Our zoo

AllCanSki redo

2008-09-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

O.K. and this is my remake after I got me some training at the Apple store with one of them there geniuses, lol.
Hope you enjoy the shorter version.

Allcanski two

2008-08-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is the video I took on our trip to San Antonio. Susan and I get to help out at the yearly event at Sea World where all of our special friends get to spend the day water skiing. It is a really fun event to see and to participate in. But it also is a learning experience for me. Especially in gratitude. I am thankful there are people here who can take care of our friends and family members like this and also go the extra mile to set up such an event.
And then I meet the Norman family and their son Billy and the unconditional love and lengths they go for their son Billy to make sure he has a great life and can make it to such events. They live in Arkansas and talk about the community they live in and the people there who care enough to lend a hand when needed.
I met April Miller and her mom Susan and see another families devotion to their daughter and how much they care. I hope April and I will stay in touch, she's a really cool young lady and we hit it off great.
And as for my brother in law David, this is so good for him. He is so lucky Susan found the Rainbow House for him and we will forever be indebted to Debbie and Ann.Thank you ladies, I pray every night that God has his eyes on you two.
And my good buddy Robert, he added a few new nationalities to his growing list, he failed to keep an eye on me, but I love him like a brother. Robert, thank you for making me smile and laugh.
As I work on my spiritual being, the events that I shared with my friends yesterday make this journey so much more rewarding. Thanks to everyone involved, because that makes me a better me,
Troy

Lucy in the Sky

2008-08-04T05:27:00.000-07:00

Sam at play

2008-07-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Emmitt-1994? - 4/5/2008

2008-04-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

It is with a heavy heart and a lump in my throat that I type this. Our male black swan was killed yesterday, presumably by a pack of coyotes. We theorize what happened is that the coyotes were pacing the outside of the fence area as the sun was coming up, and Emmitt went to protect his mate, Flo. He would have been trying to smack them with his powerful wings and trying to get a bite in with his beak and they were able to grab him. That's all I will say about that. His instincts were to protect his mate and babies at any cost and for ten plus years he did that to a tee.
We bought Emmitt and Flo number 1 over ten years ago. I named him Emmitt because when we went to pick him up we spent hours trying to catch him. He could move like Emmitt Smith! After we got him home it didn't take long for him to show us who was boss and to what extent he would protect his mate. I had to build a fence around the pond because it wasn't unusual to be awaken in the morning by him bititng at the sliding glass door on our bedroom.
As a father he sired about 8 cygnets a year for roughly 8 plus years which we sold for $200 each. He more than earned his keep here. I even remember the first cygnet they had. The egg was layed off the nest. We brought it to a friends house who incubated it and it hatched. We named her Cassie, but quickly found out the dificulties of raising a cygnet without the parents. We lost her only after a couple of months. The last 6 cygnets we had were lost this past month due to the hawks. This was the first time we ha ever lost any babies and what makes it even more sad is that we could have kept a couple to continue on with his legacy.
Emmitt was like Satan on steroids when it came to protecting his own. It is this trait that caused him his early demise, but it is why his mate will continue to survive. I should list list all the people who were attacked by him either while we were fishing or just visiting, but the list is long. The two most memorable and funniest ones were when my friend Robert and I were fishing and Emmitt came in for the attack. Robert didn't move fast enough and Emmitt grabbed him in family jewels area with his beak and wouldn't let go. Robert is a big man and to hear a big man scream like a girl as he trying to free hisself from the grasp of a 14 pound bird is..... well it's just damn funny as long as it's not you.
The other memorable attack came when my friend Bryan brought his boys over to fish. For a while it was going well as Emmitt stayed on the nest(he shared that duty with Flo) for nearly 2 hours. I guess at one point he was tired of sharing his pond so he set out for what he does best... run those two legged things out of his area. Well he went for Bryan's oldest son, who at one point looked like a professional fencer as he was using his fishing pole to keep Emmitt at a distance as he made his retreat. The retreat went to hell quickly when Byran's son( who was also a big kid) tripped and fell backwards. The familiar high pitched scream echoed again as I looked up and saw this swan all over this boy. I guess Emmitt went for the big ones first so the rest of the bystanders knew he wasn't mucking around! I could go on with those stories but I feel a couple would explain his sole purpose as far as he was concerned.
I don't know right now if we are going to get another male or not. Maybe another female so Flo can have a companion. It's too early to tell or make that decision. I just want a few days, as does Susan to reflect on the time we had with him and what he meant to us as he shared his life with us. If I could protect my own as fiercely as only he could I would consider that the lesson in life he taught me. I learn a lot from all of my animals... mostly patience, but his undivided ability to protect his own is something I'll remember about him unti lthe day I die.
Good bye Emmitt, I know you are with the first Flo under God's feet protecting all of his animals.

MY BIG SNAKE

2008-03-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

I finally caught her. She was sunning and I was able to sneak up without her seeing me and grabbed her. She sprayed me with her scent but other than that she wasn't that aggressive. She weighed about 10 lbs and looked like she had a catfish in her belly. I was able to relocate her about 2 miles from my house in a canal. I had video of that also but the wind was blowing so hard you couldn't hear anything.
It was a great feeling being able to relocate her instead of killing her. It made me feel like I made up for the bobcat I found dead on the road yesterday and put in the freezer for our friend to mount.
Awesome!

Swans flying north, the easy way

2008-03-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

The swans left for Oregon yesterday. Susan and I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo afterwards and met our llama friends and met Bernie and his family. Bernie bought Dino and Pilgrim , our mini Zebu bulls and he was showing Dino.
Other news on the farm, the hawks picked off the 6 black swan babies. That was sad and made me wonder on what I can do the next time the babies are hatched.
I have 60,000 miles now burning veggie oil and the powersmoke is getting ready to turn over at the 300,000 mile mark.
On the health scene, I'm lifting a lot of weight and hitting the cardio hard, but as always, there's room for improvement on the eats.
Susan slipped me the giant goobler and changed the new puppy's name to Sam. I had named her Echo. Oh well, it's all about compromise,lol. Tracy, Sam, the Boxer is our latest addition, and Susan's still looking at mini bulldogs.
As far as the Livestock show, you want to talk about a small world, these people who were showing mini Zebu's were from Jonesboro La. We lived there in the early sixties. I was telling the lady how I remembered that the 18 year old boy who lived next store accidentally shot and killed a young girl in the house we were living in and she knew both the families. The boy's name was Mack and he would take me out for icecream and I really remembered how awesome he was. When we moved to Texas, we got word he had passed away suddenly while he was in college, due to some type of infection. The lady at the rodeo said he died of grief, because he never was able to deal with accidentally shooting the young girl. Wow, that brought back many years!

Swan Song

2008-02-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

This is a video made especially for my friend Danielle who has asked about showing a little clip of them. Sorry about the quality, but the wind was blowing hard and I was having battery issues. We pinion the cygnets so when people buy them 4 months from now, they won't fly off.
Hey, maybe if I don't pinion them they'll fly back here and I can resale them, lol. Dani, want a pair of unpinioned swans?

4 llamas, a horse and 2 dogs

2008-02-16T03:48:00.000-08:00

What a ditch

2008-01-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

So this is a little clip of that sunamaditch! Boy what a ditch it is.

Our Sea World Adventure

2007-10-31T04:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry this post took awhile to get posted. Due to some technical difficulties on my part I had this on the back burner. This event is called All Ski that is put on at Sea World San Antonio for head injury people and handicapped people that otherwise wouldn't be able to ski. It is a 2 day event and it is awesome. Just to see the smile on all the people's faces is priceless. It is something I will always look forward to going to and hope to get more involved with helping out next year. There are several small clips of David (my brother in law) skiing. The last clip is of a gentleman named David Dodson. Our David suffers from the effects of two seperate head traumas that have caused him to be dependent upon continual care. The other David had a head trauma 5 years ago that caused blindness and some memory issues. He lives at home with his awesome wife and they recently had a bouncing baby boy. Even though I'm not a fan of The United Way, there are other charities and ways you can donate your money or time to these special places or people that put on events like this. It's great to see David and the others have this good of a time.
Thank you Rainbow House, thank you Sea World and mostly thank you for the people who volunteer their time.

humvideo

2007-10-02T04:01:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, long time again since a post. We did an upgrade on the i-video but it was me unfriendly. We had another session with the geniuses at the Apple store for our weekly tutoring and learned a lot. I'm using the first format for doing this again but he also showed me some other neat little tricks. Hope the audio is tons better.Thanks Mr.Genius!
Anyway as of last night, we released the little guy(actually a female) and she flew up to the palm trees in the back yard. Susan got some food in her and cleaned up her wing so hopefully she'll be alright.
I will try to get the video working on our trip to San Antonio showing our outing at Sea World and the water ski park set up so the residents at Rainbow house can ski. It was great fun to see all of them have such an awesome day.
Getting ready to start another challenge, so that should be interesting.
Just turned 275000 miles on my truck which means I have put 40,000 miles on it since converting it to burning veggie oil.
Other than that, all else is well in Zooland.
Hey Jonnae, love you and stay strong! I need a good vet in a few years.
Later!!!!!

Little Willie

2007-08-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

Here's Willie of course. He's a Rose Breasted Cockatoo. He is from Australia. They are to the Aussies as what crows are to us. They destroy a lot of their crops and therefore are referred to as a nuisance bird. It is now illegal to export any parrots so the fate of these birds rely on the people not to eradicate them, just control their numbers. Well I need to go get a power nap in, I start nights.
Have a great day people.

Rain

2007-08-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I posted, but there's a lot going on the last few weeks.I was experimenting with Susan's H.P. camera and tried this little video clip. This is how a small pond turns into a several acre pond,lol. Seee that nasty old swan, he's always ready for the kill. Thank goodness we got all 17 acres mowed this past week, because it will be a spell before we mow again. In the next few days I'll start back with the animal updates.
Hope all is well with everyone,
TTFN

Daisy Mae: 1998-2007

2007-07-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

I was hoping that I would get to video blog everyone before I would have to post that we lost one of our special pets. Yesterday, Susan had to make the heartbreaking decision to put our beloved English Mastiff down. She had a good long life in big dog terms, but to ease her suffering,a decision was made so she wouldn't be pain any longer. She ended up with tumors in her lungs and pneumonia. She will be missed.
Daisy was our Alpha "B" amongst our 3 girls, but she would also protect them. At her prime she weighed 150 lbs and was the runt of the litter. Her parents weighed over 200lbs apiece. She was a house dog at first but had a bad habit of wanting out at night, going for a swim in the pond, and then wanting back in only to shake off and hop into bed with us. She was a little large for our 700 sq ft garage apt. we lived in at the time. When we built the house and was cleaning the garage apt we found all this brown splatter on the walls and ceilings and figured out it was dried slobber residue from when she would shake her head. So we decided for sure she would have to stay outside.
Her nicknames were slobberjaws which speaks for itself and we also called her thumperditty, for the druming sound her tail made when she would wag it and it would hit things like the wall the side of the car.
There are so many more memories I could share but I figured I'd share a few.
Got to go... an emergency... will finish.

Christa, this bud's.... er I mean, this bird's for you

2007-07-27T12:34:00.001-07:00

Boy George

2007-07-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

The Toy

2007-07-18T12:34:00.001-07:00

I thought this was such a cool idea. I could take all the pics I wanted, but to be able to hear her rumble was just awesome. I really hated to sell this car, but it needed to be done. The gentleman that's buying it is planning to fully restore it and said I can take Susan out for dinner in it once it's done. My next few videos will be with some of the kiddos. I need to use this or I'll loose what I have been taught,lol.
Enjoy!

First video blog

2007-07-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

And wow was this tough. Hopefully I'll get better at this and will try to post some with the kids, kinda like the Croc hunter,lol. A special thanks goes out to Danielle who has been kind enough to lend me her time to walk me through this endeavor.
Convert a truck to veggie oil... no problem. Wrestle animals to give them their meds... I'm your guy. Build a barn... give me a call, but when it comes to this computer stuff, I'm in trouble,lol. Anyway Dani, thanks and how easy is it to carry this laptop and set it up outside to do animal shots,lol. If Susan only knew what I do when she's not around!

Everyone likes a little ass

2007-07-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

This a pic of our miniature donkeys. It was taken 2 Christmas's ago. The one in the front is Ariel and the one in the rear is her mother Deanna. We have had these girls for about 7 years. We took home Ariel when she was weaned and two years later brought her mother home. They have crosses running down their backs are said to be the type that were at the manger when baby Jesus was born. They are as friendly as dogs, but get into everything and typically run all the other animals out to steal their food. They are pigs.
Everything else is going great! Just figured it was time for an animal post.
Have a great week!

2007-06-30T15:01:00.001-07:00

This is my first attempt to blog from our Apple laptop. So far it has been a little awkward,but I hope in time it will get easier. Anyway I'm checking it out to see how it works. It took forever to figure out how to post a pic, and I'm sure there is an easier way but I think I got one done. If it shows up it is a pic of our first animal we bought. Her name is Pearl. She was born on December 7th(Pearl Harbor Day) and she is a Lama and is 12 years old. Llamas should live for about 20 years. So she has some mileage left on her. As far as disposition, she is our sweetest one. As far as looks..... well she wouldn't win any contests. But we love her all the same. We raise our llamas as pets, but in South America they are used for everything. The wool, the dung, to haul stuff and are even used for their meat(I hear it tastes like lamb, not chicken). And no they don't spit! Well they do but ours don't... only at each other and you'll only get nailed if caught in the crossfire when the girls are squabbling over food.
On the health front... I'm working out with a trainer. It has been very interesting to say the least. And even though we started this out because she needed someone to start spotting her, this has been a learning curve for me.This kid rocks and she knows what she's doing. She's also a Christian gal so I'm learning to curb the foul language,,, and hey I'm learning how to become a better person!
On the veggie oil stuff.... just hit 30,000 miles burning the bean juice. I'll try to get some figures posted soon on the savings and what not.
Well it's feeding time ... enjoy the week and hit some tens!

