Lately

This blog usually just talks about my biking and rarely about what else I have going on so I thought I should write a little something about the kids.

This is Cooper's 5th, and last, year of Mite hockey. He is no Mario Lemieux, by far. For 3 years he gave little effort and was just happy to skate around and be with his friends. Well, something happened last year. All of his friends made the top "D" team and he was on the "C" team, and rightfully so. This started to motivate him to try harder. I kept telling him that it's only one hour of practice. He doesn't need to talk to anyone and to just focus on hockey. There was a period where he was unhappy about going to hockey because he was trying hard, but failing. But of course we kept going and he finally saw that all the hard work was beginning to develop into some skill. 

This year at tryouts I told him that if he doesn't skate hard, he once again will not make the top team. He listened and skated hard and was over joyed to when he found out that he had made the "D" team.

It was proof to him that hard work would pay off. He still has a ways to go, but with practicing 3-4 times a week now he has plenty of time to work on things. We are about to begin outdoor practices which is a great time. I don't know what it is about it, but the kids seem to skate harder and have more fun when we practice outdoors.  

Last weekend Diana was out of town and Cooper had one of his friends sleep over. I didn't want them just sitting around playing Pokemon like they usually do so I planned a full day for them. After we picked his friend up we went to a taco feed fundraiser for hockey and ate 12 tacos between the 4 of us (I ate 6...) The place was packed and it took over a hour to get tacos, but it is what it is and the kids really behaved themselves so that made it a little easier. After that we headed to the Science Museum to catch the latest Omnitheater movie, Tornado Alley. I have begun to loathe the Omnitheater because the movies are old and when they basically show the same shows that you can now watch at home in HD is loses some of its luster. The only movie that I really enjoyed this year was Shackelton's. The rest are just overly funded scientist taking you on a bullshit tour. Tornado Alley was no different. The claim was that they were trying to figure out what signals in the weather can predict a tornado in this area. They already have it down to 35-40 minutes in advance. I understand that people are out and about and that a farmer driving a tractor in a field may require that amount of time or possibly longer. What I don't get is the need to drive around a tank that can get as close to the tornado as possible. I am sure that it is a huge adrenaline rush, but I fail to see where useful data comes from by doing this. They have pods that they place in the roads that can detect speeds, direction changes etc.

The kids enjoyed it as usual and then we headed into the museum. I let Cooper and his friend run around and me and Aurora went to learn something. We messed around with the floating ball and the wave machine, then we found a new station involving pneumatics. The point was to build link from the low end of a pegboard, and using pneumatics and gravity get a ball to go about 4 feet to the middle of the pegboard. Me and Aurora worked at it for about 10 minutes before we thought we had a good track. It took Rora a few try's using all the pneumatics but eventfully she figured out which ones to push slow, and which ones to push fast and our track was a success.



T-Rora



I was getting tired so we headed home where I made dinner and then attempted to start a fire in the fire pit, but couldn't keep it lit with the lack of kindling and some strong winds. I felt like an idiot. I suppose I could have resorted to gas to get things going, but didn't want to mess around with it since there was still embers at the bottom. Oh well, the kids still had a pretty good day.

Icebox 240

This Saturday was the Icebox 240 at White Tail Ridge in River Falls, WI. I went to this race last year on a last minute whim and wound up having a really good time. So when I got the KORC email about this years event I knew that I had to make it. The first year I believe they raced for 240 minutes and whichever team had the most laps won. That format seems to have been abandoned and now it's total number of team laps. I really like the set up of this race. At the beginning you either put your name on the Comp, Sport, or Beginner list and your team is randomly chosen from one person in category. It gives everyone some bit of hope at the beginning that they could place. This year the race started at 4pm and I knew that I would  be late because we had hockey till 3, so I had Larry put my name on the list for me. When I got to the race they had just started so I had no idea who my other teammates were. After asking around quickly I found out I was on a team called the "No shows" and that Jeremy had already started and our other teammate Matt was not there yet either. So I waited at the start/finish and tried to figure out who my teammate was. Just before Jeremy came in one of the KORC guys pointed him out to me so we had a fairly quick trade off. This years event consisted of 13 laps with a minimum of 3 per person. I figured if it came down to it I would take the 5th lap. The course was in great shape with the exception of a few greasy spots on the Jeep road climb and the switch back climb at towards the end of the lap. I felt good all day and was doing 18 minute laps on the shortened course. I can't think of one spot where I "took a break." I went as hard as I could at all times.

