Apple tree casualty's and a walk through the woods.

Saturday we decided to bring the kiddos out to a local apple orchard and pick a big ol bag of apples, last year when we went I was significantly heavier than I am now and I was looking forward to going because there is a walk involved in getting to said orchard and I wanted to see how much of a difference there was in the walk this year from last. Looking back at the previous trip when we arrived I clearly remember looking at the walk from the parking area to the farm and thinking "here we go, I have to walk all the way over there AND THEN walk to the orchard?" we walked up to the main area where there was a band and grilled food and some tents and then about 100-150 yards down the road was the entrance to the orchard where a cashier was handing out the bags for the picked apples. I remember walking towards the entrance and thinking at least it was down hill, and then thinking about the walk back up the hill and not looking forward to it. Of course there was a tractor pulling a trailer full of hay on it dragging people up and down the hill but I didn't want to do that at all, I walked around the orchard in pain the entire time and we were only there at the trees picking for 10 minutes maybe before I decided that enough was enough and I HAD to either sit down or I was going to be forced by pain to so we paid for the apples and I pronounced "the kids want to take the hay ride back up to the farm honey" and luckily my son said oooh oooh yeah can we! and my pride was safe for one more day even though I know that Wify knew the real reason I was insisting on the hay ride. We ended up a little closer to the car and I got to sit down on a bail of hay but my back was screaming and I wanted to get out of there so we decided that it was time to go home and on the way to the parking area there was a stall with a sign that read "free donuts and apple cider" Bamn! "hey honey lets grab one and sit in the grass" so we did, 2 or 3 donuts later we walked to the car with a two huge bags of apples, a pumpkin and powdered sugar on my lips and we drove home. A couple of HUGE home made apple pies followed and I will not even try and guess at the calories in them, this year I don't think I will make a single pie, such is the way of things.

My Apple tree wound.

Fast forward to Yesterday, we ended up parking about twice as far away as last time but no worries, we walked up to the farm area and walked around a bit looking at stuff and we were meeting one of Wifys friends there and she had not arrived yet so we decided to get in line and grab lunch at the BBQ tent, I got a cheeseburger a bag of salt and vinegar chips and a bottle of water and we headed over under a tree to eat lunch, as I walked under the tree I stood up into a low branch and cut my head open, I asked Wify if it had cut and my head was bleeding so I cleaned it off and we ate our lunch, met up with the friend and her sister really wanted to go pick pumpkins and was the one insisting on the hay ride this time around, Wify and I decided to let them go pick pumpkins and we would head on down to the apple orchard. There we were at the top of the walk down to the entrance and it looked like a short walk to me this time around, we walked down and walked around through the rows of trees for about 30 to 45 minutes, my daughter rode on my shoulders the entire time so that she could pick the big apples higher up on the trees and there was not a bit of pain anywhere. We decided it was time to head back to the farm and the car so we walked back up the hill, I thought to myself about last year and how it was a very short trip and how I did not enjoy it very much, until the free donut sign anyways which was there again, this time I grabbed one donut and shared it with my daughter as we walked back to the car. About an hour and a half was spent at the farm this year and much of it walking around with my 39 pound daughter on my shoulders. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of just me or me and Wify at the orchard alone to post up, they all have my kids in them and I don't wish to post up kid pictures on here but there was a hike afterwards and some pics of that for your viewing pleasure.

On the way home from the orchard we decided to stop at a state forest and have a walk about and that we did. here are some photos from that.

Here is a shot of one of the lakes we hiked along

A shot across one of the smaller sections on a small lake we came across while on our walk about, the trees are starting to look pretty cool with colors.

Wify snapped this while we took a short break, no I am not happy to see you thats a water bottle in my pocket.

This is what I was looking at across the way.

Here is a shot looking down on the lake through some shrubbery.

Me and Wify stopping for a quick snap shot.

I found some old bones near this little stream, I have no clue what they were from but they were pretty big, there are black bears in this area and i couldn't help but think it wa the work of one of them.

Looking back at the lake on the way out.

The Hi res version of this picture shows the amazing colors on this tall yellow and red tree, but you can get the idea.

All in all, between the Orchard and the Hike we walked for more than three hours probably close to four and it was a very nice day out with lots of movement even if I did indulge in a cheeseburger with some chips and half of a donut I think that the walking helped me feel less guilty for it. Dinner was subway and I did have more chips with that but again because of the activity I don't feel bad for it. Monday I am starting the deficit tracking on a strict type regimen and want to kick the exercise into a different level, I feel like I am close enough to the weight that I want to be where I should start a little more strength training, I will add the push ups back into the daily exercise and some light lifting with dumb bells and possibly some squats etc, how I feel will determine what I go with. Since this turned out to be a fairly long post I will leave it at that for now and I thank you for following along, look for a new post tomorrow same bat time same bat channel.

As Ever
Me