Emergency animal post

2007-06-10T18:26:00.001-07:00

I know, here I go and post twice in one day after not posting at all for several weeks. Well, only in Texas! Our friends who live down the street from us ( 15 miles away but it's the same street) were looking at a house being built in their neighborhood. As they were walking through it they found this little critter. They couldn't find mama nowhere around so they called us since we have the mini cows and have had to hand raise one. Since Max and Barbara have deer in their area, Susan asked Barbara is she thought it might be a deer. Barbara told Susan she wasn't stupid, she knew the difference between a calf and a deer (our mini cows look like baby deer when they are born and weigh only 20 lbs, so it was a semi sorta serious question). Anyway they loaded him up and brought him over. It was on the way over (I think) that Max and Barbara figured out this wasn't a cow calf, it is a buffalo calf! Well we got a bottle prepared when he got here and tried to get him fed (the calf, not Max,lol). We made a little bedding out of hay and got the fan out to cool him down. I'm sure the little fellar was stressed but he laid down and started to calm down. Max started to call around to the neighbors and found out the calf comes from Gary Walkers' herd(ex Oiler and Texans football player) who lives down the street from Max and Barbara ( about a quarter of a mile down the road). So about an hour later Max and Barbara came back to get the little guy, loaded him up in the back seat of Max's pickup and brought him back to his real home. They said the little guy ran right up to his mama and tried to nurse, but she led them away from the herd and settled into their own little area. Max and Barbara came back for dinner and said mama and calf were still doing find. Wow, and to think I posted twice today.... only in Texas,lol.

A meetup and a child

2007-06-10T04:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Kim (Coco from tracker and blends) and her hubby Lance came over for a visit and dinner. We had an awesome time. They are great people and Susan and I have enjoyed both our get togethers with them and hope we have many more to come. We are planning to have dinner with them in Houston when we can hammer a date and time down. I can't wait!

Now, for the child of the month. She's been showcased on my blog before, but here she is again, getting into the laundry. Her name is Crunch and she is a Hyacinth macaw. They are from South America, as are all the macaws. They are becoming increasingly rare in the wild and it is suggested that they only be kept as breeding pairs so the species doesn't become extinct. We are planning to get a male, so if and when Susan and I are no longer around, Crunch will have a mate. The Hyacinth is an affectionate bird, and is every bit as loving as a dog. They like to cuddle and be loved on constantly. They have a specialized diet in the wild but as a pet they can be fed a pelletized feed along with macadamia nuts, fruits and generally anything we eat, except chocolate and salty foods. Crunch likes to spend a lot of time on the ground, which is what they do in the wild also and the reason the pic was easy to take. If all goes well she should live to be 70 to 100 years old. This is a pet that is a life long commitment. I would have to say out of all the parrots we have, she is our favorite.

Stay tuned for the next child to be showcased.

New additions

2007-05-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

The newest of our arrivals are the Barbie Doll Sheep (actually they're called Barbado, but I like Barbie Doll better. They seem to be doing well so far. And just yesterday Will and Grace's cygnets started hatching. This is the first three, the two with Grace and the lone stranger with Will. I counted 9 eggs when I mowed the island Saturday, so we may have more on the way.

A bite of the big apple

2007-05-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Susan is going to take our home computer to the Apple store so they can transfer all of the files to the new Apple laptop computer she got a few weeks ago. I figured I should get a post in due to the fact we could be down for a while.
The above is a pic of a Purple Martin house(actually a castle). It has 4 towers and houses ten birds. I am going to make a few of these after they are vacated. They are chocker block full of babies right now and the neat thing is that we have had a lot of rain and standing water lately, and these guys have kept the mosquito numbers down! They are so much better than pesticides. We currently have 5 houses of various varieties up around the ponds, but by far the most popular is the castle. I guess my birds are from royality, eh?
Hope everyone has a great week.

Without further ado......

2007-05-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

If you sneak onto this property with ill will, I'll bite you in the ass!

My biweekly post.

2007-04-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

First, I want to thank everyone for their comments about our losing Little Bit. I went out to tell Rocky each time and he replied with either "Peek a Boo" or "I love Rocky". Those are the only two things that he says that we can understand, but I think he was saying thank you too. Even though the macaws mate for life, if they lose a mate they will take another. It just takes some time. Susan and I have decided that we don't want to try and pair him off again and after his quarantine is up will move him back inside.
Susan started her lessons with her personal trainer last week. Her broken toe has healed enough that she is able to give it a 100 percent. I am really excited to see how she will progress with this. I'm on my tenth challenge, but at this point I can honestly say it's a part of my lifestyle, but still call them challenges to keep it trackable... if that makes sense. Right now I really enjoy working out at the Y and haven't used my home gym unless I'm working nights.
I have a new stone head out on the lawn. He is the warder off of all evil,lol. I rigged up some solar lights that flash and put them in as eyes. He looks pretty scarey at night. I just hope someone doesn't steal him. I guess if they did, he didn't do his job very well then,lol.
Other than that, the truck is pushing 30,000 miles running on used vegetable oil. I think it smells more like steak on the grill versus french fries and it still fascinates me that I am doing this. Susan and I looked at the 2007 Jeep Cherokee Limited last week. It came out with a diesel engine, so the salesman thought it odd that I was crawling under the truck(looking for a good place for a veggie fuel tank) instead of wanting to ride in it. We'll see how that goes.
On the zoo front, we are looking at getting a couple of Barbado sheep. We should have them by next week. We sold 5 swans and both pairs are on the nests again.
I guess the only other thing is that Susan and I are discussing the idea of letting someone live in the garage apt. We will let them live there rent free and in return we hope to get some help mowing and taking care of our children when we go on vacation.
Hope everyone is doing great and living life to it's fullest!

Rest in Peace Little Bit.

2007-04-19T04:49:00.000-07:00

We lost one of our macaws yesterday. When Susan went out to feed them she noticed Little Bit didn't fly over to the feed bowl and bully her mate Rocky away from the feed bowl. Susan found her at the bottom of the aviary. She was a Yellow Collared macaw and is referred to as a mini macaw because of their smaller size. We hand raised her when we got her in 1992 and paired her off with Rocky four years later. We think Rocky is around 35 years old, and although Little Bit layed several cluthches of eggs, we think Rocky didn't know what to do or was infertile. They still were a great pair together. I feel so sorry for Rocky and after we wait a month (to make sure Little Bit didn't have something) we will probably bring Rocky back in the house. He can still be handled and we feel this is what's best for him.
You never realize how much a pet touches your life until you lose them. When Susan and I were remembering her past it also brought up a lot of other good memories we have shared together during that same time.
Thanks for letting me be a part of your life Little Bit. You make it that much better. Rest in peace my little friend, you will be missed.

Monthly Update

2007-03-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Just needed to drop in and update the blogger. This is one of the stone heads I made and set it out in my front pasture last year. The llamas and horse don't mind him, but I think ZaZu, our mini cow thinks this head is the big bull,lol.
It's getting to be the busy time of the year for me now, so we'll see how everything goes like maintaining a good exercise routine, if I can keep up with the place for yet another year and get everything completed that's on my list. I think it is about time to start hiring me some help though. It's getting a little more than I can handle.
I'm finishing up week 11 on another 12 week routine. I spend a majority of time at the Y that was completed finally in January. Susan and I both signed up but her time has been limited due to the fact she broke her toe. She had signed up with a trainer but that's on hold until the toe heals. She has been doing some upper body workouts though, so at least she'll be in a groove when she starts up.
Well that's about it. If you get a chance take a look at my Stonehead blogger and check out a few more designs that are up and give me your opinion.
Have a great week!

Let's Rodeo

2007-02-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Susan and I got the pleasure of being invited to help out bringing the Rainbow House group to the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo. The pics were taken for a promo by AT&T . They are Susan and her brother David, and me and my compadre Michael. We got to check out some livestock, had some grub ( oh, and I bought some sugar free peanut brittle!) and then went to see the show. First up was Extreme Bullriding. Talk about a concert atmosphere. There was fire, lasers, explosions, and smoke(those were just the nachos we ate,lol).Actually it was a pretty awesome show and all the residents were having a blast. David was hollering everytime something loud happened and Michael was all smiles. It does these people good to get out and have a day like this and I was glad to be a part of it. After the bull riding event, we got to see the first part of the concert from some Canadian country group, but we didn't finish watching the show because some of the guys and gals were getting tired. Michael was dozing off, so we knew they had had enough excitement for the day. It is really awesome how everything worked out to get these 12 people into an event with little problems.it made it so much more enjoyable for all who participated.

Susan's birthday is the 27th, which will make her the big 5-0! We are going to Lake Charles to check out the new Casino and have a nice dinner. After that we will go check out our Livestock Show on Thursday and have V.I.P. tickets to see some lady called Reba. I'd prefer Ted Nugent, but he don't rodeo,lol. Hey, the tickets were free, so why not!

Other than that, ol challenge number 9 is stumbling along. I have had a lot of obstacles this go around like overtime, no time, ran out of time,lol but I'm still plugging along. Luckily, no weight gain.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone is getting what they were hoping for, a box of chocolates, a dozen roses, a take out gourmet dinner served at home :).
Love is in the air!
Just wanted to let those of you who are interested know that I put up another design on the Stonehead site. Take a gander and tell me what you think.
All is well here, except another bobble this week in my workout routine. Here I go and cut back to only cardio on the days I work(12 hour shifts) so it gives me time to do other things and can't even get that in. Oh well, progress is what I seek, perfection is what I aim for!
Later taters!

Finally, pics again

2007-02-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

I think the pic thing is working because I accidentally did the new blogger thing. So here is a pic that I was trying to post that I couldn't get to post the other day.

So here are the new comers to farm. Tasty looking aren't they?

Catching up

2007-02-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

Again, it's been a while since I have blogged. Work has been crazy. We had a fire at the refinery Sunday and it knocked out half the refinery as far as production goes. It will be 3 to 6 weeks before we get 2 of the crude units and the cat cracker up.Luckily no one was hurt. I'm working more overtime than usual due to all of the people coming down with the flu. I had to work 16 hours Monday, got home at 6am Tuesday, got up at 10am for a dentist appointment, go to work from 1 pm to 5 pm and finally got some good sleep after that.
My 9th challenge or living large lifestyle or whatever I call it was going good until I hit this week (week 5). I haven't worked out at all because of the overtime, the denatal appointments and yesterday was my yearly physical so I had to fast, and I didn't finish with that until almost 2 p.m. I hope to resume it starting Monday!
Today after Susan gets off work we are headed to Reliant Stadium for the car show. She's interested in the Jeep Cherokee as it is coming out with a diesel engine this month. Hmmm ... I wonder if she'll let me convert it to veggie oil,lol.
I will also get to see the Shelby Mustang and possibly sit in the car of Tom's dreams. I'll have to go read his blog though to see which Mustang that is,lol. After the car show we are driving to San Antonio to bring Susan's brother to a Dr's appointment tomorrow. Then it's back to work Sat. and Sun. on days.
Well that's about it for me.
But wait there's more....if you look at the top of My Favorites there is a new place called Heads T-Shirts. I am toying around with the idea of putting my ideas and art unto a line of shirts. The one I have posted is the first attempt and I have a few more on the way. Tell me what you guys think! And wait, if you buy one I'll throw another one in for free,lol... no not really, just would like a few opinions of what you think.
Thanks y'all and have a great week.
And remember.... everybody must get stoned.... hmmmm another idea!

No lack of labor!

2007-01-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

I was trying to post some pics of the baby swans that hatched the other day but either I'm a knucklehead or blogger is ill. After reading about K's pregnancy I figured I'd have to share our little own hoopalah,lol. Luckily swan hatching isn't as stressful as real labor like K's going through, but trust me, it wasn't easy for me. Instead of dealing with afterbirth and what not I had to go get on the island and pick up any eggs that didn't hatch. Well all was fine and dandy til Emmitt sees me and hell hath no fury like a male swan who feels someone is invading his territory. I picked up the 4 infertile eggs and was pulling myself across the pond when he unleashed his viscous attack. And of course I get the dingy thingy that I pull myself across the pond stuck out of reach of my docking port so I totally get waylayed by this 14 lb bird. A few bites to my leg and some thrashing by his wings( which feel like someone smacking you with a 2X4 in the shins) and I final got back on land. And Karenna thinks she has something on me being in labor,lol.
Other news on the farm... let's see on another challenge... #9 I think.
This time I'm doing 20 minute cardio eveeryday but Sunday followed immediately by weights 5 days a week. I do 6 muscle groups a day, maximum weight suppersetted. I.E. three bi exercises superset with 3 hamstring exercises.
We'll see how that goes for a few weeks. Jan 17 will be 2 years doing the cardio, lifting routine that I have put my mind and body through.
As far as the eats... I try to eat healthy... fruits, veggies and just all around better choices 6 days a week, 6 meals a day. If I eat icecream I have it 1 day a week and it's the reduced sugar, low fat type. I know, 10 years from now it will probably be the chemicals in it that get me!
That's all I got for today. Hope everyone's new year is getting off to a great start.
Peace!

Hey all

2006-12-31T01:37:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Before Christmas, Susan and I went to Vegas and we learned a new way on how to lose money... quickly! We had a blast though. We went to the Valley of Fire Canyon and checked out a few new casinos. On Christmas Day we went to San Antonio to spend some time with David, Susan's brother. All he wanted for Christmas was my truck. He got a lot of other stuff though. We got back Monday afternnoon and then I took my mom to Gulfport Miss. on Tuesday to see my Aunt and Uncle and my cousins Greg and Jeff. I haven't seen Jeff in almost 26 years. He lives in Taiwan and is married to Opal and has two beautiful little girls. If I get a chance, since Opal took some pics and we exchanged blog sites I'll post a few pics if I can figure out how to move them over here from her blog. I also got to see some of the devastation from Katrinna and am amazed at how bad off the area looks a year and a half later. It was unreal. We returned home on Thursday night.
The truck ran well and did 2200 miles on one tank of diesel and has now gone over 11,000 miles since being converted to the veg oil. I'll put up some stats later on that.
Thanks for visiting guys and Tom.... I didn't get the feeling of being seasick until we got the new mattress... a tempurpedic... and when one lays down in it one gets this sinking feeling sensation. Coupled with the mural we both felt like we could have hurled a time or two,lol.
Pamela... I wish I was that talented .... I can make the stone head guys, but my painting and sculpting abilities aren't as good as Mike's(the artist who we collect the fish from and who painted our room)
Well that's about all i have. Have a good one!

