Giants Among Us

No, I am not referring to the New York Giants coming to play the Green Bay Packers here in Wisconsin tomorrow. I write now of true giants, known to many but seen by few.

No, I do not mean cyclocross racers either.

I am writing of the Sasquatch. There is a guy in Ontario who has recordings of Sasquatch calling for him by name. Which begs the question; If they can talk can they play football? If Sasquatch were intelligent enough to play in the NFL the current players would know what it would feel like for a woman to play, if the NFL ever allowed woman to play.

Intelligence wise, I imagine, Sasquatch would most likely be more prone to play in the Canadian Football League. They could name a team after themselves, eh.

But what of Aaron Rodgers? I have a theory as to why he looked like a deer caught in the headlights early in the season, fumbling the ball in the backfield twice. It was his diet. Or rather his girl friend who put him on his diet. You need fats and even proteins for that brain to fire on all cylinders. Good thing he decided on MVP awards, Titles and Super Bowl rings over being spoon fed by his girl friend. That is my theory anyway. It is not kosher to criticize those all too fashionable pop culture diets on National Television so everyone kept it hush hush.

I doubt, however, that the NFL will ever let Sasquatch play for one of their teams, no matter how intelligent. And they must be very intelligent. Why would they keep themselves hidden so well if they did not know how truly ugly they are? If knowing you are ugly is not a sign of true intelligence, I do not know what is.

Still, I bet the Green Bay Packers can make Eli Manning feel like a woman playing in the NFL.

But this Blog is not about cryptids, its main focus is mountain biking. HASTPA sponsors many mountain bike events in the Himalayas. The time to plan for such a major excursion is now, and if you should come across the abdominal snowman  while you are there, say “Hello.” for Sasquatch.

The $146 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Merry Christmas

I said to my wife after we finished our Friday sales before Christmas, “Nothing left but Christmas.” The cards were sent out, gifts bought and the pressures of the season melted away with that thought, “Nothing left but Christmas.”

With three more days of the season before us we can always find Christmas music on Pandora as the radio abandoned the season early. With so many HD broadcast stations having showed older better quality Christmas shows why does anyone need cable?

I generally find the older the better  as far as Christmas music goes. I was disappointed the music on the radio did not trend more and more religious as The Day approached. At least no one had to hear me sing, except at church, and they are supposed to be of a forgiving nature.

We went to our own Church Christmas Eve. I saw an inspiring show at home put on by Berea College after the local TV news before my wife cut over to Cardinal Dolan’s sermon at St. Patrick’s in New York. Sermon time was the best time as we already heard the common readings at our own Church.

Do you know Berea College seeks students who cannot afford a college education?

I guess the young ones need gifts but everyone has so much already. The materialism I find disillusioning.

I received “The Urban Farmer” book for Christmas. It is chuck full of useful information. …I just thought it would be bigger.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

The $145 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Happy Thanksgiving 2016

My wife decorated the TV cabinet with little Pilgrims hunting turkey.

I keep telling her that our TV remote is infrared and we need a line of sight for the remote to work. I know. None of you other women recognize the problem either. Don’t worry. Just keep cooking delicious food and your husbands will cover for you.

Ike, our dog has pulled out his gutted goosey toy for hunting season. He knows. He always wakes up my wife at the same time every morning to be fed. Even after we changed the clocks. That is right. He reads clocks.

A young lady at the last Metro Mountain Biker’s meeting suggested that the annual Turkey Hurl Ride be held in the morning…

“You have to eat your turkey first.” I decreed. How else could you hurl it? Meet at 7pm in the Tosa village if you are looking to hurl your turkey. Actually Turkey Hurl is just an expression used for promotional purposes. …Really, it is a non-sanctioned event.

The Santa Rampage is quickly approaching; Dec. 3. The Hugh Jass Race Series will be just so much more fun after the snow starts falling. Their next race is at the Grand Geneva Resort. A most excellent venue.

The first snow should always come on Thanksgiving weekend.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. We will watch the parade, enjoy the dog show and then spend time with family eating delicious food, hoping we have enough food stored away to survive the Winter.

The $144 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Happy Halloween 2016

The Saris Gala is this coming Friday and if that isn’t scary enough just check out some of the premium bicycle packages you could win in auction. Perfect for all you beer guzzling bicycle nuts looking to get away from it all in a preplanned, work it into your schedule future arranged event.

