Extra Excitement
We stepped out of our geothermally air-conditioned home yesterday morning into an almost tropical humidity that had me sweating after just a few strides. There had been a rambunctious thunderstorm in the wee hours before dawn, and the weather service was warning that the day could bring even more severe storms in the afternoon.
It was not going to be a day for mowing. After breakfast, I decided to do some rearranging in the compost area.
I removed the pallets from around the most active pile and positioned them beside it. Since the pile was still cooking pretty well, I’m going to leave it standing for another day or two before stirring it up and tossing it back inside the pallets for a second round of composting.
While I was working on that, I suddenly heard the sound of splashing down at Paddock Lake.
Three of the horses were really getting into it as I approached with my phone to record the action. Mix walked away just enough to stay out of the frame. They kicked so much that it looked like they were trying to empty the puddle by working together at the same time.
After I was back in the compost area behind the trees, I suddenly heard the pounding hooves of running horses. They had sprinted out into the hay field, where they stood atop the high spot to survey their surroundings, looking like lords over their domain.
They weren’t out there for very long when the pounding hooves started up again, and I could hear them racing back to the barn overhang. I always wonder if their sprinting triggers memories of their days racing against other horses on the track.
All this activity happened in such a short span of time that I wouldn’t have had a clue if I wasn’t working near them in that moment. The horses spend the majority of their time standing under and around the overhang, so it can seem like they are practically sedentary.
It’s nice to have witnessed proof that this is not necessarily true. Just because I wasn’t around to notice doesn’t mean they haven’t been sneaking in a little extra excitement every once in a while.
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Color Brilliance
When I got home after the weekend, it was really dry around here. That made mowing a much less urgent line item on the to-do list. Then it rained on Monday, and suddenly everything got dramatically taller. Cyndie’s garden of perennials has become rather crowded.
The dianthus looks almost electric with its intensity of color in the sunlight.
The jewelweed has filled out to a point that it almost swallows the entrance to some of our pathways.
It has reached the point where I need to be trimming the branches encroaching on our trails as much as I need to be mowing grass, and I have yet to catch up with knocking down the growth under all of our fence lines.
Yesterday, I squeezed in a test ride on my bike to see if I’ve made any progress tightening fasteners to eliminate the bothersome clicking. The ride didn’t take long because the click is still there. Further troubleshooting will commence during the next period of daytime rain that occurs, which may be today, if the forecasts prove correct.
We have been informed by the weather service that there are elevated possibilities for severe storms in our area today. I’ll be watching the sky and compulsively checking the pretty colors on the radar to keep tabs on what’s coming our way… between periods of mowing and trail trimming, that is.
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Eating Well
Our last day of riding on Sunday involved one primary goal beyond the joy of riding: breakfast at Greenwood’s Cafe in Reedsburg. It’s not very difficult to imagine you’ve stepped into the world of The Andy Griffith Show when greeted by the small town diner atmosphere, friendly service, and delicious food.
We jumped on the 400 State Trail near the north end of Wonewoc and rode about 15 miles to where the trail ends in Reedsburg. That stretch of trail is pretty flat. All of the trail riding we did over the last four days was railroad grade, so I didn’t even bother adding the weight of the motor and battery pack on my bike. I have a cover that fits over that space on the downtube.
It would have been blissful except for the click that developed somewhere in the vicinity of the bottom bracket as I pedaled, similar to the problem I encountered last year while riding in the Tour of Minnesota. I ended up having the bike shop deal with the situation last year. This time, I’m hoping to see if I can figure out the source myself and solve it by tightening any screws that may be vibrating loose.
At least we didn’t need to stop and remove downed trees from the trail on the last day of our adventure. However, the easy riding we did –the wind was at our back on the return leg to our cars– failed to balance the breakfast calories consumed. Well, and all of the other excellent restaurant meals we enjoyed and augmented with a bounty of snacks and treats we munched on back at our campsite each day. (Cyndie sent along some of her caramel rolls and walnut chocolate chunk cookies with me.)
It was an absolute joy to share the adventure with some of my favorite people, but returning to a full night’s sleep in my own freshly made bed just might be an equal experience on the scale of joys.
Home, sweet home.
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Storm Debris
We made it into our tents just as the storm front arrived Friday night. It was noteworthy, but we’ve slept through worse. However, the area the trail crossed just to our southeast must have experienced much stronger winds.
We risked our wellbeing to move what we could, and crawled over and under anything too big to lift.
The thick fog from morning dissipated as soon as the sun appeared, but lingered near the cool openings of the tunnels.
A good time is being had by all.
