I FINALLY reach 10,000 steps per day

In fact I was 500 over.

Every day Vicky beats me.  In fact, she beats me by huge margins, often 2000 or more steps.

We get little credit for bike riding, for example, but she will end up with 1000 more steps than me for the same ride.  Same thing happens with ping pong and with dancing.  She always ends up with more steps.

Well, yesterday I thought I'd finally beat her.  We were both going to mow the lawn. She uses the finish mower on the area close to the house, and I struggle with the huge DR mower for the back field (about 1/2 acre).  No WAY I don't get my 10,000.  It takes us each about two hours, so I thought that should do it, along with everything else we did that day, to finally get me 10,000 steps.

Here is the piddly little postage-stamp area she mowed (well, part of it anyway.......half of it anyway):

And the huge expanse I mowed:

 

Just for the heck of it we both took pre-mowing measurements.  In addition, I also wore one of my hiking GPS systems, a type that measures distance not by steps but by satellite.

Here are the totals for the two hours or so we worked, using our activity trackers:

Vicky:  3100 steps

Dan:  2400 steps

Vicky:  1.32 miles walked

Dan:  1 mile walked

Beat me again.  AGAIN!

I can sort of understand that because how we mow is different.  She can generally walk a little faster and more consistently, whereas with the DR Mower it is a different story.  The ground is uneven and it only has two rear wheels.  Turning requires a lot of effort, and you almost have to come to a stop to do it.

However, the significant finding, I believe, was in comparing the distance using the GPS system (our hiking GPS) and the step system (the activity tracker).

Using the hiking GPS I got credit for 1.84 miles, whereas with the step-counting activity tracker I got credit for 1.0 miles.  That's a big difference.  And we trust the accuracy of the hiking GPS because we have calibrated it using other GPS systems and with known distances of trails.

The units appear to be good for measuring straight line walking, with your arm free.  The sensor detects motion in three directions using a little gizmo called an accelerometer.  That sounds like something from Flash Gordon, but essentially it is to filter out extraneous movements from movements that are step-like.

A few days ago I made several short journeys into our back garage to fill the wheelbarrow with wood for our stove.  I got virtually no credit for those steps--too slow, not enough movement, and not far enough.  Arrggh.  It was hard work, too!

The activity trackers are useful as a way of comparing days with each other.  And if a person can do a lot of straight line walking they are pretty accurate.   But they aren't good for much beyond that. 

So, how did I finally get my 10,000?

Answer:  By playing the piano.

I don't play it gently--I beat the thing into submission.  I hurt it and dare it to not produce something sounding vaguely like music.

And all of that beating gave me step credit. 

So, I have decided on a new exercise program.  One half hour a day of playing the piano and I'll have my 10,000 steps and be buff for my high school 50th reunion that will be held in only 99 days (give or take an hour or so...................but who's worrying about that?)  

Trash talking with ping pong

Since we got our table last July we have played almost every day we have been home, 30 minutes a day.   We don't keep score, but we have a lot of fun trash talking and celebrating, as the previous video of Vicky showed.

Only fair to display my immaturity as well:

50th High School Reunion

When I think about High School Reunions, the old Statler Brothers song comes to mind:

And the class of '57 had its dreams
Oh, we all thought we'd change the world with our great works and deeds
Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs
The class of '57 had its dreams


My 50th is here.  I can't deny it any longer.

I thought High School 50th reunions were for other people, not for people like me.  Just like I once thought arthritis was for other people, but not for me.  Or Medicare, or AARP, or Social Security, or complaining about the younger generation.

After giving it much thought (and much wine), I have decided to travel back to Fort Collins, Colorado and attend mine.

It was actually kind of a big decision because I'm not a keep-up-with-people-from-my-past kind of person.  I'm not on Facebook, and have no intention of ever being on it.   I saw my high school mates at my 10th reunion, and then at my 25th, but have had no contact with any of them since then.

So I really haven't had much interest in keeping up with my high school friends.  It's just not me.

So why go?  I don't know the answer to that, really.

