point.  I had only drunk about 400-500ml by this point.  The second lap went fairly well out to 16Km.  I did not maintain my concentration and only had downed 2 shots of the Hammer gel.  Mistake number two.  At that point I started to notice I was feeling swollen and leaden and backed off the pace a bit.  I also found that I had unwittingly downed most of my water supply by the halfway mark.  Mistake number three. I started to take longer breaks and reduce the run time from 6 to 5 to 4 minutes.  I finally gave out at the 10Km mark on the second lap feeling overheated (the t-shirt was like a blanket) and bloated (too much water) and my feet hurt (caused by excessive surface area).  The odd thing I was not nearly as whooped as I normally am after a long run.  Maybe it was the long walk home as a cool down, but I did not feel overheated at home nor sweat like a stuck pig and I found it difficult to rest during my post run nap.  I think maybe the nutrition thing is working.  Maybe I will end up perpetuem for the long runs.

–

Buford

I just got an email from a guy named Charles. I met him at the California International Marathon when we was the pacegroup leader for the five hour pace group. A couple weeks ago, Charles ran the entire Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. On it’s face, this is an amazing feat. It becomes even more amazing when you consider that the day of this years race the thermometer skyrocketed. It was the hottest day of the year so far. Consequently, only 52% of the people who started this year’s Western States actually finished. I think it was the lowest percentage of finishers ever. His thoughts are relevant to our discussion:

Begin forwarded message:
Overall it was a amazing day. In 20 years they will still remember the fact it was the highest drop rate (ever), the hottest day of the year (so far), and the recent course change with Duncan canyon being added back into the mix made it a grueling day!

Chris, sincerely, no words can describe how tough it was too finish. It was so hot, people were falling all the time, puking along the trail, so many folks were just wiped out when you went past them. I started about 5th from the last. The plan was to go slow through the elevation and then deal with the heat as it came. Well, nobody could have predicted how much duncan canyon messed everybody all up. The snow was bad but not as bad as last years, but we were exposed to the the direct sun for the first 7 hours of the run then it became a bit more covered in places but obviously not all the way. When I got to Duncan I was 20 min from getting pulled from the race because I was way behind, but there was a ton of people behind me and I thought oh no.. not me not here not today, it took a lot of effort  to get to this journey and I was not about to let it fall from me.

So I got up and ran better and faster than I ever had in my life. It was an experience that I will never forget. It reveals the weaknesses within yourself. It finds your strengths. In the end I made up well over 3 hours. I walked from no hands to the finish. I have blisters so bad the doctors have to consult other specialists to find out how to fix them. But the finish is mine, no one can have it. It was a very humbling experience.

We are in maui, for the kids and the wife and I we took them here to thank them for all the times they put up with me during all the training. I will have several beers for you while lying on the beach!!

Cheers,

Charles

While I realize you are all fully capable of handling real property transactions I would like to post this a reminder to myself in an easy to read format. Of course this is in addition to the standard title check.

Things to consider when purchasing undeveloped land.

• Access.  Is there an access road or are you deeded access to this property?  Also to consider is that you may also be liable to provide deeded access to another piece of property and if so how and where. In what condition is the road?
• Are there utilities to the property?
• Telephone: telephone service is generally not a problem, just may want to check if there is cellular service in the area.
• Electricity: electricity is also not a show stopper, just nice to know if you need a generator, solar panels or a windmill.  May want to see about any local regulations regarding the permitting and installation of such devices. 
• Water may be an issue.  You will want to check the local depth of wells and find out if there are any restrictions on where you can locate it on you property (for instance where is your neighbours’ septic…).  Also, relating to electricity,  how are you going to power the pump? 
• Sewer is the most important as it is a show stopper.  Make certain the soil percolates.  A simple spilled bottle of water in the area for the septic should suffice.  Also consider if there is a flat enough piece of ground for septic in addition to your dwelling.  Be sure to check this out carefully including permits.  Places in NM only allow septic if the lot size is greater than 5 acres.
• Are there any special taxes or association payments in addition to the taxes?
• Where is the next post office, gas station and grocery store?
• What are the local building permits like?  Can you build?  What do the permits cost?
• Will you be required to make improvements? Like a fence… access road…

–

Buford

I am not too sure y’all know about this, but the duck farm blog comes equipped with an RSS feed.  I have been using this to keep up to date as best as possible.  The RSS feed viewer I have been using is called klipfolio.   http://www.klipfolio.com.  It uses a somewhat complicated structre of ‘klips’ to control the feeds.  The klip I have been using is called feed viewer and it allow me to input my own feed address to monitor.  Other klips do not.  My boss uses something called ‘Great News’ found at http://www.curiostudio.com.  But, I have no other information on that.  The url for the duck farm blog is http://duck-farm.com/blog/feed and I currently have it checked once every 2 hours.

–

Buford

Hey, Phil finally registered! Looks like he registered Saturday and I didn’t notice until now… I upgraded him to an author.