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Tunnel Vision
We didn’t get rained on while riding, but the 3,810-foot tunnel out of Norwalk that was cut through Summit Ridge, and its natural spring that constantly drips and flows to this day, might as well have been a rain storm.
Another Adventure
It is proving to be a banner year for pine cone production. Several different species on our land are dropping them in large quantities. I needed to do some raking before mowing the front lawn yesterday.
I completed all of the grass cutting and some of the fence line trimming when time ran out on home chores yesterday, and I needed to start packing all my biking and camping gear. Six, possibly seven, of us who met on the annual “Jaunt with Jim” (Klobuchar) bike trips years ago are meeting today in Onalaska, WI, for a 4-day adventure of our own on the trails of the Sparta/Elroy region.
As a result, my posts for tomorrow and over the weekend will be created on the touchscreen surface of my phone. Maybe I can force myself to use a little more brevity than is typical for my habits.
Partly due to my clumsy touch and partly to my lack of familiarity with using a smartphone to create posts in WordPress, it is never certain that the result will align with my intentions. The next three days will be an adventure in posting for me, while I am on a cycling adventure with friends and tenting on the hard ground.
If I am successful in keeping my phone sufficiently charged, you can expect to find daily reports from the trail with a few snapshots of the scenery we encounter.
May the weather gods be kind to us.
Oh, and…
Happy Birthday today, Cyndie!
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Questions Answered
I got my question answered last night as to what the competition would look like between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Championship series. Both teams were so dominant in their semi-final series that I was curious how it would look when they went up against each other.
Pretty evenly matched, as one might expect. The hometown Carolina fans went home disappointed. It had started so well for them, with a goal in the first 25 seconds of the game.
I also got a question about my crumbling tooth answered. It wasn’t the tooth; it was an old filling. I’ve been chewing on one side of my mouth for a week, hoping it wouldn’t fall apart more than it already had. My appointment for a repair was yesterday morning.
Unfortunately, to make me all better, the dentist went medieval on my jaw. It’s too bad that fixing our bodies can cause pain in the process of ending pain. My head really hurt after the Novocaine wore off. However, I was able to eat dinner on both sides of my mouth. Gimme a “V” for victory!
There is no question that the new blade motor on my riding mower is working better than the original did. I haven’t had an error since I replaced it.
One question that has yet to be answered is whether I will get packed and ready to go on my next biking/camping adventure before today is over, or wait until tomorrow morning to finish, leaving only minutes until departure. I’m not usually one to wait until the deadline is so close to complete my preparations, but I am prone to procrastination.
I guess I’ll surprise myself by waiting to decide if I value sleep more than being prepared in advance. At least I won’t have the distraction of a hockey game tonight.
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Unlikely Plan
It seemed like an unlikely plan, but somehow I pulled it off. After a short errand to River Falls in the morning, I felt overcome by sleep when I got home. A 45-minute period of deep slumber in the recliner followed. I did not wake full of zest and pondered the possibility of illness brewing within.
The hour of lunching had arrived, so I decided to try fueling my body to see if that helped me feel more alive. I asked Cyndie if it seemed dry enough outside to mow after our overnight rainfall watered all the growing things. Her answer was rather noncommittal, but it wasn’t a no.
It had gotten late enough in the day that it was entirely uncharacteristic of me to start a project like mowing the back pasture with the diesel tractor and brush cutter, but that is what I decided to do. I hadn’t used the New Holland 3415 since mid-April, so I checked the oil, added air to the tires, added liquid grease to the brush cutter gearbox, and greased the universal joint. For good measure, I got under the brush cutter and used the grinder to touch up the cutting edge of the blades.
By the time I got in the field, it was almost 4:00, but I didn’t let it bother me. My intuition was telling me I could make worthy progress, and if I couldn’t finish by a reasonable time, it didn’t really matter.
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Well, I did finish. It was about 6:00 when I stopped the tractor in front of the garage to blow it off with compressed air.
When I first rolled into the field, the grass looked to be a little wetter than I expected, but not enough to be a problem. It actually seemed to get drier as I went along. This is the earliest in the summer that we have mowed the back pasture. We always waited in the past because we anticipated it would get cut for hay along with the front field, but the guy doesn’t want to bother with the short distances back there.
Now that we know that, there is no reason to wait. It was an easier job to cut it before it got too tall, and the sooner we nip the weeds, the better. And, gosh darn, it just looks so sharp freshly mowed. I don’t know if the horses are as thrilled with it as I am, but how can they not like it?
Probably the most exciting for me is that I succeeded in pulling off such an unlikely plan for my comfort level in getting things done. I credit the nap. I think it might be my new superpower.
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Relative Something 