[spezzy]

I'm figuring out life post Lyme, I'm getting better, but with all of my successes and failures over the last few years I've realized one major thing: there is a direct correlation between the time I spend outside in nature and my health. I'm not only happiest when I'm outside, but when I'm getting at least two sessions of outside time a day, I'm also more productive at work, excited for other things in life, and actually want to lift.

 

An example is that while this last challenge has not been perfect, it was a whole lot better than the last ones - the first half was good because I was getting outside, but then I was excited about lifting and was focusing more on getting in the gym than getting outside, and then I barely saw the sun for a month because of it and my mental health tanked and I got hit with the sads hard. As soon as I started focusing on getting outside in the afternoon again, within a few days I was feeling like a human again. 

 

Turns out, I need the sun, and you can not, in fact, catch it and bottle it for when is convenient for you.

 

 

I keep fighting the fact that I am a druid because I want to be a warrior, and Ive always really liked the Magus as someone I aspire to be due to the skill in fighting AND learning. But maybe also I'm fighting the fact that I'm a druid because I'm not a druid.

 

I'm a Nature Bonded Magus.

 

Now, I'm not saying I'm not going to be lifting. au contrair - I have a lot of plans.

 

I'm gonna put myself through Nature Bonded Magus "School". Which means everything I do is a part of learning how to be a nature bonded magus. (If we want to talk in habit building and James Clear here, everything I do will be a vote for who I want to be). And that will include lifting because I have to be strong to wield my sword

 

This challenge is my "awakening" challenge, a la Link in the Shrine of Resurrection. A tutorial level, or my freshman year. Whatever you want to call it.

 

I am waking up in the middle of the woods in my pajamas, and I have to forage for a stick to protect myself, and then practice my skills until I'm good enough to earn real clothes and a wooden sword🙂

*I am aware, different game, not the shrine of resurrection, but i'm about to make all the reminder noises on my phone "Hey! Listen!", and this gif was easier to find. 

 

And how am I going to do that? Exactly how I've been successful in the past in every time period of my life that I have had a lot I want to do:

 

I will schedule everything, and stick to the schedule. If it is a goal, it will be on the calendar. Also, having a solidified work schedule would be really good for me. The daylight goes away too fast, and I have time blindness with my ADHD - so reminders will be key here, too.

 

I've already got my schedule set up in an app with reminders, I just need to update with challenge theme names.

 

I am using anchor tasks and habit stacking for techniques as those have worked really well before.

 

These are the "Classes" that will appear on my calendar:

(I am THEMING THIS, but I am in no way trying to make a real playable character. I'm making my IRL character)

 

Terrain Mastery/Woodland Stride: (Anything outside, gardening, building the chicken coop, setting up the rabbits, etc - work outside, going for a walk, Stomping through the woods, exploring

-->7am and 4pm - morning and before it gets dark out. This is the most important goal of all of them.

 

Spellstrike: Training - Strength / Rowing / Gym stuff.

--> 1215pm daily during the work week

 

Spellbooks: Planning and Journaling

--> 8pm every night

 

Arcane Pool: yoga, mediation, other things that bring me energy that I need to do. This is a part of my going to bed sequence. 

--> 10pm every night

 

Druidic Herbalism: An actual nutrition course

--> one evening/week

 

That's 6 classes, which is more than enough for a whole semester, let alone a 5 week challenge.

 

I also have my non-magus school tasks already planned out and on the calendar - work, eating, sleep, fun time, and the insane amount of doctors appointments I have coming up. It’s all there. 

 

 With time I can be more flexible, but until I get into these habits, I need to just follow it exactly. I modify the schedule flexibility the night before, so this is realistic. 

 

So that is the goal: follow the schedule. One goal.
 

Well, kind of two because part of Spellbooks is daily revisiting the schedule and checking in with Rurik about the next day to make sure everything is still good (which I think will be a good skill for us to develop, too, so im excited about that).

 

Feeling very ready, and surprisingly encouraged after last challenge. 

 

And that's it!

 

Good luck, nerds

 

 

[sarakingdom]

47 minutes ago, spezzy said:

the first half was good because I was getting outside, but then I was excited about lifting and was focusing more on getting in the gym than getting outside, and then I barely saw the sun for a month because of it and my mental health tanked and I got hit with the sads hard. As soon as I started focusing on getting outside in the afternoon again, within a few days I was feeling like a human again. 

