James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

[JimN]

Watched The Station Agent at the recommendation of @graveyardman67 and he was right in that a) it was an awesome movie and b) I would like it. They really don't seem to make movies like this much anymore. Or if they do, they don't really make the radar because they don't necessarily blow anyone away. I guess. I thought it was really great, and filmed in Rockaway among other NJ locales.

Interesting, we'll watch it this weekend. I feel like maybe I've heard of this before but never seen it, and I just showed Melinda Newfoundland Station two weeks ago when we were hiking in that area.

Heh, so I just googled it and ended up on the Wikipedia page for Newfoundland Station, and I think that's where I heard about the movie.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.3.Fri: Boardwalks

The morning was wet, misty. It rained all night so instead of trimming trails I did some junk cleanup. I'd intended to fill up a few garbage cans full of ex-swimming pool this week, but I didn't get around to it. I tossed some of the scrap metal into a can and got it to the curb before the truck came. I have to say, they really do take anything I put out there and I'm glad for that.

Aside from that I did a little brush cleanup while listening to Seveneves. I've moved on to part 3 which started off pretty much as a separate book. I enjoyed part 2 so I'm in for the duration, even if this does erase any attachment you may have had with the book thus far.

Did a crucial piece of maintenance this morning and cleaned the espresso machine. This is nearly a 45 minute process when all is said and done, but is worth every minute of that. The oils build up so much over time that you could argue it should be cleaned monthly. Now that I'm home all day every day, for sure this is warranted.

If espresso is an art, like painting, it makes no sense to start with a canvass that has shit all over it.

We had a little time after lunch, so the boys and I went out to do some work on the trails, which includes the log ride we lined up. The far side is one of the Purge exits, and it will come onto this log which will need to be planed a bit. The tree on the left needs to be replanted. I could cut it down but I'm hesitant to just clear cut everything out there. I may do this in the morning while the family sleeps. But before all that, I had to nudge the log into place with the rock bar and we raised the far end to line up better with the edge of the cement block.

We then walked around a bit and discussed some plans for the near term, which will give us a first pass of a fully rideable circuit. We may or may not get this done by the end of the weekend but it should be a reasonable task all in all. The boys are all-in on the plan, and are as excited as I am to get a complete loop built (as opposed to starting at point A and ending at point B at some random point in the yard). The ideal would be to not have to ride the lawn to get anywhere, as that's not especially fun.

We got big plans here captain. I'm hoping we can get some video footage by the end of the weekend for @rottin'.

I wasn't rested enough to do a race today but I did one anyway. Did a 3 lap Watopia hilly loop and ended up as mediocre in the Bs. If I had been in the Cs I would have been with the lead pack so again, seems like pack fodder B is where I belong for now. I definitely didn't have everything today but it was a good workout nonetheless. I'm up to 7 hours this week so far. Should easily get to my 10 for the week, if not more.

I need to get my rides in before I work outside, since the manual labor definitely takes its toll on how well I ride. Oddly enough, the converse is not true. I seem to end up with more energy to work outside after I ride, be it an easy ride or a hard one.

After dinner D got on the bike and the boys went outside with me and we started building boardwalks. Yes, I said boardwalks. We're raising the roof on this whole endeavor.

Shit is really starting to come together.

 

[rottin']

Looking forward to said video. Also the distance seems about the amount I'm able to ride right now...as long as it's less than 3 min. Can't wait to try it out.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.3.Sat: What an Amazing Day

​

I was outside early again today and after walking around a bit, decided to hop on the bike before the family woke up. Came close to just going through the motions and hopping on the trainer but instead I sucked it up and hopped on the road bike. It was a great decision, for obvious reasons. Was rolling by 7:15 which is about the earliest I've turned the pedals outside in a year. The day was a little chilly but damn if it wasn't one hell of a beautiful morning.

