Keeping winter fun

Dukas is up to something

Road

Up by A-frame house, icy road too

With nothing to do around the house, to keep me entertained, I have been doing quite of bit of riding. Even though it was 15 degrees one time. It's been a lot of fun and it is definitely keeping me in shape, I think. I've been doing some riding around town like Witch's Knoll, down West and Canyon Road. Then one warm day, I went from Manti and along the backroad to Sterling and to Mayfield. I stopped at Mayfield at Mike's house for a little while and played a board game with Andrew then went back. I had a good ride that day,and a good time visiting.

This winter, I have been doing more cardiovascular exercise than weight lifting. I am still doing a little bit of lifting though, but not much, maybe stuff like pushups, core exercises, polymetrics, and squats sometimes but not into it seriously though. Maybe like once or twice a week but doing more biking and snowshoeing which I enjoy more but whatever. All the other winters, I have been doing more lifting and always gained like 10 or 15 pounds. This year, doing more cardiovascular, I only gained 3 or 4 pounds. Well, I think that is good.

I enjoyed riding and snowshoeing this winter and hopefully it will get warmer this month.

The next big thing

This is the wood species my mom decided, actually everybody else. Knotty cherry.

The door style will be almost like this, raised panel with roman arch design:

The guy I used to work for about 3 years ago is going to do the kitchen for my mom and he said that I could help out. He was nice enough to do that I thought. We decided on the knotty cherry species with a clear finish on it. There will be some changes in the kitchen, the sink will be centered to the window, where it should be, the dishwasher will be in a different place, the false ceiling will be all gone and there will be more space, there will be no hangover cabinets above the bar, so we can see out more, there will be new cabinets all the way from the floor to the ceiling on the west wall, so that means there will be lot more cabinet space, and the microwave will be above the stove instead of the blower but the microwave will be the blower also.

On the flooring, we don't know for sure what kind of flooring yet but we are thinking 3/8 inch thick engineered flooring that covers all of the kitchen and dining room. The floor guy that did the carpet in the house said that I can use his nailer for me to do the floor. It's going to be a great nice lookin' kitchen!

"It's called the bathroom"

Finally done with this 1 month long brutal bathroom project, maybe a month and a half. I can't really recall. After the tub was put in by the plumber, all the rest was up to me. I came up with some ideas, actually, my mom did and most of it didn't turn out the way it planned, it turned out better than it planned! After I did the mudding, painting, trimwork, etc. All there was left was the surrounding of the tub and the floor. At first we were thinking of putting in a linoleum floor so we went down to look for a remnent but there weren't any so since the floor people said they will lay it down for free if we buy a piece but the floor guy never came for like five weeks and during that time, we figured out something else, while in Home Depot, I saw this resiliant floor and it looked way nice and way easier. It is a thicker vinyl and has some kind of sticky surface on the ends and it looked like a real wood floor but it's vinyl and it comes in pieces like wood planks. Perfect for a bathroom since it gets wet all the time. About around the tub, same story. We planned to have some guy around here to put in a tub surround and we thought he could do a better job than me but he never came at all even though mom called him like 5 times. Since mom decided to have me put it on, she looked at some tub surrounds and she didn't like them and thought they were expensive. Then she decided on tile. Me to do the tile. This time, I tried to do a good job on the tile work. I spent so much time and took my time and tried to do more perfect and everything looked pretty dang nice. The carpet guy came here today to fix the carpet in the bathroom, he looked at the floor and tile job, he was pretty impressed with my work, he looked shocked and amazed. Even a professional floor and tile guy like him thinks I did a good job. I think that is a first! Anyway, the bathroom is perfect and we all love it!

A lot of snow is always good...

Big case of snow dump just happened, by golly!

Duke taking a break

Top

It was 9 degrees when I left the house and as soon as the sun came out while hiking up, I was hot, sweating, and dying.

