[spezzy]

Hello hello! 

 

Last challenge was my big respawn - to quote myself:

 

On 2/4/2023 at 11:36 PM, 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🙂

 

 

 

I was hoping to have gotten dressed and crafted that wooden sword last challenge, and I didn't do that. But what did I do? I got dressed, and I found that stick. 

 

So here we are, last challenge's level up:

 

 

(Cue level up music)

 

Not quite what I was hoping, but good progress nonetheless. 

 

 Here's a recap of some big wins and an overall overview of how I felt the challenge went:

 

This challenge is going to be taking the last challenge and adding on to it.   

 

TL;DR: I'm a Nature Bonded Magus. and I'm putting myself through Nature Bonded Magus "School", while I rebuild my strength and life back post neuro lyme disease. Think of this like a tutorial level of a video game, I'm focusing on the basics.  

 

With this challenge specifically, the biggest thing going on is that everything is going on.

 

I have appointments with 3 different new specialists, which is fantastic, but just a lot.  One's a new psychiatrist and I'm hoping to be well enough post-lyme to be able to go back on my adhd meds - that would be huge. 

 

We've also decided to move full steam ahead on the interior of the house projects for the next 6 weeks, so I'm going to be needing to help with those when I can. I'll be working on the project plan and ordering all of our supplies tomorrow - going to be a lot. A lot a lot a lot.  We've mapped it and it's all realistic, and will be worth it, these are all projects that you save a lot of work if you can do together - and right now, staying busy is better for my brain than not.

 

I'm excited to have a direct focus.  I'm also even more excited to have the major projects done - living without a fully functional bathroom and kitchen get old quick, and some of the upgrades will have a huge impact on every single day, so I'm excited to get them done. 

 

I need to build a chicken coop to house 18 chickens that will be ready to go outside in just a few weeks, so let's hope the snow and the ground melt.

 

Aaaaaand lastly we've agreed to bring home a puppy the first week of May.

 

We have a million reasons for having a farm dog, and now is the perfect time because it is going to provide me with a ton of structure and forced socialization in a way that I'm comfortable with (since the puppy will need to be socialized I will have to start leaving the house). And once he's old enough, one of the things we're going to train him to do is get help if I pass out, leaving me much more comfortable to do high risk activities like gardening in my yard in the sun. (That sounds silly but that's my reality right now!)

 

What about Felix, you say? Well, apparently when they created him they accidentally included an entire bottle of the laziness from his bernese mountain dog grandfather instead of just a tiny drop and he has legit zero desire to be a task dog. Totally fine, he's absolutely wonderful and a funny dude and we love him to pieces, but he's more of a cuddler than a... do anything'er. He enjoys walking around the forest with us and exploring, and loves hanging out in the yard eating sticks, but he's gonna get eaten by a coyote before he even notices it there. Even though he's enjoying being a chicken mama, I think that's mostly so he can lick their butts and taste poo.

 

It's time to bring in the reinforcements.

 

 

I love dogs, I love training dogs, So I'm psyched. 

 

But, all of the house projects need to be done before he comes home. And the chicken coop, and the fence.  And on top of that, I need to do that whole health thing....

 

So, let's get on with the good stuff.

 

---

THE GOALS

 

NATURE BONDED MAGUS "SCHOOL"

 

 

I'll adjust the exact times and goals of the next day each night, at 8:45 when an alarm goes off and we review the day and plan tomorrow's day. That's the anchor. 

 

I'm putting big "end of challenge goals" to start for some of these - I'll break those down each week. 

 

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

Morning Walk

Get Chicken Coop Built

Get Fence Installed 

 

Spellstrike: 

Strength Training, 2-3x per week

 

Since the house projects and outdoor projects are so physically intensive, and I'm sore from them more often or not, my goal will be to strength train 2-3x per week depending on projects. If I'm not sore, or doig a physically intensive project, I have to work out though   Shoveling counts, too, if we get 32" again, that's for sure. 

 

Spellbooks: Planning and Journaling

8:45 Nightly

 

Arcane Pool: 

Nightly Yoga, after spellbooks

 

Tomorrow I'll get everything scheduled on the calendar for the upcoming zero week. 

 

 That's it for now! 

 

[spezzy]

placeholder for tracker

[Sovalis]

You have so much coming up, what adventure! Looking forward to cheering you on!

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

So much cool stuff. Following for support. 

[shaar]

If we get another 32" of snow I am getting in my car and driving BACK to North Carolina........

(actually that's an empty threat i love snow)

 

I ALSO love your nightly check in goal, that's so smart and will likely help out SO MUCH with all y'all have going on!

 

Excited to see your progress and read your growing farm updates!!!!

