Jansen's luck or not.....

So, he calls on Monday and blew out his tire, then his spare tube, at Pisgah.

Tuesday he calls and had issues with the derailleur, derailleur hanger and, after turning the Salsa into a single speed, had a bent frame. Their local bike shop fixes him up with a little help from our credit card and the counselors.

The guys and counselors are awesome again this year and no matter how much mechanical trouble he has, he still doesn't sound too bummed.

So, he ends up having a blast, again, at camp and hitches a ride home with Zach. One of our favorite, and extremely cool mtb friends, who is finishing his double major at college right now. (good luck with your classes, man)

We meet up at Heritage and those two guys pull up in the cherokee with kayaks on top, bikes on the back, loads of gear, tans and grins. Very happy young men, for sure. The middle aged guys in the parking lot were drooling.

Andy Johnston, the head of Cycle Youth, does an excellent job with these mtb camps for the juniors. They get in a ton of riding and information, while having a great time in the mountains.

We got home and started to take the Salsa apart to build up the Kelly for nationals.....uh, very quickly.

Guess what we found?

Yep, it was cracked about 75% of the way around. It was basically held together with tape as he rode Pisgah and Dupont for the week. Of course we all thought this was really cool and walked around with crazy grins just thinking of the carnage to the frame.....I know, mtbers are a weird bunch.

So, the day after Jansen gets home the three guys head off to the shops to get things together to build the Kelly. They also take along the cracked Salsa frame to show everyone....well.....because........that is the excitement in our lives.........yes, weird again.

Two days to get this really cool bike built up and it's a great fit. Now, he has one day to ride it before it heads to nationals, ahead of the racer.

A Day for Wine

Had a really great ride with Kindle yesterday. We stopped and got a boxed lunch at Indian Springs and had a picnic at Dauset, after a marvelous mtb ride. So much fun! That is such a great trail.

Today was a bit of a bummer. A hawk got one of the smaller chickens. Then I got a phone call that my dad is in the hospital with chest pains.

I have extremely cool parents and all I can say is that he had better get over this whole heart attack thing quickly, because we still plan to meet them in Oregon in October for some really good times! Mom and Dad are flying up from Texas and the boys and I will meet them. Then the guys take off to fish and do guy stuff, while my mom, aunt and I rent a house on the beach and consume wine and chocolate. (Aunt Alyce is not backing out of that tatoo this time!)

Dad is one of those guys that does everything he can for anyone he knows....or doesn't know. He is always fixing things for people, taking veggies from his garden to his neighbors and visiting and taking care of his relatives. We have a little gardener competition going on. It's pretty funny actually because we're so cool about it....like, So, do you have any tomatoes, yet? Oh, I've got hundreds of green ones. What about you? Oh, thousands....I'm practically feeding a third world country.

He's just an amazing guy and I've been one lucky girl to have him around in my life. Love ya Dad. Get better asap, because it's all about Oregon.

Fun Rides!

Jansen is off to xc camp with his buddies, so it's just the three of us here for the week. He flatted today and blew out his spare tube, as well. He called to say he is in search of Stans at the moment.

Everett and I had a great ride and run with some friends this weekend. We saw Jason and the whole crew from Cohutta. (we will work on Jason's fashion sense asap! Crazy purple shorts!)

These girlies started the badlass craziness. Wanna do a 24 hour race? Sure! Adventure race? Xterra? XC? Why not?!?

Shey raced Racoon Mt and said that Thomas was racing after shoulder surgery. Hope the shoulder is feeling well.

Early mornings.....

Gotta love those early mornings...heading out to the races....

That freakin' bird that wakes up at 4am and insists on chirping at full volume....
4 bikes, 4 racers, 2 dogs and a ton of food!

This guy is usually sleeping while I drive, but I couldn't find any of those funny pictures where he is snoozing with his mouth wide open. Still looking........

Going Home

When the boys were small, I would visit our family in Texas every two or three months, because I knew that would not be possible when they were teenagers.

Well, the three of us don't get to go back as often as we used to, but it is still so much fun to see our family during the summer break.

It's really nice that Shey and I grew up together, so all our family lives in the same area. The boys get to see all their grandparents and most of their aunts, uncles and cousins, in one weekend.

The people in the Texas hill country enjoy their families and they enjoy their life too much to rush through it.

The town, where we grew up, moves at a slower pace. The kids still play washers and horse shoes and the men start barbequing at about 3 or 4 in the morning. You can earn a reputation by your brisket or pinto beans. And the food this weekend was out of sight!

They have THE BEST 4th of July parade AND they still throw CANDY!!

The boys are very lucky to have extremely cool grandparents on both sides of the family. Their aunts, uncles and cousins are awesome and lots of fun, too.