 

POUND IRON ON THE DRIVEWAY SPEZZY. NO BAD WEATHER ONLY BAD CLOTHING AND BAD ASSES.

 

 

(Dude maybe needs some cable-knit arm warmers, tho.)

[Ann of Owlshire]

Access to nature was totally transformative for both my mental and physical health (although we went pretty hardcore and moved to the woods which I know not everyone can/wants to do). I wish you the best on this challenge! 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Nature is important, it's like our species evolved out there or something. 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Hello! Cheering you on as you get those vital sunshine boosts. I also love the "spellbooks"  that makes it a lot more fun

[doctorake]

Time outside is my favorite time. 

[spezzy]

12 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

POUND IRON ON THE DRIVEWAY SPEZZY. NO BAD WEATHER ONLY BAD CLOTHING AND BAD ASSES.

 

 

(Dude maybe needs some cable-knit arm warmers, tho.)

 

You know, i was just telling Rurik the other day that at the next snow, we should jump in the river. 

 

I think he thought I was joking 😂 

 

Seriously though, the temperature fluctuations leave us with way too much slush or mud to make actual lifting outside realistic, but really excited about the opportunity to just open the garage doors starting in not too long from now!!

 

10 hours ago, Ann of Owlshire said:

Access to nature was totally transformative for both my mental and physical health (although we went pretty hardcore and moved to the woods which I know not everyone can/wants to do). I wish you the best on this challenge! 

 

Thank you! We just moved into one of those kind-of-far out areas, where we're super in the woods, but have access to anything we need within an hours drive or so (we in a tiny town of 6k so it has a center that has the very basics, but the actual grocery store is about 20 min away. If I'm willing to drive 45 minutes I can get just about anything, and in an hour and a half I'm in Boston so really kind of a fantastic combination). 

 

But we're surrounded by 50+ acres of conservation lands in one direction and conservation restricted farms in the other, so definitely a lot of nature and it's been such a gamechanger to have it all right there. Walking by horses and cows and chickens and ducks and pigs... my heart gets so full. And then just everything in the forest... 😍 

 

We're not hardcore homesteading (the house was here already and all set up), but with the amount of work this property has needed, it has been/will be a great test to see how hardcore we want to get next house (in many years!).  

 

 

4 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Nature is important, it's like our species evolved out there or something. 

 

 

2 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Hello! Cheering you on as you get those vital sunshine boosts. I also love the "spellbooks"  that makes it a lot more fun

 

The little names really do make it much more fun. If I'm studying my spellbooks for school, that's way more motivating than looking at my schedule for the next day

 

Also it means I can use the fancy pants notebook my MIL got me for Christmas that I have been waiting for a use for, and a good notebook makes all the difference in the world. 

 

 

1 hour ago, doctorake said:

Time outside is my favorite time. 

 

[Rurik Harrgath]

15 hours ago, spezzy said:

I am waking up in the middle of the woods in my pajamas, and I have to forage for a stick to protect myself, and then practice my skills until I'm good enough to earn real clothes and a wooden sword🙂

 

 

Druidic Herbalism: An actual nutrition course

 

 

This comes to mind:

 

Also this:

 

15 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

(Dude maybe needs some cable-knit arm warmers, tho.)

 

She received two chunky cabit-knit neck warmers from a client, and recently handed me one... she won't be getting it back because dayum are those cozy!   

 

2 hours ago, spezzy said:

 

You know, i was just telling Rurik the other day that at the next snow, we should jump in the river. 

 

I think he thought I was joking 😂 

 

Wait, what?

 

I thought you knew better than to encourage any temperature-based recklessness insofar as I am concerned.

 

 

2 hours ago, spezzy said:

The little names really do make it much more fun. If I'm studying my spellbooks for school, that's way more motivating than looking at my schedule for the next day

 

The roleplaying aspect of gamifying your goals is truly my favorite as well.  Now I'm on the hunt for sewing patterns to make a workout tabard!

 

 

2 hours ago, spezzy said:

Also it means I can use the fancy pants notebook my MIL got me for Christmas that I have been waiting for a use for, and a good notebook makes all the difference in the world. 

