No, Cole hasn't started using Rogaine. This is Bishop, our guest for the weekend. Cole's hip problem flared up around mile 8. Bishop had been patiently watching us by the gate with the look of "put me in, Coach" on his furry little face. B-Man took over the helm and we finished our last lap around the farm.
Cole doesn't mind the company. He's smart enough not to argue with a bigger dog.
Last month, I went to my favorite building supply emporium, Bland's Discount Warehouse, in Beulah, AL. Mr. Bland buys anything made redundant by the large hardware stores. When I built my house, I made weekly pilgrimages to see what new goodies he'd collected. For example, I bought three huge wrought iron chandeliers for my barn for $20 a piece. The Lowe's stickers were still on them, they had retailed at $150 each.
Yes, my barn had chandeliers...now you know why I didn't mind spending all my time in there!
Back to Bland's. His store is a collection of old mobile homes tossed around his property. No electricity, so it get Hades hot in the Summer, but it's so much fun rooting through his stuff.
It can be daunting to try to find something, but Mr. Bland knows where everything is!
I bought a new screen door. For $70, I got a sturdy new door with hardware (retail $250) to replace my mobile home's crappy-dappy-sagging-let-the-moths-in-air-condition-the-outside door. Of course, trailer manufacturers can't build anything standard size, so I had to cut the height of the new door and reassemble it. Then a one hour job of installing it turned into to five because the door frame was not square either. After shimming and rebuilding, I'm pleased with my project.
On Sunday, I finally got my Winter's hay. My source has some of the best hay around, it's fertilized and has a nutritional analysis, but the farmer likes to play hard to get. Since August, I've been begging him to sell me hay. He surprised me by delivering all my hay to the farm, I didn't have to drive back and forth picking up only 3 bales at a time.
Here's what 13 bales, or $1000, looks like.
Before the big tractor burned to a crisp, our plan had been to stack the bales in a pyramid. Dr P and I had to hand roll them into place and use his small tractor to push them up onto the pallets. It was a workout!
Update: the portable scale to measure Cole's dehydration levels has failed the field testing.
When Cole is panting, the scale reads 'error'. Not much use when we're in a rush at a race.
My concern is that Dummy will not drink sufficient water and he'll dehydrate himself on long runs.
Plan B (this one works) is to prehydrate and sustain his hydration levels with homemade beef broth.
Voila, pressure canned broth for our trip to Utah. Four hours total work, but isn't that what weekends are all about: having fun!
