'sonly May but....

Memorial Day just went by, but that is no reason not to start getting wood ready for winter. Here is my first 1/4 cord of the year.

Felled, cut, hauled, split and stacked in less than a day. I only need to do this about 20 more times.

The wood is mostly beech and a little birch. I love burning beech, it burns hot and long. Its tough to split, espically by hand as I usually do.

When its 80 deg F in the house during a sub-zero day in February and I have to crack the sliding door to cool the house down, the work is well worth it.

Plus, Who can say no to free heat?

Big Fucking Turtle

Came across this huge turtle on Friday. I think it is a snapping turtle. The claws on it were like 2 inches long. Very pre-historic looking.

Cheap Bike Rack

I frequently bring my bike with me during the week to ride either: to work, during work or after work.

(work, work, work.)

But, since I commute in a 94' toyota tercel (a.k.a. Turtle) and I dont like to spend money when I don't have too, I decided that removing the seat was much easier (four bolts) and wouldn't cost a single penny.

The set up has effectively converted my little car into a mini-truck. I love it.

Garden 2007

I got my plants in this past Saturday. 12 tomato, 12 pepper, bush beans and another mystery bean. Then the weather people are like..."oh theres gonna be a frost monday night."

Shit!

So I devised this plan (shown in the pic.to the right) to protect the pepper plants. I call them 'mini-greenhouses', that, as you can see are just clear plastic juice containers.

How crafty am I?

Sunday Hike

My plans to hike with my friend were thwarted by high gas prices and crappy weather. So instead we took my dogs for a walk at a wildlife preserve nearby. About half way through I took this picture. In life it looked like a Winslow Homer painting...my favorite American artist. Well, beside Steve Dean. So here is it....

CycleCommuting

In my local paper today.

Good news for us all.

I can only hope more people start to take up the practice of pedaling short distances.

Fixed Gear Project - phase 2

I have decided to take an interim step in creating the fixie. I have removed all the cogs off the rear freewheel and spun the 16t back on. This way I can get comfortable with the set up. Then eventually when I come across a fixed rear, for not a lot of $$. Ill switch.

The chain line this way is nearly perfect.

Unfortunately I don't like the current profile because I am still running the original crank set, which has a double chain ring RIVETED, :(

I could take a dremel to it but..^enh!^ its fine. Ill wait till I get the fixed rear wheel and switch then. Who's rushin'? I want this bike to evolve into something cool, not just get everything slapped together. Build a soul into it. An that can take time.

So cost so far:

• Yard sale bike - 15$
• Percy got $5 for helping me take off the freewheel.
• 4 hours in the garage dismantle, bar 'flip-n-clip', and polish.

Total: 20$ And I have a nice ride-able bike.

I cant wait for the shitty weather to break so I can take it around the block.

KVBC Saturday Ride

This past Saturday I led a group ride with the bike club I belong to (Kennebec Valley Bicycle Club). We had 10 riders show up, including myself and wife, for my loop through southern Kennebec Valley. The age range was 30 (wife) to 62. At the end of the day I had 50.11 miles. Wife had ~48, as I had to make a run back at one point for a woman who was WOEFULLY underprepared. I never did find her.

Here is a group pic.

Spring Flowers

Yeah. My first spring cover. Yellow flowers. what are the daffodil's. I got them from my dad. He had pulled out all his flowers for some crazy reason (actually mostly lilies). Anyway, So I ended up with a trash bag full of root and plant. But when I say trash bag...I'm not talking 15 gallon house hold. I mean a full size outdoor contractor bag. HUGE. I planted all of them, like 50 pounds.
Toward the end I was just putting them in the woods a little way. They'll grow. So the pic is the first of masses.

Baking with Wife

So wife got around to some new recipes. The first is a chocolate chip irish creme pound cake. Baileys Irish cream is a key ingredient. The cake was very most...almost to the point of creamy.

Then tonight...these little beauties showed up in the fridge while i was blogging.
There is both milk AND dark chocolate. yummmm.

Fixed Gear Project

My patient wait to find a cheap bike suitable to convert to a fixed gear bike has finally paid off.

**It was a sataday an i was headed upta the dump. Gotta get rid of the trash, ya know? Oh an this was the week wife was drivin' up. So she was at the wheel. Anyway were goin' along and I saw on the left. Four bike lined up.

"HEY! We ARE STOPPING THERE on the way BACK!"
.
.

The way back finally comes and I pull over. See, I'm driving now 'cuz there is no way we're drivin' past this potential jack pot.

Fifteen Dollar's later I'm shoving this into the back of my truck. Happy as a little girl.

It is a 1983 Raleigh Olympian. I pretty sure it has less than 50 miles on it. Everything is like new- minus light rust on the seat post and seat post bolt.

So, this there it is. In its as found condition. I will post with progress.

So tomorrow it is off to PercyCycles to see about converting this freewheel.

Useless commuting statistics - return

Return trip.
Man did i get beat up by the wind.
**I once learned that a wind is 14 knots if a standard flag blows to show all four corners. **
I saw flags doing this today...into my face...all the way home. The gusts were stronger. Regardless my stats were not that bad:

14.03 miles
16.6 avg S mph
30.5 max S mph
50.21 minutes

I am feeling depleted from that ride.

Art for Sale..SOLD!

We did it! The first piece of Steve Dean art (shown right) sold to a stranger. EVER! The guy who purchased it has even asked about commission work and told us of an online magazine where he is chief editor.

MovieMaker

and

Camden Pictures

So the ultimate situation is that Steve can start drawing for this guy or people he knows, get paid, get national exposure...get paid more and get famous. The cool thing is that though some email correspondence we discovered several coincidences that make this all the more intriguing and exciting... because there are no coincidences in life. Only actions that spur actions that spur results.

Though of course what no artist wants is get to this point of this..

Useless Commuting Statistics

Yarmouth to Portland, in to work.

48 mins - 58 seconds.
14.26 miles
17.4 avg speed.
27.5 max.