[Snarkyfishguts]

I think having a work/service dog is brilliant! Especially one that will help with work and get help if you need it. Brilliant!  I'm really happy you found your stick- what is the next weapon? A staff? A club? Either way, I look forward to following as you whallop the monsters and continu world building and leveling up  

[RES]

Oh wow, totally following for chicken updates and house projects  

[Everstorm]

Getting a working/assistance dog is a great idea!  Do you have a particular type of dog in mind?

[Rurik Harrgath]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:02 PM, spezzy said:

We've also decided to move full steam ahead on the interior of the house projects for the next 6 weeks, so I'm going to be needing to help with those when I can. I'll be working on the project plan and ordering all of our supplies tomorrow - going to be a lot. A lot a lot a lot.  We've mapped it and it's all realistic, and will be worth it, these are all projects that you save a lot of work if you can do together - and right now, staying busy is better for my brain than not.

 

 

On 3/18/2023 at 11:02 PM, spezzy said:

What about Felix, you say? Well, apparently when they created him they accidentally included an entire bottle of the laziness from his bernese mountain dog grandfather instead of just a tiny drop and he has legit zero desire to be a task dog. Totally fine, he's absolutely wonderful and a funny dude and we love him to pieces, but he's more of a cuddler than a... do anything'er.

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 8:56 AM, shaar said:

If we get another 32" of snow I am getting in my car and driving BACK to North Carolina........

(actually that's an empty threat i love snow)

 

I always thought I liked snow...

 

Turns out I got all old and arthritic somehow though.  😆

[spezzy]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:33 PM, Sovalis said:

You have so much coming up, what adventure! Looking forward to cheering you on!

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 12:30 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

So much cool stuff. Following for support. 

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 8:56 AM, shaar said:

If we get another 32" of snow I am getting in my car and driving BACK to North Carolina........

(actually that's an empty threat i love snow)

 

I ALSO love your nightly check in goal, that's so smart and will likely help out SO MUCH with all y'all have going on!

 

Excited to see your progress and read your growing farm updates!!!!

 

I would be less mad at the snow right now if it didn't keep trying to kill all my trees to take down the house

 

 

though i am v excited about chainsaws

 

 

and also getting a snowblower and a generator for next year 😂😂😂😂😂 

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 11:12 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

I'm really happy you found your stick- what is the next weapon? A staff? A club? Either way, I look forward to following as you whallop the monsters and continu world building and leveling up  

 

I'm thinking this challenge I'll be working on my wooden sword  

 

On 3/19/2023 at 11:23 AM, RES said:

Oh wow, totally following for chicken updates and house projects  

 

 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 11:12 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

I think having a work/service dog is brilliant! Especially one that will help with work and get help if you need it. Brilliant! 

 

On 3/19/2023 at 1:15 PM, Everstorm said:

Getting a working/assistance dog is a great idea!  Do you have a particular type of dog in mind?

 

Thanks! We're super super psyched.

 

We're going with an English Shepherd So a dog that knows a thing or two about working, that's for sure! 😆 

 

3 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

 

 

 

 

 

[Everstorm]

47 minutes ago, spezzy said:

We're going with an English Shepherd So a dog that knows a thing or two about working, that's for sure! 😆 

Oh, I was not familiar with that breed, I had to ask Google.  It seems similar to a border collie, which is indeed intelligent and hard-working.

[spezzy]

19 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Oh, I was not familiar with that breed, I had to ask Google.  It seems similar to a border collie, which is indeed intelligent and hard-working.

 

Yeah! Your standard farm collie, really. There are clubs but they aren't AKC so a little lesser known.  Similar to a Border Collie but instead of the crouching, strong-eye herding style (the intensity!!), English Shepherds have an upright loose eyed herding style and are much calmer. They still have a ton of energy and are super smart (since they aren't AKC, they're not bred for a show standard, but for abilities on the farm) are used all the time for farm dogs and therapy dogs, and they're known for kind of anticipating your needs and helping out where you need it and being able to handle different types of jobs well, so really feels like the perfect fit for our needs. We had been trying to decide on a dog in general when we got the call about him needing a place to live, all while trying to figure out a lot of my health stuff, sooooooo it kind of felt like a sign he was the one for us 😆 

 

Here's a pic of him now (He's 2 weeks old)

 

   

 

This is what they look like as adults (I don't know these dogs, random google search) - he'll be similar in color to the strawberry blonde one, maybe a little bit darker we think?

