We have been riding the Foxy’s Fall Century for several years. I just looked back through blog posts to see if I could figure out when we started. In Foxy’s Fall Century 2015 I referred to this being a revival of a ride we used to do so I don’t know when we rode it the first time. Same bike. Same truck. The only other reference I found to Foxy’s is to a blog post about the three-year anniversary of the accident that could have changed all our lives. That post ends with a photo similar to many of these in today’s post. See that post on my website blog if you want to go off track and find out details of that accident and recovery.
Here is the tandem we bought when we were first married. We get a lot of comments. “Cool bike” “Beautiful bike”, etc. I’m not sure if people comment in the same way as car enthusiasts would comment on a ’67 Camero (which I had in college). In other words, this is an old bike as cycling trends go.
We did some good rides on this in the old days.
This is the only kind of photo I can get while we’re riding. The sun is low when we start so that’s the view–big bike, small people.
This is about 40 minutes later riding south. Those hills should be familiar from west-facing photos from our farm. We weren’t that far from home.
At the rest stop at Lake Solano near Winters. I took this photo because Dan’s brother texted while we were stopped there.
About 15 miles from Davis. This is the view I have while we are riding. Actually this is distorted. The phone photo would have shown only the green backpack canteen but I expanded the view a bit.
I held the phone above my head for this view.
Ride over. Back at the truck.
I feel fine, but maybe next year I’ll try to get a few miles in before the day of the ride.
On Wednesday I flew to Michigan for the JSBA AGM. What? Jacob Sheep Breeders Annual General Meeting. It made sense to fly that far for a few reasons beyond getting to visit with other Jacob breeders whom I’ve met over the years. Dan’s sister lives in Kalamazoo, between the airport and the location of the meeting. She offered to pick me up at the airport and deliver me to the meeting. I could visit with her for a couple of days and not need to rent a car. In addition, because I use a Southwest credit card, the trip cost me only $11.20. Win!
Close to landing in Grand Rapids.
For years I’ve heard of the Elvis Museum created in the basement by my brother-in-law.
I finally got to see it.
I wish I could share the video that shows this in its full glory along with music. We spent the first evening watching footage of some of the Ed Sullivan shows that featured Elvis, and Michael filled in many details of Elvis’ life and impact on the music to come.
Michael has included quotes sprinkled in among the photos and other memorabilia.
On Thursday we drove to Lake Michigan. I had looked at weather apps that showed 80’s to 90’s with high humidity. Not this Thursday at the lake! North wind and cold. Red flags on the north side of these piers signaled that people should stay away from the shore. Yellow flags on the south side indicated caution. This is Molly and Michael on the pier with the lighthouse in the background.
Molly and me on the pier. We didn’t walk all the way to the end because waves were splashing over the pier and we were COLD.
The town of South Haven is tourist focused, at least near the lake. Cold as it was, a stop at the ice cream parlor was called for. Molly had told me that the four seasons in Michigan are Fall, Winter, Spring, and RoadWork. So I got a kick out of this ice cream label. The ice cream was excellent. That was only the beginning of great food all weekend!
This and the last post are really just my way of keeping a scrapbook. This is part two of the grandkid’s visit.
I chose the State Capitol as our destination for one of the days they were here. I had to look this up. Capitol: the building where lawmakers meet. Capital: the city that is the seat of government. So this photo shows the kids in the Capital (Sacramento) in front of the Capitol. After snacks, we wandered through the Capitol. I hadn’t realized that there is a big part under renovation. The politicians are mostly at another building right now but the old Capitol is open for visitors.
There are many room to view and museum type displays in some of them. You can wander through the building with or without a tour guide. The dome is impressive.
Back home, Kirby spent time each day with the sheep that were going to the show in Oregon.
I set up a private lesson for the kids at YogaCoreFit in Vacaville where I go for pilates workouts.
They offer aerial yoga but the kids classes are on weekends and we couldn’t make those. So Kasen and Kirby had a private class with Carol, the owner.
The kids really enjoyed this. Kirby says that when she grows up and has a horse ranch she will also have this aerial gear to use.
We visited my brother and sister-in-law in Fairfield.
During the second week of the grandkids’ visit Kasen went to stay with the other grandparents in town and visit with lots of cousins while Kirby went with Dan and me to Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon. Blog posts here.
