Always on the lookout for a way to shake up fitness routines, this month I am trying something new. Really, it is just a new combination of classic exercises, but a fairly ambitious one. It is called The Iron Goat, and it was arranged (invented?) by a Navy friend of my little brother and sister-in-law, aimed at helping folks stay ship shape (haha) over the winter holiday. If you’d like to read more about it besides what I will patch together, well here ya go.

Mama Goat with Marshmallow, Sugar & Spice, and Lucy & Ethel in our front field. The fact that they are actually behind the fence in this shot has only to do with the fact they they wanted to be there. No amount of pleading, bribing, threatening, or fence altering could ever keep them where they didn’t want to be.

   My basic understanding is that The Iron Goat is is the meat and potatoes of The Iron Man competition, but spread over the course of a month instead of crammed into one day. So it gets a person to run, bike, and swim consistently for about four weeks. What is it we always hear about setting up habits, that it takes about twenty-one days? Well this should do the trick. Either that, or by the end of this month I will hate running, biking, and swimming.

Sugar, one of Mama’s twins. She really was a sweetie!

 
   Anyway, my gorgeous and already fit sister-in-law did this last winter with a small group of Navy friends and was one of three to complete it. They motivated each other, stayed accountable, and had fun. And I have to say that she looked incredible afterwards. Svelte, toned, and just overall very healthy, lean, and filled with stamina. Yep, that is a good and worthy goal, ladies and gentlemen.

Marshmallow with her twin girls Lucy & Ethel, posing and begging for treats and the same time.

   I have been exercising sporadically ever since our twiggy little Christmas tree came down in January, alternating between the elliptical machine, Pilates, and Jillian Michaels’ particular version of torture. And I have had reasonable results. Really, I have just been working out enough to keep up with my favorite hobby, which is eating lots of good food. Now I’m ready to see some progress, and I think this is going to be great. Surely running 26.2 miles, biking 112 miles, and swimming 2.4 miles will do this girl some good! And it sounds so fun!! Most of this is outdoors, much better than the alternative. And to make things even more awesome, my fellow adventurer Tracy is joining me! She even built a spreadsheet so we can track our progress.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff. This was our motley crew of stinky, aggressive, but very lovable boys.

   Today we begin. June first, day one of thirty aimed at challenging, consistent, variety-filled, full-body exercise. My skinny jeans better get ready, you guys.

   To mark this auspicious beginning, how about two few loosely related lists?

Some Facts About Goats:

• They are smelly. Like, worse than skunks in my opinion.
• But they are affectionate and filled with personality and very smart. And highly entertaining.
• Billy goats sometimes pee in their own mouths, sort of doing a crazy yoga pose to accomplish this. Seeing this strange ritual is not for the faint of heart.
• They are so difficult to contain that I fully agree with the old adage, “Any fence that holds water will hold a goat.” I actually doubt they have bones and think they might be made of jello, because I have seen with my own eyes a fat, solid goat squeeze through an opening barely big enough for a cat.
• They will eat every weed and every low hanging branch and leaf in sight, which sounds like a great landscaping help, but they do that only after devouring every rose, hydrangea, and daffodil in sight.
• The females tend to bear twins. This happened on our farm twice during the short time we raised goats.
• There is an interesting and true story behind the expression, “Get Your Goat, ” but I’ll save that for another day.

Some Outright Lies:

• I have a very normal, very grown-up bicycle ready to go for this June event. I am not going to ride 112 miles on a tricycle with a flower basket on the back, up and down our gravel driveway a million times.
• I am not the least bit nervous about swimming in an Olympic pool in front of strangers to accomplish my 2.4 water miles.
• I plan to post before and after photos of myself and also give you my starting and ending measurements.
• I love the taste of goat cheese.
• I have gorgeous feet from all the elliptical work this Spring, and they should only become prettier after I add running to my life.
• My husband thinks I will finish this.

   I walked outside early this morning to slip an empty pizza box in our concave burn pile, knowing that tonight we will be lighting it. Pizza boxes are excellent fire fodder, after all. And look what I discovered…

   Perhaps you heard the unfortunate rumor that both Handsome and I failed to charge our cameras before the much anticipated Saturday afternoon wedding. Is that the saddest thing you have heard all day? Sorry. But it’s true. All I took is a couple of Instagram shots, and so far only two other candids have surfaced from our friends. Surely more are out there, right, you guys??? Umm, guys?

   Anyway, it’s not all bad news. On Saturday we had our hands full anyway and probably would not have been very effective photographers. More importantly, our friend and a truly talented fine art photographer Luis Saenz came to the rescue. Here is a link to his incredible slideshow of Rebecca and Brian’s wedding so you can browse the beauty yourself.

