First 2017 Ride to the PSPS

It's always been a milestone event for me, that first ride to the Port Sheldon Party store in a new year.  Eventually that distance feels easy, but not yet.  The wind was from the north, and the temperatures never got out of the low 40's -- another overcast, gray day here yesterday.

Photographic evidence, above and below.  March has been colder here than February was, so the amount of time I spend outside is less than usual.  But I'm going to be positive and call this an "off the dime" moment.  Maybe.

This could have gone on the food blog -- I considered doing that last night, to get more practice blogging from the new tablet.  We had a power outage here late yesterday afternoon, followed by a cable outage which took both TV and internet down until 9 pm.  So what did we do before we had TV and internet?  Low tech crossword puzzles, apparently.

Tree -- Epilog

It took two full days for the tree crew to finish removing that big old tree.  A message from the Idlewood message board this morning puts its age at about 125 years.  That covers the time from farm fields through orchards to cottages and homes.  I took a bike ride today, and at the end of it I stopped by the little pocket park at the center of the neighborhood where a slice from the lower section of the tree will reside for the foreseeable future.

The message board said this weighs a ton and a half. Seems like a lot. The hole in the middle seems to back up the story that the tree was dead in the center....

Winter bike glove for scale.

Blog Post Number 14 for 2017

Challenged for a title?  Apparently.  Today was both colder and windier than yesterday -- it's still March, it seems.  All of my walking partners are gone this month, so motivation to walk is harder than when someone shows up at the door between 9 and 9:30 in the morning and drags me out of doors.  Eventually I did walk, finding subject matter for the blog at the top of Idlewood hill.  There's a huge, very old maple tree that sits between the top of the hill and the park.  Neighbors refer to it as the "Idlewood Tree" -- and it's been sickly for a number of years.  It's managed a spectacular display of fall color every October, but it has lost major limbs in wind storms, and apparently the center of the tree is dead.  This photo was taken from the top of Idlewood hill's access road, looking west towards the park and the lake.

The tree guy that I talked to this morning said that it's been poisoned by years of salt being spread on the roads... I'm not so sure I believe that story, and trees have a limited life time even without road salt.  Still, it makes a good story.

Life intervened and it was probably four hours before I put my camera in my pocket and went back to check on the tree .  This photo was taken from west of the tree, looking east towards the Idlewood Hill in mid afternoon.  I have one last photo taken about 6:00 pm.

The roar of the waves drowns out the sound of the wood chipper here.

For those few of you who follow me on my Instagram account, this is "the rest of the story."  Good Day.

First Day of Spring

The forecast called for clouds all day -- which turned out to be pretty accurate, except for a few brief minutes now and then.  The first day of spring seemed like a good time to get in another bike ride.  The recent snow has melted, leaving lots of water in the ditches.  Most everything still looks dormant here.

My turn around spot was at mile 7, out in the middle of the blueberry fields on 152nd north of Butternut.  The blueberry bushes are still wearing their winter reds, but I saw one farmer out investigating the state of the bushes in his field.  It's a start.