Sorry, no picture...

Well, I love Saturday morning rides, they are my favorite things in life. After my weekly worries and stuff like that, it's just nice to get out and ride a bicycle.
This morning, I slept in and it was already beautiful outside, sunny and beautiful. At 10:30, I went out to go out on a moderate ride, not too hard, not too easy, just a 2 hour ride on my mountain bike. Since there's hunters up in the mountain, I just went on the dirt roads along the foothills of Ephraim.
It was beautiful, crisp, nice, and cool. Only 2 clouds up in the sky and later at the end of the ride around 12:30, there were more clouds but still beautiful. I remember by the time I got to Pigeon Hollow by Spring City on the gravel road when I turned around, I looked up and the White Hills and Black Hills had sun shining on them and it was beautiful. Was shining and not a soul anwhere, I wonder where they all went, maybe a couple of squirrels were out there. Oh yeah, everybody was out hunting in the higher elevation mountains or in their homes watching LDS General Conference. This ride couldn't get better than that. .....wish I took some pictures with my camera but the picture memories were priceless. ...better than a camera picture.

The most weasely 20 bucks I've ever made...

After:

One day I was at work at the shop doing some work on a small house we are building in the shop and I was having a good time, then we all went to eat at Cavalier Pizza, the boss took us. He was talking to my other boss and saying, "we should have somebody bury the gas line at the Spring City house". I'm like, "oh great". I knew it was going to be me because it was always me. Me, me, me. The inexperienced one.

After lunch, on the way back to the truck, the boss turned to me and told me I should do it. I thought, "of course". So, I got gloves, 2 shovels, a rake, and lot's of water, and went to Spring City getting pumped up to do this. As you can see the propane tank is clear to the propertly line and the gas line line went at least a hundred feet to the house. I knew this was going to be tough because I had to put in 6 inches of soft dirt, then put caution tape over it, and then bury the rest foot of it with dirt and rocks together.

All the dirt was in big clumps and there were big rocks everywhere too. So, it was hard to separate the dirt from the rocks at the first six inches but not as bad as burying the rest trying shovel big clumps of dirt and big rocks. I still had real fattening pizza in my stomach and felt like I was going to throw up close to the end of the job. But this took me 2 hours, the boss told me it was going to take 2 to 3 hours and was talking about having me do it was cheaper than hiring an excavator. What? Yeah, pissing off your own worker doing this job just for 20 weasely bucks? Ridiculous. I got a big ol' fat blister on my hand and broke my back. Oh well, needed the exercise anyway. I took a lot breaks too but still took me shorter than I thought, that's because I killed myself doing it. The whole time doing it, I was thinking, please, I wish someone would come over with a bobcat and push the dirt in dirt in for me, I'll pay you a hundred bucks, anything.

Anyway, that was the lamest 20 bucks I've ever made. This was supposed be a hundred buck job. I just did a 2 hour hundred buck job just two weeks ago for somebody else I work for. He gave me an hundred bucks to tar a foundation and it wasn't even close as bad as the filling up the trench. Oh well, I got stronger muscles, better than money.

Probably the 8th Wonder of the World...

I haven't built a ramp yet, will soon. Probably put a redwood ramp on it, then put vinyl lattice around the bottom.

All handnailed. So, call me old fashion.

Grand Canyon...Egyptian Pyramids....Taj Mahal...Mount Rushmore....and Barlow's shed. This shed took me a while though but it's well handy where you got to put stuff in it. The siding looks good on it and I got some good deals on everything from my work. So, this turned out ok. I wish it was on a concrete foundation though but oh well, but it still looks nice, right? The doors came out good too and I used cedar tongue and groove boards and glued them onto 3/4 inch plywood. Everybody loves the doors though. I also put in the old cabinets from the kitchen in the shed and hung them to put things in. I will put in more shelves with the leftover 2X4s and plywood. I already put in a few things in like garden tools and lawnmower, etc. It's nice.

The cabin with a good finish on it.

This time, I used a really expensive finish on my cabin and it's well worth it! It's Messmer's log home treatment and it's really thick stuff. $50 a gallon. Made in Utah for Utah. It's the finish you see on the log homes in the Utah canyons. I used up two gallons for the cedar siding and Messmer's stain(in a darker color) for the porch and porch roof. I love the look of the cabin and it has never looked any better. I'd like to thank my old boss for letting me using the paint sprayer and I also used the brush for tight places. Bravo to me!

New member in the Daniel Barlow family....