Part of it is that I wouldn't want to not go.  I wouldn't want to always wonder what it would have been like.  And you only get one chance, so it isn't like I could decide later that I had made a mistake and then do something about that.

Another part is that I would like to see the people who attend, to know that they have made it, and have been happy.  As I think back about my high school I realize that there are a lot of people who were nice people.  I assume I'll find out about their life stories, in abbreviated forms, and will be glad to know of all they have done and seen.

I've also wondered a bit whether it is something that a person, in a way, must do.  You have made it 50 years, and none of us who attend were ever guaranteed that opportunity to create lives (and some never had it, of course, which adds to the bittersweet aspect of a 50th).  It almost feels like one is obligated to celebrate something like this.  For all of us to get together and, in one voice, say:  "We were blessed."

There is that philosophy that people spend the rest of their lives living down their high school years.  I think it has an element of truth to it.  For example, I've been laughingly saying that I am going to finally lose that six pounds that I have been trying to get off for the past two years.........but maybe it's not really a joke.  Maybe I mean it.  I'll contemplate that thought this evening while I'm eating my salad instead of what I usually eat.  hmmmmm

I used to teach Adolescent Psychology.  One of the concepts in that area of psychology is that of the Imaginary Audience.  This is the idea that people believe that everything they do or say and how they look is the main subject of attention for everyone else.  Of course, the joke on everybody is that it isn't true.  Instead, everybody else is walking around believing the same thing, and thinking everybody is paying close attention to them.

But going to a 50th High School reunion brings up those kinds of thoughts once again.  Or can.  How will I look compared to everyone else?  Nah!  I'm too mature for that kind of thinking.  That's not why I had a dream the other night that one of my high school friends who I haven't thought about in years was getting married and I noticed that he looked just the same as he did in high school.  Not me.  I've grown up.

I do need to get a new pair of slacks for the event, though.  And there is that six pounds. 

10,000 steps update

We can't do it.  We find it almost impossible to get to 10,000.

Today, for example, we did some HARD yard work.  Our grass is very long, so we took turns pulling the mower through it.  We painted, we washed decks, we moved stuff, etc. etc.

It is 5:00 and I have under 6000 steps, and Vicky has 8800.  And I'm exhausted.

Sheesh.

When I was pulling the mower through 18 inch tall grass I would keep my eye on my fitness tracker, and found that I often got no credit at all for steps.  That's discouraging.

I think our fitness trackers do a good job of consistent straight-ahead steps, but for anything other than that it isn't all that great.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

For the past two days we did long bike rides.  Our first was the Tulip Pedal (52 miles), and the second was the Daffodil Classic (40 miles).  We call them our flower rides.  We love them.

Vicky would get credit for steps when I wouldn't when riding.  We were riding the same route, doing the same thing, and she got credit for steps. 

Life isn't fair.

10,000 steps per day

We read somewhere about FitBit, and thought that sounded interesting.  A way of measuring your steps for a day.  Our goals had been focused on time, not steps, and we were curious how many steps we took during an average day.

Sean, my son-in-law, got one free at his work.  Based on discussions with him we decided to go with the lowest end Garmins. We didn't care about heart rate or any of that stuff. We just wanted to know how many steps we took.

WELL, that's been interesting.

It's brought out our non-competitive spirits.  When we play ping pong, and a ball goes off to the side of the table about equidistant from both of us we used to take turns getting it.  Not so now.  "I'll get it."

And we are always comparing numbers.  All the while saying we are not "competitive."  A typical conversation:

"I'm less competitive than you are."

No, I'm less competitive than you are."

No, I'm afraid I'm less competitive than you are."

We usually make our nightly sojourns to the bathroom at the same time.  On the first night I cleverly thought of walking to the one that is about 10 feet beyond the closest one.  HAH!  I THOUGHT. Got her.

When she came back to bed, she reported that SHE had walked to the bathroom at the far end of the house.  HAH!

Well, besides the fact that we have both learned that we are less competitive than the other person, what do we make from our first few days with our Garmin activity trackers?