Donnie and Amber built a cool "party barn" and all of my mother-in-law's grandchildren were there for Cary's graduation party, so we grabbed the chance to get pictures.

Cary, Trae, Savanna, Courtney, Everett and Jansen. All very cool kids.

Brittany and her son, Cary, Trae, Savanna, Courtney, KC (Shey's younger sister), Jansen, Amber (Shey's older sister) and Everett.

You never know what we are going to bring back from the ranch or shopping at the Mexican Marketplace.

All that work!

We had an awesome trip to TX this past weekend to visit our family. When we got home, the garden was in pretty bad shape from being negleted for 4 days. It was a little upsetting.

This was 5 days before we left.

This was what the three of us found when we got back.

The boys and I worked pretty hard on the garden this spring, so I spent a few hours trying to salvage what plants I could. I got a few green beans, but the blooms on most of the plants looked like they did not set, so there won't be much to freeze, unfortunately.

Shey told me, over the phone, that it looked bad, but I guess if it's not a bike..........

Next year, we will set up a sprinkler system and ask our friends/neighbors to water the garden for us when we are gone. I'm sure I can bribe Kindle with some "two buck chuck" wine!

Brother Sacrifices for State Title

While Shey was racing in Ohio the boys and I headed to the GA State RR Championship race in Union City. I didn't want to miss the boys' start, which was at a different point than the other races, so I skipped this one and had a great time supporting.

Whoa, what a stressful morning ....long story short. Jansen's back wheel would not stay in during his warm-up 10 minutes before the race and he endo'd. Everett offered his bike to Jansen, since he has a state jersey from last year and has not been training as hard, and I let them decide what to do. (my bike does not have junior gearing and the guys tried to block it out, but it wasn't possible) Jansen raced Everett's bike and won.

We were up and running very early to make the 8 am start time.....Huge thanks to Eric for putting this race on for our juniors! I must say this was our very favorite race, ever, on the road, as the juniors had their own start and official and these guys knew the route and were very organized. Eric did a great job of organizing this and if weren't for him and the other parents there would not have been a state race for these guys.

BIG THANKS TO EVERETT FOR GIVING UP HIS RACE FOR HIS BROTHER. That was a tough one, because part of racing is caring for your bike and if there is a problem...well, it's your mechanical issue and no one else's. Everett was extremely bummed that he did not get to race, but was very happy for his brother and was very cool about it.

Registration was the same old chaos with incorrect numbering and no information on the start. We had to force the issue of a state jersey that was promised, but then they didn't get state jerseys after all....they got series jerseys or something like that. Nothing new.

Fulton Flyers had a great time on the podium and had a blast racing together. Congrats to everyone!!

We have pre-teen chickens, now.

The chicks are living in the hen house, now. It needs a roof, some more windows and a fenced yard.




The chickens love to play outside.

School is out and it's time for.......

Blacksmithing at night!

The boys found a stronger fan to hook up to the furnace and ended up melting their cast iron pot and the bottom of a terra cotta pot.

Everett removed the tire from an old lawn mower wheel and used the rim to condense the heat. It worked very well.....it was HOT!

This Week's Injuries

Shey hit a tree pretty hard and I didn't get a picture of his toe until some of the swelling had gone down. It was awesome looking. Huge! He should put some windex......

His shoulder looked pretty bad, too, but he wasn't feeling up for more photo ops, so.....

Jansen was just chillin' on the deck with the guys while I was working on the hen house. A GIANT ALIEN insect (or wasp) attacked him and he barely escaped with his life!

Pre-ride and Race at Heritage

Jansen had a strong race and got to hang out with a bunch of his buddies. Zach, Jaimie, Seth, Andy, Wes and a bunch of other guys were out there. Shey took Jansen to the race, so Everett and I could stay home and work on the hen house (which is taking FOREVER to build). We missed everybody, but got a lot of work done. Zach plans to be at the xc camp, which is very cool.

The pre-ride at Heritage was a blast. When you drive up and see the field, you are thinking, "great, another flat course, ugh". However, as soon as you hit the woods, it's roots, turns, rutted out downhills, creek crossings and tons of fun! Very mountain bikey.

New Family Members

I've been off the bike for three weeks due to my other fun hobbies.

Vegetable Garden is loving the rain!

Can't wait for the blueberries to ripen.

Our new fuzzy family members....who we hope make it through the hawks, racoons, and snakes that we have in the woods behind us.

Once these guys are large enough to hang out away from a heater and warm lamp, riding will resume. (about another week or two)

The boys and I are building a hen house. We got to use a POWER SAW! It was AWESOME!! (though it took us 15 minutes to figure out where the safety latch was to open the saw, but that's a secret)

We starting building the coop the day before mother's day. It was a ton of fun.

Kari