The Birds and the Bees (and the Bikes)

I have not done as much night riding this year as I hoped. With three nights of riding coming up at the Gold Rush in just four weeks, I decided to ride one of my permanents, Hillsboro-Dallas 200k, starting at sunset. So on Saturday night, I was joined by two other riders, Ray and Bill, both of them working on their R-12 award. The weather had been so-so in the past couple of days, but the forecast was for a cool and cloudy night, with no rain. It does not get any better than that for a rando ride. [Read more →]

Eating enough on a long ride (400k and above) has always been a problem for me. I get tired, and my brain gets less interested in food. Having small town convenience stores as control location does not work for me, there is very little that I find appealing in those places. Slightly better are controls in larger towns that may have a grocery store with a deli counter or a fast food.Then you have staffed controls…

A staffed control can be a wonderful experience for a tired randonneur. The night time controls on some of the 600k riders that I have been on here in the Pacific Northwest have been great. They are often staffed by experienced randos, who know what we want. Lots of carbs, easy to swallow, flavorful.

But more often than not, staffed controls have water and snacks, with cookies and chips being most common. When the route takes me through roads with no towns, and the only food you can get is a few fig newtons and some fritos, I am in trouble. That is why I am worried about the GRR. [Read more →]

In my last post I touched briefly on the past month of riding, but there are a couple of things I forgot.

On the night loops at the Davis 24 hour, I noticed a young rider stopped with a flat tire. It was his second flat, and since he was not carrying a pump, he did not have a way to fix the flat (he used his CO2 cartridges). He was wearing an aero helmet, with no place to put a helmet light. So his only light was a fairly weak battery light, and the batteries were almost out. Unfortunately, after the deluge earlier in the day, my pump was spraying water instead of air. I gave him my oly tube, and we started putting his tire back together once one of the organizers came with a floor pump, but my tube did not work with his skinny tires. My headlight worked well as a light to fix flats by, though. Eventually he got his flat fixed, and sped by me very fast, only to be on the side of the road again after a couple of miles. I offered help again, but he was going to wait for help.

Many of the racers that I was on the night loop were very fast. There were passing me like I was stopped. Light weight bikes, aero equipment, carrying nothing. Totally different from the rando riders that I am used to. And while I spent quite a bit of time helping this rider get back on the road, not a single racer out of the many that passed us stopped or asked if everything was OK. That is another difference between endurance racers and randos. We are not competing, and we carry tools and tubes for our own use, and we can help riders who need it. Maybe that’s part of why I did not feel like this kind of ride is my kind of ride.

After much deliberation, I sent in the registration forms for the Gold Rush Randonnee this week. I am still not quite sure it is a good idea, but the past month I did a lot of long rides, and I am somewhat happy with how my training is going. [Read more →]

Last Friday I managed to acquire a new home for the chicks. They already needed more room to stretch their wings. Anna and I went to Costco and scored a huge Watermelon box. ( Think about 4 feet by 5 feet ish) I didn’t think about how big it was till I got about 3/4ths the way to the van with it then began to wonder if it would fit in the back! After taking out or laying down the seats it barely went in.  There was actual applause from people awaiting to see if I was going to be able to get it in. The chicks love it and have loads of room to run and play. Last night I set up a perch in one end. Ginger and Briquette seem to love it Pepper uses it a little and I haven’t seen Popcorn on it yet though Anna says she did.

We had our first escapee form our new Chick Habitat. No it wasn’t Ginger. It was Briquette. Aparently I placed the purch too close to one of the holes in the side fo the Huge watermellon crake that we got form Costco to house our babies and Briquette jumped to, and through, the hole.

When we arrived home from church I took a peak in on the babies and had to count 3 times before I could accept that someone one was missing! After removing our shoes and carefully searching most of the house DH heard a chirp in a suposedly bird free spot. After crawling under a table I found Briquette purched about 8 – 10 inches off the floor on top of a tripod, behind a feather duster… I wonder if she felt safer behind the feather duster? She wasn’t a very happy baby and was glad to get back to her flock with heating, free food and water.

Marcello says maybe he named them wrong and Briquette should have been named Ginger since in Chicken run Ginger was the leader in the escape plans.

Oh well we have plugged the holes in the side of the carton until they get too big to escape that way.

Speaking fo getting big. Ginger has officially doubled her coming home weight. The others are close. They range in weight from 76 grams (Ginger) to about 55 grams (Popcorn).

We have more new additions to the family… Oddly again all girls. We have 4 of the cutest little baby chickens. All of them are special in some way. One has furry feet, one will lay blue and green eggs, one has a punk rock hairdo and the last is supposed to lay 5-6 eggs a week (well when they start laying that is!)

Ginger is a Buff Brahma and has the feathered feet and will likely be the biggest of the group.  She is named after Ginger in the Chicken Run movie.  I”m betting she will be the ring leader of the group. Ginger has quite a big personality. She is curious and bold. And loves to exercise her wings. She may not be the first to do something but she only needs to see someone else do it once and she’s doing it too.  She also has the longest tail feathers so far. Of course since they are less than an inch long that’s not saying much!

