Archive for June 2024
Finishing Touches
Mornings this time of year get a little hectic for me because I find it so hard to avert my glance from the live coverage of the Tour de France while carrying on with all the rest of life’s details. However, afternoons are wide open for work or play and yesterday Cyndie and I were able to apply some finishing touches to the project we started back in mid-May when I got sick with COVID.
We whipped up some mud and applied grout coating around the stones we set on “Cabin 3” at the lake.
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After we completed that phase, Cyndie painted stain on the unfinished edges of the trim on the sides and we proclaimed the project complete.
Before dinner of Coop’s pizza, I found a spot on the court for a couple of losses in pickleball matches with other Wildwood Lodge Club members.
This morning we have plenty of sunshine but the temps since we arrived have hovered in the “chilly” category. Quite a contrast to the temperatures being reported on the roads of Italy where the first stages of the Tour de France are being ridden.
Time for me to give my full attention to the finish of Stage 2 today.
Ride safe!
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Gate Drama
While the “parents” are away, the horses will play? In all the years we have had horses, we’ve never seen what happened yesterday while we are up at the lake. The friends staying at our house sent us a question about one of the gates. They didn’t remember it being bent and wondered how it was supposed to be secured. Photos had Cyndie and me massively shocked by what we were seeing.
What in the heck happened!?
The chain was completely gone. Whatever the impact was, it broke the link and sent the chain flying into the tall grass.
Our best guess is that Swings or Light, or possibly both, might have gotten spooked and sprinted toward the gate, forgetting that it was closed. Whatever occurred, it must have been quite a spectacle. Our friends didn’t find any evidence of injury to either horse, so that is good news.
We had been told the farmer who cuts and bales our hay field was hoping to show up within days so we had confined the horses to the paddocks and opened the outer gate by the road to allow the tractor to roll in unobstructed. With that paddock gate blown open, the two horses in that paddock could have made their way to freedom if they had ventured to the far side of the field. Luckily, they didn’t.
Over the phone, we strategized with Pam and John to guide them to materials to temporarily secure the gate and assure them all was fine, even as Cyndie and I marveled over the outrageousness of what we were seeing and the incident we were imagining had happened. We also had them close that gate by the road as an additional precaution. The farmer can open it when he finally arrives.
You just never know when the usual serenity of life with horses might be disrupted by some spectacular incident.
Of course it would occur when we are away.
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Now Where
Does it seem like I just got home from a week away to you? It sure seems like it to me but Cyndie planned a quick turnaround and scheduled us for an extended stay up at her family’s lake home in Hayward. Who am I to argue?
We spent a better part of the day yesterday preparing to be away and guiding our friends, Pam & John through the intricacies of living in our house and caring for Asher and the horses while we are gone. It soon became obvious there are a lot of details to our daily routine once we tried describing everything to them.
We left home later than planned and decided to stop for dinner on the way. Sitting in the booth, waiting for the food to arrive, it occurred to me that it was the third time in a row we had eaten out.
On Tuesday, we met Mike & Barb in Hastings for a meal at Missi’s Sip and Savor. I ordered the Walleye. It was luscious. The server brought me a birthday ice cream dessert.
On Wednesday, we met Paul & Beth in River Falls for a meal at Tattersall Distilling. I ordered Salmon. It was perfect. The server brought Paul and me a birthday ice cream sundae dessert treat.
Yesterday, we stopped at the Lake Magnor Restaurant in Clayton. I ordered the Wisconsin Burger (basically a California with cheese) basket with fries. It was delightful and just what I craved. We stopped later at a DQ where I got a Frozen Hot Chocolate.
The “cabin” looks great.
Since we were last here, painters have stained the new logs and put down new sealant on deck surfaces and stairs.
The place looks ready for another season or two against the elements.
Tonight, we plan to make it four nights in a row and visit Lost Land Lake Lodge for their famous Friday Fish Fry for dinner.
Since we are now settling in for a long stay at the lake, the question is no longer about where we are now, it should be about where will we be dining next.
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Always Interesting
There is always something interesting happening around here. I wrote yesterday about Mia’s allergic reaction. Here is a photo:
When Cyndie checked on the horses last night, she found Mia standing with her head in the corner looking as forlorn as Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. Mia hadn’t even finished her oats and corn in the bucket. Cyndie checked under the fly sheet and found all the welts had disappeared. As soon as she pulled that sheet off, Mia’s countenance changed dramatically.
She picked up her head, moved out of the corner, and headed over to finish eating the rest of her grains. I don’t think Mia liked wearing that fly sheet one bit.
