Doth quoth the DaveM

Spring break revisited

Previously I wrote about spring break. It was pretty relaxing. We did make pretty good progress on the chicken coop, but have since stalled due to other projects and commitments. I'm hoping we can finish it this coming weekend.

We did visit Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, which was interesting. We got rained on both nights, and the tent held up well, only one small leak. The second night the rain was a complete surprise, as the storm blew in after a beautiful sunny day and an initially clear night. The tent site was interesting, a raised bed of sand, which worked really well with the rain.

We all mined for diamonds and other gems in the morning, and Nick and Karen continued for another hour or so in the afternoon. It's pretty labor intensive, either just looking at the surface of digging in and sluicing.

We also hiked down to the Little Missouri River, which is stocked with rainbow trout. I would say if you're not interested in mining or fishing, there probably isn't a lot to do at this park. But the campsite was pretty nice, and I wish Texas would maintain their state parks as well.

Overall, a pretty relaxing week.

Posted at 11:21AM Mar 28, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life  | 

Spring break

So, I've discovered that my blog isn't worth all that much. And whose fault is that?! Oh yeah, mine. Gotta post to make it worth something.

So, the boys' spring break started about an hour ago, so I thought I'd take a break with them. Here are the plans:

• build a chicken coop
• attend a seminar on chickens
• visit Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas and find, we hope, diamonds and other gems.
• get a training ride in for the Red Poppy Ride. Nick wants to ride the 30 mile loop this year, and since the longest he's ever ridden is 14 miles (at last year's Red Poppy Ride) we need to do some training to be sure we can ride 30 miles. I'm pretty sure I can ride 30 miles, as I get within a few miles of that riding my bike to and from work.
• Convert my old mountain bike to a single speed

You may wonder about the first couple of items. Karen suggested we raise some hens as pets and to have fresh eggs. Once she convinced herself (and me) she wouldn't get into trouble with the homeowner's association or the city of Round Rock, I agreed. I also promised to help build a coop when the chicks got old enough and large enough so they could be outside.

In the meantime, the chicks have been living in Nick's bedroom, with occasional forays to an outdoor enclosure where they can eat anything they think might be interesting :).

Karen and Nick will attend the seminar, while Sam and I do something else, not sure what. The seminar is at Boggy Creek Farm in east Austin. We visited there a few weeks back, just before the regional science festival where Nick and Nate exhibited their science fair project. The kids really loved the fresh carrots and the bread we got, which was actually from Sweetish Hill Bakery and Cafe. It was also interesting to see an organic farm in the middle of an urban area.

As for the 30 mile loop of the Red Poppy Ride, I hope Nick can complete it. I will definitely be impressed, since Nick is only nine years old. I suspect he'll finish it but be tired and sore. The first big ride I did as a kid was a 50 miler, but I was 12, and I was pretty sore. We'll see how it goes. Part of the training is to see what Nick thinks about going beyond 14 miles.

Finally, about converting my mountain bike. I've never been a big fan of the off road aspect of the mountain bike, I bought it because it was new and trendy in 1985 and I was sick of bending the rims on my Schwinn Sprint when I went over railroad tracks. Since I have another bike with 24 speeds (though some of those are unusable, really), I don't necessarily need a mountain bike with 15 speeds, and the single speed idea intrigues me. Looks like it may be somewhat easy since my 1985 bike has a freewheel rather than a cassette, so I can replace the freewheel with a BMX single speed freewheel. Getting the chain right will probably be the tricky part.

I hope to take pictures of some of these activities, but our digital camera no longer takes pictures. I can still view the pictures I've taken, but I get a black screen when I want to take pictures. Time to get a new camera, since I don't really want to pay to fix a camera that was free and is now a few years old.

Posted at 03:58PM Mar 09, 2007 by Dave Marquardt in Life  |