Starting a backyard pumptrack today!!

Yeah, we’re excited. Enough with the videos.. We have a wooded area behind our neighborhood that has been looking more and more like it wants to be a pump track for me the kids. They are already loving playing in the woods, which I love, but they can’t ride their bikes. Bingo, plus I can practice to get ready for some serious shredding.. Sorry, that was definitely a joke. We went out yesterday and kind of mapped the rough estimate. There is lots of open clay patches and a small hill already.

I’ll up date you guys tomorrow with progress and pictures!!

Just another day commuting..

So as I venture farther and farther, I learn so many things as a new cyclist in the city. Everyday it’s about seeking the eye contact needed not to get plowed over, gaining more and more nerve to hold my line/lane.

Today I learned two more things to add to my list.

1. You can get run over by some odd characters on Halloween. Don’t get me wrong, people try to run you over all the time, but usually just on Halloween do you almost get creamed by the Tinman in an Izuzu.
2. People that ask cars on the curb or what not tend to not ask you for money while on your bike. This guy actually avoided eye contact and moved to the car behind me. Brilliant. And I didn’t have to make a car payment this month probably unlike the car behind me. Double score.

All and all, it was a great trip! Beautiful weather despite the recent storm. I love the parking. People still look at me sketchy when I walk in with my book bag, but you know what they say.. Haters gonna hate 😉

Happy Halloween everybody!!

I can get my new tires now!!

My new score on the Schwinn didn’t come without extra costs.. The tires were super dry rotted and while Cody, Michael’s son, was riding, it blew the front tire. Now I need tires and a tube 😦

I had already said no to new tires until I sold the cruiser to pay for them. It also gave us time to shop for best pricing. Visiting bike stores is awesome. It is a whole different realm to me. Michael had a conversation with one of the techs and I didn’t understand half of what they were saying! Michael would love to be a bike mechanic.. There’s just not a lot of openings for them at the moment :c (He has a follow up interview this Thursday for GOP!! Yay!! Fingers crossed) One thing I learned right off, these people take biking of any kind freaking seriously. I mean it. These dudes are hard core, just look at some price tags. You have to be hard core to be able to afford equipment like that. Just so y’all know if I could afford it… I would want the Surly Troll, I like this years purple 🙂

Back to the Schwinn in my current reality.. I sold the cruiser yesterday for $50!! We had found the best price on Amazon, duh, and I might even have enough left to get a rack.. Maybe. I am so excited, so were the people getting the bike. It was win win all around!

Score on a new bike!! $15

Scored this great Schwinn bike off Craigslist today. I’ve been wanting to move up from the cruiser. It needs new tires, but hopefully I can sale the cruiser to off set that.

Had a great stop by for a few hours at our buddy’s house because he lives around where we had to go for the bike. It’s always great to visit him and his girlfriend. I’m so glad we have them in our life!!

Life is Good. I even got some bee charming in this afternoon.

I cannot wait til we get to keep bees!! They are fascinating and they seemed to be much happier now that the weather has cooled down some 🙂

I’m usually not the aggresive type…

I’m a carpe diem kinda girl, so when the neighbor approached us about the front of the neighborhood, he mentioned a tree he wanted down. More than half dead, Leland cypress, that was half eyesore/half serious traffic blocker. We do not own a chainsaw and after I finished with the flower beds, I rode my bike to where Michael had started on the tree with a hand saw, removing some of the lower branches..

PMS fueled, I see a hatchet he has brought with him. I guess he sees I need to whack at this tree for a bit and doesn’t say a word.. Smart man. So I started wailing on this torched looking tree on the side of the road on Saturday morning. I could feel the eyes of passersby, probably thinking what an idiot! It didn’t stop me one bit. Wood chips a flying, sweat running down my face and you know what?? To quote one of my favorite bands..”In my mind, I was a child and it felt good.”

Then I got a blister. Gamechanger.

All in all it was still great, the tree was down, the beds are prepped, we have $100 in our pocket and that’s just the beginning of a beautiful relationship.. I know these people will like what I can do plant wise with those two beds. I wasn’t raised with a southern mama with a backyard full of plants for them not to 😉 As we move to find more sources of small income and cut down on what we have to pay out.. hey, we might just be all right. We started cutting our next-door neighbors grass every 2 weeks for 40 bucks a pop. A yard sale last Saturday fetched us $100 as well(not to mention helped our purge). A trip to the metal recycling brought us 50 dollars richer.

We talked about going ahead and putting our house on the market. Talked about where we want to go next if and when we get a buyer. I hope to find a young couple who feels the same way we do about urban farming. Someone who will love all the berry patches and native plants. Someone who will run their hands through the soil we brought back to life and thank us. Ha, he tells me to keep dreaming. The next big thing to get out from under is this house. It will also give us no choice on moving forward with our plans. We already have two place we could build for free. With the house on the market and the possibility of it being sold will put us on our toes. Help us along in deciding where we really want to go.. Try for one of the places offered or go on a whole new adventure.

I’m going to start checking building codes and weather patterns for here in NC and Mississippi, we definitely want to go with cob, cob/hybrid and it seems a little tougher the further south you go. Wow.. I’m really excited. Chopping down (Michael finished, not me) a tree with our hands led to us to stating the project of putting our house on the market!! Wish us luck.. I’m ready to start really living 😉

First trip with the bike!

So, the car has been gone over a month now. We have Michael’s Fit and the 2 bikes. He has been commuting, even before he left Firestone. He would cut out in the morning with his bookbag and be gone! Now if he can ride his bike, he wants to. He used to be hard core into trail biking so he’s back in his element. He was able to find a GREAT bike at the flea market for $40. He’s gotten the rack for his grocery runs( I’m not ready for that haul on the cruiser yet) Our neighbor gave him a trailer that you would ride kids behind you, he’s put down a floor to make it a true little trailer 🙂
Back to me of course, we went in the woods first for leaf mold run on the bikes with the trailer and Rubbermaid! We get back home and decide to make my first trip to the store. Holy Cow. We were able to use our woods shortcut at first, but then we had to ride on the main road. And its not even a ‘bad’ road. I just concentrated on staying on the white line. It was weird to stop at redlights on your bike, next to someone in their Expedition blinking at you. Lights turn green and we pedaled off!! Michael’s mom gave me a sweet blue beach cruiser. I would like a mountain bike one day.. but for now I’ll just be cruising 😀