The second part of the morning was 2 hours outside working on the trails with the boys. I had 4 things I wanted to get done today and we managed to knock out 3 of them before lunch. I replanted a tree that was in the way of the log ride. I chopped down the lower/opposing edge of one of the berms, basically finishing the tread of the bottom of the berm. We used the extra dirt in a side project that has nothing to do with the main runs but will come into play later. Then finally I properly cut a return trail that is yet to be named. The boys had roughed it out yesterday but I removed 200 rocks from the bed and graded it out a little better. Still needs work but this is a connector more than anything right now.

Then we had lunch and shortly after I got the oriole above.

Went for a walk with Julia while D took the boys for a ride in East County preserve, which is in walking distance and where we used to have the old Horseshoe CX race. Been trying to get her out of the house which has been more of a struggle these days. Managed almost an hour. The above is from the neighbor at the bottom of the hill. It's nice work but he should be using his time to build jumps and berms.

When we got back to the house I hopped on the bike and rode the trails around a bit. I made it about 12 minutes before I wanted to get off and groom some of the stuff better. It's definitely getting better as a self-contained loop that can keep you entertained for a while. But there are a few problems. First, there isn't a complete circuit that you can session without having to do some junk. Second, we simply haven't ridden enough to bed the trails in properly and find where the issues are. After those 12 minutes I hopped off and got back to work. My goal is to be able to just get out there and ride for an hour without wanting to get off and fix something.

We worked on fixing up the tabletop we're building, which came out much better than it started. Today I added a filter to the toolset, which is really just the base of an old metal fire pit that Woody gave us years ago. The bottom is a webbed metal structure that works wonders in turning the rock-filled soil into almost pure dirt. This is going to change the game, yet again.

After that, Zac and I put together the 2nd piece of the boardwalk, which leaves 2 more to construct. I was hoping to get that done this weekend but I need more 1x6s which means a Home Depot run. Not sure if I have that kind of time.

Then I watered Iggy's grass as well as the transplanted tree. Went inside to help make dinner, then we got on the Zoom call with the team from 8-10:00.

And thus ends what was truly an excellent day. I will say with absolute honesty I could do this day over and over, every day. This is not a stretch for me to maintain my sanity with days like this. Not even a little bit.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.3.Sun: Brian's Really, Really Long Video

The day was supposed to start with a road bike ride. D and I were going to go out while the kids slept. This was going to be a first for us. We sufficiently warned them last night, though Simon was really the only concern, in that he would be worried if he woke up and we weren't there. But when I woke up this morning it had rained, then after a brief appearance by the sun (below) the rain started again.

So I went to Home Depot for more wood. Let me tell you, Monday morning is far better than Sunday morning to do this.

The second half of the morning we finished the boardwalk. It came out really well. Zac and I may have a career in building these.

After lunch I went out with Zac & Simon and shot 9.5 minutes of video. For Brian. And only Brian.

Then we went our separate ways as D took the boys to Six Mile and I spent the afternoon with Julia. I got on her a bit to catch up on some missing school work then we went for a walk down to East County again. It was surprisingly warm today. The sky was gorgeous. We stumbled across a sundial (above).

Below is how I ended the day, but that would come later.

Later in the afternoon I sessioned the trails for 45 minutes, which is a lot on these things still. They're certainly coming along but that much time is still a force. We've done a ton of work but it needs more, and I should have another month to pour into this which is when I want to call them fully v1 complete. There are a handful of small things that should make a big difference. But I need to find some time to get to them in addition to the ever-growing new work that's being done.

And finally, DO NOT watch this video. Only @rottin' can watch and you better settle in because this is the director's cut. I simply do not have the time to edit this down so you get all 9.5 minutes here.

Hope you had a good weekend.

​

 

[JimN]

I definitely didn't watch the whole video because I'm not Brian, but I recommend more skinnies and some progressive log overs. Like get some ridiculous logs that you think the kids will never be able to get over, and then get some a little smaller and a little smaller. It also probably all looks really cool, although I didn't see it, so I'm not sure. Also, wow at Zac jumping over everything like a boss.

 

[rottin']

I did watch the whole video, and it was great! Thanks for sharing it with my Casey Casem dedication! The trails look like a ton of fun to ride...Zac has become a much better rider than the last time I saw him on 2 wheels. Looks like they are both enjoying their time on the trails building and riding. So cool, and so jealous.