The big fish bowl

2006-12-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

This is what I call our bedroom after we got it painted. Either that or as I'm giving a tour I show people the 75 gallon tank, and they say ooooh, and then I show them the 200 gallon salt water tank and they aaahhhh. Then I tell them we have a 20,000 gallon tank, then take them into our bedroom and they say nothing. They stand there in total silence and look at me like I'm an idiot,lol.
I'm working graveyards and it is 11:30 am. I got to bed at 6:30 a.m. I still should be in bed. The macaws have been screaming non stop since 9am. I sleep with earplugs and still could hear them. The minute I got up, they stopped screaming. In the infamous Elmer J. Fudd's words.. "I'm gonna get me some pawwot!"
Other than that Susan is doing better. Yes Tom there is a Santa Claus and Susan went to see him in the the form of her Doc and got some M&M's(menopause medicine) and she seems to be doing better. Oh and anything I talk about on this blog is open for questions. Well except how often I get hot chocolate a month. And you know I likes my hot chocolate! And also the pups doesn't eat her own poo, so that's a plus. Maybe I could name her turdbo pups!
I agree Erin ewwwww and more ewwwww!
On the health front. I finished another 12 weeks Saturday and started a new routine this Monday. Only difference is I added cardio. No HIIT just 2 levels of intensity before I lift. I started to get the Buddha belly. But hey, my biceps and chest gained some size. I just need to fine tune this process and I'll be where I want to be eventually.
I believe that's all folks!
Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mama always said.....

2006-11-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

don't run with a pencil in your hand, don't talk with your mouth full, don't eat yellow snow, don't pick your nose, and do not, I repeat, do not let the dog lick you in the mouth. This is the pups caught in the moment. Well almost, it's hard to catch the precise moment on camera and one of the fastest times recorded by man..... the time the bird poop hits the floor and the pups eats it! Don't let the dog lick you in the mouth. She usually sits there patiently waiting for anything that Crunch drops and pups snags it in midair. A macadamia, a walnut, a peanut, and yes poop. Nasty pups!
Someone asked me a few months ago " where do the birds poop and how do you clean it up?" Well,they poop on the floor and the turbo pup handles the cleaning. Hoover ain't got poop on her,lol.
Well the menopause monster still lurks. I wonder how long it stays. Longer than relatives that visit? I don't know if all the swithes on the fans and anything else that blows cool air can last. I've never seen anything turned on and off so frequently . Thursday we have a cold front coming so at least it will be well below the 70's we are having. That'll be interesting.
Well I need to go, but I will address the comments and questions next post.
Hope everyone is having a great week.

Menopause

2006-11-09T15:56:00.000-08:00

Hot,cold,hot cold,hot,cold.... I'm hot, I'm cold. Menopause.
We, yes I say we cause I'm suffering also,lol have been suffering with menopause for several months. Luckily her mood is normal, but her temperature isn't. I might need to get insurance for all the appliances we have that either move air or cool air. She has just about worn out my a/c knob on the truck. On, off, on, off, I'm too hot, I'm too cold. 250,000 miles on the truck and the a/c knob will have to be duct taped to stay on soon. At least she's in a decent mood, not bitchy like I had imagined.
The ceiling fan. Wow thank God I had the foresight to put a remote on the one in the bedroom. On, off, on, off, I'm hot, I'm too cold. Now where I feel fortunate here is that in our garage apartment where we lived before we built the big house we didn't have a remote on the ceiling fan.Sooooo if we forgot to turn it on when we went to bed, I was the one who had to get up and turn it on. You know the scenario.... babe I won't give you any.................. hot chocolate... yeah that's it,lol ..... babe you're not going to have any hot chocolate unless you get up and turn the fan on. Well I likes me some hot chocolate before bedtime,lol. Now in our new bedroom, had I not put a remote on the ceiling fan I would be going to bed a lot ...... without my hot chocolate..... I just hope the remote can handle the barrage of on and off.
Dinner time.. the fan in the kitchen... on,off,on,off, I'm hot....I'm cold... Tonight we had cold burgers and hot slaw.... but at least she's in a good mood.
T.V. time....... exercise fan has been moved next to the couch. On off,on,off.... I'm hot.....I'm cold.... And man thank God it has a remote,lol and man can that fan move some air... blows fat free,sugar free icecream right off the spoon. No big loss,lol.
Anyway , I'm being patient and am hoping for the day we get back to normal. At least she's in a good mood!

So you say you got a sewer shark, eh?

2006-10-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

These are the professional sewer shark divers I hired to clean the sewer sharks out of my sewer system,lol. Not really, but I can't remember where I have heard that line before. Maybe The Carol Burnett Show? I don't know? This is what we caught in my pond on Saturday. Thirty six catfish. The boys are Bryan's sons Ryan and Taylor. We all had a great time. Now I get to experiment on healthy ways to prepare catfish. Catfish omelets? Catfish tacos? or just wait until freeday and have some good Deep South southern fried catfish, hmmm the debate begins. So does the drooling!
As far as my comments and observations on menopause, I still plan to comment, but as Irene mentioned.... patience.
Ponder this though..
Men-o-pause
Man-o-war
Ever been stung by a man-o-war?
Hope you all are having an awesome weekend!

Grillin and chillin

2006-10-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Tom, this is what I BBQ on. I know, you think me being in Texas I'd have one of those pipe pits with a smoke box that was on a trailer. Oh and don't forget about the state of Texas or a big lone star welded somewhere on the stack,lol. No this is what I have and grill on. The bigger one is for gatherings and the little one is for small meals.I don't wear an apron, or a tool belt that holds spatulas and bbq brushes and I don't have a set of cutlery used for grilling. Sorry if this image isn't too Texan, lol. It's more like eclectic idiot savante(my style)!
Well the challenge is going well. I feel like I'm making gains in size and not gaining too much weight, but I do feel the pudge coming on around the belly area. I'll prpbably have to cut after this challenge.
The vegistroke is running well still and I'm creeping upon 5000 miles. I'll put some more stats up as I get some more mileage on it.
The answers and responses to a few of your replies to last posts:
Tom again,lol O.K. when I had the Harley tatto I went to bars like Pan Head's or the Shovel Head Bar , or I think even Low Riders a few times. When I did the cover up with the birds I now frequent places like The Parrotise Bar and Grille, The Rain Forest Cafe or the Amazon Grille. So you see, one has to roll with the changes,lol. Maybe when we get to San Diego, you Irene and I can all get a tattoo done together!
Irene, Katie, LaLa and Dr. P. thanks for the compliments! Hope all is well in your challenges and health! I hope to visit your blogs soon, but since we can't take our laptops to work I'm pressed for computer time.
Well I need to get, got someone at the gate picking up some chickens.
Next posted topic will be about menopause and living with it. Oh no I don't have it but I'm living with someone who has it. I have some stuff I'd like to comment on.

Right On!

2006-10-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Er um I mean right arm,lol. Look what I went and did last month. I wanted to cover a Harley tattoo so I figured this might do the trick. I bet you can't find the eagle or the writing. Anyway thought I'd take a pic and post it.
I want to thank you guys for the well wishes about Hoss. I'm sure he is enjoying where he's at. I do think we'll get to visit him when we go to San Diego in the spring. Heck, I think we'll get to meet Tom and Irene also.
My 8th challenge is going well. Bumping weight up almost every week, which is good. I will do measurements next week to see if I have gained any inches on my bi's.
The running of my truck on veggie oil is going well. I have put 3000 miles on it so far. I filled up my diesel tank for only the second time and am averaging 84 mpg! I have recently set up a filtration and pump assembly with a pump handle like the gas stations have. I'll have to take pics of that soon and post.
Well, that's about it for now. Have an awesome weekend and guys, thanks again for your thoughts!

Good by to you my trusted friend...

2006-10-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

we've known each other .... well I've had Hoss for over three years now. It was a very hard thing to do but I think the decision to find him a new home came about after we evacuated for Rita. We were heartbroken to have to leave him behind. We didn't have enough trailer space for him and then the problem of letting him out at our friends place could have been a mess. He gets into everything but at our place we had the pasture set up so he couldn't be as destructive.
He was at first suppose to go to Virginia City, Nevada where they race camels and emus, but the lady wouldn't commit to a deposit and I had others in line willing to. He went to a lady near San Diego who will use him in a petting type zoo and in nativity scenes.I hope he will be happy and I already miss him. I know it's a lot different when you guys sell your kids..... um I mean send them off to college, or when they grow up move out and get married, but this really hurts. At least I can hope that he has a good home and hopefully we'll get to see him when we go to San Diego in April.
Hope everyone is doing fine,
Troy

Long time no post.

2006-09-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, been busy so I haven't posted in a while. First of all I just finished with another 12 weeks( Challenge 8.) I haven't eaten to plan or worked out the last three days to finish this challenge up due to Jason being in town and working on some issues I had with the veggie oil system that he invented and I run on my truck. I think all the bugs are ironed out and will put 10 hours on it on a quickie trip to San Antonio. We are going to visit David and bring some supplies and get him a picture I.D.
The above pics were taken and posted for Katiefeld's mom. Today Jason, Pete(my best friend) and I went to see the Sikorsky sea plane that was once owned by Howard Hughes. Our good friend Jess who is a retired pilot restored this plane and is the only one that is flyable today. The other one is in the Smithsonean and isn't in flight condition.Hughes crashed this plane in Lake Mead and the co-pilot was killed and Hughes was severely wounded. He had it pulled out of Lake Mead, repaired and flew it until 1952. He was experimenting with this plane and later built the Spruce Goose. There is a lot more history to this plane and I have a lot more pics. It is awesome to personally get to view this piece of history.
Hope you all have a great weekend, and on to C-9!

Surfin U.S.A.

2006-08-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

This is the outing David got to go on last week. Once a year Sea World San Antonio shuts down the water park and opens it up for the residents at the Rainbow House. This is the chair they designed for those whose head injuries prevent them or make it hard for them to walk. I just think this is so great and gives these people some sort of life and something to look forward to. It sure beats the nursing home he was in. David is starting to talk more in meaningful sentences instead of answering yes or no to everything. I think the stimulation f the Rainbow House is providing and the fact he has structure and is around people closer to his age has already proven to be quite beneficial. What a difference in a couple of weeks time.
Tom- the camel races are held in Virginia City, Nevada, second week in Sept.We are about 200 miles away from San Antonio.
The exercise and eating are going well. I'm into week 10 of C-7 and still have been gaining a little in my measurements. It will be time to check out a new routine for the next 12 weeks. I have a couple of ideas from some mags I'm interested in.
The french fry mobile is running well.I have put about 1000 miles burning used veggie oil. There is still a timer problem with the shutdown sequence. I have made an offer to Jason(Mr. Vegistroke inventor). You fly down from Oregon and diagnose the problem(and he's going to install an upgrade to the unit) and if I made a wiring mistake or it's an electrical prob with my truck, I'll pay for his ticket. If it's his problem well, as I told him, I have a mower with your name on it, lol. Haven't told him I have 17 acres in need of mowing either.
Well that's all I have for now. Have an awesome weekend guys!

Chicago, My Kinda Town

2006-08-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed visiting Chicago. The fun thing we enjoyed doing was hopping on the El and see where it would take us. This is one of the places we ended up at. It is Wiggley Field. We walked around the whole field to see if we could grab a peak at what was going on inside. We saw men in uniforms with these leather gloves on their hands and then thinking about the name could only assume it's a giant earth worm farm and they use those big gloves to catch those worms.We really couldn't get close enough to see the worms but we did see the men chasing things and catching them. I forgot to ask Erin about Wiggley Field but I figured some of you more seasoned travelers can fill me in.
Thanks guys for the responses on my post about David. He is doing well and we have only had one call concerning him. It seems one of the girls there has a fancy for him and they have been caught for partaking in a little hanky panky. They were told that this is not tolerated at Rainbow House, but of course 15 minutes later they have already forgotten what they were in trouble for. The staff isn't too concerned about it so I just hope it doesn't become an issue that could get him kicked out. I'm hoping it might make him enjoy the place and he'll behave.
The Vegistroke: well the verdict is still out. I have been having some electrical problems with it and now the control board has to be replaced. I got 700 miles on it so far but it has been hit and miss. I have to say though, that Jason, the inventor of it has been excellent in getting back with me and helping me diagnose the electrical problems. He returns every email and phone call promptly and has never lost his patience with me. He treats me with the utmost respect and that has alleviated any anxiety I would have had dealing with the problems I have encountered. Hopefully I'll have it running again in a day or two.
Well I have sold Hoss. It was a hard decision but one I think we had to make. When we had to leave several of the larger animals when we evacuated last year it broke our hearts. We can't do that again and it's not fair to them. We brought them here and it is our responsibilty to take care of them. He is going to Nevada where he will be racing with other camels. We will go see him in 2008 for the 50th annual camel race. It should be fun and I think he'll have a great home.
Other than that I'm back to good eating(except today I had a safety meeting and didn't prepare) but am back to working out after the week layoff. It's week 9 challenge 7 if you're counting. It's parrot time, got to go,
Later and have a great week,
Troy.

David

2006-08-16T03:20:00.000-07:00

This is Susan's brother David. Now before I go on with his story I would like to make a few comments'
Tom and Irene- I think we will be going to San Diego sometime next Aprilish. The whole intention of this trip is to visit the San Diego Zoo and a parrot place(can't remember the name) to again, see one of my all time favorite parrots, the Black Palm Cockatoo. And secondly, of course to meet blends, lol. Katie(KFM), maybe we can kill three birds and you can join us.
Also have you guys seen the new Jet Blue airline promotionals. From Houston to New York, 1 way trip, the price of a barrel of oil(yesterday it was 73 bucks). We were planning on Vegas in Dec. but we might be going to New York in Oct. or Nov.
This is a pic of David, Susan's brother when he stayed with us for a few days 2 Thanksgivings ago. In 1984 when David was 18 he was thrown from his friends car and suffered a severe closed head injury.Both the boys had been drinking and were in Galveston when the driver lost control of the car and rolled it. David from that point on had the mental capacity of a young teenager. He could do most things, but couldn't drive and had a lot of drug and alcohol issues. He would make money mowing yards and would ride his bike for miles to get him where he wanted to go. He was able to live in a friends rental house on their property and he was fairly independant. Susan and her mom had to handle his finances though. 4 years ago this December David went missing for a few days. This wasn't uncommon so we weren't too concerned until we got a call from the hospital. David was at Herman Hospital in a coma. He had been hit(presumably by a drunk driver) at night on his bike and left for dead on the shoulder of the road. It just so happened that a police officer heard a car run over his bike, which was still in the road from already being hit, went over to check it out and found David unconscious in the grass. He was identified through fingerprints and we were contacted several days later.After several surgeries and a host of other mishaps due to the second head injury, David now has the mental capacity of a 2 to 4 year old.Because of this he can no longer live on his own and has to be supervised 24/7. The only place he could be handled were the nursing homes and the Alzheimer homes. We tried other places but it didn't work out. He either scared the patients with his loud outbursts, or he was able to get out of the places he was in and his own safety became an issue. The Alzheimer facility is a great place if one is a lot older and suffering from that hideous disease. It is not a place for a 38 year old man. Susan has never stopped trying and for several years has diligently checked out every facility that could work with David. She finally got him accepted into the Rainbow House. It has about 12 residents housed in a former tennis club house in a subdivision in San Antonio.Their ages range from 25 to 60. They all have had some sort of brain injury, be it from accidents, strokes or disease. This place doesn't just stick you in a corner , shove food in your face and place you in front of a T.V. til bed time. They have daily activities and in two weeks, they will shut Sea World water park down and the residents have the park exclusively for them to water ski(the park made wheel chairs to fit the skis) swim and have a great day. They have several outtings a year like this. I think David's mental capacity will improve because of the stimulation he will be getting. I hope he will happy there. I'm just happy to see Susan so happy that David now has a some sort of life. This has really been tough for her, because 6 months before David has his first accident, she lost her other brother John, who was only 21 years old in an accident at work. I feel this is the least she would have done for David, and would stop at nothing short until she exhausted every avenue. I feel honored to share my life with this woman! I feel honored that I can call her my wife!
Good luck David!