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

3 hours ago, spezzy said:

Thank you! We just moved into one of those kind-of-far out areas, where we're super in the woods, but have access to anything we need within an hours drive or so (we in a tiny town of 6k so it has a center that has the very basics, but the actual grocery store is about 20 min away. If I'm willing to drive 45 minutes I can get just about anything, and in an hour and a half I'm in Boston so really kind of a fantastic combination). 

 

But we're surrounded by 50+ acres of conservation lands in one direction and conservation restricted farms in the other, so definitely a lot of nature and it's been such a gamechanger to have it all right there. Walking by horses and cows and chickens and ducks and pigs... my heart gets so full. And then just everything in the forest... 😍 

 

We're not hardcore homesteading (the house was here already and all set up), but with the amount of work this property has needed, it has been/will be a great test to see how hardcore we want to get next house (in many years!).  

 

Ah, that all sounds lovely! We're in 40 square miles of forest but it's dotted around with villages and a couple of small towns that are  fairly accessible to one another. We're personally surrounded by more than a hundred acres of forest and pasture much of which we have public footpath access through, but there's a  pub 100 meters down the lane, big housing estate less than a 10 minute walk away through the woods, and the village center can be driven to in less than 5 minutes or walked through the woods in about 20 minutes at my pace. There's a small shop, a surgery, and the Enting's primary school. The towns with more amenities are about 10-15 minutes away by car, and the nearest city about 40 minutes away through beautiful rolling countryside. It gives us this feeling of being remote (I can literally walk for hours a day and never run into another human) but without actually being cut off. Which is the best of both world's for us!

 

And as for hardcore homesteading... I didn't mind a property that needed a bit of love (and hoo boy we got that), but the house had to be "move-in ready" Maybe a house that needed a bit of modernizing or touching up (ha ha we've had to have the plumbing in every bathroom redone and the decor in half the house is still circa 1980s Grandmacore) but we had to be able to live in it comfortably from day one. Besides, both of us have full time jobs, a young kiddo, and various other things going on, so we're pretty much hobby homesteaders and do what we want (and if it's critical and we can't, we hire it out). It works for us! 

[RES]

17 hours ago, spezzy said:

Turns out, I need the sun, and you can not, in fact, catch it and bottle it for when is convenient for you.

Well darn, there goes that plan!!

 

[spezzy]

This weekend we got the opportunity to go across the river, because it was actually cold enough for long enough to freeze it solid, which is super rare rare here (it has a pretty fast current and is decently deep in a lot of areas). 

 

Anyway, we decided to trek across the ice and explore some of the conservation land.

 

Here are some videos - first, we found the lodge of the beavers that live in our river. Here are air bubbles under the ice around the beaver lodge, leading directly to their opening. 

 

 

 

Next - one of my favorite things here is the mashup of older land usage. Here we found some wetlands and a pebbled creek, mixed with an old stone wall that used to be used for pasture/land partitioning. 

 

 

Just so pretty everywhere. 

 

Aaaaaaand some pics: 

 

Our little house (and our one close neighbor's house, which looks close but there's actually a moat in between us) from across the river - a view I've never seen before! It is yellow now, in the spring we are painting it a nice dark green

Wetlands:

I just really liked how this tree fell across the river.

 

 

@Rurik Harrgath looking at the beaver lodge 

 

I bet there are fishers in there.

 

Both of our rubber boots got tested, but thankfully with a combination of the boots and the snow pants, neither of us even got wet even when we fell in (we were super careful, we actually both fell in super close to shore, and both because we weren't really paying attention because we thought we were safe at those points 😂  - and we only brought Felix with us day 2 when we had a better feel for how the ice was all around). 

 

The river started thawing promptly as predicted at 11am today, so we likely won't get over it in this capacity again until maybe next winter, but now we have a better idea of everything that's in there and some ideas on some longer term paths to build to make crossing safer and easier. 

 

Anyway, that's it for now! I a beat from trampling through frozen snow in big rubber boots, but wanted to share all the pretty  

[Everstorm]

20 hours ago, spezzy said:

I'm a Nature Bonded Magus.

 

Now, I'm not saying I'm not going to be lifting. au contrair - I have a lot of plans.

 

I'm gonna put myself through Nature Bonded Magus "School". Which means everything I do is a part of learning how to be a nature bonded magus. (If we want to talk in habit building and James Clear here, everything I do will be a vote for who I want to be). And that will include lifting because I have to be strong to wield my sword

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I'm so happy for y'all getting to live in that natural wonderland.

