Monday May 23, 2011

The rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy a few days of camping, mowing and to live through the promised "rapture" once again.

The exhaust on the 89 Westy held up for the trip to The Little Miami for '11 Bakers' Buses and Boats.  The '73 Sporty's steering works great but now the brakes are fading; so I stopped thinking about ways of ferrying it to and from the campout, along with the '89.  We did manage to eke out good weather for the campout in the L Miami valley only to have it rain cats and dogs with severe storms there after we left.

The Bug packed and ready to head home to KY.

Attendance was light, there being about twenty families compared with twice that in recent years. Evan and Heather were in early on Wednesday. We drove over after work and school on Friday. Rooster was there in his faithful '61, of course Bakers, D'wayne and family from W Indiana, Chuck/Pam from KY,  Charlie and kids from nearby Blanchester.  Paul/Jess/kids, also from KY, camped in a pop out trailer towed by a beautiful '69 bug, leaving their fish muraled Bay Westy home.

Paul and Beau in front of Frank's bus.

I have to add that Paul recently cut his dreads and is now sporting a "Bob Ross" do. The pic shows it as he is standing with Beau who is doing very well after a tree cutting accident last year.  I didn't get a pic of Beau's bus and the recent deer strike to his front right headlight area. I'll have to remember to take better pics next campout.  I was just too relaxed on this one... yea!!

Greater downtown Blanchester.

I was able to get on the bike and avoid the L Miami bike path.  Charlie directed me via back roads to Butlerville and Blanchester where I joined SR 123 back into Morrow. It was great to ride new roads and see some unfamiliar sights; one yelling redneck kid driver and one LARGE black Lab notwithstanding.  Once I climbed out of the river valley the terrain was full of rollers bottomed by small streams and topped by very damp fallow fields. The climb up was beside Todd's Fork and included a small waterfall which had an old farm drive which led down to the falls where it looked like one could drive under the falls for a car wash (Charlie related later that his G-Pa had told him that they used to do exactly that).

The coop project

It's time to set out some plants. Tomatoes, peppers and cabbages will soon join the beans, potatoes, onions, squash and cukes in the cabin garden.  The new coop is under construction and will feature a hawk/eagle proof covering while still being portable enough to change its location. It will be like a large chicken tractor.  I plan on getting a few more birds and build a small coop for the house in town.  These new birds, as I mentioned in my earlier post are much more docile and can be herded easily.


Got to get ready for work.. more later.

Sunday May 15, 2011

Wow! Where have I been? At work.  Riding TOSRV.  Trying to set up the cabin garden between rains. Working on the Ford and the Cub tractors for mowing.  Fixing the '73 Sportsmobile.  Putzing with the '89 Westy's exhaust.  Buying 6 new Australorp hens.

TOSRV (Tour of the Scioto River Valley) was held for the fiftieth time on Mother's Day weekend.  The two day 210 mile tour is one of the oldest in the country.  On picking up registry material with Bro-in-law Ron, I was greeted by the founder, Charlie Pace; who handed me my packet and with it a "1970" tag with my registry number... " It's quite rare to see someone still riding after all these years", he said.  1970 was the first year that I rode TOSRV.  I had met up with Randy Swepston at his frat on OSU's 17th St on Friday night and we were joined by niece Melissa and her friend Michelle (My Belle) for way too much Boone's Farm (the new campus craze) and spaghetti.  Undeterred and very young, we shoved off in time for a group start (the next to the last year for that) at the Statehouse. The weather was great, the girls urged us to pedal on and they persevered.  We slept on hardwood floors and rode back the next morning like it was nothing... it really was for us then.  Randy continues to ride and run in Northern Ohio.  M and M, I would posit, do not.
Incidentally, I saw only one other "1970" tag and no older.  It was on the back of a "wheel" rider.  His Penny Farthing was a replica from Hungary.  He is Dan and is the Ohio chair of the League of American Wheelmen ( old name... can't remember the new one).  He rode his wheel to just North of Chillicothe and then switched to his "ordinary".

