I started jogging again!

I first went jogging years ago, shortly after I officially quit smoking. It was my big "hurrah" after
over 10 years of smoking, I wanted to jog. My sister in law was jogging at the time, so we decided to go together. I found it hard. If i went to hard, I would start to hyperventilate and wouldn't be able to breath. We slowly stopped jogging and even though it didn't last long, it was a start.
Then we started crossfit. I would still hyperventilate when I did any running or just went to hard. I was told it would go away so I just slowed down and paced myself better. Then I started running at the local track with a friend once a week. We tried to aim for 5k every week. We mixed a lap of walking and then running. I had to, mostly with my hyperventilating. Seem to keep coming even though I tried to pace myself. Then once WOD at the gym was a 3x 800m run. It was scary but I did it, without hyperventilating. I didn't get a good time by far but it was a huge defeat.
A little bit later my friend was unable to continue jogging. Then with hunting season here we decided not to renew our gym membership until things have slowed down. So I was getting an itch. Then my friend was posting about starting jogging and using an app. called couch to 5k. So i checked it out and seemed good. I am on my 4th day and without any issues with breathing. It tells you when to run and walk. So you get a good 1 min run then about 1 min of walking. So it works well with me and I am seeing progress everyday. Plus I go running with my dog, which is great. She also gets some exercise with me.

Saturday hunt with the family: 10/18/14

I may have not been able to keeping up with the hunting diary but I have not been able to get out as much. After my hubby being away for 12 days on his big moose trip, I was at home sick, with the kids. Even though they got lucky and did not get sick, it was just poor mama.
So this weekend we planned a weekend of hunting, one big trip and one small one with the kids.

Saturday morning we woke up at our normal 7am time and got ready, as well as the kids and waited for our friend to show up. We had a friend come with us. He kids moved out of town and came back for a visit and he is also a beginner hunter, so some extra company was nice. We stayed close to home and just went up the mountain and just did a drive around. Which we usually do with the kids and they love helping out with looking for deer and they love using the binoculars.
It was pretty quiet out and we only saw a few other hunters. We spotted one deer down along in a clearing but quit far from the road.  So we stopped and my hubby pulled out the binoculars to take a better look and it was a dead doe. We are not sure if it was attacked, natural but we just hope someone didn't shoot it and leave it. Finding her was a bit sad.


 I also got the chance to miss out on my first buck. We were coming down a road and up a head there were two trucks stopped and the guys were talking to each other. They noticed us and the guy ahead of us drove away. Then a few feet up from them we look over to the slash (a area of forest that has been logged) and there was a deer bedded down. The guys didn't even notice, so hubby jumps out again and starts looking at it, and it was a buck. Since it is my first year he wants me to try for my first. So he told me to grab my gun. I do and get out and it was a bit far, so he told me to climb down to this stump. Then as I was climbing down, it got up and walked away. So missed out on my first but that is ok.
Then we stopped for a bit and did some chanterelle mushroom picking. We didn't find a lot but the kids had fun running around looking for them. We found about a grocery bag full but it was fun. Good experience for the kids.
 

After, we decided to drive around a bit more. We went exploring around a few roads and found a new area. My hubby loved it and it was just gorgeous to.As we drove around we stopped one of the hunters we saw earlier and we stopped and chatted with him. He was very chatty and swore every other word, i don't think he saw the kids in the back. He was going on about he saw 50 does the other day, down by the main road and he has been hunting here since he was 4 years old and things like that. We said goodbye and my hubby turns and said "Someone doesn't want us here, must be a good stop."
So we decided to call it a day after that and slowly made our way back down. No deer but we found some mushrooms and a new spot and will be goign back soon.

Canning Salmon ... a lot of salmon

Living on Vancouver Island we get lots of perks. Not only is it paradise here (when it is not raining,) we have a bountiful supply of local recourses. One major one is fish. When fishing season is around we stock up. We are lucky enough to get enough fish to last the family for a hole year, if not more.
We keep hole fish and steak some up for meals, we fillet them for smoking, we can a lot and we can some of the smoked fish. There are endless possibilities with salmon.

I have never used the pressure canner alone before, actually this is only my second time canning salmon but I had success! I preplanned and studies the pressure canning book and called my mom and law and my grandma just for extra reassurance.

We got all the fish during the summer, so we precut and froze it all and I planned to do it all when my hubby was on his hunting trip. I got half done but I came down with a nasty cold while he was gone, so I did it in two.
The first day I canned 2.5 batches of pints and then I continued a week later with 3 batches of pints. I ran out of the pints but the bigger jars are nice for full meals. For a total of 61 jars of canned salmon!

A Couple Months of Crazy

Things are now slowing down and after a while of go go go, I am happy things are quiet now. Which means I am able to get back to a regular schedule.

First my mom came for a visit. She made the visit worth it, after not being able to see each other for 4 years. The last time she came for a visit was for my daughters 1st birthday and she was just a week shy of her 5th birthday this year. She lives out in Saskatchewan and it is hard to see each other often.

Then after a long strike with the teachers and government, the teachers went back to work and the kids back in school, so my baby girl started kindergarten. 

Then after she left, my hubby left for a big hunting trip up north. He was gone for 12 days, which was a fun time but I am so thankful all 3 kids are now in school or it would of made for one stressful 12 days.

I will post more about these but I am back and have lots to write!