My first blender!

2006-08-14T03:19:00.000-07:00

So, Erin is the first person I got to meet and it was awesome. She is as pretty as she is smart and let me tell you she is about the smartest lady I have ever met, well except for Susan of course. We met at the Chicago Chop House, had dinner and talked about everything. She has what I call an old soul. She is young yet has the knowledge and wisdom of someone who has lived a lifetime. I was pretty nervous at the aspect of meeting her and I had the advantage of Susan being with me and my friend Pete who travels with us, but after a few minutes of talking with her I felt very comfortable and enjoyed our visit. I hope her and her husband will get to come down to Texas for a visit. There are so many more things I wanted to talk about and say but the time was short. It was so neat getting to meet someone I have learned so much about over emails, blogs, and forums. It is the ultimate compliment to a budding friendship that has a lot of similarities like health, where are origins are from and future goals.
I had to email Erin and tell her that I wonder if the next meeting of a blend will be a letdown, because one never forgets those firsts in life, like that first roller coaster ride or the first time you drive a car,lol. Well, next summer we are going to San Diego, so Tom, Will it be you? We'll test my theory about the second blend meetup,lol.

We're back.

2006-08-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

We got back in town from Chicago Tuesday night. Meeting Erin was a blast and I hope we can meet again. Pics to come later. We had to go to San Antonio yesterday and got back today. We got Susan's brother into a new facility and are really excited about this. More on this later. I will be installing the Vegistroke this weekend, pics and more to come later. Have been enjoying free week, more to come later, but no pics,lol. I think I sold my camel to a place in Nevada that races camels. I was upset at first but what he did today to one of our other animals assured me I made the right decision, again more to come later. Hopefully when things settle down I'll post more later. Hope all is well with everyone,
Troy.
Later!

Off to Chicago

2006-08-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

We're off to Chicago for a few days . We hope to get some sight seeing in, eat at some really good places and get to meet Erin. Our meet up with Erin will be at the Chicago Chop House. Since I'm on vacation I'll eat whatever I feel. For exercise, I think we'll get plenty walking around in. As for Erin, well I'll try not to encourage any bad eating behaviours for the evening, lol. I'll try to get some pics and will post when we get back.
And I hope by the time I get back, my Vegistroke unit for running my truck on veggie oil will be in and that I'll have it installed. Man I can't wait! I'm so excited! To meet Erin of course!
Have a great weekend y'all.

Frog Eater

2006-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a piece of art I got from the guy who painted our bedroom all up. It called frog eater. If you look closely you can see a frog leg hanging out of his mouth. I have him in a tree in front of the house. I would like to have 6 of these made(he calls them Tiki men) sans the frog legs(poor little frogs, now all i vision is these frogs in wheel chairs) and have them hanging on the columns in the front of our house. L.E.D. lights to illuminte from their eyes would look cool, don't you think?
Anyway it's the end of week 6, still have shoulders, tris and plyo to do, but I'll get it! Eating has been o.k., one popscicle 3 chocolate chip cookies this week and a bowl of ff reduced sugar yogert were this weeks splurges.
I'm hoping to get to meet one of our own next week. Can you guess who it might be? We are going to Chicago(clue #1) and when I first looked her up in tracker her tracker name caught my attention. I thought she might work at Nasa because of her name, (clue #2), but she wasn't from Fla. or my neck of the woods. Go Braugh(clue #3).
If you guys don't figure it out I'll add more clues later.
Other than that hope everyone is hitting "10's" either in their health or just living life to it's fullest.
Later pilgrims!

Why do bulldogs have smooshed faces?

2006-07-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

From chasing parked cars,lol. It's either that or for sniffin ass! That pup sniffs EVERYTHING. And the noises she makes when she's sniffing willl make you howl.
On to other things: I'm not running on veggie oil yet. My unit still hasn't arrived. I've collected a fair amount of oil though and my techniques are getting better.
I'm on week 6 challenge 7 and haven't missed a workout this challenge and have been happy with the gain in arm and leg size. Eating could be better,but we'll see how this challenge finishes out before I tweak my eating habits.
I am BBQing right now, but Tom would probably pinch me with some tongs if he saw what I was cooking. It's a lean pork loin, sauteed in wine and herbs and is in a aluminum foil boat. Oh and the pit isn't one of those big pipe smokers like you'd think most Texans would have. It's actually an outdoor stove, I beg your pardon, lol with a rotisserie and a side burner, no less. Sorry Tom, maybe one day I'll have a real man's pit!
That's about it, have a great few days until my next post and take care.
Back to the grillin and chillin!

Name that bird

2006-07-19T05:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a visitor that frequents our ponds. For some reason the swans allow this guy to hang out. And this is not a flamingo,lol.
I'm in week 5 of C7 and things are going well. Measured Sunday and here are some of the changes since last month:
wt: down 3 lbs- 165 to 162
neck up 1/8 inch to 15 1/8
bi's up 1/8 to 14 1/8
chest dropped an 1/8 to 38 3/8
thighs up an 1/8 tpo 23 1/2
calves up a 1/4 to 15 1/4
forearm up an 1/8 to 11 3/4
So all in all 4 weeks into the modified Jim Stonemuscle Head build up the beef routine I would say is still successful as I'm still gaining inches. Now not enough to compete in anything mind you , but enough to keep pushing on.
As far as the venture on running my truck on veggie oil , I'm still waiting for the unit to arrive. Jason(the inventor)had some bad pumps come in and he emailed me to tell me it would be another week. So I've continued my quest on collecting more oil. I also started running my truck on a 1/3 blend of biodiesel. After this tank I'm running right now, I'll go to a 2/3 blend. The truck is running good on it, but it was recommended to run 3 - 1/3 tanks of bio because I have 230,000 miles on my truck and the bio will clean the tank and lines and I would have some filter issues if I ran full tanks of it right off the bat.
Now as far as Daisy, our mastiff goes, she is a sweet dog and actually very shy. But she is intimidating and that's what we wanted, living out in the country. Kinda like a first line of defense. By the way, her nickname is slobber jaws and when she shakes her large gourd, be prepared to run, it's nasty,lol.
Well, I hope you guys are all eating right and hitting the gym routinely.And please remember what Erin said in her blog, stay cool and drink plenty of fluids in this heat!

Ever seen a mutated cow?

2006-07-12T05:07:00.000-07:00

I am now on week 4 of challenge 7. I haven't missed a day yet and the new routine: three lifting days and 3 cardio days fit nicely into my schedule. I can't wait to measure at the end of this to see if I have had any results like the last challenge. Also I have been reading a book:oh yes people I can read,lol, can't spell worth a crap but I can read, The Book of Muscle by Ian King. I think after C-7 I'll give this plan a try.
Jim- we will be in Chicago from Aug 5th to the 8th. We are staying at the Hotel Allego. If your plans change, holler, but be forewarned, eating to plan and exercising while on vacation is a sin. It's my vacation,lol. We can't stay long due to the animals.
Jess- the smell, especially when a hose comes loose on my pump and sprays me with old grease, has me reeking like a combination of fried chicken, fried catfish and okra, yum yum. Now I have a bad habit of smelling everything before I eat it. Like I'm the grease police or something,lol.
As for the pics , no that's not a mutated cow, that Daisy, our English Mastiff. She was the runt of the litter and weighs 150 lbs. Her brother Griffon weighed over 200 lbs, and her mom and dad were both over 200 lbs. The other dog is Abigail our boxer, and that's my daughter Jennifer, playing with them.
Hope all is well with everyone and hope everyone is having a great workout week.

My week in review

2006-07-09T05:17:00.000-07:00

I finished up week 3 of my new routine. Next week I measure to check progress.This is the routine that I have changed up this go around, using a lot of Jim's suggestions on the last challenge.
The grease venture looks like it will be a little longer before I'm running my truck on it. The guy who sells the system got a batch of bad pumps in so he told me it will be another week or two. This should give me more time to improve on my grease handling techniques. I've graduated to pumps, batteries and maybe an inverter(this week) instead of a pail and rope.
To pay for the initial investment of the Vegistroke I was lucky enough to sell some swans this weekend. We sold 2 of the Australian black swans and two of the white swans. That was 1100 bucks earned the easy way. We have two more whites that have a few more months to go and the blacks are on the nest again. I'm seriously debating whether to sell Hoss (my camel) dig a pond in his area and buy another type of swan. The selling of the baby swans every year pretty much cover the cost of our feed bill for the year.
Other than that we are looking forward to our little trip to Chicago in August.
Hope you guys have a great workout week and the eats are to plan!

And it keeps getting worser,lol

2006-07-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

At least the food and exercise is on plan. When it rains it pours. I was cutting the grass and my Zero turn mower quit moving, so I towed it back to the barn with Susan's and called Dick, the mower mechanic, and yes he can be what his God given name is, but he's the only one I trust with the mower. After he irritated me, which is normal for him( he also never fails to mention in front of customers how I drove Susan's mower into the pond) I decided I would go to his shop try to pick his brain and fix it myself. Well all that went well, probably saved a c-note in labor, except I somehow didn't get the cutting belt on right and on the victory lap around the property I went to engage said cutting blades and chewed the belt up immediately. Now I have to drop another 40 bucks and worsely,lol, deal with Dick. I hate getting Dicked around! I guess I wasn't meant to be a mechanic. That's about it, and I'm hoping tomorrow will get better. At least I have my health!
Have a great weekend,
Troy.

Wait, it gets worse.

2006-06-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

O.K. grease pit diving was nasty. And man I have got to unass some cash and get the equipment to do this right and easier, but I didn't want to sink a lot into this endeavor if I can get waste veggie oil already collected for a buck a gallon.
So anyoldfrickinway, I have to filter this crap. I throw the 15 gallon drum of wvo oil on the tailgate of the truck and drain this into another drum through a rag to get the gretzkies out(little food particles). After that's done I roll the drum back into the sun to settle so any free water falls to the bottom. Later I'll pump that through a 10 micron water filter into the auxillary tank of my truck(which I haven't bought yet).
Well back to anyoldfrickinway, the rag plugs up with about a gallon in the funnel . I'm out the door on my way to work so I decide to pick it up, swap rags out and filter the rest. As I'm picking this up the rag slips out cause it's greasy(duh) and the shit hit's the(well, this time it's the legs and sneakers).I have to go change uniforms, hurry up and head out to work and the crap has permeated my sneakers. Now my truck smells like KFC.
Like I said I need to do this the easy way. They say you get what you pay for. Well hell I ain't paid for squat but I'm sure getting my money's worth, at least in the hassle dept.
I just hope I'm smiling when I'm driving past the gas pumps soon.
The workouts: On week 2 and going strong!
Grease is the word.....

Is it worth it?

2006-06-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Went grease pit diving. Armed with a rope, bucket and a couple of drums I managed to wrangle up about 25 gallons of used veggie oil. Man that's nasty. If it works it was worth 75 bucks(that's what 25 gallons of diesel costs).I don't think I will want to eat fried foods for awhile. That smell kinda lingers. I hope the exhaust doesn't reek like this. I'll also invest in a 12 volt pump if it looks like this supply will last. I think I'd rather do HIIT cardio on a treadmill than do that again. Oh, by the way, before I went pit diving I did cardio on the elliptical. Knocked off 483 cals in 20 minutes.
If I'm really lucky though and I have a few lined up, the people will put their used oil in the 5 gallon cubitainers that the oil came in new. Usually I'm not that lucky,lol.
That's about it. I think I'm going to go sniff something sweet to get that fried odor out of my mind. I think chocolate might work!

Week 1 day 6, challenge 7

2006-06-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

My laptop crashed and since I work 12 hour shifts it doesn't leave me a lot of time to post and blog. Anyway yesterday did the HIIT recumbant. Today was shoulders and plyometrics.
The routine:
Warm up: shoulder press: 10,8,5,3 reps with 75,75,120,130 lbs
supersetted with 10 reps, 4 sets of 10 jump squats
Shoulder press: 6,6,5 reps with 150 lbs
ss with 1 reps 4 sets of 10 tuck jumps
Shoulder shrugs: 3 sets of 6 reps with 120 lbs
ss with 4 sets of 8 box jump(box is 12 inches tall)
Front dumbbell raise: 3 sets of 6 reps with 25 lbs each
ss with 18 inch box jump to 24 inch bench jump 4 sets ,10 reps
Side raise dumbbells: 3 sets of 6 reps at 25 lbs
ss with 3 sets 10 reps ab crunches
dumbbell lying tricep extensions: 3 sets of 6 reps at 25 lbs
ss with 3 sets 10 reps oblique crunches
Sitting tricep dumbbell extensions: 3 sets 6 reps at 70, 70, 52.5 lbs(last set I had no more to give
ss with 2 minutes rest inbetween those last 3 lifts.
That whole routine kicked my ass and took 43 minutes.
Any opinions of whether supersetting lifting with a routine like plyometrics is good for muscle growth or not.I was actually sucking eggs several minutes after finishing this.
Anyway, hope y'all are having a fantabulous w/e!
Troy

No pics today!

2006-06-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

I guess blogger is ill. Today I spent some time at work today trying to secure me a few gallons of waste vegetable oil. I called a few ma and pa eateries and might have a few gallons secured. All of the major players have contracts to procure their grease, so the grease out there is going to be slim pickings.I sure hope Houston Biodiesel starts selling the wvo or I'm screwed on this endeavor.
The workout:
Today was Back and Bi's supersetted with quads and hamstrings:
warm up: chest rows 10,8,5,3, reps at 80,80,100,110 lbs
and like before the legs were done after each set of reps of the chest rows
warm up: leg press 10,8,5,3 reps at 100,100,120,130 lbs
chest rows: 6 reps at 145 lbs
super set with leg press: 6 reps at 197.5 lbs
lat pull downs: 6,5,4 reps at 155 lbs, this kicked my butt! lol.
ss with hack squats: 6 reps at 185 lbs
dumbbell hammer curls: 6 reps at 40 lbs
ss with leg curls : 6 reps at 130 lbs
1 arm db bicep curl: 6 reps at 40 lbs
ss with romanian dead lifts: 6 reps at 150 lbs
This routine took me only 30 minutes, but let me tell you... it's an ass rippin, butt hole poppin workout! I don't know if I can give it 12 weeks but that's the way I felt after a week of Jim's routine. We'll see.
That's about it for today.
Later!