[Rurik Harrgath]

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I'm so happy for y'all getting to live in that natural wonderland.

Now we can sell the house and go live off the land deep within the hills! 😎

[KB Girl]

On 2/5/2023 at 5:36 AM, spezzy said:

 

Turns out, I need the sun, and you can not, in fact, catch it and bottle it for when is convenient for you.

Very unfortunate! But very glad you felt better again after just a couple of days  

 

Love the new class. And the array of outside options. We’ve been preparing garden beds as well and I couldn’t be happier  

[Sovalis]

Love the set up of your challenge! 😁

[TimovieMan]

Mentally trying to send some sun your way...

 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Here for winter nature inspiration. While being reminded how I should get outside more in my metro lifestyle.

 

[spezzy]

On 2/5/2023 at 4:23 PM, Ann of Owlshire said:

 

Ah, that all sounds lovely! We're in 40 square miles of forest but it's dotted around with villages and a couple of small towns that are  fairly accessible to one another. We're personally surrounded by more than a hundred acres of forest and pasture much of which we have public footpath access through, but there's a  pub 100 meters down the lane, big housing estate less than a 10 minute walk away through the woods, and the village center can be driven to in less than 5 minutes or walked through the woods in about 20 minutes at my pace. There's a small shop, a surgery, and the Enting's primary school. The towns with more amenities are about 10-15 minutes away by car, and the nearest city about 40 minutes away through beautiful rolling countryside. It gives us this feeling of being remote (I can literally walk for hours a day and never run into another human) but without actually being cut off. Which is the best of both world's for us!

 

And as for hardcore homesteading... I didn't mind a property that needed a bit of love (and hoo boy we got that), but the house had to be "move-in ready" Maybe a house that needed a bit of modernizing or touching up (ha ha we've had to have the plumbing in every bathroom redone and the decor in half the house is still circa 1980s Grandmacore) but we had to be able to live in it comfortably from day one. Besides, both of us have full time jobs, a young kiddo, and various other things going on, so we're pretty much hobby homesteaders and do what we want (and if it's critical and we can't, we hire it out). It works for us! 

 

That absolutely sounds wonderful! That definitely sounds like the longer term dream with having more land all around - having that much land sounds amazing

 

Totally get it on the house needing to be move in ready - we knew we wanted something that needed a bit of work (or, let's talk realistically - we would HAVE to buy something that needed a bit of work because houses are expensive haha), but didn't quite plan on buying a place that needed quite this much work. It was originally my Mother's, and a combination of health issues, being on her own and with acreages being more work than 1 person can handle in their spare time, the pandemic, and all of a sudden being in her 70's... the house got away from her. So we've had to rebuild much of it, but since Rurik can't work until we get farther along in the immigration process (moving here was NOT our original plan so we were not prepared hah) - it's really worked out since he can do renos. 

 

 

On 2/5/2023 at 10:12 PM, Rurik Harrgath said:

Now we can sell the house and go live off the land deep within the hills! 😎

 

Hey as long as 

 

On 2/5/2023 at 4:43 PM, RES said:

Well darn, there goes that plan!!

 

 

 

On 2/5/2023 at 7:40 PM, Everstorm said:

 

 

13 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Very unfortunate! But very glad you felt better again after just a couple of days  

 

Love the new class. And the array of outside options. We’ve been preparing garden beds as well and I couldn’t be happier  

 

It was such an immediate turnaround I looked at Rurik and was like I AM SO MAD THIS IS WORKING SO WELL 😂 

 

When does planting season start for you? I'm starting to plan on the garden beds but we're still in a deep freeze. Hoping to build the chicken coop on my week off in a few weeks though. Hopefully it will be warm enough by then for me to till into the ground, but if it's not I can at least do that part last (I need to bury wire a few feet deep because of our predator situation). 

 

 

12 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Love the set up of your challenge! 😁

 

Thank you!!

[spezzy]

Updates so far!

 

Got up at 645 yesterday and today like planned.

 

Schedule is a little tighter, so running a bit behind in general but learning as we go.