After my second lap our third teammate, Matt, showed up and did two laps in a row to catch up with us. From there we each took one lap turns. We were far back at that point and I could see that a place was not really within our grasp. On my last lap though I passed 5 people and almost a 6th on the final stretch so I checked the leader board again, but there were already 4 teams out on there 13th lap as we were about to start our 12th. So we all decided to end with 12 laps and drink some of the free Rush River beer (Little know fact: The brewery is right next to the trail and they fill growlers for $5.) Jeremy had also stopped at Casanova's on the way over and shared some of his growler of Ale Asylum Hopalicious.

There was also pizza, brats and burgers.

The weather was perfect and once again I had a really good time once again. It is a great event put on by Nick and all the other KORC volunteers. I need to start making it over there a little more often and riding, racing, and doing trail work. The trail has come a long way in the past two years and is a great alternative to Battle Creek to get some climbing in.

Thanks again to KORC for putting this race on!!

Update on the deer hunting post:

The rut was ON this weekend and two bucks are now hanging in my Dad's garage. With the very early start this year the bucks were not quite as ready to chase some tail as they usually are during hunting season. This made the 2nd weekend much better. I'm tired of typing so if you want the full story (or the short version) of these two guys, just ask next time you see me.

Post Dirt Bag

I woke up a little later than I wanted to so I felt a little pressed for time trying to get out of the house. While quickly getting ready I realized that with the 34-40 degree weather for the day I should wear my Lake winter riding boots. I don't know why I didn't think of using them sooner, but I am glad that I did as my feet stay fairly warm all day.
(Quick aside: I got the Lakes last year on Ebay for $115. They look brand new. Deal of the century)

Getting to the start a little later than I usualy do was nice. I didn't have to stand around much and things got started shortly after I was ready to go.

The first few miles were a slow pace and I stayed with the lead group (as did most others) for the first 7 miles. We got to a sandy section that I knew was coming, but still surprised me a bit. I rode though it fairly easily and tried to catch up to the lead group but it was not happening. I found myself alone between the lead group and a decent size chase group. I was about 30 seconds off the lead so I decided to not wait for the chase group. Around mile 15 I could no longer see the lead group and shortly after that the chase group caught and passed me. I didn't like that. I waited till the next hill and dropped them all. I would never see that group again.

I rode with another SS for about 15 miles and we "battled" back and forth, never working together. The checkpoint came and I was feeling good so I went right through it. I finally pulled away around mile 60 and would ride by myself for the remainder.

I started to get a little fatigued around mile 80 and was having a hard time eating because my waffles and bars were cold and hard. I kept going as hard as I could so that I wouldn't get passed by someone near the end. I noticed that the last 10 miles or so was the same route as we had rode out on. I was starting to dread the sand that was up ahead. Once I got there I tried my best to stay on the bike but the last section had been torn up so much when we headed out and again by everyone in front of me that I didn't have the power left in my legs to negotiate it. I hopped off and jogged for about 50 yards and hopped back on the bike. Once I hit the pavement I went as hard as I could and made the final climb fairly quickly.

I was happy to have finished and had a great time. My unofficial time is 6h27m. (No results posted yet). That beats my previous best from the Heck of 7h25m. This course was fairly flat as the GPS only registered about 1,700 ft of climbing. 48x18 proved to be the perfect gear for me and I felt that I gave it my all.

Thanks to all the volunteers who did a great job and for the chili afterwards. This was my first time at the Dirt Bag and I look forward to racing it again.