I Can Make it to the Gate in 3.5 Seconds...

2006-06-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

can you!
Today was cardio day, day 3 week 1. I did the recumbant bike HIIT style. I rode it hard and was totally whooped when I finished. Twenty minutes is a long time. Other than that I didn't do squat. Showed a pair of swans I have for sale, spent a few hours on the phone and a few on the computer and that was about it. I am trying to order that Vegistroke unit I discussed in other posts but the computer isn't co-operating or my card isn't. It's that or I have ordered 6 units so far. Man, will Susan be pissed when she sees that bill,lol.
That's about it! Hope you guys are having a great day!

Don't Trip Over the Guard Dog

2006-06-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today is day 2 of C-7. To break the boredom of continuing a routine, I took Jim's routine and changed it up a tad. Today I did chest and calves. Also this routine goes by a little faster which is great because I need the extra time for chores and was starting to run out of daylight, so to speak. Here's how this new routine went and it only took 24 minutes:
Warm up: decline bench press10,8,5,3 reps at 100,100,120,130 lbs.
Instead of taking 60 secs between reps I did warm up calves in between the chest reps the same weight.I think this is called supersets and I did it through the whole routine.
Decline bench press: 6 reps 150 lbs
Calf press : 12 reps 197.5 lbs
Inline bench press: 6 reps 175 lbs
1 leg calf press: 12 reps 105 lbs
Pec flies: 6 reps 140 lbs
Calf raises: 12 reps 140 lbs
Then I finished it off with 15 pushups.
It was quick and painful (good pain), and we'll see what happens in 4 weeks.
The eating will still follow Eating for Life basics 40/40/20 ratio.
That's about it on the health front.
On the fuel front I have been talking to some references of people who use the Vegistroke (still sounds like a sex toy to me ,lol) waste vegetable oil system and today I went to talk to a guy who makes home brew biodiesel. Both are promising but I'm leaning toward the Vegistroke right now, but will definitely make bio in the near future.
So that 's about it for now!

Walking the Dog

2006-06-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Today was the start of my 7th challenge. I started the day after I got up with some HIIT cardio on the recumbant bike. I think this round I will try cardio on Mondays, especially after the freeday feeding frenzy. Anyone ever feel like lifting after that food hangover? I sure don't! So we'll give this a try. I was curious about this... do you guys think it's o.k. to keep calling these challenges and posting pics in tracker every 12 weeks. I just feel for me and others like me that for some of us the miracle transformation isn't going to occur in 12 weeks. I wasn't an athlete in school, hell I wasn't even an athletic supporter, lol, but I hope this can demonstrate to people, possibly a majority of people, that the slow and steady course can produce results. For me this is for life, not for 12 weeks and that's it. I hope if I make it to my late years that my dedication to my health pays off in the fact that if I'm in a nursing home it's due to the high cost of owning a home and not due to my failing health. All I'm saying is if I make it to 80 or 90, I hope I can wipe my own ass, thank you! Oh and not having to take viagra and other meds!Here's to everyone's health! Now let's start a new challenge and fight that aging process.

More week 1 vs. week 12 comparisons

2006-06-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

Week 1 no twins.
Week 12: a set of twins and a handful. My cup runneth over. Actually her cups both runneth over, lol. Life is good!
I finished week 12 today with Quads and Hamstrings, This was an 8 day cycle so every week was different, which made it interesting. So here are some more weight comparisons.
Quads and Hammies:
week 1 hack squat barbell warmups:80 t0 130 lbs 4 sets
week 12 hack squat bb warmups: 110 t0 140 lbs
week 1 hack squats bb: 160 lbs 4 sets
week 12 hack squatsbb: 180 lbs 4 sets
week 1 leg extensions machine: 170 lbs 3 sets
week 12 185 lbs 3 sets
week 1 bb power cleans: 90 lbs 3 sets
week 12: 115 lbs 3 sets
week 1 1 leg curls: 55 lbs 4 sets
week 12 67.5 lbs
week 1 Romanian dead lifts bb: 130 lbs 4 sets
week 12 150 lbs
Shoulders and Triceps:
week 1 warm up shoulder press, machine: 50 - 80 lbs 4 sets
week 12 warm up: 80 -110 lbs
week 1 shoulder press: 110 lbs 3 sets
week 12 140 lbs
week 1 upright rows machine: 80 lbs 3 sets
week 12 95 lbs
week 1 front raises machine: 32.5 3 sets
week 12 50 lbs
week 1 rear raises machine:27.5 lbs 3 sets
week 12 37.5 lbs
week 1 tricep pushdown machine: 65 lbs 3 sets
week 12 80 lbs
week 1 tricep overhead extension machine: 60 lbs 3 sets
week 12 80 lbs.
I ended the routine with dumbbell overhead extensions, 60 lbs to failure which was 15 reps the last time.
In the mix was 2 to 3 times a week, ab boot camp and some cardio. I'll show the calf routine and plyometrics routine tomorrow. Even though I don't think I look any different, I feel better and stronger after Jim's suggested routine. I will continue with this but will change it up a tad( if it's alright with the master,lol) and post the routine soon, which I plan to start on Monday.
You guys have a great w/e!

Week 1 vs week 12 weights

2006-06-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Finishing up on week 12 challenge 6 and wanted to look at how my weight increased. Not how much weight I gained, but how much weight I am able to lift, lol.
week 1 bench press warm up- 80 lbs to 130 lbs in 4 sets
week 12 137.5 lbs to 177.5 lbs
week 1 bench press 160 lbs 4 sets
week 12 197.5 lbs 4 sets
week 1 incline press 140 lbs 3 sets
week 12 170 lbs
week 1 dumbbell pullover 60 lbs 3 sets
week 12 80 lbs
week 6 pec fly 110 lbs 3 sets( added this later )
week 12 130 lbs
also added decline press in week 10 which I would press 1 set to fatigue at 190 lbs, got 12 reps off last time

Back and bi's
week 1 warm up lat pulldowns 65-105 lbs 4 sets
week 12 87.5 -137.5 lbs
week 1 lat pull downs 130 lbs 4 sets
week 12 152.5 4 sets
week 1 dumbbell 1 arm row 80 lbs 4 sets
week 12 85 lbs
week 1 bicep curls 75 lbs 3 sets
week12 82.5 lbs
week 1 incline dumbbell curls 37.5 lbs 3 sets
week 12 45 lbs
added chest rows near week 7 and did 15 reps to failure at 145 lbs in week 12.
Tomorrow will be the end of this challenge and I'll try to post some of the other exercises as I get time. Jim's routine is a ripper and I think I saw some progress in my muscle growth. I will also post the measurements in the next few days.
The eating has pretty much followed the eating for life style, but the amount changed due to me needing to eat more protein. I had a few slip ups more this go around on eating and missed 3 days of workouts. I haven't missed a workout day since last September. This up and coming challenge, Susan and I are debating on whether to eat by the books( the book actually ) for 6 to 12 weeks and see what happens. I haven't eaten the way bfl suggests but think I might need to give it a try in order to get rid of the last remaining fat around my stomach and back. Just a side note, Susan has been working out, but due to the arrival of the twins, it has been a slower progression for her. Well I need to get! Starting nights. Have a great weekend y'all!

I beg your pardon....

2006-06-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

But I did promise you pictures of my rock garden. Before and after pics. The pic on the left, done with 2 bucks worth of roundup. The pic on the right, priceless, and I mean the cost lol. Anyway we did this to keep the dogs from digging in this area and laying by the door which resulted in mud being tracked in the house. We thought it would take 1 maybe 2 pallets of rock, and 3 huge boulders. Due to a gross miscalculation on my part it took 6 pallets of rock. I guess I'll work overtime this week to pay that off. My new motto, measure... measure again... measure one more time.... give the calculations to the wife!
Yesterday we were invited to spend the day in Galveston. Our friends rented a beach house and we had a great time. I learned that you can hunt for sharks teeth, use a seine net to catch critters and look at what's in the water. We even caught a few pipefish(related to sea horses, I think) and had some great BBQ. Boy how things change when you get older. I used to think the only thing fun about going to the beach was looking at the women. Now that I think about it I guessed I was so engrossed in what we were discovering I didn't even notice any women, except for Susan,lol.
The workouts have been good, the eats so so, and I'm heading into week 12 of Jim's plan. We'll see where I end up before I decided what regimine I will try next.
Y'all have a great Sunday!
Troy.

Hell----o

2006-06-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

I am having absolute hell with my internet at work this week. It must be bad electricity,lol. Anyway, back to hitting the workouts good. On week 11, one more week to go.
Answers and comments:
Tom - I hope you can make it next year also, and I think her dad cooks the brisket for 4 to 6 hours, but I'll check.
Jess- gumbo dirt probably does have shrimp with tons of clay.It's nasty soil though.Jess can I count you in for next year!
Erin and Jim, I'll put you down on the list for next year.
I always get a chuckle when Tom mentions his wife as the Lovely Linda. I now think of mine as the Sexy Susan, especially since the arrival of the twins. It got me to thinking(which in itself could be dangerous), if I was a bull and Susan was a cow, then the twins would be three sets of twins. That would be udderly awesome!
Y'all have an awesome day!

Next BBQ

2006-06-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone's invited to the next bbq. It should be around the same time next year. Hope y'all can make it. It was a blast and it was really fun getting to see some friends we hadn't seen since the last one, two years ago. We thought this wouldn't happen due to the amount of rain we had 3 days prior. All in all I think we got 9 inches of rain in Alvin. I almost had to put pontoons on the mower to get the front mowed where I parked everyone. Luckily the gumbo dirt dries out quickly so the yard wasn't rutted too terribly bad. Susan's dad did the brisket and sausage
and again outdid hisself. Most everyone brought appetizers of all types. What a great freeday,lol.
I missed a couple of workouts last week due to getting everything ready, but considering we were working from sun up to sun down in preperation for the party, I think we got plenty of exercise in for the w/e.
Well that's about it. Hope eveyone had a great w/e and hope the coming up week is going to be a fantastic one, later,
Troy.

I'm it!

2006-06-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

We have been extremely busy this week preparing for our BBQ we have every couple of years. I missed my cardio yesterday because I had to push mow. We've gotten about 6 inches of rain and we typically park everyone in the front of our property. I've push mowed about 3 acres , so hopefully everything will dry out. I'm glad we decided to go with the dyed concretee for our floors in the house. It should be easy to clean.
Erin tagged me so now I'm it!
I AM: always in motion.
I WANT: a yard boy
I HATE: red ants
I MISS: under a dollar gas prices!
I FEAR: swimming in water when I can't see my feet.... sharks!
I WONDER: wonder, who, who wrote the book of love.
I REGRET: not finishing my environmental science degree.
I AM NOT: very athletic
I DANCE: probably like a person who has epilepsy.
I SING: see above,lol.
I CRY: when I found out they moved Grey's Anatomy to Thursday night's opposite C.S.I.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: reading instructions when I should. Do any guys read instructions?
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS:obscene gestures at the idiots I encounter while driving. I just do it out of their sight so as not to get shot at!
I WRITE: my meal plan down for that moment as I am eating it.
I CONFUSE: my right from my left and figure this out constantly by visualizing which hand I hold a pen in.
I NEED: a lawn boy
I SHOULD: hire me a lawn boy, I think I need to change my I HATE: to mow!
I START: many a project.
I FINISH : every project I start. Well 98 % of the time!
Well that was interesting.I suppose I'll tag CoCo!
Have a great w/e y'all!

Research continues, fuel for pennies!

2006-06-01T05:06:00.000-07:00

This is what I have learned about using waste vegetable oil(wvo) to date.
If I do home brew or bio diesel I would collect the wvo, filter it, let it settle out for several days to a couple of weeks,add methanol to it, cook it , add caustic(naoh, sodium hydroxide) to it, and rinse it. It produces about 20 percent glycerin as a waste and the biodeisel, which you can mix in your deisel tank. The cost would be getting a few drums and a new or used water heater(this sould be used as your still from brewing. The cost calculates out to about 70 cents a gallon. The process is a little more in depth than this, but you get the picture.
The other alternative and the one I'm looking at is you again secure you a supply of wvo, preferrably from a Chinese Restaraunt( less animal fat is better, less gelling up) and filter it. This is where it is different from home brew. You have to set up an auxillary tank(unless you have duel fuel tanks, which my truck doesn't have) and you pump the good grease into this tank. You buy or can research and set up a system that runs your vehicle on grease. Basically what this system does is this, you start your vehicle up on deisel and you drive it for a couple of miles, this lets the wvo heat up, either by heating it with a 12 volt heater off your vehicle or tying off the heater hose. Once you've driven for a couple of minutes you switch it to the grease and boogie on. A minute or 2 before you are going to shut the vehicle down you switch back over to deisel to flush the lines so it won't gel up. I have a 26 gallon tank so the estimate is 1200 miles on a tank of deisel. The wvo would cost me about 7 to 40 cents a gallon to run my truck depending if I can get it free or not. The kit costs about $2400 with a tank, and I can lower that by $800 if I set up my own tank. Greasel .com sells a complete system(pump out of the grease tank from said Chinese Restaraunt and you are good to go). I don't know about this one because all the research suggests filtering the grease and letting it settle for days or a couple of weeks. Anyway as of yet there are no special liscensing required or road tax, but I sure wouldn't be putting a bumper sticker on it that said "Powered by Grease" or anything like that. I'll keep you posted on what else I find out and if I do this or not. Grease is the word!lol.
Oh and the workouts and eats, well the eats could be better, but haven't missed but 1 day in 10 weeks!
Later.

Week? Day? Challenge 6, I think

2006-05-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to tell you guys that I've still been eating well, except for last night I had a bowl of lf reduced sugar ice cream and last week missed 1 day of exercise(unloaded 6000 lbs of rock for a new rock garden) but everything else is still on plan.
I have been on a fact finding mission. I have discovered that it is possible to run my diesel truck on waste vegetable oil(wvo). That's the oil they dump into sumps from the friers at the fast food joints. I still have some more research to do and might set up a little experiment using my tractor, but I think this is a totally doable thing. The other option I have discovered is home brew biodiesel, using wvo still but adding chemicals and cooking it to make the fuel. Methanol and heat, yeah that's a good combo,lol. Anyway I'll keep you guys posted on the wvo and hope to have made some in the next week or two. You think when I fire up the truck on it, it will smell like french fries, lol. I guess we'll see then if I can get over that food craving!