The different coloring of those two images is a result of direct sunlight in the morning and Mia standing under the shade of the overhang around sunset.
I stepped inside the air-conditioned house during a break from mowing in the heat and didn’t hear a peep from Asher. I wandered from room to room in search of him and found him like this:
I think Asher is rather fond of air conditioning.
Cyndie disappeared for a while and I got a text from her.
“Lots of strawberries. Going back to pick more. Will u feed dog?”
This time of year, when I can’t find Cyndie, she is usually outside picking berries of one kind or another.
Jam season won’t be far behind. And based on past experience, if it’s not canning jams, it’ll be something else interesting. It always is.
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Muddy Mowing
A couple of sunny days hasn’t been enough to dry our grass for mowing without leaving muddy tracks. The areas of saturation didn’t come as a complete surprise yesterday, because there is still standing water on our trails in the woods. I just didn’t expect so many wet spots in places where it isn’t normally wet.
The outlet of the culvert was no surprise, but it was wet well above there, too.
The area along the small paddock fence is usually a puddle after the snow melts, but not in June.
The alleyway behind the barn is as wet as ever, to the point of being practically undriveable.
As much as possible, I know to avoid these areas when I’m on the riding mower. Even though I was trying to be careful along one of the ditches beside the driveway, I got sucked into some standing water that almost swallowed one of the back tires. I’m not sure how I got out of that mess but soon after I switched to using the push mower wherever water was visible.
Almost as challenging, the compost area was a slippery, sloppy mess. During the week I was away, I had Cyndie dump manure into one particular spot. Because of all the rain, the horses haven’t spent much time away from the overhang area near the barn so there ended up being a LOT of manure to clean up there. Yesterday, I spent some time stirring up and shaping compost piles that were soaking wet. I discovered that active composting is the exception, not the rule in these conditions for most of the piles.
We had a little excitement in the morning when we found Mia covered with welts that appeared to be some kind of allergic reaction, maybe to something she ate in the fields or possibly a bug bite or bee sting? It looked rather extreme but she wasn’t behaving in a way that indicated she was being bothered by it. We notified our handler from This Old Horse, who brought over some pills for Mia.
Toward the end of the day, Mia looked better. We now have her wearing a protective fly sheet, too. It was white when we put it on her. I can’t imagine it will stay white for very long with all the mud and standing water across our landscape.
The weather conditions are a problem for normal operation around here but, hey, we aren’t dealing with the threat of a failing dam or 4 feet of water in our home.
If muddy tracks from mowing are the worst outcome we suffer, I’d say we have it better than a lot of other folks in the region.
Quit your bellyaching, John.
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Nice Now
Now that our bike trip is over, the weather has taken a turn for the better. While many rivers in the area continue to overflow, the sun has come out at home and my gear has started to dry out. Last week’s rainy bike trip was not a bust due to the weather but it was significantly affected by it. We usually find ways to cope with crappy conditions.
This wasn’t the first time we’ve dealt with putting up or taking down our tents while it was raining. Most locations offer shelters that allow bikers to mingle out of the rain at the end of a day of biking. Often, frivolity ensues.
One of the original three goals set forth by Jim Klobuchar –the founder of the ride– is to bring economic development to the local businesses. We don’t just ensconce ourselves at the schools where we camp.
I am particularly fond of finding and spending money at ice cream shops. Pizza restaurants also tend to get a lot of attention from my circle of fanatics.
One of the more entertaining things to happen while we were riding occurred on the day Rich and I were sweepers, which happened to be a day of wind instead of rain. The wind was very strong and mostly steady out of the south. Luckily, we were headed north for much of the route and west occasionally. The wind was either at our backs or across our shoulders… until the very end.
Rich recorded some video of me coasting past him at more than 23 miles per hour on one of the sections with the tailwind. Meanwhile, he kept reminding me we would eventually be turning right into the gales.
On a stretch of trail several miles before turning into the wind, Rich called out that his crank arm had come loose and detached from the bottom bracket. The pedal remained clipped to his shoe.
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We called the sag support driver to collect Rich and his bike and I set off to sweep the final distance of the route on my own. Somewhere around this point of the story, our versions of what happened diverge. Rich denies it, but I contend that he purposefully yanked that crank loose so he wouldn’t have to deal with that ferocious headwind at the end.
Our subsequent tellings of the drama that played out became increasingly more outlandish with every telling and frequently had me laughing so hard it was difficult to get my words out.
All I know is, my version meets the criteria for seeming most likely.
