Big Yard Day plus Two Hours Wind Battle

Martin and I started with the spring clean up in the yard. For me, that meant, cutting out all the dead flowers out of the flowers beds and spread out 8 bags of garden soil and 5 bags of manure to amend my flower beds. I will have to dig for some pictures from last year, or better take some to put them on here. The trick was, not to cover up, all the bulbs and plants that are already up and blooming, so instead of just dumping all the bags in the beds, I had to hand spread them around the plants. After I was done with that, I planted a few violets to give the yard a bit more color.
Martin repaired one of our fences in the meantime, killed some (MANY) ants and did other things around the yard. Mr. Whiskers made sure, we did everything correctly and that we were safe:)

After we were done with that (three hours later), we jumped on our bikes to battle the wind on the Keystone to get a two hour ride in. But I feel, I need to ride in order to get in shape for next Saturday for the first Psycowpath Race.

...Yes, I am pooped now. It is partly a bit of left over jet-leg, but also lots of outdoor exercise.

So, I guess, I will go to bed to get my beauty sleep

Missing my Blur

OK, I know the weather is crappy and I am still sick but I am starting to miss my Santa Cruz Blur.

I have it now for a bit over two years and I love it. It is my loyal steed that goes over and through everything.
I started out mountain biking on a hardtail and I still have that bike. It is a Cannondale and it is also a very good bike.

I should actually race it this year, since it is faster than my Blur, even though it is less comfy...and it climbs better and that helps in "steep moments".

Then, there is my very expensive Polo-bike. It cost us about $15 in parts and some labor for my personal mechanic, aka Martin:) For being such an expensive bike, it works really well on the Polo field. I had to find out about a month ago, that I can bent the steel fork with my knee and we were able to "bang" it right back into shape. Same with the "tacoed" wheel. Oh yes, Polo is lots of fun!!

I know you can get high speed on the road and make bigger distances on a road bike, but you can't sneak up with it on a moose in the Rocky Mountains, or chase some turkeys through Manawa; that you can only do on knobby tires off road...

Girls and mechanics...

...is it really true, that we have problems with mechanics? At least today I did, or at least I learnt a valuable lesson: when putting a fender on your full-suspension MTB, you have to adjust the height of the fender to the suspension sag, meaning, once your bottom sits on the bike, the fender will sit lower. I didn't think about that and I didn't notice that...two hours later and thanks to my IPod (and my ignorance!?), I had cranked enough and worked myself through the fender...

Made for a good laugh on Martin's side when I came home, so I thought, I need to share this, I and I thought all the grinding noises came from all the yak on the roads and my bearings that need to be exchanged (due to riding in to much mud last summer and now salt and s-stuff...)

Deutschland

or Germany as you know it. This is picture Martin took in late November in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. It was a rainy day but what you see on the windows on the right are flowers still in bloom.
Well, I put a German picture on the blog today, because there might be a chance that I am going to Germany in March:)) Don't want to give away too may details but I wouldn't have to pay for the flight...
Went for a long ride on the Keystone today. Still too afraid to take my new road bike out in this weather. I know my Blur well enough to ride over smaller icy patches. I am amazed how well they keep the Keystone trail maintained. Yes it is cold out there, but you don't have to watch for anybody. I met one runner. That was it.
I worked out every day this week and I can feel it. I am sore...but I also feel a bit thinner, well, I am, the scale tells me the same. Great feeling. There is hope after all.

Mr. Whiskers at the TNR

While I followed my work-out program and went to the gym. Martin and Mr. Whiskers went to Swanson to ride/run the TNR. Good for them! Whiskers loves to run with the bikes. And he is fast.

I am excited that he loves to run and is able to keep up. I was hoping for that, when I got him.

My beloved dog Chelsea that passed away last May,

played until everybody got tired, but she wouldn't run with us. She was also shorter legged. But she is still missed dearly...

Well, the riding makes Mr. Whiskers tired and a tired Jack Russell is a good Jack Russell:))

I hear skiing is in my future:))

Looks like R&R, and Martin and I swapping out the nobby tires for some smooth skies towards the end of the months for some skiing in Nevada.

How COOL is that!!!

In order to get a feel the the wintery conditions, I went for another ride today. Yes, you can call me crazy. It was 7 Degrees when I left and oh yes there was some wind. I was actually fine until my toes got cold. I still haven't figured out how to keep them warm. That is so much easier in ski-boots:)

Winter-Gardening has its challenges as well. Well, I am trying to put some cuttings into soil that I got this week. Well the bag of soil was outside, behind the house, so I hauled that thing in and let it sit for a while until I could knock a bit out of it. It is still too frozen to be worked with. My cuttings will have to wait until tomorrow to get into the soil.

Gebraut nach dem deutschen Reinheitsgebot!

I was down in Lincoln today and had dinner with Marc and Sydney. Marc talked about German beer and I remembered this picture I took in a German supermarket of the beer section. This is just ONE row of several. The beer gets mostly sold in these racks, that you pay a refund for (as well as for the bottles), so everything gets returned, cleaned and re-used AND filled again with delicious German beer (gebraut nach dem deutschen Reinheitsgebot, which means, it consists pretty much only of the basic ingredients needed to brew beer....whatever those are, sorry I don't really know, I am a wine drinker, and I know there isn't a beer berry.
Marc and Sydney were also brave enough to go out and ride today.
A big hohaa to them. I rode as well, in my basement. That is after walking Mr. Whiskers for an hour. Somehow, it seems so much easier for me to keep warm walking than biking...
Well, I had a great evening thanks to the Lincoln peeps and now it is time to go to bed.