Many people ask me what I do up here, so here's a brief summary of the last two weeks.
These last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and oh so fun! On Monday March 1st I taught my first boot camp and it went great! Tues I rock climbed for 1.5 hours and went to a gathering of small groups from a church where my two newest adventure buddies Emily and Heidi presented on their mission trip to Ethiopia and Heidi talked about he future life in Papa New Guinea. The owners of the host home were so fun! They made authentic Ethiopian food and even let me try some raw foods they made. The wife is a natural health enthusiast with a certification in holistic nutrition and loves raw food. They raise their own organic cattle and garden. Wed. I ran about 5.5 miles on the reservation and taught another boot camp, and I met a cyclist at the gym who wants to bike with me when it gets warmer. Thurs I ran another 5.5 miles at the rez, made delicious hummus for everyone at work, and got offered the position of District Eagle Board Executive for the scouts by the District Senior Executive of Boy Scouts here. Montana wants me to do everything! It was a very busy weekend: Friday I went snowshoeing with my friend Emily, watched a beautiful sunset over the Bear Paw Mountains and ate a delicious raw dinner with those 2 very cool Montanans Emily and Heidi, then went to the Havre High School hockey game. Sat I ran 11 miles with the other RD in town and her husband and daughter, then hung out with E and H again, bought used ice skates for $4 at thrift store and went around the Bear Paw Mts. taking pics and trying to find a lake to skate on. We saw some people ice fishing but couldn't find a good place to skate, then our car got stuck and we had to get some nice people driving by to help us push it out. For dinner I made super garlicky (5 cloves) asparagus soup and salad for the 3 of us before we headed to the hockey game that night. Sunday I went to church with Heidi and Emily. While they were in their “meeting” I went home and ate lunch. Then I picked up Emily at the church and took her to her house. She lives about 20 miles from town out in the country on a farm. Her family grows organic wheat and peas. How cool is that??? One of her brothers took me and another guy around and let us play on the big farm equipment like tractors, combines, and huge trucks. Then we went four-wheeling in the mud. While the boys were out playing in the cold, the girls (Emily and her sister and a girl named Chloe) were inside baking fresh bread from the family's home grown orgnaic wheat “kernels.” They ground them up right there on the spot and made some healthy bread using raw honey. Sooooo good! After snacking on the yummy warm bread and playing a card game called Pounce, we sat down at the dinner table for a nice family meal of zucchini soup. Then all us youngsters rushed out and headed to town. We picked up Heidi on the way and went ice skating!!! It was packed! We had a blast and I crashed hard once as I superman dove on the ice sliding a good 5 feet when racing Emily’s sister Liz. Monday rolled around again, but I don’t mind. It just means the start of another incredible adventuresome week in the Hi-Line of Montana. It seems something crazy is always happening up here. This day during my workout hour at work I ran for about 20 minutes, jump-roped, and then swam in our newly fixed pool. After work I taught boot-camp class again and had tons o' fun. Tuesday brought forth more adventures. I was out running on the rez and decided to try and find a trail going up the mountain. Well, I couldn’t find a trail so I decided to just run through the snow up to one of the peaks. Woah man does that burn your legs running up hill in knee deep snow in running shoes! Not to mention your feet get soaked. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to run down and over to the next peak I saw. Then I kept wondering what was beyond the next hill so I kept running. On one of the down-hills I came across a dirt road which was apparently used for horses because I slid on the snow and fell on to a big pile of horse manure. I was having so much fun though that I didn’t even care. As I ran through more snow all of the nastiness came off and I was pretty clean by the time I got back to gym... still took a shower though. Tuesday night is rock-climbing night and so I decided to run there this time. Well, I got there and it was locked. Apparently the whole gym at the college was closed for the MSU-Northern basketball playoff game that night. So I watched the game ( MSU-N won) and then hung out for a while. Wed. I taught boot camp and had a blast as we did jump-roping and other cool stuff. Thursday the boys basketball team from the high school on the rez, The Rocky Boy Northern Stars, were playing in the state playoffs in Great Falls, about 2 hours away, so most of the rez was emptying out as people headed to the game. They are crazy about basketball up here. So, since most of the clinic was getting pretty empty, we cut the day short and headed out to Great Falls as well. We had scheduled a meeting there for Friday morning. After cruising around the town trying to learn my way around I went for a nice hour long run and then hit the weight room in the hotel. Friday morning we had our meeting, then went to a great health food store, had a picnic by a river and fish hatchery, and watched the boys when the semi-final game to clinch a place in the championship. Saturday we went on a diabetic adolescent ski trip. It was a blast. I used snow-blades (really short skis with no poles) and hit lots of jumps, moguls, and black diamonds. That night we watched the Rocky Boy Stars battle their way through a tough game. They trailed most of the game but fought hard in the last 4 minutes to take the lead and win 58-49. The arena was packed with people from theRez and it was booming loud. They were chanting and throwing confetti and dancing. It was so fun. Sunday night I went ice-skating again. It’s so fun! My stopping needs some work though. I tried skating really fast and then doing a “hockey stop” (where you stop by turning the skates sideways). Well, I didn’t exactly stop... I just slid along the ground as my skates slid out from under me and I took out 2 of my friends who were standing along the wall. It was hilarious. And now another week of crazy fun and adventures begins!
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