1.  You don't get much credit playing ping pong.  All of the lunging you do from one foot to another isn't registered.  You have to walk a few feet before the instrument detects "walking."  In other words, you don't get much credit for one of our activities.

2.  You get horrible credit cycling.  Might as well not even bother. 

3.  Dancing is great.  Lots of steps in a short period of time, especially with swing dances that are faster.  Dancing is great exercise.  It's something everyone has known, which is why at dances the thermostats are typically set low.  Otherwise, you sweat.  And why about the most fit group of people on the planet are dancers.

We have yet to break 10,000 steps per day, but have cycled an average of 1 1/2 hours/day, played ping pong 1/2 hour per day, danced once 1/2 hour, and worked in the yard and on cleaning the cars (kind of decent work) 3/4 of an hour per day.

They cheat us!

What the devices are good for is showing us comparisons between days.  If we do no other type of exercise, and our numbers are low, it is a good reminder to get up and move.

And they work best if you are not in competition with anyone, like we are obviously not.

d

Refinishing the Hoosier

Before kitchens had built in cabinets, pieces of furniture were used to store food, utensils, and cooking supplies.

One of the most common pieces of kitchen furniture was a cupboard called a  Hoosier cabinet, named because the most popular ones were made by the Hoosier Manufacturing company in, you guessed it, Indiana. 

In the early 1970s I acquired one of these and began the process of refinishing and restoring it.  I would buy one to cannibalize a part and then resell it, until the one I had was fairly complete.

The cabinet has moved around over the years, and this spring returned to me.

It was in need of having all of the drawers re-glued and the interior re-painted.  It was my first spring project.

All done!  Looks just right in our kitchen area. 

Vicky took no time at all to put it to use:

Vicky scores!

Vicky's 40th anniversary today

Of being in the first graduating class of police officers that included women.

There were four other women in this class, out of 2200 applicants for the academy.

She has told me that at first when she was on the streets and went to a call that people's response typically was:  "It's a woman!"  Now we don't think much about that.

This photo of her shows her running from the squad car before a drug bust to prevent anyone from swallowing the drugs.

 

 although her son, Owen, says he thinks there was just a wasp in the car.

One of the cool things she did was obtain permission to dress up as a prostitute and catch men who were offering to pay girls and women.  She didn't think it was fair to just prosecute the women.  As she describes a typical night doing this what came to mind for me was that this was like shooting fish in a barrel.  She would arrange for the guy to meet her on a side street where other officers would arrest him, and she'd go back to her spot and wait for the next sucker.

She's justifiably very proud of her service as an officer, and with her subsequent work in law enforcement (her entire career when she wasn't doing what was even more meaningful to her, and that was raising her children).

I'm sorta, kinda, in a little way, maybe, aw shucks, proud of her too. 

Happy Anniversary, Vicky! 

When you are getting old......you hire it out

I no longer climb onto roofs.  I did this regularly as a younger man.  I felt confident, and was careful.

But now I feel age creeping up on me.  I'm 68, and although we do something active every day to keep in shape, my balance and coordination isn't what it used to be.  In addition, I have a lot of steel in my right foot from three foot surgeries.  That foot isn't as limber as it once was, and doesn't give me the same feedback it once did.  Too many nerves were cut to get it back into shape.

Last year we also decided that cleaning the gutters was no longer something we could do.  It meant, for me, carrying around a heavy ladder.  I have a healthy respect for ladders.  In fact, when I climb one for some purpose I put on my bicycle helmet.  I would wager that more people sustain damage to their brains from ladder falls than from biking accidents, so it seems a smart thing to do.

Because we live in the woods our gutters are ripe for being filled.  For several years I would tote the ladder around three or four times a season and do this. I hated it.

No longer.  For a reasonable price we can hire two young men who can do this.  They scamper around on the roof like I once could do.  It is safe for them.

The main threat to our health and life-style isn't an illness.  Instead, it is an accident--a fall.  So we take all kinds of precautions.  Hiring this work out is an example.  Never hiking in a place where a fall could injure anything except an ankle is another.  Driving under the speed limit.  Cycling only on carefully chosen roads, and with enough red lights on each of our bikes to mimic a police car.