Always go out and have fun in the snow when you feel like it! It was great and it was a beautiful morning. It was cold at first but when the sun comes out, it sure makes a difference and I was sweating and all soaked, I ended up with just one shirt on and it was maybe like 15 degrees by the time I got to the top. Shoeshoes worked great and Duke had a blast. Lot's of snow and plenty of sun.

I started from the end of the pavement of the Canyon Road and went along the uphill singletrack trail I have been going up all year on my bike. It's a better route and still had lot's of snow. By the time I got to Taylor's Flat, I ended climbing more on another trail from there and ended up to the starting of the Backbone Trail then turned around. It was a great hike!

I get mixed feelings between the bike and the hiking in the winter time, and it happens every year. Some days I miss the bike and thinking of riding someplace. Biking gets addictive but by the time when the fall comes, I get tired and am ready for snow and I want to do something else for a change. Maybe change is good, maybe that's why there are four seasons in the year, well, of course, for sure the earth operates better that way, and so do I. If I was still mountain biking, I think I'd be tired of it and I wouldn't even bike at all for a while. I could go down to St. George to bike if I want to but I just don't want to really because every winter, it's nice to take a break from the bike and do something else for a while. Then my mind will be refreshed for the upcoming bike season during the warm months. I will still hike too in the warm months! I don't mind to go for a short ride in the winter sometimes but the only place I like to go in the winter is the Canyon Road pavement and that's good enough for me to keep my cycling legs in memory.

So, cross training like snowshoeing is a fun sport, I like hiking and I find it relaxing, I also like to spend time in the mountains without even thinking about going for an intense ride on my mountain bike. Most of the time, it's fun, to go to places I have never been to and try to stay in shape in the winter months.

Magic Dream Pants

I got these cycling tights for myself for Christmas and I was amazed how warm and toasty these are.....and they were only 50 weasly bucks! Usually I buy a lot of stuff from sierratradingpost.com and they sell mostly winter/hiking stuff. They sell a few cycling gear stuff and mostly winter stuff like skis, snowshoes, winter clothes, etc. They are really good at the price on the stuff they sell because all the items are a year old, I bought my snowshoes dirt cheap on Thanksgiving Day.
Anyway, back to the pants. I was worried that these wouldn't be warm enough and all the other ones I have bought ever since I starting biking were not warm enough, only good for 50 degree temperatures. I had always doubled layer(cycling shorts with leg warmers then tights over them) in the 40 degree weather and it sucked, sometimes my legs couldn't breathe. So I gave it shot on the ones I just bought, I read the reviews and people were saying they use them in 30 to 40 degree temperature sometimes in the teens. Most people complained about the padding and how long they were but after myself used them on a ride last Monday, I loved them. They were warm and comfortable. I am really satisfied with them. That day I rode in them, it was 28 degrees! When I was riding in them, they felt they could go down maybe another 15 degrees and still feel warm.
I looked at other websites like nashbar or cambria and all of their tights were in the $100-$200 range. Too pricey for me....ya, just for a few rides in the winter. Then I found these Canari's for $48 and I thought they were pretty darn good tights at this price range. Now I can ride outside when it's 20 degrees(maybe in the teens, hopefully) without hooking my bike onto the nightmarish, boring, weakling stationary trainer which I really hate, hate, HATE riding. Now, problem solved!

Some cool animals I see around here...

Go ahead, don't believe me, most people don't but I am going to tell you what I saw around here near good ol' Ephraim, UT.

Today, just about a half hour ago, I was driving up the Canyon Road in my car and it was a little dark, just on the paved part of the Canyon Road near some houses, I saw a Red Fox with a white tip on the tail crossing the road. I stopped to look for it on the side of the road and I saw him again and he was looking out somewhere else. It was the coolest thing. He also had a white face. Then he ran down into a stream and disappeared.