Deer Hunting

My view for the weekend

Deer hunting is something that I only get to do so often. For whatever reason I am always busy on the first weekend in November. While sitting in the stand I realized that I had only gone hunting six times in the last 12 years. That's not a good percentage when the hunting is good and easy to get to.

I worked a few hours extra so that I could leave work early on Friday and headed up to the Farm around 2pm. Once I got up there I had to get in the woods and set my stand up. I usually choose the same tree every year, but last time I noticed that there were a lot of branches that had grown and made visibility a little less than I would like. I got the stand up in about 20 minutes and was back to the house to drink some beers. I picked up a 6-pack of 21st Amendment's Live Free or Die IPA. It was alright and my Dad's buddies kept making jokes about how it looked like a root beer can.

The morning came and I was up before everyone. I think that Saturday morning is your best chance at getting a deer and I don't want it squandered by trying to get 20 minutes more sleep. I got to my stand and had to wait about 40 minutes before things became somewhat visible. I had heard a few shots before then and wondered how people could even see a deer unless it was only 20 yards away.

Not long after sunrise I saw three deer. A doe and two fawns. They were walking from the field down to the river. I didn't really give them much thought and went back to listening to a podcast. About 30 minutes later I spotted two deer across the river. It was hard to see, but when I put the scope on them I could see they were both does. Still waiting. Time went by and I heard something coming up from directly behind me. I turned my head to look and it was a decent sized fork horn. He caught my eyes right a way and I knew that things would be difficult. He was not only behind me, but he started walking to my right side which meant I was going to have to stand up and turn around without him noticing if I was going to get him. I turned and there went the flag. To my surprise he only went about 15 feet and then turned back around. He was staring right at me and slowly walking away. By the time he went behind a tree so I could put my gun up I could barely see him in the scope. I thought I had his head in my sights, but since I wasn't too excited about shooting a fork horn so I decided to just let him go. Just before lunch there was a doe and a fawn that walked right in front of me. I had the sights on the doe... for practice. I just couldn't bring myself to shooting a doe yet.

Can you spot the doe?

When I got back to the house Matt told me that he had gotten a deer at about 8:30. We ate lunch and I went over with him to drag it out of the woods and hang it up in the shed. You can't really tell from the photo, but the other antler is messed up. It looks like it only sprouted out about a 1/3 of the way.

I headed back out to the stand around 1:30 and waited for a long time before I saw anything. There was a small doe that walked in front of me and once again I wasn't interested in shooting it. From there I thought I saw two deer off in the distance but I'm not sure as I only got a glimpse. Once it got too dark for me to see very far I started walking back to the house and in the field between me and the house was another good sized doe and a fawn. I thought about shooting the doe just to be done hunting, but the backdrop was the house and if I missed some bad things could have happened so I started walking again and scared them off.

I had four Sierra Nevada Torpedo's waiting for me when I got back. They were ok. nothing that I would buy again.

Once again I was the first one up and got out to my stand Sunday morning before the sun even thought of coming up. The next 4 hours were a nightmare. No deer, lots of squirrels, and it was cold. I had planned on staying in the stand till 10 (I had to get back for hockey at 2) but decided to call it a day at 9:30. Back at the house Roger had gotten a deer in the morning and was loading it into his trailer.

This deer was a "12 pointer" but I say it's a nice 8.

It was a good size deer and I was happy that two of the four of us got a deer.

I packed up and headed out around 10:30. I called my Dad at 4 and he said that he didn't see a deer all day. He has a lot more patience than me. I am still undecided if I am going to go back this Saturday morning. I have hockey again at 2 and there is a bike race at 4 in River Falls. It would make for a very long day. We'll see how the weather goes. I may end up only going to hockey and having a boring weekend.

I decided that I am going to stop being so picky and just shoot a deer when a decent opportunity is presented. I like venison jerky and sticks too much to not have anything for a year because I am waiting for the monster buck to come through.

Either way I had a good weekend and enjoyed some good beers and great food.