 

[MadisonDan]

Didn't watch, but looked great.

 

[jmanic]

Watched The Station Agent at the recommendation of @graveyardman67 and he was right in that a) it was an awesome movie

Quoted for emphasis.

 

[jmanic]

Watched the whole vid, b/c quarantine.
In for I-beam o’death, and love that you named a TTF after my dog.

 

[Norm]

SP-1.4.Mon: Allergy Blues & Chip Gets a Colonoscopy

The oak trees have started blooming and my energy level has gone from endless to blarg. I woke up at 6:00 and got right to it. I knew I would be tired later, and would eventually take a quick 10 minute nap. But I was up and ready to go. By 6:30 I was outside working on some of the Japanese Garden aspects of the site, which is an effort to clean up some rough areas and burn up brush or rake out some areas to give us more real estate or just make the place look better. I have the bench & chiminea setup in there and I burned stuff in it while I worked.

Nothing heavy, just light raking and burning while I listened to Seveneves, which is well intp part 3 and oddly getting more interesting against the left turn it took between parts 2 and 3.

Later in the day we would put this together. Zac added those rocks but I'm not sure we need to keep those.

Work is whatever. I'm doing what I need to in order to get from here to the Transition Plan, which is going to happen Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I found that out today. I've been doing more learning modules on the developer site when I can. The lack of sleep made it hard to concentrate a bit today but I got through it.

Looking forward to moving on.

I've started cutting the vines from choking out the trees so we have a lot of this going on right now:

Sorry @jmanic but Chip got pretty brutalized today. That hunk of cement at the base must weight 400 pounds if it weighs 1. But I disassembled it, cleaned it all up, and put it back together to allow for maximum conservation of momentum. I need to relocate some of the dirt from the root ball to the lead-in, because currently it's a tad harsh.

I'm learning a lot about all this stuff. By the time I'm proficient at it all, we'll be done. I'm also realizing that our jumps & rollers need about 7000% more dirt to make them good. They're all going to be slow works in progress because the number of rocks in the soil makes everything so time consuming.

We'll get there.

We also added a logover, pictured above. Some of the extra logs are below. We'll get to those later in the week, or next week perhaps. They have a destination but it's a few steps further down this trail.

It was windy and cooling off and we decided to just go for a walk instead of a bike ride tonight. Between the pollen and the wind, it was just better off that way. It was a nice evening and it was a nice walk.

And a bonus addition for @rottin' tonight. Just a minute and change.

​

 

[serviceguy]

SP-1.4.Mon: Allergy Blues & Chip Gets a Colonoscopy

The oak trees have started blooming and my energy level has gone from endless to blarg. I woke up at 6:00 and got right to it. I knew I would be tired later, and would eventually take a quick 10 minute nap. But I was up and ready to go. By 6:30 I was outside working on some of the Japanese Garden aspects of the site, which is an effort to clean up some rough areas and burn up brush or rake out some areas to give us more real estate or just make the place look better. I have the bench & chiminea setup in there and I burned stuff in it while I worked.

Nothing heavy, just light raking and burning while I listened to Seveneves, which is well intp part 3 and oddly getting more interesting against the left turn it took between parts 2 and 3.

Later in the day we would put this together. Zac added those rocks but I'm not sure we need to keep those.

View attachment 127825​

Work is whatever. I'm doing what I need to in order to get from here to the Transition Plan, which is going to happen Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I found that out today. I've been doing more learning modules on the developer site when I can. The lack of sleep made it hard to concentrate a bit today but I got through it.

Looking forward to moving on.

I've started cutting the vines from choking out the trees so we have a lot of this going on right now:

View attachment 127827​

Sorry @jmanic but Chip got pretty brutalized today. That hunk of cement at the base must weight 400 pounds if it weighs 1. But I disassembled it, cleaned it all up, and put it back together to allow for maximum conservation of momentum. I need to relocate some of the dirt from the root ball to the lead-in, because currently it's a tad harsh.

I'm learning a lot about all this stuff. By the time I'm proficient at it all, we'll be done. I'm also realizing that our jumps & rollers need about 7000% more dirt to make them good. They're all going to be slow works in progress because the number of rocks in the soil makes everything so time consuming.

