Firefighter Mile Training Update

The word is being spread about the mile and the responses have been very fun. I have heard everything from "Are you nuts?" to "Go Get em!"and a few, "Here he goes again." from the folks who know about my other running exploits. I love it, keep the responses coming and feel free to donate what you feel led to.

Training Update:  17 days until the run!!

I have been keeping my daily base mileage up to date with runs at home and unreal stair climber sessions at the Fire Station. Just recently I completed two separate interval workouts on local tracks in my full gear to test out range of motion, heat retention and actual speed ability. The Guinness folks set the requirements of the mile and stated that I DO NOT have to be wearing my air pack. My guess is that the packs vary so much by weight and size it just wouldn't be equitable for everyone. As a result the intervals were in just the pants, jacket, boots, gloves and helmet. Its like wrapping yourself in an oven mitt and running around a track. My times for 400 meters have been right in the 2:07 to 2:15 range and my 800 meter times are floating in the 4:15 to 4:30 range. So I am still setting a finish mark of under 9:00 minutes!!!

I have had a few responses to help with the recording of the mile, thanks! I still need at least one more viedographer.

Thanks to all of you for your support of Camp Eyabsut and my record attempt, you are all welcome to come out the the meet and cheer on the attempt!!! More Cowbell!! (turkey gobblers, clackers, preditor calls, and various other noisemakers!!)

Tony

As part of this summer’s Club Northwest All-Comers Track andField Meet Series at Shoreline Stadium, I will be running my 7^th official Firefighter Mile on May 30^th at approx. 7pm. This run will be an effort to establish a new world record for the fastest mile in full firefighting bunker/combat gear. The mark to beat to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records is 10:00 and I am currently on track in my training to run 8:30 to 9:00. I am raising funds during this run to benefit Camp Eyabsut, a local burn injured children’s camp in desperate need of funding for this summer’s activities. See their website at http://www.saveburncamp.org/Save_Camp_Eyabsut.php

I am asking you to consider pledging any amount per second that I am under the 10:00 mark. For example if you pledge $1/second and I run an 8:30 mile then you will be pledging to donate $90 to the camp.

I also have a few other needs to meet the requirements of the Guinness folks. I need at least three people to assist and digitally record the ENTIRE event from different angles without breaks so I can send a copy to document my effort. (The file needs to be in a format that can be burned to a CD.)

I need a pacer, with track and field experience, who would be willing to assist my efforts by pacing my run, most importantly the third and fourth laps.

Thanks for supporting Camp Eyabsut.

Tony Robinson

Crystals

Part of the joy of homeschooling is doing hands on science. We have been working our way through a great Earth Science textbook and homemade curriculm. It has been fun combining efforts with two other families and having the boys over for lab days on Thursdays.

Last time we did an introduction to the Rock Cycle with a lab using crayon shavings, this week we talked about crystal growth. Here are a few shots of the days activities.

Yes the crystal models were indeed edible and gooey and ever so slightly messy. "Brett, where are your mallows?" "Uh.....chubby bunny."

We followed with an epsom salt crystal growing demo I found online. I made a solution days ahead to grow the pan of seed crystals, below is a shot of the results, pretty cool. I had the boys collect the seed crystals to suspend in the solution on some fishing line for growing, but in mixing the solution for larger crystals it seems we missed the mark because all the seed crystals keep dissolving. I sent more epsom salt home with the boys so we will see how their attempts work in a few days.

We also tried a saturated solution of sugar water with no luck. The boys described it as an, "epic failure", how encouraging. Even after MANY days it has still produced NOTHING, bummer.

We now have half an egg shell soaking in the salt solution in an effort to create a geoed. We'll see how well it works once the solution begins to evaporate and become more concentrated. Still, it is all fun to play with.

Tony

Homeschool Fossil Lab

Okay so it is not a laboratory but a garage works for pounding with hammers and trying to break open rocks to find fossils.

We are currently studying sedimentary rocks and fossils in our homeschooling science class. So we used a large portion of mudstone from the Stone Rose center in Republic, WA as a sample for the boys to experience what it is like to uncover fossils deposited in sediments. It was a blast. They did a great job and had fun. We found some small fragments of plant parts. We also looked at other remains and impressions from our trip last summer. (see post from last year).

The only other shot I got was of the destruction from the days activities.

Thanks to Grandpa Robinson for providing the large slab of mudstone. I cut it with a tile saw to get four manageable pieces with good flat edges for the boys to work on. We had a great time and learned that you don't always find a fossil in every spot that is exposed.

Tony

Old video and Gabe playing lax

I finally found the video of the boys during SNOWMAGEDDON 2012... not really the most violent shorts but they wanted them posted for all to see.

In the mean time we haved moved on to Lacrosse season. Here are a couple shots of Gabe and a short video, remember to look for the dark red helmet.

As the game came to an exciting close in the few short last seconds of the 5 to 5 tie, a scrum developed in front of the Snohomish team goal. Gabe dove in and fought hard for the ball. The timing bench started yelling out the ten second countdown to end the game 10, 9, 8....the scrum flipped the ball out onto open grass, 7, 6, 5 Gabe scooped the ball turned to the goal, 4, 3 and shot through three defenders and the goaliee to score the last second game winning goal. He turned to face his team and with his stick raised high into the air screamed in amazement, "IT WENT IN!" We actually saw the ball magically thread the needle of arms, legs, sticks and bodies to find the upper corner of the net. It was magical!! But as bad luck would have it no one was holding a camera in the directon of the action.

That's the short update for now. Hope this finds you well. I will get some updates from my last trip to Haiti soon. Still looking into getting some photos from the trip photographer.

Tony

Tap...tap...tap, is this thing still on?

Wow it has been a while since my last post. February has been a crazy month and it is only the 19th. We survived Snowmageddon 2012 with only 3.5 days without power, the boys loved it, all four of us. Wind storms have come and gone and the tree damage is extensive but nothing hit the house or structure in ManLand, phew! Lacrosse, Soccer and 4-H have started up already for the boys, and fair season is approaching. We finally got the generator hooked up to the house now that the weather has passed, although there was a dusting of what looked like snow on my car this morning as I left for work. A quick update on Haiti: Tomorrow I leave for Haiti. This will be my fourth trip to Dessalines and my third trip to the mountains of Kawo. Cheryl and the boys will be at home this time. The mountain schoolhouse/church is at 19 degrees 11'19.91" North and 72 degrees 22'29.60 West, look it up on Google Earth. We are roughly 10 miles up in the hills from the Dessalines church building in NanWo. We will be documenting the kids and giving them fluoride, providing an OB clinic for all the local midwives, and setting up an impromptu clinic for any other needs we will encounter. The team will be surveying the initial construction of the foundation for the new school rooms just to the west of the main structure. It will be an amazing time for us all. Please feel free to stay updated by going to HopeInHaiti.org for daily updates. Blessing to you all, Tony P.S. I will post pictures and links from the trip when I return in March.

Tying Flys With Jon

Today Jon and I endeavored to use the new fly tying materials he got for Christmas. We watched a few YouTube videos to get us excited and some what educated on the basics and then started. I can't count the number of times we had to rewind a specific video on how to tie a whip finish. All in all it was a bunch of fun until the frustration level began to increase in both of us. It may be time for a class or help from a more experienced fly tier (sp).

Here is my first attempt at a fly. It was fun. We used the feathers from a locally harvested pheasant and hackle from Jon's kit. Sorry about the focus. The second fly was all Jon. He did a great job using the materials and tool from his kit.

We set up the tying station right next to the computer so we could tie and watch videos at the same time. Here is Jon tying away.

Tony