Black Betty

About a month ago my front fork on my old Specialized Epic started to give me a little trouble. Once we realized we needed to replace it soon, Jarred got a crazy idea in his head that he wanted to buy me a new bike...he called it my 10 year anniversary gift, kind of like a wedding ring, but better. I didn't take him up on the offer right away but after riding a free demo bike one day, I saw the light and became slightly obsessed with finding a new bike that I really liked and that fit me well. We've always bought used bikes or got them on deals, so I've never had a bike that fit well or really been at a point where I knew what I liked and didn't like. I like this bike. Her name is Black Betty but her official name is a Santa Cruz Blur LT. She has 5" of travel on her front fork, which is the biggest difference between her and my Specialized. Riding Black Betty is like going from driving a 1994 teal Mazda B2200 to driving a Land Rover. BIG DIFFERENCE.

I'm a little intimidated by Black Betty as I now feel that I really need to up my riding skills. She's pretty fancy (check out that wheel set...the shop where I got the bike hooked me up and treated me well, I would have never picked these) and is meant to be ridden by a good rider...so I better step up my skills.

And thanks to Jarred, he's my best friend and knows how to pick out a good gift, treat me well and keep my life interesting!

Now that I have the whole summer off, Black Betty and I are going to get some great rides in!

Whada Ya Doin in My Grass?

I initially went out to the pasture to take a photo of Sophie sleeping but she got up, so I lay down. Sophie was totally enthralled with me, I got a full body sniff down as well as a couple of camera nudges. She's a pretty friendly girl and was more than happy to hang out with me in the grass.

Finally....Summer!

Nic, Sophie and I spent the last week barn sitting for a friend. Sophie and Nic had a great time as they were on an acre of grass that was practically up to their knees. Needless to say, they've got some extra groceries now.

24 Hours of Biking...again

Well we did it again, the Round the Clock 24 hour race in Spokane, WA. It's a bike race that goes from noon to noon and people either race in teams or solo (interpreted as...CRAZY!) Here's the quick low down on what it was like: the winning solo rider did 20 laps of 15 miles each, that's 300 miles all off road, in 24 hours, AMAZING. The winners of our category, 4 person, did 26 laps total, that's more laps than hours in the race, they were seriously flying! Our group did 20 laps total with one minor light malfunction that cost us one lap, this put us in the middle of the pack, finishing 16th out of 30 teams (not bad for weekend warriors.)

Me looking stupid. I guess it's because I'm running, and running is stupid. Or maybe it's because I'm running with a bike helmet on. Oh well, at least I was running to get on my bike, which is a big improvement!


Sarah coming in with the timing chip in her teeth ready to pass it off. We had to duck under a PVC obstacle as a way of forcing people off their bikes so folks wouldn't ride all the way into the timing tent. Is that smoke coming from her rear tire? Whew!

The usual suspects, plus one. From L to R, Sarah (flashing some type of west side gang sign Travis was teaching her), Travis Cook (the new addition and a welcome one at that), Me (acting like some kind of troglodyte), and Chris "raceface" Brannen.

Will we do it again? I would imagine we will. We all did double laps during the night hours and I think it was best (different from last year when we didn't really have any sleeping time.) We all had more rest because each time a rider went out, it was for 30 miles rather than the normal 15 miles, so lots of sleep for the people waiting. Maybe it cost us some time overall, but the rest was well worth the sacrifice! I'd like to switch things up a little and maybe have all riders do their laps in bulk, ride for 6 hours then be done. Who knows, stay tuned...

The line up of bikes at the starting line.


Hurry up and wait. The transition area, getting ready to pass the timing chip from Sarah to Travis.

The Best Dogs in the World

Every dog owner I know thinks they have the best dogs in the world, including me. Actually, I don't have the best dogs in the world as far as well behaved dogs go. They're good, but not perfect. They would rather not heel, have selective hearing, bark at people, dogs in other cars, small children on bikes, bury slippers and other valuables in our yard and occasionally leave only to find themselves stuck in the local shelter for two days while we look for them. So no, they're not perfect, but they are pretty awesome. Shuksan is a mountain biking machine; he always sticks right to one of our back wheels, he gets out of the way on the downhills and is always to be found (Gretta's greatest attribute is not her biking skills). He's a pretty serious guy- serious about where we are, where he is going, he takes his life seriously, as he should as I think he's on his 9th. Gretta is such a character and in all reality she's the cuddler, although she usually starts snoring loud enough to keep us awake. I admit (and often wonder if parents of multiple children do this) that Shuksan is my favorite. He's my dog and I am his girl. While I picked Gretta out at the shelter and was encouraged to NOT bring her home, I assured Jarred that I would take care of her, that she would be mine, but she's more Jarred's dog. Funny how that works.

