Farm-Life Fitness

There is so much physical activity to be done on a daily basis on a farm (even a small one like ours), that you really don’t even need to go to the gym! I much prefer being outside, doing physical labor and working alongside plants, animals and just nature in general, so this is definitely my happy place to get my workouts in! A snapshot of daily activity for me looks like this:

Up around 6 (if not earlier – cuz, menopause!), coffee, get dressed and sunscreened, walk to the barn to feed and water horses, cows, cats. This includes moving feedbags sometimes from tackroom storage to the bins in our gated off feed area of the barn (also, the cats’ domain), dodging hungry-seeming, excited cows with a bucket of cubes (and a very forward-acting lately adolescent bull, gotta be on your toes!). Feeding and watering also includes toting a heavy hose around the barn pasture, watering the few sad and lonely grass patches we can try to keep alive around the barn, sprinkling down the stalls to keep dust down, emptying/cleaning/refilling the water trough for the animals, cleaning/refilling all water bowls for the kitties, sweeping daily (to keep dead bugs from attracting ants, and the barn neat and tidy in general), doctoring any pasture (or buddy related, grr) wounds on the horses, brushing out and fly spraying all three horses each day, and of course – the best part – just being with and enjoying all these cuties we are devoting our lives to every single day!

By this time its usually 8:30ish, so I walk back to the house to make breakfast (usually an egg dish of some sort with a decent carb to go with) then get these dogs walked. That usually includes Ronnie (or the both of us) walking them off leash on the other side of our house, away from the barn gang (our dogs weren’t raised around cows, horses or cats so not 100% trustworthy) – probably a 15 minute activity – down around some trees, arena and back up to the house again. In the heat of summer or cold days in winter, this is typically once a day – in better weather, sometimes twice. Now that Ronnie’s folks will be joining us on the far side of the property, Ronnie will likely bring our youngest dog over there with him sometimes, so that’s even more exercise for her (and him, haha).

I like to walk for fitness up and down our main road that divides our property in half – so its about 3/4 mile up and back. A few laps (so about a mile and a half/2 mi per day on top of walking dogs and going back and forth to the barn twice a day or walking over to check on Ronnie’s folks’ house – all adds up!) and gimme a podcast, and I’m a happy camper! My top 3 fav podcasts include Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Mel Robbins, and Andrew Huberman’s “Huberman Lab,” for excellent health related info, with a huge focus on everything from mental health to physical care and solid advice on trending supplements and other health-related what-have-you.

When its tolerable weather out (unlike now in the crazy heat of this insane September where we just cannot seem to dip below 100 for any reasonable length of time), I like to workout with weights on my back porch. I can see the horses and listen to whatever I’m in the mood for – music or podcast – and just get a great workout in of my choosing. Twenty years ago, my neighborhood girlfriends (at the time) and I were lucky enough to have a personal trainer in our neighborhood that worked with my husband when he was training for an Ironman triathlon race, and that practice – working out together on one or another of our driveways – stuck for about 10 years! In the years since, we’ve worked out together off and on, and I’ve tried to stick with it for myself (especially now that I’m in my late 50s and strength training is one of the best things you can do for bone health) – it has just become a steady part of my life that I enjoy. Here’s an example of what coming off of a hard winter and getting back into a workout routine again looks like. I may update with what a workout entails when I’m in the middle of a good strength training habit, which is always spring and fall, with the much more enjoyable temps. Its during those good weather windows that I’ll usually combine my walk in between weight sets.

Afternoons are spent working at the computer, working with Ronnie or running errands (sometimes he hits the gym with his workout buddy or our youngest son), and then we have feeding time back in the barn at the end of every day. I usually start dinner, Ronnie starts feeding and I come out there for a quick visit to check/fly spray or de-burr the horses (lately!) and play with my kitty cats!

We eat most every night at home, so I’m often having a glass of wine while making dinner, then usually sit down to catch a show with Ronnie and that almost always results in me conking out on the couch after probably 30 minutes! So, definitely early to bed, early to rise is our standard over here.

I’m sure for anyone near our ages living similar lives, that’s not too terribly uncommon…its a good life – when we’re not dying from heat or drought, drowning in rain or mud, or freezing solid in bizarre Texas artic blasts – at least we can find meaning and purpose in life, knocking ourselves out to keep everybody else alive around here, right?!

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