Pepper is an Ameraucana (also known as Easter Egger).  She’s the one that will lay various colored eggs form blue to olive green. She’s named Pepper for her high energy and go go go. Pepper is cream colored and looks like she has a mink stripe down her back. She is the most “chick” looking chick we have. he was the first to start scratching for food and would much rather scratch and peck than eat from the food dish.

Popcorn is a Golden Crested Polish and Anna thinks the head feathers on a Golden Crested Polish look like  popcorn going off all over. This bird has the longest neck and originally would fall asleep standing up and tip forward till her beak hit the ground before waking up and settling down and going back to sleep. Popcorn is very curious and pecks at everything to see if it’s food. She’s also the smallest of the group and can be a bit shy unless corn meal is involved, then she comes running for her “candy”. If 3 are sleeping together and one alone Popcorn will most likely be the one off by herself.

Then there is Briquette. She’s a black Australorp, She is beautiful black with with some white feathers on the edges of her wings. Briquette is supposed to be a really good layer when she grows up. She is also a real love. She is the first to run to someone that holds a hand into the brooder and she climbs right on. When sitting on your hand she often snuggles down and cuddles with you. She is never fails to make me smile.

Like all babies they sleep a lot, and when one wakes she is sure to wake the rest by peeping or just climbing across the sleeping babies. They will play for a while then just pass out where ever they stand. I think they have finally out grown falling asleep in the food dish or water. They are all learning to sit before falling asleep rather than falling over from a standing position. All the chicks have such different looks and different personalities. Everyone in the family is totally in love with all of them.

Marcello is working like a crazy person and all the chick pic’s are on his computer so hopefully he will have time to post soon.  Till then he has some in a face book album.

The first long ride that I did on my current bike, three years ago, was a 200k permanent from Bingen to Roosevelt and back. I did not have a bike computer, so I took a GPS to keep track of distance and elevation. There is one hill on that climb that is a few hundred feet tall, and on the wey back I found myself looking at the elevation every 100 feet, until I crested the hill. Distance did not really matter, but knowing how much vertical climb was left made the hill feel much easier to climb.  That was the first ride of my first R-12 award, and after that one I continued to ride a 200 km or longer ride every month for 12 consecutive months.

I used the GPS on some rides after that, but because of the limited battery life, it would not last long enough for a 400k or longer ride. But for Christmas I got a new bike computer that tracks elevation, and I am loving it.

On the GRR this summer, I plan to use the same strategy: Know the elevation at the top of a climb, and keep track of how many vertical feet are left. I will calibrate the unit at each controle, and hopefully it will be accurate enough. After the fold, here are the elevation (taken from Google Maps) at all the controles and at key locations along the Gold Rush Randonnee route. [Read more →]

People think I am crazy when they hear about the kind of cycling that I do. “You did what?” The truth is that these long rides, and especially the longest rides, take me on the road, in places I have never been before. The pace of a bicycle is almost ideal. You go faster than walking, and you can cover a lot more ground in the same time. But it is slower than a car, and lets you notice things that you don’t appreciate when you speed on by  surrounded by steel, looking out of small glass windows.

On a bike you notice the scent of things. You notice the sun, and the rain, and you sure notice the wind. You see the farm animals that look at you like you are crazy, and the occasional wild animal coming out of the woods. You see amazing views that reward you after a long climb, and hear the sound of white water in the rivers along the rural roads that we visit.

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Twelve days after installing the package of bees in the new beehive, I did the first inspection. The weather was perfect: Sunny, temperature around 75 F, no wind. We just came back from a quick trip to Ruhl Bee Supplies, where I got a hat and veil for me and a pair of gloves for Anna. After lunch, we suited up and got to work.

We used some pine shavings that Kathy got at the grocery store to light up the smoker. They are inexpensive pet bedding. That worked quite well, but I could not see the smoke itself through the veil. Kathy worked the smoker most of the time, and I think she got carried away a little. At one point my eyes were watering because of all the smoke. We still need to learn how to use the smoker correctly.

I did all the inspection from the West side of the hive. I opened the inner cover, and saw that the burr comb that I noticed a couple of days ago, when we changed the feeder last, was bridging two of the frames. That will have to go. I put the frame holder on the side of the hive next to me, and started inspecting from the opposite side towards me. I took out the first two frames (the ones closest to the side), neither had any comb built on them. Putting them on the frame holder took some effort, the fit is pretty snug. [Read more →]

A few weeks ago I bought a very nice attachment for my Flip camcorder that goes on the handlebar. My idea is that I would like to film some of my bike riding, and some of the scenery in the areas we visit. Unfortunately, the weather in all the randonneuring rides this year has been less than ideal for filming. We got some amazing riding weather this spring, just not on the scheduled ride days. While not as bad as the 200k Birkie brevet two weeks ago, this Saturday was another day of cold, wet riding. My award winning rando documentary will have to wait.

On Saturday I completed the second qualifier for the Gold Rush Randonnee. This is my fourth year of randonneuring, and the fourth time that I ride the 3 Cape 300. It is a beautiful ride, and the challenging section along the coast is absolutely gorgeous. This year I looked at the route profile for the coast section, so I was not surprised by the climbs, and I knew what was coming and how long each climb would be. I think that helped a lot.

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