Since moving Shuksan has acquired a new habit: garbage scrounging. I've seen him check out other people's garbage cans before. He's even gone so far as to reach up into the can to further investigate. Both dogs spent a lot of time in our trashy neighbors yard in North Bonneville as they had a dumpster (too many kids) and never closed the lid so their garbage would blow all over their yard. But neither had ever been very interested in our own kitchen garbage until recently. Last night I woke up to sounds from the kitchen. After listening intently for a few moments, I heard Shuksan's collar jingle and plastic crinkle. I got up to find Shuksan gingerly holding a plastic bag that. previously held pork steaks. While I'm sure this was the reason for the scrounge, Shukusan had also pulled out a banana peel, fruit snack wrapper and ripped bread bag. I wondered what instigated this midnight "snack." This was the first time I actually caught Shuksan in the act although we'd previously come home to find the odd piece of trash strewn about.

I wonder if Shuksan has been in contact with Coco and Mavis, my friend Meghan's dogs. They are the king and queen of garbage scrounging, the will go so far to scrounge if the can is even empty.

The Mutant Veggies

On a side note, before I start to rant about my veggies, I recently realized that Facebook has had a negative impact on my blogging. When I decided to get on the computer in the evening for some down time, I find myself on Facebook for the simple fact that it's mindless entertainment. Damn society and it's easy entertainment! As I watched Dick Prenicky's Alone in the Wilderness (PBS special- if you've not seen it, a must see) with my students today, I longed for the days of simplicity....my modern day simplicity promise to myself was to try to blog more.

Now back to the veggies. Since we moved, I had to motivate Jarred to make me a raised bed so we could have a garden. Regardless of whether or now we end up purchasing this house, I wanted a garden. I don't understand why more people don't have gardens and figured if we had to move out of the house, the next person who moved it would have the pleasant surprise of a garden. A friend commented to me the other day, "I can't have a garden, we're gone every weekend, who will weed it?" She is also a teacher and has endless hours during the summer. I reminded her that I plant my garden, weed it a couple of times, set up a low maintance watering system and then leave for Sun Valley for a month or so. I generally come back in August to a great- but weedy- garden with veggies waiting to be eaten. Gardens can't get much more low maintance than that.

I planted all my veggies from seed except my lettuce, swiss chard and basil, which I bought from local growers. I've never had good luck growing my own swiss chard or basil and $2 per plant seems worth it, especially after last year (check out past blog post where I'm sitting amongst basil trees). We're still eating basil from last season. I also planted all the veggies in half composted horse manure- if you look close at the photo, you may be able to discern a horse turd or two. I know this sounds gross to most but horse manure does not gross me out. Mostly because horses eat one thing- grass, so their manure is simply grass. It composts really well and does not smell to bad. Plus it's a great way to use up the hundreds of pounds of manure horses produce. My friend Lisa, spent all last winter building up a garden spot. She lives on really hilly property with poor soil so she spent the winter building up a big flat garden space off one of her hills. She planted everything from seed and had so many veggies she could have started her own Saturday market.

So now it's May and I have lettuce ready to eat and all of my seeds sprouted and are growing like weeds (and I don't have any weeds in my garden). I can't decide if the veggies are growing because of the manure or the rain or the fact that Western Washington is just a mecca for growing things. Regardless, I'm impressed with my garden this year and horse manure can't be worse than the crap in processed food!

I'm starting to realize that photos of mountain biking don't necessarily do the experience justice. This was an awesome ride in Fruita called Zippety-Do-Dah. This section was scary. I approached the entry to this hill about three times thinking I could just make the turn and let off on my brakes but I just could not commit. I envisioned myself tumbling forward off my bike and rolling through the sage and various hidden cacti. This is probably why I wasn't able to ride this section.