 

Workout yesterday was push:

Bench - 135x5x5

95x10

Snatch Grip Behind the neck overhead press - 65-75 for 5 sets of 5

Dumbbell Flies, lat raises, tuck holds

 

Got out at 4 for a nice little afternoon walk through the wetlands. did some tree squats and then called it a day.

 

 

[shaar]

Your winter photos are SO PRETTY!! It was soooo cold this past weekend…. 🥶
 

Glad the renovations seem to be going well and also having so many animals around is a nice bonus!!!! YESSSS COWS

[Ann of Owlshire]

1 hour ago, spezzy said:

 but didn't quite plan on buying a place that needed quite this much work. It was originally my Mother's, and a combination of health issues, being on her own and with acreages being more work than 1 person can handle in their spare time, the pandemic, and all of a sudden being in her 70's... the house got away from her.

 

 

Similar happened to my Dad's house. It was a mess when I rejoined him for a while, he'd just... let it go.  (This was many years and another country ago.)

 

The other reason I wanted a move-in ready house is that planning permissions in the UK can be a nightmare. We had a friend who bought a crumbling thatched roof cottage with his wife so they could raise their children in the countryside. They set up a tiny Nordic cabin/shack for sleeping and an outdoor shower/toilet blocks to wash until the work would be done. The only part of the cottage that could be used was the kitchen.

 

It took 13 years before the planning permissions went through and they could start renovation. Their children had grown up, one already finished university, and the younger was about to start. And yes, they grew up in the shack with the outdoor toilet blocks. LOL Anyway, with that particularly extreme cautionary tale in mind... well, I know I'm not that patient.  (We were also lucky and had the budget for a house in a good repair and some land.) 

 

1 hour ago, spezzy said:

So we've had to rebuild much of it, but since Rurik can't work until we get farther along in the immigration process (moving here was NOT our original plan so we were not prepared hah) - it's really worked out since he can do renos. 

 

I feel for you there. We decided to move to the UK Thanksgiving 2015, when it became clear the Mr's work visa in the US would not be renewed. By February 2016, we and all of our stuff were in the UK (the Mr having gone ahead of me), and my initial entrance visa didn't give me working rights, either. But by the time we had that sorted, we were trying to start a family (and eventually succeeded), so I didn't actually get my first job in the UK until a few years later  

 

Good luck on everything! 

 

[Wild Wolf]

On 2/4/2023 at 10:36 PM, spezzy said:

*I am aware, different game, not the shrine of resurrection, but i'm about to make all the reminder noises on my phone "Hey! Listen!", and this gif was easier to find. 

 

You speaka my language  

 

On 2/5/2023 at 2:47 PM, Rurik Harrgath said:

Now I'm on the hunt for sewing patterns to make a workout tabard!

 

I would purchase one of these, 100%!

 

Wolf

[KB Girl]

4 hours ago, spezzy said:

It was such an immediate turnaround I looked at Rurik and was like I AM SO MAD THIS IS WORKING SO WELL 😂 

 

When does planting season start for you? I'm starting to plan on the garden beds but we're still in a deep freeze. Hoping to build the chicken coop on my week off in a few weeks though. Hopefully it will be warm enough by then for me to till into the ground, but if it's not I can at least do that part last (I need to bury wire a few feet deep because of our predator situation). 

Totally get that xD

 

11-14 may is the date that risk for night frosts is 99% past, but there are many plants that can deal with a bit of frost. We've currently still got kale and Brussel sprouts in the ground ready to harvest, we've got onions, garlic and purslane still growing and I'm planning to pre-sow peas, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, beets, spinach and salads in February either inside or outside under glass. Won't be able to transplant them outside until March or April. 

 

Luckily I didn't have to do any tilling in our current garden, we really only had to add some compost and mulch to most beds. But the other garden we're starting from scratch- it's all grass now.. we'll need fencing there (hadn't even thought about it needing to go under ground, so thanks). We'll start the beds with just a layer of cardboard covered with compost though, no tilling needed, you could probably do that whenever too if that's the way you're going? 

[Rurik Harrgath]

5 hours ago, Wild Wolf said:

I would purchase one of these, 100%!

 

I'll let you know when I have prototypes  my real labor-of-love/big project is gonna be a Carhartt-style gambeson jacket straight outta The Witcher but right at home working outdoors.

 

#BringinMedievalBack #MakeAmericaMedievalAgain  (clothes wise, at least)