A few years back, in the winter time, I walked all around Mill Hill/Dead Horse Hill around a lot. Then every time I went up in that area, I would go watch this Bald Eagle sit on a big dead tree on a big branch. He or she was on the same spot every time. One time I dared to walk closer to get a better view, it was really cool to see the eagle flap away with it's big wings. I remember one time it was a very windy spring day, just last year I think, I saw about maybe 8 or so bald eagles flying in circles really high in the sky above the house, ask my mom and dad if you don't believe me. It was unbelievable to see a lot of them above playing in the wind.

About 5 or 6 years ago while I was doing some trail work on the Pioneer Bike Trail in Ephraim Canyon, while I was walking down the trail with an big axe in my hand, all the sudden I see a big black fluffy thing walking up the trail towards me, then it paused looking at me, suddenly it ran up the hill on the side of the trail running away from me. I thought, "what the heck was that? No, it can't be....a bear?" I didn't believe it for a while and tried to refresh my memory and couldn't think of anything else but it could be a bear. It was a Black Bear and they are the only bear species in Utah and you see them RARELY in Sanpete. It was the most unbelievable thing I have even seen in my life in my own backyard and it only lasted 5 seconds. I wish I could have saw the bear longer. Most people in town didn't believe me and thought I was crazy. They were looking at me like I was saying I saw an alien. But just this year, my friend's sister and mother saw a Black Bear in that same spot in Ephraim Canyon and now everybody believes me!

Well, I hope I can see more amazing animals around here at home and I just to need to be pretty darn lucky.

Oh yeah, I saw a few cougars maybe twice up in Ephraim Canyon. They are so cool! Go ahead, don't believe me but I know what I saw.

My Bathroom Ordeal

Stripping the floor was like torture. Like being a raped ape.

The other side of the wall I worked on: Made this room my secret hiding place, where I don't want to be noticed. My lovely tools, Washington state pictures and my expensive wheel some guy tacoed this summer hanging on the wall. If I really want to hide and somebody is really looking for me, the lovely spot behind the furnace and water heater is just right.

It's been a long time since my grumpy old father wanted a jetted tub or hot tub and this was the project, in the basement bathroom, my bathroom! Cool, I get to use it too. The plumber said the only place in the whole house we could put the jetted tub was in the basement bathroom because it was wide enough for it. I stripped off the existing shower and that took me a whole day because I put it in 10 years ago so that means it was put in very good and nicely. Dang, I did such a good job on that shower. I built a wall for the tub after the plumber gave me the plans then he moved the drain in a different spot, plus he had to move the water heater so the I could build a wall there. Then he put the tub in and voila! The old man used it that night after Mike and I put in an outlet for the tub. I even used it and had it turned down all the way because the jets had so much power! Two days later, I put in the sheetrock and taped it, then did some more mudding, etc.

Then the torture came, stripping off the linoneum floor. I did a little bit stripping with a mud knife and then I went upstairs to check on the internet to see if there was any stuff I can use to put on the floor to make life easier but noooo, there is no linoneum floor remover. They said if you're unlucky, you'll have to scrape it off, if it was a concrete floor. They said either that or just put a new floor over the old linoneum. Oh shoot! I would have done that! If I didn't already strip some it off, I would have left it and put the new floor over it! So I did a little more with misery and then called it day. The next day, my goal was too strip it all off but I did go to the hardware store to get a better scraper and I got the magic tool. The "magic tool" is what I called it and it worked a lot better but after a while, I still got bruises all over my hands, then I put on gloves which I should have done a lot time ago. Cutting the linoneum in squares and a scrapin' and scrapin', sweating and talking to myself about I should have left the floor the way it was. Finally I was done and my hair was all wet and I had sweat all over me and even my shirt was soaked. I went outside to dump all the crap out in the garbage, it was cold and I thought I was going to get sick because I had sweat all over me. Then I saw that dad had made a fire out at the firepit in the backyard to burn old garbage and wood. So as a reward, I sat by the fire for a while and I was really grateful that the suffering was over.