a walk around

I remember my mom ordering some semi-illicit poppy seeds from Amsterdam. I like to think these are an example but I'm not sure.


Disaster in the lettuce bed! The day before these were orderly rows of heirloom lettuce and spinach.

At first I thought of deer but they could have reached all the lettuce without trampling in the bed.
Then I noticed a few holes, so it's an invader from below but not a mole or gopher as there were no mounds at all. Any guesses?
I think the solution is to dig all the dirt out, reline the bottom and sides with heavy steel mesh and refill with new dirt.

Big and little.

I've let a few parts of the Annex go without mowing to see what would happen. The result is (predictably) a mixture of the last crops grown in the field plus weeds.
The majority is this stuff. It seems like a perennial rye grass. I think it might have been grown in the field some years ago but I'm not sure.

There are a few patches of wheat from last year.

This looks like oats to me.

There are a few patches of this thin grass with feathery seeds. I'm pretty sure it's never been planted here. Maybe it's a native or just opportunistic.

This looks like fescue, which was growing here for several years. I expected more of it to come back.

The pit version 2.

In the interest of evening out the twin berms I scooped out the inside track and added a kicker into the right side of the s-curve leading into the harsh berm. Still not even but closer.

The Annex pt. 3

"post-a-day! post-a-day! post-a-day!
what's the track look like?"

Oh yeah, post-a-day...
The track looks muddy. We had freezing fog at night early in the week leaving the recently scraped ground frosty in the morning. The afternoon sun turned it into unridable mud....Google is telling me "unridable" is not a word but I'm pretty sure it is. Ridable = capable of being ridden, please tell me if I'm wrong.

Either way here are some more pictures from the Work Party Weekend. Next WPW is March 14-15, possibly featuring a trip to Blackrock.




Our brush fire didn't work out so well, even with copious use of accelerants.







Timmy showing the love.

What is Milkshake doing here? Flexing? Cheering? Acting like a goalpost?

Drew and the first jump...which may actually get bulldozed as the master plan evolves....sorry.


Natty was not into the loud machinery, she spent much of the time in Mace's pickup.

Jaden hitting the ditchstyle.

This is when I wanted a fisheye lens. Perhaps you can stitch these three photos together in your mind to make a panoramic.

Veloshop Rickreall Rampage pt. 1

Official Results

What a crazy weekend. I took over 300 pictures and I'm still deciding which ones I like but here's the first installment.

OBRA surprised me by opening up the RWD for the A race. It's a great short cut but very sketchy. Those that cleared it could move up a place or two. Those that went around got heckled mercilessly.

I sponsored Drew's entry with my volunteer work hours. He was going strong until he blew a sidewall and had to ride flat to the pit. I gave him my Fat Chance, which was great in the woods but a little slow around the orchard with a 34X20 gear.

The overpass held up better than I expected it to but it still required work between every race. Dabby gave himself a promotion from head minion to minister of erosion and did a good job shoring and shoveling.

Scott had good form.

Everyone ducks the first time they ride the underpass.

I took a break from the race to play chess with Baby Beefa. She's still a little vague on the rules but her instincts are good.

Project Underpass

I had some great pictures of people working, riding, tractors, etc. but that memory card seems to have failed, neither computer will read it. I found another card and tried to recreate the excitement by getting Natty to pose. She's a trooper.

The work party turned out smaller than expected, just me, Uncle Bill and Tad and Meghan from Team Veloshop, but we got it done. 

The tractor broke again, blowing a hydraulic hose and also breaking some welds on the bucket. Bill was able to fix the hose and take one more smoothing run and we finished it with hand tools.

It's a lot more solid than it looks. After a few setbacks Tad and Bill did some improvisational engineering and came up with a 3 piece design that we bolted in place. The 4X4s are socketed deeply into the hard earth and the pressure of the ramps on both sides keeps the whole thing rock solid.

This week I plan to add some logs to the ramps and make some steps. I might buy some long hoses and water and reshape the ramps. I think it'll need a winter of rain and lots of shoveling before it will be rideable but as a run up it's almost ready and as a ride under it's superb, fast and fun.

getting ready for the work party

Uncle Bill fixed the tractor and we gave it a trial run before Project Underpass kicks off tomorrow. It scraped up the hard dirt a lot faster than I had imagined.


Natty was a big help, as usual.

The Make Out Ladder with new and improved run-around.

Cyclocross comes to Rickreall

I just spoke with Tad the Champ and it's almost entirely official that I will be hosting the Veloshop Cyclocross Race on Saturday, September 27. I'm pretty excited. Tad expects 200 to 300 racers which will be fun and crazy, will beat the trail into submission and will generate some cash flow that I will put towards a ticket to CMWC Tokyo for the winner of the next Rickreall Open.
I'll need some help between now and then planning the route, improving trails and cutting a few new ones, building berms and maybe even renting a backhoe to create a few hills and pits. I'll most likely be having work parties September 13-14 and 20-21 so if you enjoy moving dirt or cutting through blackberries with a machete then please attend. If possible bring your own shovel/rake/machete/clippers/chainsaw/ bobcat/ trackhoe/dumptruck.
Also please help me think of a better name than Veloshop Cross Race. My first thought was Rickreall Rampage but that's pretty weak. I'm sure you can do better. Leave your entry in the comments and the best (as judged by an inedpendent panel) gets a free t-shirt when the next batch is printed.

Viva Durango pt. 6

These photos are all from Monday. Doom invited us to visit him at the site of the mansion he is building. We brought him some coffee and cookies from ABC. Doom commanded us "Every day you wake up in Mancos you have to go to ABC", and we did. By far the best (and possibly the only) cafe in Mancos, it offered me several superb breakfasts including delicious bacon, many cheap day old pastries and decent to fair coffee, though I may be spoiled living in Portland.
Most of these photos are by Phil, the rest are by Dabby...except the ones Phil and Dabby are both in, those are by me.
I'd love to put in an outdoor kitchen like this, only not so large.


Doom explaining how he spent forever installing all the custom glass pieces and the difficulties of getting everything to fit just right.

These panels that are going inside have to match those that are going outside, rusty. So when it doesn't rain Doom and his crew urinate on them.




Mesa Verde, our next destination.
This was a pretty sketchy moment, he was going fast and taking up both lanes.

Doom's worksite is somewhere in the middle distance. I could pick out the dark green grass of the airstrip with the naked eye but not in this photo.

Possible glamour shot.

Dabby almost flushed these deer into the path of an oncoming truck.

We didn't have time to take the tour of these cliff dwellings but we got some good views as we rode around a loop and checked out various pit dwellings. Some of them were pretty sweet, I'm considering adding a kiva down at the farm.

My team mates soaking up some knowledge.

The Chimney House.
We didn't spend nearly enough time at Mesa Verde but I'll be back to check it out later.
We made it back to Mancos in time to meet Doom for a trip to the Phil's World trails outside Cortez.

I got pulled over for 62 in a 55 even though the 65 sign was in view. My papers were in order and he let me go with a warning.

At Phil's World, the Ribcage at sunset was epic.


The Sleeping Ute from Phil's World.