Week 8, Day 56: 26-56 things

2006-05-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

Cardio was yesterday with ab boot camp. I did the elliptical for 30 minutes and burned 570 cals. Eats were close to being on target. I moved 2900 lbs of rock to the rock garden and planted 9 assorted plants around said garden. Hopefully I'll finish up most of it today.
O.K. on with another 25( well I have 31 things of what makes me who I am.)
The theme song while you read the list is "Who are You" by the Who.
You can whistle it or hum it, it really doesn't matter to me.
And starting with numero:
The Macaws:
26. Crunch
27.Taz
28. Alex
29. Junior
30. Caicos
31. Sammy
32. Little Bit
33. Rocky
The other parrots:
34. Willie-rose breasted cockatoo
35. Freebie-cockatiel
36. Boy George- cardinal lory, K's favorite bird,lol.
To me the macaws are colorful and loud and have that "look at me, look how big and spectacular I am" Something I find really neat in people, of course I'm just loud!
The llamas
37. Pearl
38. Javier
39. Sierra
40. Patches
41. Dottie
42. Dahli
The llamas are laid back, curious, and like to hum. I like to whistle.They fascinate me for some reason, but when it's feeding time they become total pigs and a total pain in the butt. This is when they spit. I used to spit.
The mini moo moos
43. Zazu- raised in the house
44. Zack
45. Zena
46. Zoe
47. Mini
The Zebu cattle I find intriguing in that they are hearty little animals that are revered in Indian culture. They are probably the best parents of all the animals we have and parenting skills is something I wish I had.
The swans: again I love birds of all types and the swans as with the parrots are my favorites.
48. Emmitt
49. Rosa
50.Will
51. Grace
The first two are black swans, the second are whooping swans. The are graceful and elegant, I'm not. They are totally devoted to their mates, I am, and Emmit shares the nesting duties(building and sitting eggs) with Rosa, he's whipped, I'm not, lol.
52. The cats and dogs- Kiwi, Little Boy, Sissy
C.J.- English bulldog
Abby-boxer
Daisy- English Mastiff
The cats kill mice, of course they get birds , lizards and snakes.
The dogs dig holes around the house and poop even closer to the house. I do none of the above. But they make good companions.
The horse, she's an Arabian/ Clydesdale mix and we got her for 1 llama and 2 swans.
53. Shonee
She's absolutely stunning when she runs, I don't run much. She's big, I'm not and pushy, I'm not that either, and as a matter of fact we have nothing in common, but I like her.
The camel
54-56. Hoss
Well he's so big he counts as several, lol. And why would you think a camel could possible make me who I am today or has anything to do with who I am. Ever seen a camel drink water? Lots and lots of water,lol.
All of our critters in one way or the other have helped mold a little of me into who I am right now. I have learned about conservation, healing , caring for something, saving lives. I 've learned how to hurt from a loss, how to greive and recover, and how to cry. But most of all I have a new found happiness that they bring into our lives everyday. They have helped me become a better me.

Week 8, day 55 challenge 6

2006-05-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good day . Got a lot of stuff done. Went to my eye exam and passed that test, lol. then I got back home and stared trimmimg all the dead growth on all the plants and trees in the front yard. I started to cut down a dead tree from a lightninng strike, but my chain was worn out. And Jess, my neighbor came over and helped me move the three boulders with his front end loader. That was a chore in itself. I don't know what I was possibly thinking when I bought them and thought I could move them onto the rock garden by myself. After that I cooked dinner and then we cleaned bird cages and called it a day.
The exercises:
Warm up; hack squats-10,8,5,3 reps @80,80,120,130 lbs
Real deal; hack squats-8,8,6,6 reps @170 lbs
Leg extensions-10,10,8 reps @ 175 lbs
Power clean - 5,5,5 reps @ 105 lbs, first set only 4 reps
1 legged curl-10,10,8,8, reps @ 60 lbs
Romanian dead lift-8,8,6,6 reps @ 137.5 lbs
The chow:
1- Fiber one and ff skim milk, an apple
2-whey and ff skim milk
3- ffcc and yogurt
4-1 ww tortilla, chicken, spinach, carrots
5- Chilean sea bass, ww coos coos, salad
6-ffcc with a tbsn of cocoa
Decent day of chores with a good workout and some healthy grub makes for an all around great day. Hope all of y'alls was great.
Troy.

Week 8, Day 54

2006-05-16T05:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my hump day for my 7 days off. I try not to do to much around the place , run errands and take care of loose ends. Got my a/c jury rigged with a toggle switch, helped my friend move a gigantic table saw he bought to his house and pinioned the new baby white whooping cygnets that hatched on Friday. I marinaded some chicken breast and grilled them for dinner and that was about it. Oh and our friend that is keeping her horse here(a Missouri Fox Trotter), we had to fix some of the corral panels our horse is kicking at. Now today will be interesting: I have to try and move 3 800 pound plus boulders onto my new rock garden I am making. So please don't say break a leg!
The torture chamber:
Chest:
warm up: bench press: 10,8,5,3 reps @117.5 117.5,147.5 and 157.5 lbs
the real deal: bench press: 8,8,6,6 reps @180, 192.5,192.5 and 197.5 lbs
incline press:8,8,6 reps @ 165 lbs
dumbbell pullover:10,10,8 reps @75 lbs
pec fly swatter: 8,8,6 reps @ 120 lbs
decline press: 11 reps tp failure @ 190 lbs
Ab boot camp: 3 reps
Cardio: 10 minutes on the elliptical for a 193 caloric burn
The feed sack:
1-fiber one and ff skim milk, and an apple
2-1 scoop of whey and ff milk
3-2 ww tortillas, 4 oz chicken, spinach and onions, with carrots
4-ff cottage cheese, yogurt
5- grilled chicken breast, field peas, carrots and brussell sprout mix
6- ffcc sprinkled with cinnamon and splenda.
Well that's about it for another day down. Y'all have a great day,
Troy.
2-

Week 7 day 52, Saturday

2006-05-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

Leg day was Saturday, and yesterday was free day. Sat. we went to Huntsville to deliver a floating dock I made so our friends can feed their black swans off of it. Those are the swans we traded for the llama.That's also the foam stuff I do all my carvings from.
Leg Day:
Warm ups:standing barbell raises:10,8,5,3 reps-100,100,135,145 lbs
standing barbell raises:12,12,10,10 reps- 170 lbs
sitting calf press:10,10,8,8- 197.5 lbs
1 leg standing dumbbell raise:15,15,15 reps- 82.5 lbs
Ab boot camp-3 reps
Cardio- 10 minutes on the recumbant
Feeding frenzy:
Well the day started off good
1-egg beaters with ham ,olives,onion,jalapenos, swiss cheese, 1 multigrain pancake, with s.f. syrup
2-OOOOPS- BBQ sandwich(1.5 of them... I showed some restraint,lol) with a handful of Fritos. Hey, I was in Huntsville!
3-4 oz of beef jerkey, banana
4- 3 turkey dogs, with .5 cup of wolf brand turkey chili, EFL fries, and EFL cole slaw, 1 slice of Jarlsburgh cheese.
5- OOOOPS- 1 cup of reduced sugar icecream with a fourth of a cup of chocolate chips. Hey at least when I eat bad I still measure it out ,lol.
Oh well, it's hard to eat right on a day travel,today's a new day!
Hope all you gals had a great Mother's Day, and I hope all you guys made sure of it! Have an awesome Monday y'all!

Week7 Day51

2006-05-13T04:37:00.000-07:00

I'm on my seven days off so hopefully I'll get to post a little often. Of course with the warm weather I'll be spending a lot of time doing yard stuff.
Remarks to last post;
Tom it was the Beatles song, and regretfully I forgot to add the V.W. bug. I bought it from my dad, and traded it for a pool table when I bought my first house.
Jim: the Nova, which the day dad took me to buy it he bought a 1974 Corvette with a 454 in it. Anyway I had blown the tranny in the Nova and a guy I was running around with at the time wanted to buy it. We went to an apartment complex and he stole a transmission from a van and put it back into the car. I sold it to him for 800 bucks and after 6 months never had made a payment. I had a spare set a keys and stole it back from him and sold it again. This became the demise for my Trans Am . Where ever I moved to or was he would find that car and bust the windshields out. After a year of that I finally sold that car for junk and never did get to whip that MF's ass. I think he's in the pen!
Jess: thanks for being you and being there. You are my blog rock,lol and you do rock.
The workout: Jim I'm still hanging in there !
Warm up:
Shoulder Press: 10,8,5,3, reps - 70,70,95 102.5 lbs
Shoulder Press: 8,8,6 reps at 125 lbs
Upright Row: 10,10,10 reps at 87.5 lbs
Front raises: 10,10,10 reps at 42.5 lbs
Rear raises : 10,10,10 reps at 35 lbs
Triceps push down:10, 8,8 at 75 lbs
Tricep overhead extension: 10,8,8, reps at 72.5 lbs
All of above exercises were performed on the machine .
To finish off I did 15 reps at 52.5 lbs standing tricep extensions.
Before I did my routine I went to the rock yard and bought 3 800 lb boulders to decorate an area with. Of course I couldn't move them. But I went back and bought 2900 lbs of flagstone and unloaded it before my w/o. After my w/o we went to go get a horse for our friends to keep here. So it was a busy day.
The eats:
Unfortunately unlike the exercise there are no warm up meals,lol.
1- cereal, lf milk, banana
2-ffcc, apple, strawberries
3-whey, milk, banana
4- nuts, apple
5- grilled catfish, zuccinni and squash, baked potatoe- plain all the way!
6- ffcc, fiber one cereal.
Well that's about it. Jim after I knock out 12 weeks I'll post my starting weight versus weightt being lifted 12 weeks later. Should be interesting.
Hope everyone has a great day, and smile at a stranger!

Beep Beep,Beep Beep, Yeah

2006-05-11T05:42:00.000-07:00

At the request of a few, but to be viewed by many,here's my list of 25 or so things that might possibly define who the fuck I am.
Starting at 16 years of age;
1. 1964 MGB... wrecked and sold
2. 1972 AMC Gremlin... totaled
3. 1974 Chevy Nova... sold, stole back,resold.
4. 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix...fried the engine, sold as junk.
Graduated 1978 from High School.
5. 1964 Chevy Impala... crashed into dump truck
6. 1976 Pontiac Trans Am... sold to junk yard.
7.Motorcycles:
a. 450 honda.... traded for 1969 chevy step side p/u, then traded back for the bike.
b. 750 custom chopper...sold
c. 1976 Harley Sportster...totaled
8.1972 Olds Cutlass...sold
9. 1966 THUNDER CHICKEN(T-Bird)...sold to the same person who bought the MGB.
10. 1979 Ford LTD...sold
11. 1981 Ford Bronco...1st new one, crashed, fixed, stolen, burned.
12.1972 Lincoln Continental... crushed by an oak tree
13. 1971 Mach 1 Mustang...sold
Bought my first home in 1982
14. 1976 Impala...sold
15. 1977 Buick Lesabre...sold
16. 1935 Ford Coup...sold
17. 1980 Buick Opel Isuzu...sold
18. 1985 F-150 extended cab...sold
19. 1979 Camaro...sold
20 1891 Camaro...repoed
21 1972 Cougar xlt Convertible...repoed
The bankrupt era
22. 1980 Datsun B-210...sold
23.1988 Delta 88 Brougham...sold and sued!
Sold home in 1992 and moved in with Susan... Now a vehicle is used for a purpose in life...work!
24.1990 Suzuki Samuri...sold
25. 1989 Ford F-150 exteneded cab...sold
Wait there's more!
Bought our property in Alvin in 1996, the first 7 acres.
26.The wheels that are currently in my driveway.
a. 1998 F-250
b. 2001 Explorer
c. 2001 Sport Trac(mom's car)
d. 2001 P.T.Cruiser
e. 1966 Corvette
f. 1991 Club car colf cart...(hey it has wheels and is worth it's weightt in gold)
First, I want to apologise to any vehicle I left out.
Second, what do cars have to do with who we are? Well, for me each one held a special memory in my life, whether good or bad, but it was a part of who I was and am.
There were parties, laughs, travels and some God aweful experiences in them. Things were done in them that weren't meant to be done in them,lol.But hey, look at the size of some of my cars, they were condos on wheels, lol. I mean I damn near did everything in my rides, except conceive my daughter.
And how could this possibly relate to a health blog(which is what a lot of my blog is about)? Well, no healthy foods were ever consumed in my vehicles, but exercising.... Ever try to get it on in a Trans -Am?
I know a lot of people have problems with food binges, well as you can see, mine was vehicle binging. I think I have it under control now, but there is a Hummer out there with my name on it. Car therapy lol? Hey I've gotta few rides for sale, anyone interested?
Oh, and as far as nick names.... My dad referred to me as his crash dummy.... and the first boat I bought( yes I went through a couple of those also) he suggested I name it...... you guessed right.. The Titanic.

After and Before

2006-05-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

And the reason I titled it this was is due to my limited computer skills and it will appear bass ackwards as it has before. These are the brothers. The Gate Keepers. The protectors of all that need protecting. I guess I need to get a life and start doing yard work instead of artwork, but I couldn't resist. Thank God I don't live in a subdivision. I think they would boot me out due to deed restrictions,lol. Well I guess when I give directions to the compound now people won't drive passed it. Thought they wouldn't have done that with a camel in the yard either, but hey, it's Alvin. Anyway hope y'all enjoy.Workouts are still on and the eats are good! Later!

Week 5 day 37

2006-04-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight when I get off work will be chest and ab boot camp. I've not missed a day on my new routine except for free day. The eating is at 90%, but like I have said before I think I have a little to give since I am trying to gain. Today we had physicals at work and my b/f was at 16% on their Tanita. I was 17.8 at thesports center, so that was close. I did the physical because of the bloodwork to check theliver panels again to see how they are. I still haven't tried any supps, not even whey, so I'm interested to see where they end up.
In other news Susan has started working out again, but the twins aren't cooperating and has been getting sore quickly. If she exercises tonight she'll have done 4 days in a row!
I brought 2 more Stone Heads to the bed liner guys to spray. I intend to put them up at the front gate and call them the Gate Keepers.
The bedroom is getting close to completion.
Other things in our local news: The YMCA they are building down the street(in the country down the street is 10 miles or less, this is 8.275 miles) is finally a go after 2 years. We have decided against putting in a swimming pool, especially due to the high utility bills and joining the Y and use their pool. I might also do my heavy lifting there if I find a workout partner.
Other than that, hope everyone has a great w/e.