For a long time, I've always wanted an urban fixie bike. I guess I was just browsing around in the internet and been a googlin' and happened to find this. This was surprisenly $250! Not bad at all for this price, I rode it around after I got it in the mail and loved it. Well, it's a singlespeed at a 46-16 tooth gear or something like that. At first, it was kind of hard to pedal around and now after I've ridden a few times, it got easier in that gear and now I think it's a perfect gear to get around town. I can't do hills on it though but I knew that before I bought it, that I couldn't ride on it uphill but it is suitable for flat roads....that's all I needed anyway. It's a lot fun and I enjoy riding around town and on Witch's Knoll south of town. This bike looks like it is $1,000 and I can't believe it was $250 plus $39 for shipping. It's just a fun bike to get around town and play along with. I just wear my everyday clothes and normal shoes and just ride it around for the hell of it.

Sun Valley, Idaho

Climb, and climb, and climb...
....and climb.


Well....well, I am finally biking again and feeling good. After a lame season of resting from overtraining or whatever it was, I am finally riding again. It took like what? 4 or 5 months? Man, that is a long time and I did a few rides still during the time. But now, I am rested for good. Too bad it's the end of the season almost. Anyway, I wanted to go on a bike trip somewhere with my parents and sister before the summer ends. We were choosing between Vail, Colorado or Sun Valley, Idaho. So, we chose Sun Valley because it sounded better. I also heard that there are awesome bike trails there. We left on Friday and thought we'd stop by at Lava Hot Springs to swim but there was a lot people in the area and nobody was really interested. It was also too hot to sit in the hot springs. So we stayed in Pocatello, then went to Sun Valley on the next day.

Craters of the Moon National Monument happened to be on the way and I thought it was an awesome little area where there was a bunch lava rock that looks like the Moon. It was interesting and weird. Dad picked up a few lava rocks which was probably against the law. Anyway, it was a cool visit.

Then went to Sun Valley, I went biking and the rest went around shops. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. The trail I went on was a good climb at about 1,500 feet of elevation gain and had a good downhill on the other side. I climbed on Wood River Run Trail and went down on Warm Springs Trail. Since I just started riding, I was really tired at the top and I was spent. I loved the downhill though. It was a good little area, not as many trails like Park City but still a fun place to bike. I really enjoyed it.

After the day in Sun Valley, we've headed home and stopped in Burley on the way to stay over night. Then slept and slept in. Left at 11 and now we're home. It was a good little weekend trip.

Flume Trail Downhill, Ephraim Canyon video

Untitled from blazeofgloryoffroad on Vimeo.

This is the video of me riding my mountain bike down on my hometown trail. My brother was a on motorbike behind me video taping me. I didn't know he was taping me at all until he told me down at the bottom. I was showing him and his two boys some trails in Ephraim Canyon. If I'd knew he was taping me, I would get all nervous and wreck all over the place! I didn't too bad, did I? I love this trail. By the way, I did some of the trail work, like that big bridge right at first. Still holding up! I've overheard someone saying it was built by the Army Corps. of Engineers! I should be proud of myself!

What I did instead during biking time....

Back fence

Foundation for the 10'X10' garden shed. This is a different kind of foundation and a lot easier. Using 12" piers that go 2 feet into the ground. Then put wood beams sitting on them, then build joists over them to make a floor to build my mom and dad a shed.

Duke really needed a new kennel, it started working until the thunderstorms and fireworks came along. Now he is a house dog again. I'm hoping he'll spend some time in there while I am at work once the fireworks are gone. He's not in there most of them time, he's in there just when I am not home, when I am home, I take him on runs, walks, pet him, etc. This is a really nice kennel from IFA.

This year is kind of my off year from biking, so I've used up my biking time and racing money for these projects. First, I bought a kennel for duke and made it really nice with a nice roof and a mesh tarp on the side to make shade. After that, my work was trying to get rid of their things in the shop and they had chain fence material, which is enough to do the back and the side of the house. I got all of it for 50 bucks! Good deal! Oh yeah. My mom was very happy with the deal and I put it up with the help the neighbors. While doing this, I thought of "A good fence makes a good neighbor" and it is so true. Now our neighbors love us. They are satisfied with the fence.

Now with some of my money, I want to build a shed for my mom and dad. Mom agreed to pay half it and I think it is fair because I am building it for her. I also bought enough vinyl siding to do the shed and two windows Timberhawk never got to use for like a hundred bucks. This also was a good deal. I am thinking of a lot of ways how to build this shed. I am thinking to make doors out of tongue and groove cedar boards over plywood to make it look nice. I need to make two doors to make a five feet opening just in case my dad wants to get a riding mower in the future and to fit a lot of stuff in it. The siding will look good though, I will need to get aluminum soffit and facia at a siding place in Spanish Fork. I have some siding and soffit experience from Timberhawk and it's really easy. I will post more about the shed as it goes along, it's going to look nice!