This year I rode primarily with Ron, JPayne and several other SVRoadies as the bike train roared down to Portsmouth with a slight SW headwind of 5-10 mph with temps in the 60-70s.  We were on the road seven clock hours including stops and on the bikes for 5:59, averaging almost 18 mph per our computers.  Having done it a few years back, Gary G and I were, once again, able to match and then pull a train (peloton) of 50 riders between Circleville and Chillicothe hitting 25 mph for long periods of time.  We also wheel-sucked a tandem piloted by Gary Mac and stoked by his wife Jen from the Waverly rest stop into Portsmouth.  That train was around 40 riders. For me, large, fast groups are the supreme joy of riding in TOSRV.  In no other ride have I experienced the pack as in relatively flat TOSRV.   We communed at the municipal park before heading to the PFD for our night's lodging (thanks Julie, Nick and Addie P for retrieving our luggage).  We showered and walked uptown in a steady sprinkle of rain to the Scioto Ribber for fabulous steaks and a couple of beers each.

Sunday morning was foggy as we made our way to Patsy's Diner for breakfast ( Patsy was an East European immigrant Nonagenarian who sold his store a few years back rather than let his G_F_N kids have it.) The day was cooler than Saturday with a little drizzle at times AND, true to form, the wind had reversed and gave us an almost head wind of 5-10 out of the NE.  Ron and John had two flats each and we continued on together to Chillibobo where I dropped off as I had to work at 1400. Thanks to Evan for working over for me so I could ride that morning. The other two were joined in Yoctangee Park by Maria PdL who rode with them on to C-bus.
Ron retrieved my luggage and dropped it off at CFD... thanks Ron!  On a mechanical note, this year I have replaced my main bike's wheels, tires, tubes, chain and rear cluster.
On a physical note, I have not ridden since TOSRV because of a sinus/bronchi infection that is just today under control.

The rains keep coming. Record water levels throughout the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys.
We have been flooded out of the cabin road several more times this year than ever before.

The creek stairs washed about 30' downstream.

The creek access stairs have been washed downstream twice. Thanks to several Friday cabin visitors we have put them back in place twice.  The garden is planted in potatoes, beans and some onions.  I will try to set some plants out this week if I can find a break in the rains.  I hooked up the bush hog and cleared most of the wedding filed and the swale field downstream from it.  It's been two years since I did the former and three for the latter. The Cub Cadet started only with the charger hooked up and I was able to get 80% of the trimming done before the center shaft on the deck gave way and I had to take it apart for repair... that was Thursday and it rained Friday (worked yesterday) and today.  The water under the cabin has not subsided for three weeks now and I am unwilling to work standing mid-thigh just to hook up our new holding tanks to the cabin system. At one point it would have been waist deep.

I am happy to report that the Sporty steering is fixed. Randy at PMW and I met Thursday at 1700.   I fabricated gussets and Randy welded them on for a VERY professional job.

Gusset formed to fit before welding.

My attempt at wire welding was NOT professional. I will play with it again on a non-critical area. Also today I have hopefully repaired the Westy's exhaust to quiet it down to an acceptable level.  I had it almost done when Evan needed my gaskets for his '87. We stripped them out last weekend so that he could hear after driving to Nelsonville for a music fest that included... No Show Jones (who showed), Yo La Tengo, The Flaming Lips, Nekko Case and Justin Townes Earle.  He ordered more gaskets.  They came in Friday and I got them on and along with a bit of JB Welding on the #1 exhaust port... it was bought that way and lasted for 4-5 years... it should be good to go for Baker's Buses and Boats this coming weekend.  Someday, I will pull the stud and replace it properly.

On deck for this week are Paramedic Continuing Ed in Cbus tomorrow. Designing and building, with Spencer, a portable coop for the new hens.  Spencer collected a dozen eggs in two days, not counting their first night after picking them up near Frankfort.  These hens are much more settled.  They will squat when approached with a calm voice.  A friend at church today, who has a lot of chicken experience, says it's because they aren't with a rooster.  Spencer and I are debating the whole coop thing. I think a Cabin coop should come first and then we can build a smaller coop/tractor for the back yard for just a few yard birds.   The neighbors to the South have already had one of the hens in their yard when Colleen was home for lunch on Friday.  I fixed the yielding poultry wire of the temp coop and they are now secure.

May 1st Post Script

Megan was visiting yesterday and we talked about some of Preston's new duties as XO.  One of them is to compose and publish his Company's Monthly newsletter.  He commented that it was difficult to gauge the effectiveness because of no feedback.