Ike knows. Ike our dog knows it is Halloween. That pumpkin head pull toy has been in his bucket of toys all year. It is only from the week before Halloween that he ever takes interest in it. No joke. He starts playing with his stuffed football as soon as preseason begins. He knows. Just ask him. Ask him anything.

The demon fleas have been bothering Ike and after a three week battle we had to revert to using Frontline, which had him flea free in under three days. My wife says the flea combs at the Bark and Scratch have been flying from the displays. I suspect the weather has had something to do with it.

It is like the movie Apocalypse Now” where the main character hunts down the crazy colonel, whom we shall not name. The colonel, his headquarters decorated with the heads of the enemy impaled upon pikes (much like the Tower of London must have looked days gone by) in reflection says those infamous words over his plight; “The humidity, …the humidity.” It has just been a plain wet year, even if Summer rainfalls were low. And now we all suffer from the demon fleas.

Just think of all the moisture in the ground now, as it just keeps raining week upon week, and then the big freeze. Worst Winter in a long time the Farmer’s Almanac claims.

Just think pot holes, and be afraid… very afraid. Then there will be the Santa Rampage.

Yes, we are still getting tomatoes and raspberries from our garden. Those tomatoes come up themselves every year all over our yard and garden. They are sweet and tasty, but this time of year the skin gets hard and splits.

The $143 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Make Me Skinny

Or rather; MAKEMESKINNY, in all caps no spaces is the code for a discount online registration to the entire Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series. For a mere $100 you can be registered online for every race. All the better if you plan to attend, or even participate. Their first race is this coming weekend October 15th; Sweetest Day. It is more fun in the snow.

I saw fat bikes for less than $300 at Farm and Fleet. Otherwise they can run into the thousands of dollars. I saw them on display at Johnson’s Bikes on good old North Avenue. I believe that is where our dad took us for our first bikes some forty years ago. My older brother got a brand new bike and I got a dinged up used bike. The good old days when the eldest son was king and the only thing worse was an only child.

Levi Trow Mound and Silver Lake are some of the trails I heard may be groomed for fat bikes this Winter. Which is good since Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park has closed in Milwaukee. Not sure why, but I would say, “It’s the economy stupid.” That would be a political line from days gone past which would be completely valid for this election if a republican were in office.

So you can go to Cleveland for indoor mountain biking or go underground in Kentucky.

WORS is continuing to downsize, not necessarily by choice. After 23 years the Sheboygan event will be no more. A great race that all enjoyed but difficulties working with Parks and a lack of volunteers has made it too difficult to perpetrate. You can find some videos from those races on my YouTube site. As it looks now WORS and WEMS will each have nine races next year.

Truly the bit more worry, the bit more stress, being at times strapped for cash has turned peoples minds away from recreation submersion. They are looking for a few events rather than a Summertime commitment. Fewer races may well translate into higher participation numbers however. It will also ease the decision making process as fewer events will overlap. Mountain Biking is as strong as ever, it is just not the same as it used to be.

There will be more trail work days yet this year if you are interested in volunteering with Metro Mountain Bikers; a local IMBA Chapter. The Fall Social Ride is October 22 and there is talk of a Winter Social Ride.

The $142 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

A Very Berry Bit Scary Garden Adventurism

Permaculture; it has a magazine and everything. Permaculture Magazine has highlighted this particular group, Brake the Cycle, which hosts grueling rides across the UK with stops at holistic lifestyle (permaculture) facilities. We are not talking breweries or pubs, sorry Metro Mountain Bikers, but farms and such.

Or you can go with this Brake the Cycle, the World Vision Aspen International Bike Ride; a very worthy, a bit more adventurous and clearly more dangerous bicycle trek. This year's ride has passed, it was on my birthday, but keep it in mind for next year. I hear the beer market in Africa is expanding rapidly; wink wink Metro. Ah… I missed the last meeting.

Emery’s is having a huge sale at their Menomonee Falls location, Friday and Saturday only. In three weeks there is a Tour de’ Chequamegon up there in the north woods there, eh. A three day adventure brought to you by the Fyxation Bicycle Co.

But this blog is not about feel good altruism, it is about me. Yes, I tore out that barberry monster and cleared the fence line. Just look below at this beast I defeated further down the line. The determined and unrelenting application of brute force brought me victory in this battle. Not sure if you younger readers can relate with that.

I found a wonderful berry company and put in an order. I will line the fence with berry bushes. More to come in the Spring. There is no diet I have seen that does not recommend berries. Everyone loves berries. Blueberries are a bit too attention demanding for me to attempt to grow at this time. We ordered and planted some currants and an aronia bush. The honeyberry is on my mind for the Spring.