We'll get there.

We also added a logover, pictured above. Some of the extra logs are below. We'll get to those later in the week, or next week perhaps. They have a destination but it's a few steps further down this trail.

View attachment 127826​

It was windy and cooling off and we decided to just go for a walk instead of a bike ride tonight. Between the pollen and the wind, it was just better off that way. It was a nice evening and it was a nice walk.

And a bonus addition for @rottin' tonight. Just a minute and change.

​

I hate vines. Set them on fire and film it. Please.

 

[rottin']

SP-1.4.Mon: Allergy Blues & Chip Gets a Colonoscopy

The oak trees have started blooming and my energy level has gone from endless to blarg. I woke up at 6:00 and got right to it. I knew I would be tired later, and would eventually take a quick 10 minute nap. But I was up and ready to go. By 6:30 I was outside working on some of the Japanese Garden aspects of the site, which is an effort to clean up some rough areas and burn up brush or rake out some areas to give us more real estate or just make the place look better. I have the bench & chiminea setup in there and I burned stuff in it while I worked.

Nothing heavy, just light raking and burning while I listened to Seveneves, which is well intp part 3 and oddly getting more interesting against the left turn it took between parts 2 and 3.

Later in the day we would put this together. Zac added those rocks but I'm not sure we need to keep those.

View attachment 127825​

Work is whatever. I'm doing what I need to in order to get from here to the Transition Plan, which is going to happen Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I found that out today. I've been doing more learning modules on the developer site when I can. The lack of sleep made it hard to concentrate a bit today but I got through it.

Looking forward to moving on.

I've started cutting the vines from choking out the trees so we have a lot of this going on right now:

View attachment 127827​

Sorry @jmanic but Chip got pretty brutalized today. That hunk of cement at the base must weight 400 pounds if it weighs 1. But I disassembled it, cleaned it all up, and put it back together to allow for maximum conservation of momentum. I need to relocate some of the dirt from the root ball to the lead-in, because currently it's a tad harsh.

I'm learning a lot about all this stuff. By the time I'm proficient at it all, we'll be done. I'm also realizing that our jumps & rollers need about 7000% more dirt to make them good. They're all going to be slow works in progress because the number of rocks in the soil makes everything so time consuming.

We'll get there.

We also added a logover, pictured above. Some of the extra logs are below. We'll get to those later in the week, or next week perhaps. They have a destination but it's a few steps further down this trail.

View attachment 127826​

It was windy and cooling off and we decided to just go for a walk instead of a bike ride tonight. Between the pollen and the wind, it was just better off that way. It was a nice evening and it was a nice walk.

And a bonus addition for @rottin' tonight. Just a minute and change.

​

I love the continuous improvement principles being implemented!

 

[Norm]

SP-1.4.Tue: Continuous Improvement

Slept in today which was great. If yesterday was a 4 in energy level, today was an 8 or 9. It's amazing how much a good night of sleep helps both the mind and body.

Started the day after the usual grass watering & breakfast by going to the local farm stand for a few things. Picked up some fruits & veggies but also got D a strawberry pot and some more bird fat for the cage. We're almost out and the birds love that fat block. Again, it feels good to be out of the house early. The day was crisp, cool, and really nice out.

Mowed the lawn just before lunch then I went in and made salads for both of us. I guess I should say I mowed half the lawn. I had an hour and change between phone calls so I did 30+ minutes of the lawn while I listened to my audiobook which has about 4 hours left now. I'm content in life listening to this and walking behind a lawnmower, especially on an amazing day like today.

​

After my calls were done I went out for a 2+ hour road bike ride. Air was still a tad chilly but it was a great day to be out. It was cloudy when I started but the sun came out for the second half of the ride. The allergies weren't a big deal today overall, but I could feel it on the ride. I felt mostly fine but any time I tried to put in a little more power, the engine just couldn't do much with that. It was a steady-effort kind of day.