Here is how bad the roof looked with all of the fallen limbs on it:

Well, guess what?  The guys cleaning the roof and gutters found that one of the large branches that fell on the roof did so in such a way that the sharp edge went right through the roof.  So now we have a hole in our roof.  We are so happy!

So, today called a roofing company to come look at it.  Will require a temporary patch and then two new panels.  All of this from wind.

And we are STILL picking up branches.

So far we have made four pickup loads, several wheelbarrow loads, and many armfuls of branches to cart away.  And we still aren't done.

Wind and rain....Whidbey Island.

(we love it!)  

Lost power again......

This makes the third time in 2 1/2 weeks.  Wind blew and blew.  Before the storm we had picked up several wheel barrow loads of branches in the yard, and two full pickup loads.

 

And after the latest storm we were back to square 1, except we had trees that fell.

One of them fell across our power lines.  We could have cut it off of them ourselves, but that violates our first rule of life:  Minimize your own work by maximizing the work of others.

It also violates another rule which is power lines are for professionals, and we aren't.

Here is the culprit after cutting it away.  We still have to clean up this mess someday.

 

Having the power go out is kind of fun, actually.  We still have heat (wood stoves), and can cook (camp stove and use of the camper stove and oven).  We have a generator, but of course I had become lazy and hadn't started it for two years.  It paid me back by exercising my shoulder a lot and then refusing to kick on.  I've learned my lesson.  When the weather gets better I'll clean the plug, etc. and then be nicer to it.

We had taken out about 15 trees last year (not us, of course, but we did write the checks for it).  We will never know what kind of disaster we might have prevented by doing this.  The pine tree right outside our front door split in several places when it fell, so chances are it would have fallen on our house with the high winds.  Because of all of the rain the ground is also insecure for holding the bigger trees.

I think that's what happened in our front yard, in a place we hadn't focused on in terms of cutting down trees.  Probably smart decision, as they didn't fall where they could hurt anyone.  An Alder and a Fir tree.

But that requires a lot of clean up, and then we'll have to cut them into rounds and find a place to stack them until we get the wood-splitter we are part owners of and split them.

Here are the trees that fell into the yard:

Here I go to make them pay for their misdeed:

The first step is to cut off all of the branches.

 Haul them into the woods or into the back of the pickup:

 And unload them into the woods along Zig Zag Lane that goes through our property:

 We still have a lot of work to do, but we can tell we had been here:

Road Trip 5 Camp sites

Speaking of 5, today is our fifth anniversary of when we met at a dance.  We are taking the day off to celebrate (whatever "taking the day off" means when you are both retired).

Five is a good number.  

Vicky dressed in the same outfit she wore the first time I saw her:  I called her pink sweater lady:

 

(Blogger restricts the size of videos, so it is kind of small.  For some of the sites it may be difficult to see our camper, but it is there.)

Power is out on Whidbey Island

Like this is news.

We are scrambling to find flashlights and water.  I have a backup battery for the router, but it is fading fast.  Maybe it will last until I post this.

We are amused.  We just went 4 months without electricity and did fine.  Now that we are in civilization, we are trying to cope with not having it.  We have turned on the refrigerator in the camper, and in a couple of hours it will be cold enough to keep our food safe.  We can also cook in the camper, and charge any needed electronics.  We heat with wood, so will stay warm enough.  Our only long term problem is water, but we have some and I will drink diet Coke until this is over so Vicky can have what water we do have.  Toilets don't flush, but neither have the toilets we have used for four months.

We have spent time in the two days we have been home picking up fallen branches.  And now, nature, with its wicked sense of humor, is taunting us with a replenished supply.  

This is our welcome home.  Kinda fun......for now.

Home again!

The long slog home.  By now we know the route by heart, and actually have some hard-to-explain affection for it.

 Here is a "numbers" report on our trip.  We are providing these because other people might want to consider what we are doing as an option for them (actually, this is one of the reasons we write our blog).  We see so few people out where we are, but believe many others would love it.

