Monte Sano was foggy this morning!  I had trouble seeing the road on the way to the state park.  Michael, Pika, Nacho, and I went on a late morning hike with our friends Brian, Erica, and Max the dog.  We did a loop from the biker's parking lot down the Sinks Trail, up through the Stonecuts (first and second photo above), up Panther Knob, and back by way of Mountain Mist and the Sinks.  It was chilly for late March but felt nice after we got moving.  Max was a big mud dog, and Pika was a big stink dog after she jumped in some nasty smelling water - what a rascal!

Thoughts from my boss, in response to this article:

"Make as many mistakes as fast as you can, as fast as possible without hurting yourself or any of your stuff.  The number of mistakes required to achieve success is a fixed number, to the first order.  To the second order, the number of mistakes needed is proportional to the time between mistakes.  Thus, there is a mistake rate at which no progress is made.  For example, if we made one unsuccessful attempt at a task per year, and eight attempts were required to achieve success, it's very likely that success would never occur.  This is especially true if the forgetting of lessons is considered.  If a lesson is remembered and effective for only five years, then we'd always be three attempts away from success.  Also, make mistakes at the small scale as fast as possible, where the political, economic, and capital cost are also small.

Successful engineering occurs when the executor fails to build the object incorrectly."

Well, our race yesterday got cancelled due to lightening and excessive rain.  We took a walk with the pups in the afternoon after it stopped raining-it was fun to see Mountain Brook running with so much water!   

Quick rundown of recent accomplishments for my own records:

03/04 - 03/06 Weekend Accomplishments:
-  Jess biked in the rain and mud on Saturday, 03/05
-  Michael and Jess ran Upper Bear and Teddy Bear Creek on Sunday, 03/06

03/11 - 03/13 Weekend Accomplishments:
-  Michael boated on Johnnies Creek on Friday, 03/11
-  Walked dogs on Wildflower Trail (SO pretty)
-  Started building a new rock raised-bed
-  Ran/hiked 12 miles in preparation for upcoming race
-  Attended Huntsville Botanical Garden class on separating perennials
-  Planted hostas, irises, muhly grass, lemon balm, Joe-Pye weed, creeping phlox, miscanthus grass, sedum, and others

03/18 - 03/20 Weekend Accomplishments:
-  Michael dug up ten free dogwood trees he found on craigslist
-  Michael and Jess kayaked on Town Creek on Saturday, 03/19
-  Cut down lone black locust in garden (pictures to come!)
-  Repaired damage to raised beds that was the result of previous accomplishment
-  Burned stump of black locust (crazy fire inside the ground; hottest fire Michael's ever built)
-  Planted three blueberry bushes
-  Transplanted two parsley plants
-  Moved the majority of the wood pile to the street for the city to pick up
-  Stacked fire wood
-  Had friends over for dinner on Sunday, 03/20

We hadn't been to the Wildflower Trail in ages, and it was SO beautiful this morning.  The trout lilies are out in force, as you can see in the top photo!  The water in Fagan Creek was really clear.  I'm thinking we might go out again this afternoon for a run.  

A few photos today from our trip to Little River Canyon (specifically, Upper Bear and Teddy Bear Creek).

Pups on their Sunday walk.