   If you’re interested, you can also look at some of our Pinterest boards and see how the finished products measure up against the inspiration… Here is mine. Here is Rebecca’s. And here is Susan’s. Over the past few weeks we all used Pinterest to brainstorm, collect feedback on images and ideas, and delegate jobs. It’s not just eye candy, you nay-sayers! Pinterest actually helped us plan this wedding. LOL

   You know how I hate to tear down a party? How I hate for it to be over and prefer to take my time letting the memories soak in nice and deep before clearing out and scrubbing up? Well this gorgeous, happy wedding has been no exception. In fact, there really are elements of it I’d kinda like to see made permanent here at the Lazy W. We’ll see how that rodeo goes. In the mean time, I’d like to share a few aftermath glimpses of what the wedding team created for our new friends…

   Life is brimming these days you guys, with activity and love, with work and play, with little time to sit down for reading and writing. As this coming week progresses, I hope to share with you guys both photos and stories, but for now… while a pot of water boils for some midday pasta… a quick run down:

• Josh, our couch surfer, visited. He brought this little dog Ben. We made him work and play outdated video games and then we all watched funny crash clips and I made some saltine toffee with chocolate.
• The okra, tomatoes, soy beans, squash, flowers, sweet corn, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs are all growing like bananas. But there are no bananas growing. But I am considering some grape vines.
• My two beautiful daughters and their adorable stepbrother spent a day at the farm last week. We made smoothies, played with the animals, and talked. We talked so much. They are growing and changing faster than ever but still remaining the same. My heart is full.
• We’ve been watching lots of excellent NBA basketball, allowing our Thunder fever to build to a rolling boil. They playoffs have been hot from the beginning, and the fun continues tonight with another game against the Lakers here in OKC. 
• We’ve been doing lots of gardening, cleaning, rearranging, crafting, and decorating all over this crazy place. It has been a blast and worth every second.
• Handsome has lit and tended a few blazing bonfires this week. I love the lingering fragrance out there the next morning.
• The past week has borne us some ridiculous egg collecting. Ridiculous. 
• Because of our unusual schedule, Handsome and I have had a little less home cooking than we’re used to and more eating out, but that is getting fixed today. To. Day.
• Late nights of laughing our faces off, both alone and with great friends.
• A small group of bees has been spotted drinking en force at the edge of the pond. This is cool, you guys. They are finding their way around the farm and are thriving. 
• I shipped some  Green Goose products to California to see if my lil’ sis can peddle textiles as hard as she skates and breaks.
• Wedding. Did I ever tell you we were hosting a wedding? It was this past Saturday. It was so beautiful and happy…xoxo
• We scooted off to a car show this Saturday too but forgot our wallets. It was post wedding and sans any real meal that day, and we were so very hungry. My stomach growls now when I think about it.
• Saturday night we slipped into short but intense comas then spontaneously woke up at midnight to watch a recorded basketball game. I ate a weirdly satisfying dinner of excessively sweet watermelon (seven and a half slices) and excessively salty almonds and cashews (three handsful).
• At church on Sunday we barreled through the book of Jude. Do you have any idea how interesting that stuff is?
• I ran out of deodorant and bobby pins. Oh well.
• We hosted and thoroughly enjoyed our nephew’s vow renewal on Sunday afternoon.
• I attended Oklahoma Blogger’s Ball #2 at  Red Dirt Kelly’s  house and came home further inspired and further motivated! I also brought with me a branch of fresh oregano from Katie and a sample jar of decorator paint from Allison.
• Some excessive but much needed sleep has graced both our bed and our couch.
• I keep forgetting to go pick up a prescription.
• Missed the flippin solar eclipse, yo.
• And I really, really want to leave some of the wedding decorations up around the farm. They are so happy and beautiful, it just feels so good.

   How grows your garden so far? Is your corner of the universe lending you regular sky showers and plenty of warm, windless days to sow your seeds? Our new raised beds have been like a playground for me this month. Clean, level, and packed with compost and black soil, they draw me out every morning and seduce me into slipping just one more herb or just one more packet of seeds into an empty space. At last count I had nestled almost twenty squash plants in the dirt out there and almost that many peppers and tomatoes. It’s a numbers game, you guys.

   We also now have a bed jam packed with what will become edamame, thanks to a gift from our neighbor Robby, and we are celebrating the rise of the green bean tipi. But you know what? Some of what I have been doing in the garden this past week is sort of against regulation. Oklahoma is smack in the middle of a waning moon, which means I should have been focusing more on weed removal and soil cultivation than the installation of above ground crops. The thing is, I lack willpower.

      Things are growing steadily and with few obstacles, and more importantly Rebecca’s wedding is just a few days from now; so the temptation to plant new stuff is just too strong to resist! The photo above, though, is actually an old clematis vine. One which I believed to have perished in last year’s heat wave. But look! Just like the abandoned, rusty blue bike from the Pine Forest, she made a comeback! When I look at this pairing I see three months into the future, when that misshapen front wheel is draped lavishly with green vines and heavy blossoms. And then I go plant some more seeds.

   Before we all go scoot to our Tuesday chores and appointments, will you be kind as to cast a vote? Yesterday I collected lots of normal chicken eggs… and then the behemoth egg you see on the right in this photo. It is heavy, folks. And I have yet to crack it open to see its contents, but it could be a goose egg. Before you vote, here are some facts:

• This giant egg was found in the same nesting box as six average sized hen eggs.
• That nesting box is about three feet off the ground, inside the chicken coop.
• The geese have in fact been sleeping in the coop lately, but…
• Momma Goose is, well, she’s just not athletic.
• But seriously, that is a big egg. And it is as heavy as a brick, no kidding.