Working Weight

At Rural Ways, we've been having trouble keeping the weight on. It would be difficult to find any fat at The Homestead—not including the bacon in the fridge. For Ellen we finally diagnosed a stomach acid problem that was causing her to eat like a mouse and lose weight that she doesn't really have. For me, I've been a lot closer to 160—too light—than 180—preferred—this summer and I can't seem to do anything about it. Valerie, of course, looks good, and is the envy of most women half her age.

The real story, at least for the adults, is work. Yesterday morning, I was digging tree planting holes for the City of Parowan—just a few of the hundreds of trees we've planted this year. Yesterday afternoon, I was removing 12 inches of sod from a 200 square foot patio I'm building at The Homestead. Valerie spent the whole day picking, processing, and canning food from the garden that we will be eating all winter. I guess, when we haven't been walking in the woods of Colorado or paddling the canoe, we've been on the sweaty end of a hand tool for most of the summer. There is something about driving a shovel that makes it hard to gain weight. I'm going to call it the True Temper Diet.

Recently, a friend of mine who likes to enter triathalons looked at the combined BMI of Rural Ways and said, "You guys must work out." I thought about it for a minute, and then replied, "No, we don't work out, we just work."