We got back late Sunday night and took Monday to recover and continue the visit with Farm Club friends who were in Oregon with us or stayed here to take care of the place while we were gone.
On Tuesday we squeezed in a visit with Matt and Kaleena near Pollock Pines.
The cousins came to visit Tuesday evening because Kasen and Kirby were leaving on Wednesday. This is play time with Sparky.
The Texas grandkids were here for two weeks at the end of June. They are back home now, but I’ll share some photos of the first week of their visit.
The first morning they were here we spent time in the barn. This is Jade (the sheep) asking for attention from Kasen.
Kirby found that Sparky is a little bigger than during her last visit three months ago.
One of the goals of this visit was for Kirby to accompany us to Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon to show sheep. I had started halter breaking some of the lambs, but now it was time for Kirby to get involved. We moved her sheep to a separate pen where she could easily work with them.
Kirby also started a rigid heddle weaving project which she completed during her visit.
I had a warp on this table loom and Kasen wove on it, using a variety of colors.
One of the days we drove to Marin County to spend some time at the beach. As is common on northern California beaches, it was windy and cold, but that didn’t keep the kids from playing in the water.
I had signed up for an afternoon tour of the Marine Mammal Center.
Many mornings Kasen and I went for a walk while Kirby was still in bed and before it got hot. Ginny was glad to have someone to throw the ball.
I was looking for something on my computer. Now I can’t remember what but I was browsing through my folder with the title Sheep. That includes everything from Breeding and Lambing Dates to Body Condition Scoring to Processing Skulls to Vet info and Wool Facts. Now I remember what I was looking for–a list of butcher lamb customers because I have an email from someone who wants a lamb this year–we haven’t even started lambing, so how am I going to remember that person if I don’t add it to a list that I still haven’t found?
Anyway, look at what I found while I was browsing through the files.
I have no idea where I got this photo or who is in it, but the file name is WWII-German . That sure looks like a Jacob lamb!
So this prompted a post of random sheep photos. I found this photo that I had scanned not long ago.
This is my brother and me with our 4-H market lambs.This was probably in the late 60’s. I barely remember raising market lambs because I mainly raised dairy heifers in 4-H.
I thought there must be more and I plugged in a hard drive that I’ve had a hard time viewing. Now it seems to be working! I might get carried away with old photos at some point! I’ll stick with sheep tonight.
This is the house we had in Cotati. Mom and my brother are feeding lambs in the kitchen while Joe, our favorite college student renter, looked on. These were Dave’s and Mom’s sheep. I had a horse and dairy cattle at this point.
Mom with sheep
I think I was going to school at UC Davis by now. Mom had a merino sheep and I think the other sheep were probably Dave’s. Mom is holding a lamb and a white cat named Bill. That is Honky, the goose, on the right.
So there’s a trip down Memory Lane. There may be more to come.
Kirby’s last full day here was her tenth birthday and the day after the fair. She had celebrated with the other set of grandparents in Dixon when they picked her up from the fair on Saturday afternoon. When we discussed what she’d like to do for her birthday, she asked to go to the beach.
We had got home from the fair with the sheep after dark the night before. We could all sleep in a bit on Monday (as if I ever really sleep in). Kirby came out for chores and gave her sheep, Rose a treat.
One of my Farm Club friends volunteers at Pt. Reyes National Seashore, so I had talked to her about where to go. She thought Drakes beach would be a good choice and that’s where we went.
The cool temperature was a welcome contrast after the Central Valley heat.
But Kirby didn’t keep her sweatshirt on for long.
One of the goals we had while Kirby was here was to help her create some entries for her 4-H show in January. We were so busy that we didn’t get very far on those, but I remembered that photography was one of the categories she could enter. I gave her my iPhone and Kirby took dozens of photos. As I saw her running at the hundreds of birds on the beach I gave her an idea.
I suggested that she practice holding the phone in position while running and then be able to hold it still and click as soon as she stopped.
She took several photos that way as well as some still life photos that she carefully arranged.
Kirby also asked me to take posed photos of her.
We spent a couple of hours at Drakes Beach but then drove to another. This is a view of Point Reyes Beach South from above. Here there were signs about a dangerous undertow and the beach has a much more severe slope where the waves are crashing.
