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We are trying to build expertise and confidence on our motorcycles, particularly Missy on Piglet. To this end every-other-day outings are the pattern we are shooting for. She is officially in rider training mode which requires direct supervision on all her street rides … until she smokes the written test she has scheduled for mid September. Initially I was tagging along on our snowplow, the Polaris Sportsman without the plow until next snow season. She was running under 25mph on those trips and the Sportsman was happy at 20, 15, or whatever she felt like at the moment. As her skills and confidence grew, so did her speed. The Sportsman can easily top out quite a bit faster than […]
Today we took our longest ride to date. Our destination was Lake Como. Taking Old Darby Road to Lake Como road accumulated 18 miles on Piglet’s odometer. Missy handled the combination of pavement and gravel road like a veteran. Neither of us have any love for the uneasy footing gravel provides. Her thrift store biker outfit now includes a BRIGHT, reflective backpack. She is taking all the new rider instructions quite seriously and making darn sure she does her part to be seen… by semi-attentive auto drivers. Mostly I follow at whatever pace she finds comfortable, but upon reaching Lake Como Road she asked me to take the lead rather than chancing a wrong turn through the multiple choices […]
This month has been most remarkable for the introduction by Missy’s ‘little’ brother of a “new” 1979 Honda XL75 into our household … and a new motorcyclist along with it. While visiting him as he and I took Idaho Star’s ENHANCED STREET SKILLS course, he set his ‘big sister’ on this 174-pound motorbike hiding in the corner of his garage full of Harleys. He and I agreed it was an excellent fit, subsequently hatching a plan to move it to our garage and turn her into a motorcycle jockey. We began her orientation ride July 1st in the Darby High School parking lot with Bruce and I coaching. Since that weekend, I have been coaching solo. She completed her […]
1979 Honda XL75 and new rider … more than 20 years its senior My brother-in-law has over 35 years riding, and tinkering on them, now with a stable of Harleys. There was this little Honda training bike taking up valuable garage space until his vertically modest sister sat on it during a recent visit we made to his house. He did a thorough mechanical restoration, added rare bits to make it street legal, then delivered it to his sister. He, she and I have been working on rider training for about a week now, starting with a bike strapped down, rear wheel in the air. As you might understand, kick starting, left foot shifting, left hand clutching, separate front (right […]
When I was a Daddy, I would tell bed-time stories to my daughters … made up on the spur of the moment, out of my head, just as my daddy did before me. Fast forward a bunch of years to a mid-twenties daughter who needed artistic expression and purpose in her life. So I wrote a story about my brother and asked her to illustrate it. This is our collaboration. I am happy enough with the result that I fancy it could be a published book … if anyone could share with me how to take the next steps, I would appreciate that boost. It already served its designed purpose. Anything past that is gravy. P.S. The formatting here […]
I sent this to family who are not operating on the same page as I am. I think you will understand as you read on. I had difficulty sleeping last night after our family ZOOM meeting. I love you guys too much to watch the show dispassionately. Masks, social distancing, and the next parts of the show are destroying your beautiful lives, families and communities for no good reason. Normal is not in our future. Worse is coming. I wish more people were psychologically, physically and spiritually prepared for the new world order. Family and community will be crucial. COVID, masks, lockdowns and “social distancing” are a deliberately implemented psychological operation to make that as difficult as possible. Knowledge and […]
Parents, grandparents, siblings and good friends often enable destructive bahavior. Letting go is quite difficult, but more often than not is the right answer. The Declaration of Independence jumped into my head: …a long train of abuses and usurpations… We forgive, cover-for, assist, fret, lose sleep and so-on while they flit in and out of acceptable behavior. It is a show I watched from ringside a generation ago, though then I missed darn near every clue while I struggled to make my business feed and house us all. I am one row back today, but able to play reruns in the face of similar behaviors. Most likely, there was nothing I could do then to change the trajectory. I’m pretty […]
A granddaughter moved in with us after failing to thrive in The Big City. We were close to her Mom’s last hope. It was going well, we thought, but were recently smacked upside the head that our great little community and wonderful resources were not enough. We involved adults were of the same mind, landing like a ton of bricks on this ungrateful truant. The girl’s world was shrinking and tightening incrementally as previous sanctions failed to deliver desired results. In retrospect: If what you are doing is not working, “do more of it” is not really the greatest plan. But that is where we were headed. Until a couple of wonderful Darby resources turned a light bulb on in […]
He is shaping up to be an excellent dog. Yeah, the German Shepherd Dog (GSD) side needs employment … OR ELSE … they self-employ … and the owners are guaranteed to not like their ideas. But, dang, they make great family dogs. I suspect Bosco’s ears are a month from standing up like proper GSD ears, but his head seems otherwise dominated by his American Pit Bull (APB) half. Both are described as athletic and strong; both traits desirable in a country dog. Puppy Chart .com estimates my 68.6-pound 5.6-month-old will be a 100-pound adult. *WARNING* Stay on top of training. You won’t want an out-of-control Big, Strong, Athletic, Inventive dog. Dogtime.com is an EXCELLENT reference tool. The peculiarities of […]
www.puppychart.com is a website for estimating how much your puppy will weigh as it grows into an adult dog. I’m tracking our mixed-breed puppy as he grows. Their estimates certainly seem reasonable. Our big-footed, lanky 4 1/2 month-old Shepherd/Pit is apparently headed to crest 90 pounds. The trajectory shifts a few pounds either way as I weigh him on his weekly birthday anniversaries. In his case it does not change the estimate whether I list him as a German Shepherd Dog or an American Pit Bull. There is actually little difference between those two breeds according to puppychart’s weight standards that they borrow from Wikipedia.
The photo does not capture how BIG his feet and forelegs are. This boy has a sturdy foundation. Better still, he is super attached to HIS PEOPLE. He prances up to us any time and all the time with long tail waving all the way. Of course he still is a puppy and eager to chew on us and everything else that comes his way. We need to make sure there are acceptable things to chew on always available. According to puppychart.com, he is destined to be 95 pounds as an adult, which is larger than the standard for either part of his mix, German Shepherd or Pit Bull … and he was not the large Alpha in the […]
In responding to my daughter who felt our Montana reunion last summer was a disaster, I found I could not share most of my thoughts. They would be quite unhelpful. Her San Francisco family of three along with an Idaho mother in-law and her brother’s Utah family of eight rented a vacation lodge. While there were some frictions there, they increased when that group combined with the Bitterroot elders, and further while visiting the homesteading family of six. I realized in the 1990s I did not fit the California culture, and, significantly, that I could somewhere else. Shopping online I found a more appropriate community, moving to Idaho late winter 2000-2001. A dozen years later I snuggled into an even […]
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