Scuba diving in our bedroom

2006-04-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

O.K. that could be possibly taken wrong in some sort of a different way, lol but here are a few more pics of the mural with some of the art. That goofy looking fish is about 2 foot tall and 4 foot long, and the penguin is almost 3 foot long, so that's about how big some of the pieces are. When it's all done I'll see if I can get better pics of the 4 walls.
K- That big fish is hollow and Mike and I are working on an idea of putting a light inside him. As far as other lighting to accentuate the room or individual pieces, that's still up in the air.
Jeremy- that's our bedroom. We are trying to fix up one room a year in a certain style.We finished the "Purple room" last year. That's the room that we painted purple, lol. We have some of our Warner Brothers cartoon collection, hurricane shelter and library in that room. Next year we hope to fix up the little den. I am collecting African stuff like masks and animals and would like to paint the room like a savannah with the tall grasses and of course name it the African room.
Jim - your routine is kicking my ass but I'm finally seeing measurable results.
The exercise: haven't missed a day and just finished week 4 of Jim's customized routine for guaranteed results and deflation of the male ego lol.
I have gained 3 pounds, and a quarter of an inch to my biceps and chest! I can't wait to see what another 4 weeks will bring!
The food: well I have been having a battle with frozen yogurt, but it's not that bad, and I am trying to eat a little more and gain a little weight for mass, so we'll see. I am debating not putting my food into fitday.com for awhile just to see how I do. I do it for accountability , but for the most part I have the eats down pretty good and am getting bored of entering it every day
Well, that's all folks!

Sneak preview

2006-04-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is some of the mural the artist "still known as Mike Quinn" is working on in our bedroom.We have been collecting his 'Fish With Attitude " sculptures for some time now.When we met him at a show we told him we were getting bids on a mural to incorporate the 20 or so pieces we have of his. He told us he and his mom do murals, but it would be like his art, on the whimsical side.We thought it would be a great idea, so here is a little looky-sea(lol). The next pics I take will have some of his pieces included.
In other news, the workouts are still on plan and I finally finished up that frozen yogurt. The other 5 to 7 meals a day have been EFL friendly.
And this week, no snakes to report, but we did order a snake grabber. That big one I have been chasing has me a little spooked now.
See y'all soon,
Troy.

Week 4 Day 24

2006-04-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is The Land Yacht. She's a 1998 F-250 Super Duty 7.3 diesel pick up. She's my primary driver during the summer(diesel costs 30 to 40 cents more in the winter and it gets less mileage because of the way it's cut for home heating fuel up north). She has 222, 480 miles on her and has been damn dependable. If and when we get a bigger horse trailer we will name that The Land Ark. The trailer behind my truck is a 9 foot bed from a chevy p/u that I use for hauling dirt and mulch. It has hydraulics to lift the bed to dump the material. It's very useful. It's funny the locals have their hydraulics to make their cars bounce up and down and I have mine to make the trailer go up and down. I think mine is mo betta,lol.
Anyway the workouts have been on track, still moving up in tiny increments on most of the weight(2.5, maybe 5 lbs if I have had my wheaties), but my eating of late needs a little improvement. I'm into frozen yogurt his past week and can't shake the habit. It's not as good as yogurt and cottage cheese at night, but boy it tastes soooo much better. I'll have to work on that!
Let's see, Susan named the baby cow Dino, so no Z names this time.
I think that's it for now. Man I can't wait to go back to work, I need a little rest, lol.
Later!

Feeding Frenzy

2006-04-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

Because I'm not too computer savy yet, the picture on the right is the before and the one on the left is the after. Now if you notice the right picture under the palm tree, that's Emmitt, my male swan and he shares in the duties of hatching and rearing the cygnets. So guys, after the recent revelation of Bev's Vegas trip and how awesomely romantic Jeremy is, there are male animals in the animal kingdom that pull their load. Now me , against my better judgement thought that I could gain a few valuable points with the Mrs. by telling her about Bev and Jeremy, and that yes I can recognize romance and romantic things a mile away, and maybe on our 25 anniversary come up with something that would rival Jeremy's proposal(though I hadn't shared that with her yet) forgot that the 4th of April was our 12th anniversary. OOOPS! Well let's just say that Emmitt has earned more points in the romantic responsible male of the month club than I'll have!
Anyway back to the pics, Man I need to fly K down here to take hundreds of pics so I post decent pics, and then Jess to help me with the computer savy, and hell I might as well include Jeremy for some good pointers on how to be a romantic.Anyway again back to the pics, the right is a before, the left is the water bubbling while I feed my pet pirrahnas. They are lovely little fish aren't they!Look familiar, that looks like me at the chinese buffet on free day,lol.Actually they are the catfish I stocked my pond with. And yes we do eat them. Only eggs and fish are eaten here, the rest of the animals have names.
Well I need to get, I think I have an urge to go visit a jewelry store or two.
Oh, exercise : NO DAYS MISSED!
food: pretty good , semi authorised food binge last night:frozen yogurt bar, ginger snaps, p/b.
Later
Edit, after I post, the pics go from top to bottom, the top being the after pic.Go figure?

Week 3, day16 Busier than a ...

2006-04-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

one legged man in a butt kicking contest.Work's been busy and after work hasn't been much better. Come on Friday.... 7 days off and boy do I need them! The workouts have been continuing and I have been adding weight each week. The eating has been on track and havee been trying to stay above 2400 cals, but not exceeding 3000. After things settle down I'll go back to outlining my workouts again. They are still tough though.
Comments:
Jim- good guess, it's a 66. Had it been a side shot the differences in the side vents would be the most noticeable difference. It's nice but it's not all original, but I'm working on it.
JunoJen- thanks for dropping by Our Zoo and not feeding the animals, we don't encourage it as it causes them to become a little rowdy, lol. As far as what the neighbors think, well, they stop me all the time to ask questions and I usually give them a tour. That's why I never get anything done.
Tom- no interiors were scuffed, marred, or torn during the photo shoot, and in several instances a stand in double was used, lol.
Well guys, that's it for now, have a fantastic week,
Troy.

Muscle Heads and Muscle Cars

2006-04-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

This is Stone Oak Muscle Head. He is teaching me the finer arts of muscle gain. So in his honor I have made this head and named it so, due to his inspiration and patience. So, since he can't be here in person, he is now here with me in spirit, and I thought, what could be cooler, Stone Oak Muscle Head in a muscle car and teaching him how to drive a stick shift. Dude, is that how they drive in Indy?

W2, D11 Snakes alive!

2006-04-06T21:44:00.000-07:00

Got up and headed for the mower to finish up and darn near stepped on a snake. Let the cardio begin! Man some of these snakes are fast and it took me several minutes to catch him. At one point he even reared up and leapt toward me. He was a yellow belly water snake and was about two foot long. They mimic a water moccasin in the way they look and even give off a pungent odor when disturbed, which I was doing to him. Anyway I finally caught him and released him in the ditch in the front of our place. Then while I was mowing I almost ran over another one. I guess they are starting to stir. Susan saw the 6 footer I have been pursuing for 2 years now.We still can't figure out what kind he is but he left a skin by the pond the other day and he is some kinda big!
The workout today was cardio, which was the second cardio of the day,lol. I did the recumbant and burned 390 cals for 9.8 miles at a steady resistance of 3.
That's about it. Hope y'all have a good day.

Week 2, day 10, Sleeper is broke!

2006-04-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

Fucksticks! I think my sleeper is broke. Got home at 0600 and was up by 1030 a and couldn't fall back to sleep. So I got up and started on chores. Finished mowing the front, cleaned the mower, fixed and rehung a set of windchimes. Watered some blueberry bushes I planted, carved and finished up on another stone head, loaded him in the truck, worked out, cooked Susan and my dinner, and then dropped Mr. Stone Head off to the bedliner spraying dudes, on the way to work. I hope this lack of sleep doesn't hurt the lack of progress I seem to be having.
The torture went something like this:
I headed down to the dark dungeon and IT was waiting on me. I looked at IT, IT sneered back at me, I studied IT profusely when I remembered most of this routine is done with a barbell. Whew, I thought I was in trouble. IT would get a crack at me though!
Warm up barbell hack squeel like a pig, er I mean hack squat, SQUAT:
10,8,5,3 reps at 80,80,120,130 lbs
The real hack squat:
8,8,6,6 reps at 160 lbs as they say in Norway UFF DAH!
Barbell Power Clean the floor with my ass after this one:
5,5,5 reps only got 4 reps the first go around but 5 reps the last 2 at 100 lbs!
Leg extensions on IT:
10,10,8 reps at 172.5 lbs
Romanian dead or is it dead Romanian lifts:
8,8,6,6 reps at 130 lbs
1 Legged Curls on IT:
10,8,8 reps at 55 lbs
IT kicked my ass, the barbells kicked my ass, I kicked ass! I went up on all the weights except the Hack squat this week. I'll bump them up next time.
That's it for another day, hope everyone has had a fantastic day!
TROY
Chow for the day; cals at 2685 ratio 42/34/23.

Week 2,day 9, no nap day.

2006-04-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

First the chalupa and bean dip recipe:
Grab the keys to your car, start car, drive to nearest Taco Bell, order Chalupas and bean dip, pay $7.70 at the drive thru, drive home, slam food! Oh you mean the EFL style recipe!
Grab the keys, drive to the grocery and pic up these items:
1 lb of lean ground meat 97% lean, or ground turkey or chicken,
1 15.5 oz can of beans, kidney, navy or black,
1 15.5 oz can of tomatoes and green chilis
1 bag of ff or lf cheddar(everythings better w/ cheddar)
1 bag or head of lettuce
1 onion
1 package of taco seasoning
1 little old tub of ff or lf sour cream
1 loaf of ww pita bread, my bag has six frisbee size pitas in it.
1 jar of picante sauce

Go home and brown the meat, add the seasoning and a little chili powder to taste.
Dice up onion and lettuce and put on a paper plate(our finest china)
Cut up the pita into Dorito size chips and put a couple of whole ones on a cookie sheet and put in oven for ten minutes at 350 degrees or until chips are hard.
Take the can of beans and tomatoe and chilis and drain excess liquid and put into a blender, and blend to the texture you desire. This will serve to dip the chips in and I also like a tablespoon or so on my chalupa.
When everything is done cooking take a whole pita and spread a tablespoon of the bean dip on
it , on that add your meat, 4 oz if you are getting lean 8 oz for muscle gain,lol then top that off with lettuce, onion, cheese, picante and Susan likes the lf sour crap, I mean cream,lol. So that's about it. Some people like cilantro and an extra bite in the dip i.e. cayenne or jalapeno, but Susan's from up north so I had to tone it down. Enjoy!
Got up at 0800 and went to Lowe's to exchange a sprayer, got home and sprayed Roundup for an hour, mowed and cleaned mowers for 3 hours, fed animals, changed papers in the bird cages, and cooked dinner before I went to work, which is where I'm at until 0500.
Oh and the most important part:
The workout:
Warm up Bench press, 10, 8, 5, 3 reps at 100, 100, 135, 145 lbs
The real bench press: 8,8,6,6 reps at 170, 170, 190, 190 lbs
Icline press: 8,8,6 reps at 150, 150, 160 lbs
Dumbbell pullover 10,10,8 reps at 70 lbs
And then we finished it off with ab boot camp for a total of a 42 minute workout.
I wasn't hurting until a few minutes ago and now I'm getting sore, or is it that warm tingly sensation one gets for a job well done, either one's good for me.
And remember OGR (OLD GUYS RULE!) Y'all have a great one,
Troy. Chow line totals: 2932 cals at 43p/37c/20f.

Week 2, day 8. Jim is my friend!

2006-04-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

Yes Jim, you are still my friend! It was brutal but I SURVIVED! I hope you won't tell me that I didn't hit it hard enough then lol. Anyway the day went like this, returned insulation to the Depot, cut bamboo in the back for my friend's parrots for nesting material, dug a ditch going in the pond to facilitate catching the 4 swans for their new homes, was attacked by Emmitt(black swan) and have a knot on my calf,mowed 2 islands and the back yard with a push mower(almost an acre total), carved on a stone head, moved a bail of hay to the barn, tried removing sutures from the cow, removed sutures from the dog,cooked an EFL form of chalupas and bean dip with Pita chips I cut and baked,did my calf exercises, and after I post this will help Susan clean her salt water tank and it's almost 7p my time. I was going to add a little cardio, but I think I'll pass.
The calf workout:
Even though it was short(25 minutes) and sweet it produced a decent burn.
Standing barbell raise: 12,12,10,10 reps at 130 lbs
Calf presses: 10,10,8,8 reps at 190 lbs( that's all the machine has)
1 leg dumbbell calf raise: 15 ,15, 15 reps at 80 lbs, last set was only 13 reps on the right leg, that knot from the swan hit was starting to hurt!
That's all she wrote! I'll add the cals later, not done eating for the night!
When do I get to retire? Soon I hope.Have a great day guys!
Grub totals: 2509 cals, 37/45/18 ratio.

Free Day, day 7

2006-04-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today is freeday , but yesterday was shoulders and tri's. It is also the end of week 1 of a new exercise routine aimed at gaining mass. Heavier weights and lower reps is the game, pain is the name,lol.
Anyway yesterday's routine was tough, but due to technical difficulties on my part, it should have been tougher. I left out a routine!
The routine:
Over the shoulder boulder holder and triceps:
Shoulder press warm up on the machine:
10,8,5,3 reps at 50, 50, 75, 80 lbs
The real deal shoulder press
8,8,8 reps at 100 lbs, the last 8 bumped to 110
Uptight and upright rows:
8,8,8 reps at 80 lbs each
Front raises on the machine:
10,10,10 reps at 30, 32.5,35 lbs
The technical difficulty rear dumbbell rasies:
0,0,0 reps at 0 lbs for 3 cals burned over forgetting about them
Triceps pushdown on the machine:
10,8,8, only got 6,8,8 reps at 70, 60, then somehow 70 lbs!
Triceps extensions on the machine:
10,10,8 reps at 50,60,62.5 lbs
Well there you have it! The rotation is an 8 day one though, so Monday I'll finish off with calves.
The fuel ratios
Cals for the day 3145 at a 41p/43c/16f split.
Have a great Sunday!

Day 6.

