More Xtracycle Goodness

Okay, a little background: We subscribe to a Yahoo group called AdaCountyFreecycle. It is a group of people that post offers and requests of stuff they have or need. The primary, main, and abiding rule is that it all has to be FREE, with no strings attached.

Recently someone on this end of town posted "4 bags of men's clothing, various sizes". I thought "Heck! I can surely get some clothes I can use out of FOUR bags!" So, I asked for them, was given them, and set a time for pick up. It was about 3 miles away, and I figured I could just jaunt over there after we got the kids in bed and pick them up.

I arrived at the woman's house, and saw four HUGE bags full of clothes. Assuming these to be my cargo, I started looking in the bags. It seriously looked like someone's dirty laundry. I was in a nicer subdivision, so I thought it a possibility. I went and knocked on the door, and asked the woman to show me what I was expected to take.

She waddled out her front door. She stopped a moment and balked, "Oh. You brought your bike." After assuring her my bike could handle the load, she confirmed the four bags of dirty laundry were for me. I thanked her, and proceeded to load the 1 full + 3 half-full bags onto my bicycle.

About 10 minutes and a good deal of grunting later, I got it all loaded up, secretly hoping I would be mugged by a gang of relatively harmless homeless men running around in their skivvies looking for something to wear to the evening's barrel burn. Alas, I had no such luck. So, pedaling down Parkcenter Ave at 9:15 at night looking like a large, homely, overzealous bag lady I made the 2.4 mile journey home. I called Katie ahead of time to make sure she had the camera ready to snap some pics.

Here they are!

See the white bag hanging off the very back? I had another one of those strapped on the right side of my bike, which you obviously cannot see.

I unloaded them all, spread a blanket on the lawn I found in one of the bags, dumped out one bag at a time, and went through them using only my Leatherman to touch them. There were dirty socks, boxers, shirts, pants, backpacks, aprons, hoodies...it had most everything, and most of it was gross.

I sorted out a small pile of things I could probably put to use and give a good washin' to and stuffed the rest into one bag. I got a wash going for the stuff I was going to keep and took a thorough shower to scrub all the invisible ickies off me.

I was going to be nice and take all the rest of the stuff to a laundromat, clean and dry it, then donate it to the mission. I didn't have the time, and Katie didn't have the patience for a huge bag o' crap sitting on the front porch. So she started to wash it. Before she could finish the first load, she was sufficiently grossed out, and, going against our deep-seeded reduce, reuse, recycle mentality, I hauled the lot of it to the dumpster.

I did end up with some nice work shirts, a canvas apron, a down coat and several flannel jackets.

Camping Above Cascade

Yep, more camping pictures. Different trip though. We are trying to take full advantage of our summer. In August Michael starts back to school with five classes. Plus he will be working 36 hours a week. We are trying to play just as much as humanly possible because soon life will suck. A lot. In the mean time, life is wonderful and happy.

We went camping with my brother (Joe) and his wife (Kerry) and her whole family. Ethan and Libby think Joe and Kerry hung the moon. It doesn't hurt that they own horses and let our kids ride them, or that they take them to McDonald's, or that they take them to parades, or that they...well you get the idea.

This was the first time on a horse for both of the kids and the first time in almost 20 years for both Michael and I.
Super-flattering picture of me, yes?
Libby was a little afraid of the horses. She was willing to sit on them and pet them, but they had better not move. Any time anyone asked her if she wanted to ride one, her answer was an emphatic, "NO."
A pretty little meadow we found while riding the horses. I think this is where Joe let Michael shoot his .22 rifle and .44 magnum handgun. For the first time in years, Michael felt like a "true man."

Ethan is becoming quite brave! He used to be a bit of a pansy, but he is quickly becoming more and more willing to try just about anything!Ethan and Uncle Joe taking on the river.

Really, I don't need a nap anymore!

Michael's Great Joy

As I have already mentioned, we have been biking a lot this summer. In the last month we have driven our car a total of four times. Once to go camping, once to go to a movie when it was raining, once when Michael woke up to find his bike had a flat, and one other time that I don't remember the reason for. I can hear you asking, "How do you get the kids around?" "How do you get your shopping done." It is because of this thing.


This is Michael's true love. It is called an Xtracycle and he loves it more then he loves me (almost). It is really the neatest thing. Once we save up the money, we are getting one for me too. He has hauled over a hundred dollars worth of groceries and both kids home on this thing. In the picture he has a lamp, our tent and the kids on the bike. We had just come home from Con and Linda's.

Camping in Cascade

Dad's ward was having a campout at Horsethief Reservoir and Mom didn't want to go, so Dad asked Katie and I if we'd like to go with him. After some minor hemming, hawing, and a promise of homemade ice cream, we conceded to go.

Ethan and Libby were all ecstatic about going camping with Grandpa and eating ice cream while doing it. We also lured them with the promise of canoes out on the water.

We arrived safely and set up our camp. Our family in our tent and Dad deciding to camp under the stars. We took the kids out in the canoe. Upon getting myself into the canoe, ensuring I was keeping "three points of contact" at all times with the boat, it tipped to the point that a slosh of water got in. This, I believe, was due to the kids not understanding how to balance themselves, let alone themselves in a boat. So I paddled across the reservoir with my knees in an inch of water.

Upon arriving on the opposite shore, we took a short little hike. We found a MONSTROUS ant hill made of dirt and pine needles with thousands of red ants crawling all over it. I managed to escape with only one of the little buggers biting me on my tow.

The rest of the trip was very pleasant and uneventful. Ethan spent about 3 hours on the dock fishing with a bunch of perfect strangers and, generally speaking, got along quite well with everyone there. We went out in the canoes a couple more times, Dad and I played a game of Scrabble on our Palm TXs via Bluetooth by the light of the campfire, slept, woke up, ate breakfast, canoed some more, made lunch, watched Libby play Frisbee, then came home.

Thanks for the trip Dad! A buncha pictures follow, in chronological order.