So, here they are:

Days gone:  139

Total expenses:  $2300 (add another $500 if one includes a replacement tire).  This includes gasoline, propane, camping fees, water, trash disposal, ferry fees, etc.  This works out to about $16/day.   This doesn't include food, which would be the same regardless of where we were living.

      --in other words, this way of living is very inexpensive.

Miles driven:  5751.  By far the fewest miles of any of our road trips.  2700 are miles from our home to the desert and back, which means about 3000 in the other 130 days.    The reason for driving so few miles is that we frequently stayed in one place for several days--sometimes for almost two weeks.  In other words, even driving from a far away location to the southwest doesn't put many miles on one's vehicle.

 Average gasoline price:  $2.45  THANK YOU inexpensive gasoline.  It would have been an even lower average except we were in California most of the time, and frequently in places in California where gasoline prices are even higher than average for that state.

Average gas mileage:   10.25/gallon.  It's a guzzler, all right, but our total energy consumption was very low.  We used 561 gallons of gas (4+ gallons a day) and 40 gallons of propane.  About 600 gallons of petroleum used for 20 weeks.  The average home heating using propane is about a gallon an hour.  This is approximately what heating with natural gas works out to as well.  In other words, we used about the equivalent of two days worth of petroleum products other than gasoline in our 20 weeks.  

Water usage:  This is another measure of energy use.  We could get by with under a gallon a day each.  The average American family uses 400 gallons per day.  Almost all of our water was for drinking.  One can keep very clean with baby wipes and spit washes.  And we can take a shower, when we need it, using under a gallon of water. 

Electrical consumption:  Zero.  Two solar panels, and a solar powered shower bag.

Overall, even with driving this gas guzzler we are extremely energy efficient. 

Hiking miles:  554

Hiking elevation gain: 12.45 (this is the number of miles we hiked up.........and of course also down)

Hiking time:  This is kind of tricky to determine.  We have two times.  One is the amount of time from the start of a hike to the end of it.  This includes stops for photos, for deciding on a trail, and for eating (although we rarely took a lunch break, just stopping to pull a few snacks from the back pack).  The second time is time spent moving.    Both seem relevant, as even when not moving we are standing, carrying a 15-25 pound pack, etc.  We decided the best reflection of time spent hiking was averaging these two numbers.  This works out to 283 hours.  A little over two hours a day over the course of the entire 20 weeks.

This, for us, was the most important piece of data of all, and one of the main reasons for choosing this lifestyle.  We can keep our bodies moving and working an average of two hours a day during the winter.  In our mid to late 60s, this matters a lot.

This road trip is the longest stretch we have been gone from home.  Other road trips have lasted longer, in total, but we used to come home in the middle of them.  

We are so unbelievably compatible about our travels.  (you have to be in order to live 20 weeks in the bed of a pickup camper).   When one of us feels we have exhausted the possibilities of one of the places we are camping it seems the other is also at that same place, so we leave.  We had planned on staying one more day in Twentynine Palms, CA, but both decided to leave.

We left the dry, sunny desert, and returned home to wet, rainy Washington.  It is beautiful here.  We are so very happy to be home, and are looking forward to seeing our families and experiencing another spring on Whidbey Island.

 

 

We hike 100 Miles in Joshua Tree in 2016 AND GET NUMBER STICKERS!!!!!

Joshua Tree National Park is having a promotion of the 100th Anniversary of the National Park System.  If you hike 100 miles in 2016 you get a sticker.

So, of course, not being at all competitive people, we decided we'd try for it.  And we did it! 

We finally get numbers!!!!!

 

Actually, one of our friends from the Twenty-nine Palms RV Resort is a volunteer at the park, and he gave us our stickers.

They will look nice on our camper!  It was fun.

Tips on how to do the Porcupine Wash to Ruby Lee Mill Loop Hike: Joshua Tree National Park

This is a hike described in Patty Furbish's excellent book On Foot in Joshua Tree National Park. However, she describes taking the hike in a counter clockwise fashion.  We did it clockwise.

