1st post of 2011

Can't believe this is my first post of 2011.   It certainly has been busy the first 11 days of the month. Yesterday I had a tooth pulled and a post for an implant inserted. I was sure thinking the worst on how this would feel. Especially when they handed me the tooth and I saw how big the roots are on a molar. Then knowing they had to drill into the bone some to insert a post I wasn’t optimistic. Turns out it didn’t/doesn’t hurt much at all. Other than having to change what I eat for about a week it seems at least so far, this will be a non event. Thank God.

Running:
So far this month I’ve been able to run every day. All my runs have continued to be in the 5 to 7.5 mile range and 40 to 60 minutes of time. Again I continue to run outside as time and weather allow and on the treadmill when they don’t. I’m not purposely trying to start a streak it just turns out that way so far. Now that hunting is over I will likely try to increase the length of my weekend runs to get the weekly mileage back up near 50. When I get my mileage back above that I’m sure I will make at least one rest day part of the routine again. I still haven’t used my new Garmin, but that will change shortly when I run outside more consistently and on longer runs. I’ve given some thought to which races I intend to run this year. Tentatively I will shoot for the Trailbreaker (half or full) in early April, either Journey’s or GB or Ice Age50k in May, Grandma’s in June, Paavo Nurmi in August, and probably Whistlestop in October. I will also probably run the Lake Country half marathon Labor Day weekend and a few 5k’s over summer. Not much different than my plan for previous years. I just need to keep from being injured so I can run them all.

Through 1/11/11.
WTD 10
MTD 65
YTD 65
ODO 27336

Hunting:
I was able to get out hunting a few times in January and had several chances at deer, but chose to pass on all of them. I was really waiting for one last opportunity at a big one and didn’t need to get another doe. The last day of the season I received permission to gun hunt off my bow stand. I was really pumped about that. The last time I was there I saw 7 deer including two nice bucks. I was really hoping for a chance. I ended up seeing nothing in the morning, and it sure was cold. Temps were a few degrees below zero as I was driving out there. I only stayed a couple hours. In the afternoon I decided to forgo watching the beginning of the Packer/Eagles playoff game. I ended up seeing one nice buck that never presented a shot and two doe that I passed on. Next year this stand location will have to move a little bit. The tree I’ve been in the last couple years died this year and will likely not be safe next year. I have a couple trees in mind and will probably do the work to get the new location squared away yet this winter.

Sadly hunting season for 2010/11 has come to an end. The guns are already cleaned and put away until next year. It was a good year over all. I can’t complain with 5 deer total, including 2 nice nine pointers with my bow. Before the season began I was sure excited with being selected to hunt on the Ottawa conservancy. It was nice to have another option for gun hunting without having to go on public state forest land. It just turns out with the other success I had there wasn’t a lot of need to spend much time at another place. At first I was disappointed because all the other guys that hunted there had already taken all the prime locations. There were stands everywhere. After spending some time though I learned a few good locations way on the back of the property that I will use if and when I am selected again. Having access to the back side of the property through the land I have permission to bow hunt opens opportunity for me that is difficult for others having to access from the normal parking area. As always I learned a few new things this year and can’t wait until next year to take advantage.

Gardening:
As usual with the rolling of the seasons this is the slowest time of the year related to anything gardening. In fact with hunting ended and nothing much going on garden wise it is the slowest few months I have all year. I will be thinking about cutting down a couple of the big maples in the yard over winter. The silver maples are really messy trees with shallow roots and I think portions of the yard will do much better with them gone. There will also be garden catalogues to go through, hunting stuff to put away and some running to do, but that leaves lots of time for other things. Will try to make time for family things and house chores until spring comes around to busy things up again.