After the ride I hung out with D for a little then I went outside to work more while she rode inside. Her allergies are far worse than mine while the oak trees are popping so she's trying to avoid being outside. In the pic above you can see my in-progress roller which is in between Rock Therapy and the (not yet named) jump. I'm using a new technique here based on something I saw online yesterday. I'm building the core of the roller with rocks, then covering it with dirt. To get there, I dig out the trail surface which is littered with random rocks, use my filter to separate the rocks & dirt, then build the mound with rocks as a base and dirt on top. I'm also using the filtered dirt to re-bed the trail itself.

In the picture above you can see a lowered "square" of the trail. The far edge still needs to be groomed and I'm going to do that later. I need to see how that rock roll-off flows into this and I'll worry about that at another time. The closer one is a root of that tree and I'm hesitant to chop it out just for this. So it will serve as the start of the roller, and I'll grade it out better as this forms. The rough bit on the far left of the image is the raw backside of the roller, which hasn't been worked on yet. This was about an hour of work but I think the result will be pretty solid when I'm done.

Again, constantly learning new ways to do this stuff. And the I-beam in the image already has a tentative home. I just need to finish up a few other things then that will be part of a slower, meandering skills line that crosses against the grain in spots.

 

[mattybfat]

I suggest having the boys subscribe to Seth's bike hacks on youtube. He has been building a backyard trail system. Good stuff and yes they need a pecker log jump.

 

[Mitch]

I suggest having the boys subscribe to Seth's bike hacks on youtube. He has been building a backyard trail system. Good stuff and yes they need a pecker log jump.

@Norm, Pecker Log Jump for the Win!

 

[rottin']

I suggest having the boys subscribe to Seth's bike hacks on youtube. He has been building a backyard trail system. Good stuff and yes they need a pecker log jump.

@mattybfat I agree! I have been watching Seth build Berm Peak for the last few months.

 

[Norm]

Transition: Day 1 (of 26) - Kiss My Grits

And there we are. New post title which means the things are happening.

Up at 6:00 and outside early, raking up a few spots which is light work at that time of day. IMO raking is one of those inglorious but important things that people don't want to do. So it's boring and easy to skip. But it's also low-effort and good in the morning when I don't feel like getting sweaty and gross before the day starts. It also allows me to think about what I want to work on that day. This morning I raked out the back side of the roller I needed to finish, as well as the swimming pool & garden bench area that needs a name. That's a future enhancement. Maybe we could call it Detroit. Wait no, totally not Detroit.

After breakfast & tea, I set out on a card search for mom. Usually we would do Sunday brunch or something like that, but this year it's sort of the same as every other day with the exception that my mom won't be here. So it goes. This is our 3rd quarantine celebration, the first 2 being Zac then Julia's birthdays. I would later send the card out in the hopes it gets there before Sunday.

I finished up the backside of the roller but left the trail connecting that and the jump a little bit on the rough side. I'm not sure if we're going to sculpt the second jump at all yet, though I'm inclined to think not. You can see the finished product below, though I set the focus on the jump, because why not. It's a mound of dirt. Right now it's soft and it'll probably compact to dust when someone rides it. It's going to need a bit of packing in. This rain won't hurt that process.

I did watch the video @mattybfat and it looks like there's some cool shit in there. He's got far more real estate than we do, so instead of making it as fast as possible we need to add rollers to make it slower. That said, I've talked to Zac about the possibility of building that wood berm he mentioned from the previous video. This could come in handy on the downside of Sideshow Bob after the Log Lady Pile (unofficial name I just made up).

D mentioned last night that maybe we could get a delivery of dirt. Some for her garden. Some for the trails. I do wonder if a single type of dirt would work for both things here. Thoughts?

Got my offer letter today.
Read it. Signed it. Sent it back.
Going to have a call with Ed tomorrow to talk more details.
Start date is June 1.
Today is day 1 of Transition.

Then I went for a 90 minute bike ride in which I watched season 3 episode 6 of Westworld and after all this time it's still totally not apparent at all WTF is really going on.

Then I quit my job. Kiss my grits, Alice.

 

[ChrisG]

Then I quit my job. Kiss my grits, Alice.

 

[MissJR]