2006-04-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

Started day shift on Friday,which is 12 hour days so my routine posted is what I did yesterday.Make sense?
O.K. to the cows, we call them the mini moo moo's. I had two of them dehorned last week and since I am always in the need of a little extra cardio I told the Vet that I could remove the sutures when it was time. Hell, they only weigh 300 lbs. I have always subdivided my tasks into smaller portions so as not to get frustrated over something being to large to handle. Like BFL, I plan it in 2 week increments instead of 4 or 12. Well the 2 cows had 4 horns that were removed 4 seperate times and had 4 seperate stitched areas. Looking at the whole picture and when I came at Zazu with the suture removers(little scissors made for removing stitches) I soon realized this was going to be a much bigger task than I had anticipated.After a couple of near launches to the ground and getting pushed around the stall for a few minutes I decided to focus on just one area. I got some feed in a bucket and let him stick his head in there and started to remove the stitches from one side(or as I was thinking a .5 portion of the task). That went fairly well and as I started on the next .5 portion, Will and Grace(the white swans) came to investigate, and then started attacking us any time I had my back to them. (they are so brave aren't they). I had to stop that for a few and go put some food out for the swans so they would let me finish. I got back to the chore at hand and then because of all the commotion, Dottie and The Dahli(the llamas) had to come and investigate. Well when they saw there was additional feeding going on, they wanted some. So I had to put everything down again and give them some more feed to keep them occupied.From all the excitement I could see Zoe was getting antsy. As I was working on Zazu, Zoe had been coming over to get some grain and I would get in a snip or two on her stitches. I only had a few more minutes to work on both of them before the extra feed ran out for everyone so luckily I was able to finish up Zazu(1.0 cows done ) and started to finish Zoe(1.0 cows to go). All I got done on her was half of one side and that was it. She hauled ass to the pasture, Will and Grace came in for some more sneak attacks and the llamas wanted more feed. So I only got 1.5 cows done.
Answers and comments :
Erin- my friend sold his plane to get another Harley, so it might be awhile before I get any aerials.
Tom- I'm trying to increase my cal intake but fall short due to shiftwork. That's why the totals bounce around periodically.
K- The chores are fun sometimes, until a chicken poops on your head or you step in cow poo. I could open our place up for a week and have a BFL ranch week for all the blends. Or maybe it would be better calling it BFL free week. 7 days of free days, no workouts! Susan is still sore, the twins are looking fine, but I'm not allowed to hold them yet,lol. Oh, and they are little cows. Not the twins but the Zebu.
The Workout: which was done yesterday.
The routine was plyometrics and ab boot camp
How it went:
Jump squats: 4 sets at 5 reps
Tuck jumps: 4sets at 5 reps
Box jumps: 4 sets at 4 reps
Jump box 18" to 24 "4 stes at 5 reps
Once I build a little more stamina and coordination, I will increase the reps. On good weather and days off the plyometric routine will be more of the sprinting type that Jim recommended.
The cals for yesterday: 3225 at 39/40/21 ratio of protein to carb to fat.
Well guys I hope that explains the 1.5 cow head thing. Y'all have a fantastic day!
Troy

W1,Day 4: Have you ever seen the pain?

2006-03-30T16:36:00.000-08:00

That's exactly what I was thinking when the Creedence song came on while I was working out today. No rain, but a lot of pain. Man I'm gonna die tomorrow,lol.Thank God I did all my chores before I lifted. I planted 3 trees, removed sutures out of 1.5 cows' heads, carved on some new stone heads for the front gate, cooked dinner, made dinner for work tomorrow, and hauled off palm fronds. After I finished my routine I could barely lift the steak onto the grill(no kidding). How I chose the weight I am lifting at present is I selected the weight I was lifting at 6 reps on BFL. In a couple of instances this has proved a little too much. We need to come up with a good name for Jim's workout plan, it's a killer!
Today's torture:(Oh and when Jim says you swell like a blowfish, he ain't lying)
Warm up:
Lat pull downs:
10 reps at 65 lbs,8 reps at 65 lbs, 5 reps at 97.5 lbs, 3 reps at 105 lbs
Lat pull downs: the real deal
8, 8, 6, 6, reps at 130 lbs
Dumbbell rows:
10,10,8,8 reps at 80 lbs
Barbell curls on the Beth machine:
8,8,6 reps at 75 lbs
Incline dumbbell curls:
8,8, 5(failure) reps at 40, 37.5 37.5 lbs respectively.
And thank God that was all because that was all I had to give. Doesn't look like a lot on the surface, but trust me it totally kicks ass!
Tom- yes, us old dudes rule!
K- I'm sure it's just my elliptical. We have discussions all the time at work because three of us workout and we all hit totally different cals on our cardio equipment. I can get 10 miles on my recumbant in 30 minutes and the other guys get 2 and 5 miles, so I don't put a lot of faith in the cal thing.
Hope you guys have a thumbs up kind of a day!
Later, Troy.
Cals for the day 2635, 39/33/28 protein to carb to fat ratio.

Day 3

2006-03-29T17:18:00.000-08:00

And today was cardio, which now, until I get over the pain of lifting will be as good as a free day,lol. I am still sore in the chest area from Monday and the legs are slow moving from yesterday. At first I thought 7 days until the next chest day would be too long, but I think it's going to get here faster than I want. But so far so go, oink oink or whatever noise a guinea pig makes.
The cardio went something like this:
Elliptical for 30 minutes burning 644 cals.
Other than that I had one of those days were there wasn't enough time in the day to get everything done I needed to get done.
You guys have an awesome rest of the day and I'll think of y'all when I'm lifting!
The cals for the day were 2085 at 47/37/16 p/c/f.

W1,D2:No hurt, no tank top shirt.

2006-03-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

Hey, it rhymes, and I hurt, so there, lol. Anyway I was hurting pretty good from the chest routine I did yesterday and today I did quads and hamstrings. I think I'm gonna hurt tomorrow! I also want to thank Jim for the congrats of the completion of my challenge on tracker and to those of you who read my blog and made comments on tracker. Thanks guys! It gave me the inspiration to work through my pain today and hit those legs hard.
O.K. the acorn to oak routine: and after I get comfortable in what I'm doing, I'm going to give some of these exercises the descriptions I'll come to know them by:
Warm up: barbell hack squat
10 reps 80 lbs,8 reps 80 lbs, 5 reps 120 lbs, 3 reps 130 lbs
The real deal: barbell hack up a quad muscle because this hurts so fuckin bad squat(oh I'm not going to do that yet)
8,8,6,6 reps at 160 lbs
Barbell power cleans:
5,5,5, reps at 80 lbs, the last 5 reps 90 lbs
Leg extensions:
10, 10, 8 reps at 170 lbs
Romanian Dead Lifts:
8,8,6,6 reps at 120 lbs, the last 6 reps I bumped to 130 lbs
1 legged curls: ( I don't know why I would use 1 leg when I got 2 healthy ones, but that's what Jim has suggested, lol)
10,10,8,8 reps 50 lbs on the 10 reps and 55 lbs on the 8 reps.
Well there it is, day 2, in the books, and I'm on the floor, not really but tomorrow will be interesting. And what's really funny, I'm looking forward to doing cardio tomorrow, for the first time no less. I wonder why.
Again thanks to those of you for the tracker comments, and to Jim for working me through this new routine. But Jim I still have the right to take that thanks back!
Had to edit for the food: Cals for the day were 1767 at a 40/41/18 ratio of protein/carbs/fat. It was a short day due to getting off graveyards.

Challenge 6: Acorn to Oak

2006-03-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

Week 1, Day 1:
Working nights, got home at 0600, woke at 12 noon.
Pre workout food: apple, banana, mixed nuts at 12:30.
Worked out at 1:30p. for 52 minutes.
The routine:
Warm up: bench press on the Elizabeth machine
10 reps 80 lbs
8 reps 80 lbs
5 reps 120 lbs
3 reps 130 lbs
The real deal: bench press
8,8,6,reps at 160 lbs, last 6 reps at 190 lbs(thats all the weight my machine has)
Incline bench:
8,6, reps at 140 lbs, last 6 reps at 150 lbs
Dumbbell pullovers:
10,10,8 reps at 60 lbs
The weight lifting lasted 32 minutes and I will move up next time as this was my first attempt at this per Jim's suggestion for muscle gain.
I finished the routine off with ab boot camp which took an additional 20 minutes.
The eating for the day was at 2539 cals and the ratio was 40/42/18 protein/carb/fat breakdown.
I thought the routine went well, but about 5 hours into work tonight I felt the effects, like a gorilla had sat on my chest. Wow, I am sore! Thanks Jim,lol.

Week 12, Day 84 Putting down the torch.

2006-03-26T17:48:00.000-08:00

I hope I did Julie proud. I thought of her throughout this whole challenge and how she has inspired me. I think it pushed me to a new level and I impressed myself of what I could do weight wise even after I had to get off the suppliments. I was able to roll with the change and push myself harder and not use it as an excuse to do less.Thank you Julie for your inspiration!
Rating the Torch Challenge, I would have given the whole challege an 8, and that would have been mostly because of the eating. I ate mostly E.F.L. type meals,but I think portion control is an issue at times, diet coke, coffee, and the shark feeding frenzy spectacle I routinely display on freedays subracted a point, BUT.... ALONG CAME THE TWINS! They have been a handful(no pun intended yet:still off limits) and with all the extra chores, cooking, and not missing a workout in week 12, I had to give that point back, giving me a 9 rating!I'll try to take pics tomorrow for tracker. The only thing that changed on my stats was I gained an 1/8 of an inch on my bi's, but I lost 2 0r 3 lbs :(.
I'm starting C-5 tomorrow and my goals are to use Jim's suggestions for bulking. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to get started. I wonder if Jim's thinking" yeah buddy talk to me in a few days and let's see how excited you are?"lol.
Out of this, other goals will be to gain some weight, add some size to the bi's, and continue to work on that six pack(my understanding though is that might not happen while adding mass).I also will try focusing on eating more. Eat big, to get big!
Anyway, that's about it.
Thanks to everyone for making this challenge a fun one since I found this blogger thing, and thank you Julie for your inspiration!

Nearing the End

2006-03-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

The torch challenge is coming to a close. I think I have given this challenge everything I have given my previous challenges, yet the changes again, have been subtle. I need to figure out where I want to go from here and follow the next plan as I take on another challenge. This challenge I would like to get some mass. Several people have told me if you want mass, then you have to eat more to gain mass. This is hard to do when you have lost weight by watching what you eat, and now I have to eat more( good food of course) to gain mass. I guess I'll have to find a routine that uses less reps but heavier weight to get there. I also will have to ease up on the cardio. At least there's a positive side to this lol.Anyway, hopefully by Monday I will have a plan and a routine started as I venture into C-5.
An update on other things at the ranch:
First: the twins , Jim I've named them Arnold and Hogan, lol. Susan says right now if she had a do-over she wouldn't do this again. She is still hurting and has had other problems dealing with this surgery and is pretty much out of service. I really didn't care whether she did it or not, and I can't stand to see her in discomfort, but as far as tata's are concerned, man I'm gonna be in a lot of trouble because they look so awesome and I'm gonna have a tough time not loving, touching, squeezing them all the time!
Second: The pups(our Bulldog) is having surgery today. She has a luxating patella and it needed to be repaired and the younger the better. While we were at it, because this is genetic, we decided not to breed her and have her spayed.So we won't be having any pups.
Thirdly: Starting a new challenge on Monday, anyone else interested?
You guys have a great day and I need to go do my last C-4 UBWO!
Tata, as in by!

The Twins

2006-03-18T19:14:00.001-08:00

Wow, who ever said twins would be a handful wasn't lying. In more ways than one,lol. I got my first viewing today and I was amazed at how big they were. I think I might have even embarassed myself by how I responded in front of the doc as he unveiled them. I must admit I was more into Susan's behind and legs, but I gotta say, wow! The miracles of modern science astound me. One day it's lemons, the next day it's melons.They come in twos, hard to choose.....Anyway the other part of the twins being a handful is the recuping part. All the extra chores have got me going non stop.It's been busy! Still got my workouts in. I was going to skip my UBWO last night but when I went to feed the animals a chicken roosting in the rafters crapped on my head, so I figured if I have to take another shower I might as well workout. I guess the chicken poo on my scalp gave me some extra energy because I upped most of the weight and hit several twins, er I mean tens, lol. Maybe it was the twins!Well I need to get. Susan is doing a little better today, but she's already called it the night.
Have a great w/e.
Troy.

Technological wonders of our world.

2006-03-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

It's simply fucking amazing that I am sitting in the hospital waiting on Susan who is getting breast augmentation as we speak and I'm on the computer.I am trying out a T-Mobile air card that allows me wireless access, of course at a price, but it just simply amazes me! It also amazes me in two hours Susan's breasts will be a different size.I've got to hand it to you women though, y'all handle the anticipation of surgery or the possibility of pain so much better than us guys. I think I have been more anxious the last few hours than Susan was. She seems to handle this stuff with so much more composure than I do I wonder if we would have already been an extinct race had men had to give childbirth? Well anyway that's what's going on with me today,lol
As far as the challenge, I'm easing up to the end of week 11 and so far the workouts have been stellar! The eating has been on plan except I had a salad Tuesday that probably wasn't a choice selection.
Well I need to go puke again and maybe we'll post pics of the twins sometime later next week,
Take care,
Troy.

Hamburger!

2006-03-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the mini zebu cow that was born yesterday morning. He's about 5 hours old in this pick. The really odd thing about him is that his hooves are all white. Up to this point they have all been black. We will entertain any name you guys can come up with that starts with Z. We have a Zippy, Zola, Zena, Zack, Zazu and the odd couple, Elvis and Minnie. Well, got to get, have a fantastic w/e.

Born and dehorned

2006-03-10T18:43:00.000-08:00

First of all I couldn't post a pic tonight for some reason.Every time I clicked on add an image it wouldn't do anything, yet when I got the laptop out it worked immediately. I just don't have the pics on the laptop yet. So today was dehorning day. I got home and went to bed at 0600, got up at 0830 and before I got out to help Susan, she told me Zena had just given birth. That's the pic I couldn't get posted. I'll try tomorrow. So after we got them situated, we loaded the other 2 up and got them dehorned. Got home, unloaded them, got Zena and the new calf in the baby area and then Susan had to take the pups to the vet. She has a bad knee and needs surgery, so now we need to talk to an orthopedic surgeon about that.
I managed to get my LBWO in and have eaten well today. Susan missed her LBWO and will try to catch it on Sunday.
Other than that everything else is going well, just too busy with animal stuff. Tomorrow is fun day, pressure washing all the indoor bird cages, fun fun!
Well that's it for now, talk to y'all later!