 

 

 

[Whisper]

2 minutes ago, spezzy said:

Here's a pic of him now (He's 2 weeks old)

Such a cute baby 😊

[spezzy]

Gonna try this update every day thing, even if I don't have much to update. Since I always go for my morning walk anyways, I can at least check that off daily 😆 

 

W0/D1

 

Since this is zero week, it's prep week, so the goal is by the end of this week to have everything set up next week. that being said, i'm still gonna try to hit as much as I can

 

Doctor's appointment today, a bit nervous, a bit wondering what's the point (it's a specialist I am not 100% sure why they have sent me to, but I'm going anyway because the worst thing that happens is I lose $35 and 2 hours and I get some socialization, 

 

Terrain Mastery/Woodland Stride:

Morning Walk ✅ 

Spent 10 minutes cutting some dead branches around where fence will go while waiting for gym to warm up ✅ 

 

Spellstrike: 

Squats ✅ 

 

Spellbooks: P

8:45 Nightly✅ 

 

Arcane Pool: 

Nightly Yoga, after spellbooks ❌

*I need to set up area to do this, clean my yoga mat, etc, because right now my area to do yoga is in my office, which is occupied with the chickens, which cover everything with dust and it's exhausting to keep up (long story but we have my old dog longer than originally planned still so she is occupying the space the chickens were supposed to go in, the chickens were never supposed to live in my office until fully feathered), so I'm going to work today/tomorrow to figure out an alternative space to do yoga at night until I can move the chickens.  

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Chickens in your yoga space is a new one! I admit I laughed quite a bit 😂

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

36 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

Chickens in your yoga space is a new one! I admit I laughed quite a bit 😂

[Everstorm]

Just use them for counterweight 

[shaar]

I mean, some places offer yoga with goats or alpacas, chickens might be the new big thing….

 

Good luck at the doctor and I hope it’s not too exhausting!!

[Jarric]

Chickens in your office is kind of a cool thing to have. I'm sure I'd get bored of the mess fast, but right now it sounds like a great idea.

[sarakingdom]

48 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Chickens in your office is kind of a cool thing to have. I'm sure I'd get bored of the mess fast, but right now it sounds like a great idea.

 

[spezzy]

On 3/21/2023 at 10:55 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

Chickens in your yoga space is a new one! I admit I laughed quite a bit 😂

 

 

On 3/21/2023 at 11:32 AM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

 

 

23 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Just use them for counterweight 

 

 

23 hours ago, shaar said:

I mean, some places offer yoga with goats or alpacas, chickens might be the new big thing….

 

 

1 hour ago, Jarric said:

Chickens in your office is kind of a cool thing to have. I'm sure I'd get bored of the mess fast, but right now it sounds like a great idea.

 

The mess is the worst part, yes. 

 

34 minutes ago, sarakingdom said:

 

 

 

Okay so I decided to make a video  

 

This is their temporary enclosure (the 32" of snow has me scrambling here a bit), I'm hoping to get them taking day trips outside in the next few days and then have them in a bigger place by the weekend. The cardboard is to try to help with the mess but it is not really working because chickens are DIRTY.  I love them but am ready to have my office back 😂 

 

 

 

I had to cut it in the middle because the blue one pooped on me. 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

Blue pooper! Omg they would NOT be yoga friendly 😂 but what a delight to see them and hear the chirping. I hope the snow sotuation simmers the heck down so the chickens can go outside for you. 💜🐔

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Chickens are cool, but definitely an outdoor animal.  How'd the doctor appt go?

[MaeradCase]

4 hours ago, spezzy said:

Okay so I decided to make a video  

Good call 😆

4 hours ago, spezzy said:

This is their temporary enclosure (the 32" of snow has me scrambling here a bit), I'm hoping to get them taking day trips outside in the next few days and then have them in a bigger place by the weekend.

Fingers crossed! 😃

4 hours ago, spezzy said:

The cardboard is to try to help with the mess but it is not really working because chickens are DIRTY.  I love them but am ready to have my office back 😂 

😅 sounds right

4 hours ago, spezzy said:

I had to cut it in the middle because the blue one pooped on me. 

The audacity! 😰

[spezzy]

On 3/21/2023 at 12:14 PM, shaar said:

Good luck at the doctor and I hope it’s not too exhausting!!

 

5 hours ago, Chris-Tien Jinn said:

How'd the doctor appt go?

 

Bad, unfortunately. Long story short I ended up in the emergency room after a panic attack during the appointment and Rurik had to come and spend the afternoon with me as we navigated getting me home. Today I had to meet with a crisis counselor and feel totally fine, more frustrated that I ended up having to spend the afternoon in the ER, but it's all fine and good. I've got some additional resources I didn't have before and have kind of figured some stuff out in the process that's helpful so there's at least that.

 

But it will be an emotionally light week the rest of the week, because I'm exhausted.