In addition, because the hike is approximately 10 miles long, and because there are no trail markers (and, in fact, there is no real trail) some parts of the hike could be fairly challenging.  There are at least three canyons that one can access from the trail head, the road trails get harder to locate and follow each year because they are being claimed by nature, and one part of the hike involves about a mile of winding through high rocky areas where you have to find your own way.   We thought some additional information might be helpful to anyone attempting this hike. 

The Furbish book was last revised in 2005, making even the hikes that are newer additions potentially somewhat dated.  Some of the trail markings she describes for this hike are nowhere to be found (a barrow pit, stakes, etc.).

We would not recommend this hike unless you felt as if you had 10 miles of hiking for a day in you, more if you would get lost for awhile.  In addition, we relied heavily on our GPS which had the location of the Ruby Lee Mill on it.  We would not recommend this hike unless you had a GPS.

Here is the hike we are describing here, in black with red arrows.  The red lines and solid black/gray lines are from other hikes we have taken in this area, including the six-mile round trip hike directly to Ruby Lee Mill.

Here is what the area looks like without the markings of the trails we have taken.  Fifty years go the road trail presented in yellow dashes would make this a fairly straightforward hike.  However, the road trail is gone in places and hard to locate in other places. 



So why do this hike?  Several reasons.  One is that the canyon you walk through at the beginning is lovely.  The route through Porcupine Wash (bottom of the trail map) is incredible. A wide, beautiful valley.  The road trail on the left of the map heading north shows wonderful views, the tall hills with boulders at the top left of the trail are fun to work your way through, the mill itself is interesting, and the road trail back to the trail head is much easier to find going west to east than east to west.  Lots of different terrain and, important to us at least, it is unlikely you will run into other hikers.  You feel all alone with just the Joshua Tree desert.


First, coordinates of the Ruby Lee Mill.  Program them into your GPS.



Finding the correct canyon:

This map shows the correct route from the trail head (the Backcountry Board along the highway).  It is marked in yellow.

The spot marked "Canyon" is where the canyon begins. It is almost exactly a mile from the Back Country Board.

The GPS coordinates are the following:

 

Be careful not to head too far to the East and find yourself on the route in red on the right.  The critical juncture is circled in yellow below.  Follow the black route, not the red one that goes directly south.

 

After walking a mile through this canyon you will enter a large open area between two mountain ranges.  You will follow the wash marked in yellow below.  It is 3.7 miles from the spot marked "Canyon" to the end of the yellow route.  This would be 4.7 miles from the trailhead.  This is the well known Porcupine Wash.






There is some mild boulder scrambling.  Pretty easy as this kind of thing goes, and not much of it.



At this point (4.7 miles from the trail head/Back Country Board) you will see an old mining road on the hillside to your right.  Here are the GPS Coordinates:



Here is an enlargement of this area.  It is easy to miss if you aren't watching the mile marker on your GPS and are not looking at the hillside.  Easy to miss because it doubles back behind you.

 
 This road trail is very nice and easy to follow for awhile.



 

Here is Vicky on this road trail.  We are heading toward the far horizon on it.



The road trail goes about 1.2 miles NNW.  As you can see, we lost it at that point, or think we did.  There were cairns in the area, but we couldn't follow them, and perhaps missed them.  Cairns are easy to miss unless they are very large in a desert that is filled with rocks.  They don't stand out.

We overshot the "road," because we found we were on another old mining road.  There are mining roads everywhere, many no longer on maps.  But because we had our GPS we could tell after awhile that we were heading in the wrong direction.  We turned around, set a bearing toward the Ruby Lee Mill using our GPS, and wandered around in rocks and hills in that direction.  This is the point of the hike where we would have been lost without the GPS.    If there was a road at one time, it was long gone.


We did see a deer, though, our first ever in Joshua Tree National Park.  A large buck.




From the Mill, it is a fairly straight shot back to the Back Country Board.  There is an old mining road trail which is hard to see sometimes.  But just keep walking down if you lose it, and eventually you will get to the highway.

We hope this information adds to what you can get from hiking books if you decide to try this hike.

We enjoyed it a lot.  Hope you do too.