State Cross video

http://www.pinchflatnews.com/2007/11/five-minute-machine-minnesota-state-cx.html

Turkey Ride 2007

Yet another great Turkey ride this year. Not too cold of weather with temps just under freezing. The snow made things interesting. About half the group fell at least once. We skipped Indian Mounds and it was still 4 hrs. I got dropped on the last fast section but not completely. Dan, Jesse, and I bridged back up before the last pavement cooldown section. I was almost to bonkville at the end. Around 50 miles round trip. We even had a 12 year old with us that made the entire ride on a cross bike, good job Jordan.

Whats Cookin

Check out this bad boy. I came home from school famished. All that was left in the frig was a chunk of leftover venison roast. It was that, peanut butter and jelly, or tuna and crackers. I reluctently eyed up some swiss cheese (my least favorite) and we happened to have some dark bread. It was a winning combination when heated like a grilled cheese. The swiss loses its bitterness when melted like that. I was surprised how well it tasted. Kinda like a MN Ruben.


Here's another good one. My moms very own "Hearty Minnesota Chili". Venison heart, corn, wild rice, and homegrown tomatoes. Baked beans only. We don't like kidney beans. Venison heart is very tender and it has thin tightly packed muscle strands unlike any other muscle. It adds a great wild flavor to the chili.Its gotta be thick too. No soupy chili here.

MN State Cross championships tomarrow. Good chance I'll be there. I could race skates in the morning and the bike in the afternoon, hmmmmmm. Last night I took my first spill on the ice. I came around the corner and I lost my edge. Thats what happens when you have a bur on the edge. I made some adjustments to the skates and now it feels alot better. I'm still not fully confident in my form to race yet. You should see my starts, crap-y.

Laced up the speed skates for the first time this weekend. Kind of a strong south wind so going north we could really cook but the headwind requires lots of power. I was doing good for the first time out but I was barking my blades once in a while. When the good guys put their blades down its silent and they are so fast. I need Floyd back here so he can yell me orders. He's an awesome coach in the way that he knows when to get on your case when needed and when to have a good time.
We have our robot project teams picked out. My two teammates are in my chem class so we see each other every day. One is a carpenter and the other has a machinist background. Dan Konrads' dad owns Konrad marine stern drives in Hudson. So he has access to a machine shop. They went with my idea in automating the water bottle holder using an RF remote I can put on a stem or something. We're going to make a hand that will grab a bottle and hand it off. If we have time I have some add ons we can incorporate but those are after we get the basic robot to function properly.
Lots of "bigger" issues going on in terms of life and death. 3 people we know had close ones die in the last few weeks. A family friend passed last week from cancer. He was only 50. The funeral was like a reunion though. I like going to funerals where the atmosphere is a happy one, because everyone knew he was in a better place and he no longer has to suffer here on earth. His wife and kids were doing very well. They were all smiles and their joking selves. I'm sure they will have there lone times when they will miss him, but they are comforted in the assurance that they will see him again. Then there is my grandma. She has been in and out of the hospital the last few weeks with a failing heart. Keep her in your prayers. And finally I'll end on a good note, my cousin and his wife had their first child yesterday. Moriah Ann was born. Congrats Gary and Andrea.


It doesn't look fast but each straight away is 100 meters and each corner is 100 meters. The fast guys can do a 500 meter somewhere around 35:00 to 40:00 sec. Thats 28-32+ mph! on skates. There is also the 1000, 1500, 5,000, and 10,000 meter.

Chris, Brendan, Jason (Wenksta), Paul, Dave, Sam ans I went on a group ride from Chris's house this afternoon. Went out to Battle creek for a couple laps and check out the new single track the made out there. 3hr ride total. On the way down Sam and Paul were getting a bit wild and Sam's ego was writing checks his body couldn't cash and slid out into a tree on the blvd. The pic shows what his chain ring did to the tree.He needs to work on those urban assault skills. The rest of the ride went fine and we had allot of fun. I was surprised at my climbing abilities since I have not been on the bike hardly at all and when I am its flat and not hard. The dry land skating drills have been working the legs over though, every time I do a hard workout with the team its painful to walk for a couple days. I didn't feel like I was over exerting myself on keeping up with the fast guys.

Quick Trip

I bagged my deer this morning at a little after 8:00 and so I figured I could get home and unpacked before dark and have tomorrow free to do homework and a ride. I spent less then 24 hrs at the cabin this year and I won't be back, thats pretty sad. This is how it goes- For the first time I decided to ride my cross bike partway to the stand which was convenient and fast. It was only a 1/4 mile or so. I walked the rest of the way (200 yards or so). Not much shooting in the area at dawn and it was dead calm. Here in the cities there is always a little noise of something that your ears have something to work with, but when your in the middle of the woods with nothing for your ears to pick up its just a ringing. About a half hr after there was enough light to see, I heard shots from the nearby pine planting. Chances are when someone goes off with there gun, they never hit anything because the deer is probably running. A while after the shots from the planting, I heard some more from across a road which was good because I was in the channel where the deer go to hit the cover before entering a swamp. Sure enough I heard some leaves rustle in the brush in from that direction. Oh boy this is it, I got ready and my heart was pounding like I was standing on the start line. There it is, I saw a faint body as it moved throughout the brush and would occasionally disappear behind trees. It was walking so there was no hurry. I looked for a good shooting lane in front of it and waited. As soon as it came out I pulled one off, BOOM! down he went. It was a far shot, about 75 yards with open sights and a narrow shooting lane. I kinda thought it was at a bad angle so I waited a few seconds ready to put another one down range. It got up again and wham! I hit it again. This time I spined it so it was down for good. I didn't know what I got, buck, doe, the turdy pointer? I originally thought it was a good sized doe because I couldn't see any antlers. When I began looking for it, I kept looking back at the stand to see if I was still heading in the right direction when I almost stepped on the thing. Sweet, a buck! You know that part in the hunting shows where they approach the down game from behind and touch it with the gun before going up to touch its head, there is a reason for that. This thing looked dead to me but when I grabbed its horns it jumped up with its front hooves and clocked me clean across the face. Just kidding, but that would make a great hunting story around the fire wouldn't it? It did try to get up with its front legs though so I gave him one more through the lungs to finish him off. I wonder how many people don't hunt because they don't like gutting their game. You need a strong stomach to handle that stuff. The worst are gut shots. Bring a clothes pin for the nose, hew thats bad stuff. What a bloody mess. I kept the heart and liver. Gave the liver to John Thompson to feed his dogs, and the heart will go in my moms famous Minnesota chilli. It makes a hearty meal.LOL. Anyway thats the story.
The design project is finally done. I think ours got the most props. The instructor said our class was definitely better than the evening class.The Robot is next.