His comment struck a real note of accord with me.  I have been remiss in not keeping this blog up as much as I would like.  One reason for this is that I feel just as Pres felt... no feedback.
While there are 12 or so of you who have "followed" it,  no one has made ANY comments.
I am NOT fishing for compliments here;  just input.

May 1, 2011 An April Recap

Future pond?

It got DEEPer after this pic was taken

Whew!  April was a WET one.  Only 8 days without rain for the whole month. The cabin had so much water under it that it looked like a Louisana bayou cabin.  Even with all the rains and Paint Creek booming  we were only blocked out for one day at the North Fork confluence.  On the 15th I was able to get up on the cabin roof to clean gutters and patch a few small leaks over the porch.  The water off the hill really put to life the concept of a pond in the swale.  Can't wrap my mind around taking out all the trees to do it yet. AND the need to either use a barrier or bring in clay to seal the bottom. We'll see.

Picking up SPS after school

Bikes: Exactly 200 miles on the bike for the month. That's down from 400 and 300 for '08 and '09 respectively; up a little from last year's 179.  Yesterday with 20 Roadies we rode the Chillicothe to Waverly TOSRV leg and added a bit more by coming back home via SR 220 to River Rd and SR 335.  New chain, wheels (1 replaced IW by Trek) and rubber are not quite up to par yet, still tweaking the bike.   We didn't make the Dogwood ride on the 23rd due to... yep, rain. actually the day was cloudy until 1430 when the skies opened with monsoon-like downpours.  I went to work instead of riding.  Spence and I have been out on the tandem a few times. We are just about ready to go with the Roadies on an easy ride.. maybe later today.

Work: Waiting for the promotion to kick in I have been acting Lt since the test.  The Captain's list is out and I have to wait until that test is given before my Lt vacancy is there.  I regret, just a litttle, not studying harder... but that's life. Work has been hectic and bizarre. We have had lots of codes and deaths, way more than normal.  I makes me Pollyanna glad to come home to normalcy.  On the 26th we responded to the Temple where a Brother had fallen. He just passed out in the small dining room.  I knew it was cardiac (symptomatic brady with new onset 2º Block) and he is now in C'bus waiting for recovery enough to have major reconstruction. Oddly enough we had another man on the work day before (23rd) with the EXACT same signs and symptoms BUT he waited about 30 hours before he would let the family call. He's dead after a two day hospital fight. If they don't look right... they probably aren't.

A bit of a stinker call with Bro-on-law Alfred yesterday... new onset Afib at his cardiologists' last week resulted in a new blood thinner and he may have had a possible reaction to it.  Gretta handled it well by calling me and the pharmacist.  I gave him a followup 12 ll EKG.  At 81, he is into his 29th year of post cardiac surgery life! Amazing.

#Cinco: Spencer is on the high honor roll for the 3rd of 3 grading periods. If he pulls off the whole year he gets a rifle or shotgun, his choice. He and his den made Bear at the April Cub Scout Pack meeting.

D-O-G-S: It's been almost two months since we lost Sampson. We now have Simon (Park's boxer) home from Brooklyn for an extended "summer camp" stay. Jack is glad to have him around. He is a good dog and very smart.   Megan was home from FT Knox for a bridal shower. So we had Dexter (Pres' boxer/lab mix), Jack and Simon at the cabin for a running, chase session. I think I managed to break my left little finger trying to control rambunctious Jack... it's sore as a boil... got me up at 0430.

VWs:   After EveryBus I have been working on the '89 Westy trying to rectify an exhaust leak.  Rusty exhaust bolts.. unyeilding constarnation!  In anticipation of taking it to Baker's Buses and Boats campout in May, I was able to get the '73 Sportsmobile on the road... only to have it lose steering up on Carlilse Hill near J Payne's.  Thank you God for letting it break then and there and not headed down that hill or worse yet on the major hill headed down into the Miami River Valley at the campout.  The steering knuckle gave way when I was doing a hard pivot in his alley. After a tow to PMW,  I am waiting to have Randy teach me to MIG weld... never too old to try something new! JPayne nearly has the brown Weekender running.  Evan bought a '99 Jetta TDi with a blown engine.... another project!  The '02 Jetta wagon is waiting on an appointment for a post salvage inspection and then it will be back on the road, legally.

It's 0630 and I think I'll grab a little nap before the family is up and we start Sunday routine.  I'll post some pics later.