Pepé

"Ah, my little darling, it is love at first sight, is it not, no?"...


Ahhhh... NO.

I'm looking out the back window this am just enjoying the quiet and watching the rain come down. Then there was movement. I was excited at first because I like to see wildlife. Then I remembered I was looking out in my backyard and the excitement quickly went away. As the rain was coming down a skunk trotted out from under the shed and waddled under the deck. Makes sense now, the dogs have been acting strange in the backyard for days. Now I can't let them go in the backyard until I know the thing is gone!

It's ironic, I was just talking with Dale about changing my bike commute route to avoid skunks in the morning and now I'm living with them.

So I took a look at the Nebraska Humain Society Website. Here is what I learned...

"If a skunk moves in under your deck or patio try this trick. Mix 8 ounces of castor oil, 8 ounces of dish detergent and 1 gallon of water. Spray the area liberally. To see if your skunk is still in residence lightly stuff balled up newspaper into the entry hole. If the paper is pushed out the next day—your skunk is still there."

I don't have any castor oil so I'm off to the store now.

Prom 2009

Manawa Trailwork

In case you didn't know, there are some MTB trails accross the river in IA between Lake Manawa and the river. Mother Nature was nice and allowed us to have a THOR Trailwork event at Manawa last evening. I met Steve and Doug in the parking lot trailhead at about 5:30PM. Several others arrived shortly after. Steve's first objective was to get the trees cleared and limbs cut back from the trail. Then we worked on hardening the technical trail features in the black trail section of Manawa. There are some great places to test your skills in that area now. I'm looking forward to a nice dry, warm weekend day to get over there with the bike and try it out.

It's not easy to leave Colorado...

...but it wasn't all that easy getting there either. Last Saturday our spring family trip weathered severe storms with a tornado reported just south of us right around York, NE. Then about 40 miles East of North Platte the snow started so we stopped for the night. Good thing we did because I-80 was closed shortly after we stopped. We had an easy trip home today. It's nice to be home but Colorado was really great. We toured two Universities, CSU (Fort Collins) and UNC (Greeley). We did some hiking around Estes Park and Loveland. The trail at Devil's Backbone was only a 6 minute bike ride from the La Quinta where we stayed in Loveland.

"That's what ibprophren is for!"

Got some riding in early this evening on tranq dirt. After the trail work on Sunday my back was a little sore. But "That's what ibprophren is for!". Anyway, that’s what I hear. My cell phone camera caught Dmars doing the rollers on blue trail at the top of the south hill.



We met with Craig starting his ride at the south end of the Ice Loop. The heavy south wind pushed Dmars, Craig and I up the hill. I pretended the farm dog was chasing me and broke away for a second. Those two caught me quick on the new reroute to the Inner Loop Descent. I’m already missing the South Hill Descent.

Many thanks to Dan and Bike Masters for taking a quick look at my shifting issues. All is well. And don't worry I'll learn how to take care of my bike eventually.

Roll On It

The first official "Trail Day" of 2009 at Tranquility is complete. The closed signs are down. Now it's time to roll on it.

Sunday Trail Day - Tranquility Sunday March 29th

Like dirt? Come help make some more ridable. Please join us on Sunday. Trail Day Sunday March 29th starts at noon and we finish at 4PM. We will meet at the trailhead kiosk on the south side of Fort St. just past the creek west of 120th St. You can bring shovels and limb cutting tools, etc.. There is also a Trail day tues march 31 from 6 till 8. This is to finish up anything not completed on Sunday.

Check out the full calendar of trail days on the THOR website trailshaveourrespect.org. Click on the calendar link for full details.

Second Day of Spring

My expectations for Sat. March 21, 2009 were low but it turned out good. Met up with Dale, Chris, Dave, Marc and Marc's "wonder tiller" at 10AM. We got in 4 hours of trail work fixing erosion from the spring thaw. The warm weather had us all shedding jackets and sweatshirts in the first 5 minutes of work.

After that I took a quick paved trail spin to cool off. I feel bad for the many trail users out on Saturday. I had to be leaving a bad trail of stink! Sorry about that but the dirt trails are starting to get really nice. Well, maybe not after it rains today.



Later in the afternoon, after cleaning up, I took Emma's old Schwinn downtown to donate it to Community Bicycle Shop Omaha. CBSO had an open house from 4PM to 6PM. I was impressed with how nice and organized the place looked. The way I understand it, a kid that needs a bike will work in the shop for a number of hours and earn it. Great idea!