Thursday, April 29, 2010

100 miles, first rattle snake

While I still have 899.5 miles to go on my goal of walking 1000 miles on the treadmill, I have reached the first milestone and passed 100 miles today.  I used to walk all of the time, either on the treadmill or with the dog, but about a year ago I stopped because I had a sore knee.  I just never got back to it until I set myself a goal to get into better shape for future walks in our beautiful National parks.

I have a pedometer on order and when it comes in I plan on doing some outdoor hikes.  Much more interesting, but I will dearly miss my dog.

We have lived here for almost 23 years.  In all of that time I have never seen a rattle snake.  I have been told they were around, but I have always missed them.  Until last Saturday.

Craig and I were getting ready to do some work and opened the back garage we use as a workshop of sorts.  As he started cutting something I notice a brown blobish pile of something to the side of the open door.  At first glance it looked like a very large dog poop.  Then I realized it was a coiled up, probably sleeping snake.  A rattle snake.

Since it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere I went and got my camera.














Now what to do with him?  I got a leaf rake and Craig scooped him up and tossed him out onto the driveway.


As you can see, he was not to happy with being so rudely woke up.  That is a maple seed next to him.  He was not very big, probably about 2 feet long, and we counted four rattle rings on his tail which he was rattling like crazy.

He got to take a second flight (via rake toss)  down into the forest.  Glad I didn't find my first one while pulling weeds by hand!

Oh yes,  must post my Daily Countdown before I get started on today's two boxes of papers to sort for shredding.

552  days, or 1 year, 6 months, 2 days to go.  

Exercise Goal:        
1000 miles on the treadmill     3 miles  yesterday, 3 miles today!    
Total walked = 100.5 miles   My legs are getting stronger!
         Someday I will be hiking in National Parks!


(I've decided to count miles walked instead of miles to go.  It seems more positive.)

5 comments:

  1. Congrats on passing the century mark! I'll be happy to leave the rattlesnakes behind. :)

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  2. Yay Merikay! It's great seeing you cross that 100 mile mark. Have a great weekend.

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  3. Hi Merikay, I just finished reading all of your blog entries and the comments. I found you while reading all of Rae's Travels with Miranda. I was going to wait until I was on the road to start a blog, but now I am inspired to start now, as I am downsizing 66 years of gathering stuff. Your lists of what you are putting on the flee market table have been inspirational. I am having my first garage sale the last weekend in May. I am roughly 365 days out. I will be 67.
    Joan in Oregon

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  4. Hi Joan,

    Do let me know when you have your blog up, I'd love to follow you!
    I stopped listing every little thing because it was bothering the "psychologically" unwilling husband. I still am trying to put something on the table, or trash every day. It is much easier to drop things off at Goodwill, because once they are there they are gone! Because of where I live it is very unlikely I will have a garage sale here. At this point I am just boxing stuff from the table and thinking of it as gone. I may not have a sale for a long time.

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  5. Congrats on your 100+ MILES!! Fun to look at a map and see how far from home you would be if your legs were your RV? I've never seen a live rattlesnake and I think I can live my life without that particular adventure. Keep plugging! We Will Make It.

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