I had done an Internet search for “berries that grow in the shade” and various alterations on that theme and found nothing. Researching berries on YouTube many mentioned that currants grow and produce well in the shade, even full shade. A gardener at the DNR’s State fair facility enthusiastically conveyed to me the same information. Some have said their raspberries do fine in the shade.

I also found what some are now calling the #1 super food in the world; the aronia berry native to eastern North America. Also known as the choke berry, not choke cherry, it is the next up and coming craze, along with the haspak berry AKA the honeyberry.

The currants have a high concentration of natural pectin. You can make a jam by adding only an equal weight (of the berries) in sugar and simmer until it gels on a cold plate. If you don’t have a thick bottomed pot a splash of water would be prudent. You bring the berries to a boil then add the sugar and simmer.

There was a wild berry growing along our fence that I had the hardest time trying to identify via the Internet. Finally searching “poisonous plants in Wisconsin” I could identify the plant. I will not show a picture of this poisonous plant to avoid confusion with edible berries. It looks very similar to another berry that people grow as a super food. But this particular variety, growing wild all over the place, is poisonous, particularly before they ripen. Did I mention this is a poisonous plant (that I have not pictured or described). Never eat anything without verifying exactly what kind of plant it is.

The reality is, plants do not like to be eaten. Sorry vegans. That is why you have to soak and cook beans. Otherwise you’ll be poisoned.

Berries are a perennial, an easier food crop to care for. There is also a perennial bean, if you live in a warmer climate than Wisconsin, that is native to the Americas. That is the runner bean and for some reason it is far more popular in England than the United States. It will survive mild Winters.

Known as the Scarlet Runner Bean Thomas Jefferson grew them in his garden as an ornamental. They have beautiful scarlet flowers and produce continuously once mature. Their vines grow to ten feet. It is a favorite of humming birds.

The pods are eaten raw when very small and sweet. In England they seem to cook the sliced up pods when they are much bigger but before the beans begin to develop. If you let the beans mature and dry on the vine you get large beans from black, to pink, to purple, or a combination of colors. They are very large and attractive. Though it is said you can eat these beans, someone called them Oregon Lima Beans, I have found no recipes for the fully mature beans online. I did see one photo of the beans in a dish however. Of course you would have to soak and cook these beans, like other beans.

My wife and I made this baby, as is typical for making babies. She took it to a baby shower to the joy of many. Afterwards we enjoyed the leftover scraps, which I called baby bits. Very macabre of me I know but in my defense… 

Halloween is just around the corner. And you know in some cultures women did eat the placenta after birthing.

The $141 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Labors of the Day

Has Labor Day snuck up upon you without warning? Perhaps a quick escape to the La Crosse area would make a delightful last minute excursion. This holiday weekend is the La Crosse Area Bicycle Festival. It is simply one of the most beautiful areas of our great country that there is. And if competition is what you desire, there is the La Crosse Gravel Classic. It’s a classic. I competed in a WEMS Race long ago in La Crosse. Good people out there and it is not as long of a drive as you may think.

Don’t like the crowds? The following weekend, September 10th, is the Pickwick Historic Mill Run and Walk somewhere across the border in Minnesota. (DO you know the Minnesota Mountain Bike Series races in Wisconsin?) Brings to mind this 18th Century Cooking channel we have been enjoying on YouTube. Half the recipes seem to be for a pudding of some kind. How can you not appreciate that?

Misao is on a project craze. She has been creating mason jar solar lights from cheap solar lamps, canning supplies and and a glue gun. I did the wiring for the hanger.

The Hugh Jass is fast approaching. The Fat Bike Series of Fat Bike series is back for this coming Winter. And it is going to be a bad one. The squirrels are turning nearly black around here. Hugh Jass had Summer discounts for a race series package. There are always fat bikes for rent, but reserve one ahead of time. Wheel and Sprocket is the major player in supporting local race series.

The Saris Gala is going Olympic, if such promotions and advocacy are your thing. That will be November 4th.

Surprisingly, I have been riding quite a bit. I have ulterior motives however. I keep my eyes open for Black Walnut trees in order to harvest their fruits. Yes, you can eat them. I may make some Black Walnut ink from the husks; or a wood stain. The exercise log is filling up.

A daily bounty from the garden. Misao and I canned some bread and butter pickles together. Sometimes it is better not to speak, especially in the proximity of large quantities of scolding hot water. We went mishap free.

The $140 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.