Finishing those last miles alone made me very pleased that I had decided to install the battery on my e-bike. Without any other rider support against that wind, I didn’t hesitate to take advantage of the available power assist.
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Tour Complete
I’m home again and living under a solid roof for which I have a whole new level of appreciation. All the joys of tenting in nature are a great treasure, for sure, but after day upon day of wet conditions, it tends to lose a little of its luster.
As soon as I stopped my car in our driveway, I started dragging gear out to dry.
For those of you who may have been following along and watching the weather at each of our destinations, it should come as no surprise that precipitation dominated our activities to varying degrees for 6 of the 7 days. The visible difference in flooding of the Cannon River from the first day to our last was shocking. As we crossed the river on a concrete bridge near our last rest stop of the trip, we paused to watch large trees racing downstream.
One particular beast showed up with the root ball sticking out of the water on the left and very large limbs rising out of the water on the right as it rapidly flowed broadside toward us on the bridge. I regret that I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture because it was an incredible sight. The thought crossed my mind that we probably shouldn’t have been standing there as it slammed into the legs supporting the bridge with an impact we could feel. In an instant, the current forced the root ball end downstream and spun the full-sized tree in line with the flow and the tree scratched its way under and continued in the flow.
We hung around at that rest stop extra long while the mechanics rescued me from leaking tires.
That’s my bike on the stand being expertly repaired. (Steve: I thought my bike was “tubeless-ready,” but Joseph discovered it was plain old tubeless, much to my surprise. They had two new tires available and fixed me up since the old ones had too many tiny holes [and one mosquito-bite-looking bump.])
As they were finishing, Luther noticed the highway officials were closing the road at the bridge behind us. What a year for us to be riding around rivers that were overflowing so dramatically.
Despite the wetness, this year’s trip still offered up the most precious reward of all: meeting new people and horsing around with old friends. There was an uncharacteristic number of people dropping out early, partly due to the constant threat of storms, but for other reasons too. One pulled out because of a death in the family. Some suffered the consequences of their two bike wheels not remaining in contact with the ground at all times.
I’m pleased this year to be one of those who made it all the way to the end. I’m hoping to have inspired a few new readers, including the twins, Maggie and Kathleen, Tom from Atlanta and Kim in Winnipeg. A special shout-out goes to a pair of kindred spirits who I immediately fell in love with. I met them one at a time and in different memorable ways: CJ and Amy, I hope we might discover a way for you to come experience Wintervale in person someday.
I’ve explained to Cyndie that I have invited practically the entire tour over to see our place. The next best thing will probably be for them to read about it here.
No sooner than I had finished spreading all my stuff out in the partial sunlight, more rain started to fall again. I hustled to get it all into the garage.
It really doesn’t need to be said, but… the grass needs some serious mowing. Unfortunately, I may need to wait another day before starting on that project.
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Hastings to Cannon Falls
Day 7 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my daughter, Elysa!! How many June twenty-twos have I been away from you on this trip? I’m looking forward to seeing you soon!
The last day is always bittersweet. Vacation ends today. We ride back to Cannon Falls and our vehicles to drive off to our real lives with a wealth of new memories and hopefully added friends to our precious collection of Tour of Minnesota alumni.
Look at that. We finish by riding half the distance of the Cannon Valley Trail again. I’m okay with that. Not needing to think about the next turn allows my mind to be more meditative. It’s hard to say goodbye to so many friends who have shared the ups and downs of a weeklong adventure and it’s hard to switch to driving a car again but I am always VERY happy to be back in my bed and private bathroom again.
I suspect I might also be very happy to sleep in a house, sheltered from storms if the previous week played out like the forecasts predicted.
Tomorrow, I hope to be back to posting fresh content again and will be able to regale you with the details of what actually happened while I was off galavanting on my bike with 300 friends for a week.
I hope I make it safely all the way to the end. By the end of today, this year’s Tour of Minnesota is in the books.
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Stillwater to Hastings
Day 6 of riding the 50th Tour of Minnesota
Since we are basically riding “with the current” from Stillwater down to Hastings, it should be downhill the whole way, no? Not exactly.
The route deviates from the shoulder of the St. Croix River and cuts west where we will cross the Mississippi River on our way down to Hastings.
The itinerary shows we are arriving in Hastings for lunch. Really? Almost 60 miles to lunch? Might as well make it a century and ride another 40 before dinner.
Maybe this is just a reflection of how fit we will be by this point of the tour. I wonder if we have figured out a way to be waterproof on a bike in thunderstorms yet.
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Relative Something 