Scenes from the Black Hills , Deerfield Lake Area

Country riding

With moving out to the country , the idea of riding my bike to work , as much as I can , is not lost.
Currently I am 14 miles from my place of employment, I make this ride 2 to 3 times a week , depending on weather , or what I may need to do later that day. Some of you may say , " Why not everyday" , I will own up and say " I'm just not that hardcore . Balance , and moderation , in everything . "
That being said, within a few months , that ride to work will jump from 14 miles , to around 23 miles ( one way). Of that 23 miles, about 9 of it , will be gravel roads.
I am trying to decide what bike would work best to most efficiently , and speedily cover those 23 miles.
I have decided that either a cyclo-cross bike , or a 29er with semi-slick tires would work best. While I think the cyclo-cross bike would work best overall, the one thing that makes me consider the 29er is , suspension. The gravel roads, even the paved roads here , are not always in the best condition, and after riding nearly 50 miles a day, 2 to 3 days week , may take it's toll on me phyisically, and I would like to not feel all beat up just riding to work. There are other things I want to be doing too.

lookout!

Beware

mornings....

By nature, I am not a morning person.
For years , I thought about petitioning our local politcos to make morning later in the day.
While I know the quest would be fruitless, thoughts vs. action, mice vs. men, I always thought mornings would be better if they came around 10am.
Over the last several months, since I changed my work hours back in November, I have found myself half sleepy-eyed as I pulled my weary self out of bed at 6am. For a person who had worked the last 10 years in the evenings and over nights, 6am , was way to frickin early for me.
Oddly enough, as with all things, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Now as the weather is finally starting to warm up above freezing, I find myself getting up at 5:30am to ride to work, and I am finding no regrets to my early awakenings.
This morning was no exception.
Having ridden to work for years , bike prep and getting things ready before hand was nothing new. I just had to adjust to doing it the night before, instead of after lunch.
Today , I found morning temps around 35 to 40 degrees, not bad at all after a long winter, even nicer....

NO WIND.

For a person who has spent 34 of his 35 years on this planet , living in an area of the country where if the wind stops blowing people start falling down at random because there is nothing to help prop them up, or when the wind stops , it quite possibly may be the end of existance as we know it. Riding with no wind is a treat not to be taken lightly.
Even on a day , like to day, where I felt sluggish , and slow, I still thought I could fly.
Feeling the sun rise to my back as feathers of steam rose off the river into the cool morning air.
Shadows growing shorter as I spot my own in an unplanted bean field.
I feel for the people who drove to work today , as if they had no choice but not too.

Sometimes you need to take the long way.

Anywhere.

Happenings...

A mark in time that opens a new chapter in the goings on in my small life.

Things going on.

Last summer my S.O. and I purchased some land out in the country with the prospects of someday building a house on it. Last month , that reality came true when they started to dig and put down the foundation. They are currently in the process of framing it , hopefully it will be completed in mid-July.
We purchased 5 arces of land. The nice thing is we have plenty of land to grow our own food for ourselves .
I am also looking into putting up a wind turbine in the near future to provide our own electricity.
With moving to the country , there are a few things that have been on my mind to look to in the future. Two of those things is starting my own , small scale organic farm, and selling the goods at local markets, and growing the food stuffs necessary to brew my own beer , from scratch. I have always been interested in the process of what it takes to produce foodstuffs from the beginning to the finished product. With maybe the exception of the yeast, I may be able to cultivate everything I need for the beer.

I have also been daydreaming about developing a small dirt track/mtn bike course, building some North Shore style ladders , dirt jumps , and teeter-totters. This could be fun.

In the near future, I am looking forwards to taking a short vacation this weekend to either the Black Hills , or to Wisconsin. It all depends on the weather.
The bikes are coming with , there are some amazing mtn bike trails in both of the areas that we may visit.
There is some riding to be done!

..and , I may be going to Ireland next month..
I am very excited about the prospects of that trip!!

Sympathy for earthworms

There they are.
Laying there, wriggling on the cold wet sidewalks.
Waterlogged and lathargic. Waiting without knowing.
Trying to move...
Perhaps a bird will eat you.
Or to be trampled under foot by a passer-by.
Swimming in that puddle.
Where are you going ?

Sunday the 4th of May

Here are a few things I saw on Sunday.

Questions

On my ride into work this morning I had some questions.
Here are the answers.
There will not be a quiz later.

We had a Nuclear Power plant in Sioux Falls in recent history, I wanted to know when?

I found this.

A group of Turkeys is called a rafter.
Here is a link to the other group names of some common birds , in case you were wondering.


Who ever designed the roads between Brandon SD and the cubefarm, paid no particular attention to the idea that pedestrians or cyclist would be using them.

and last but not least,

Rishi Grewal was never a Norba National Series Champion, but Travis Brown was.

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