We spent some time looking at the sea creatures that were washed up with every wave. These burrowed quickly as the wave receded and all that gave them away was a small hole in the wet sand.
I think I like this photo of Kirby best because it features her wonderful smile.
Is there something wrong with this picture? I didn’t take off my jacket or wool hat all day. I also forgot about sunburn on an overcast day. didn’t realize that Kirby would be sunburned by the time we went home.
Here is the sunburned birthday girl after dinner. She had a real birthday cake on Saturday and she was going to have another back home. With the fair and then the beach trip I didn’t try to make her a cake, but I remembered the blueberry muffins that Kirby and I had made using her Harry Potter cookbook. We had put some in the freezer to save for later and I thawed them and surprised her by turning them into a birthday dessert.
On Tuesday Kirby and I got up at 4:30 so she could make her early flight to Texas. She made a visit to the barn to say goodby to Jade before we left.
Dan and I were leaving that afternoon for our own adventure…next post.
The previous two blog posts were about Kirby’s two-week visit in July. On Tuesday of the second week we drove to McClellan Air Force Base, no longer a military base, for a private tour by Matt. Dan’s sister and my brother joined us.
We started at the building used by the USFS for operations and training. I have a general idea of what Matt does at work, but it is sure different to see the details. He is a Helicopter Operations Specialist for the Pacific Southwest Region and spends time in the air managing helicopter operations and coordinating the air traffic over fires (water drops, retardant drops, keeping planes and helicopters from flying into each other). He has an office in this building as well.
Since this tour I have heard reference to fire strategy training with the sandbox, but I would have had no idea what that meant before seeing this. There are at least two rooms with sandboxes of various sizes. They use red and black yarn to designate active fire and burned areas.
There are toy vehicles, buildings, trees, animals and more. When in use the sand can be moved to create geographic features so that firefighters can discuss fire behavior and fire fighting strategies.
After looking at the sandbox rooms we went to the simulator room. There are probably a dozen simulators for airplanes and helicopters.
We all had a chance to try the simulator. It’s not easy.
Dan and Kirby were both in the airplane simulator here and my brother tried the helicopter. Most of us crashed numerous times and dropped retardant on unintended locations.
Interesting photos line the hallways of this building. After the tour of Matt’s building we went to the airfield and met up with a friend of Matt’s who is his counterpart working for CalFire.
We watched this DC-10 land and taxi to where it would be filled with retardant.
It carries 9000 gallons but can be filled quickly.
The turn-around time was just under 30 minutes. This was a few days before the Park Fire began (arson) near Chico, CA. That fire is now over 400,000 acres and is still burning. On this day this plane was working the fires in northeastern California, where my daughter-in-law was also headed that afternoon. She is now on the Park Fire as a Public Information Officer.
Cal Fire’s C-130 also landed to refill. This plane doesn’t carry as much retardant but is more maneuverable for many situations. It can also land at many more airports than the DC-10s, which need longer runways.
Retardant (mostly fertilizer) in large bags is mixed into a slurry (85% water) and then piped to where the planes are loaded. This article describes the components of fire retardant and how it is used.
OV-10 – Spotter plane
This OV-10 is the favorite plane of Matt’s friend who was showing us around. These were originally military planes used in Vietnam with some being used more recently. This is used as a spotter plane and for directing air traffic as Matt does in the helicopter. This plane is fast enough to also be a lead plane for the retardant drops.
This is a narrow plane and reminded me of the Cobra helicopter Matt was in until they were retired a few years ago. The pilot is up front and the fire personnel sits in back.
We saw the hangars where CalFire houses and repairs aircraft. These are just a couple of the Bell helicopters. There were several hangars but I already have too many photos in this post.
This helicopter was called a Blackhawk when used by the military but is now set up for civilian use and CalFire calls it a Firehawik.
Our last stop was an old air traffic control tower, shown in the photos of the DC-10 taxiing and taking off, that Matt’s friend uses as his office. Here is his view.
This was an extraordinary tour and I appreciate the time spent by Matt and his CalFire friend in showing us around.
The weeks between Convergence and State Fair were super busy, but I tried to do as many things with Kirby as we could fit it. She learned to spin. As with most beginners the biggest challenge is understanding the relationship between amount of twist necessary to create a stable yarn and the diameter of the yarn. It helps to use fiber that is easy to spin. Carded Jacob fiber fits that criteria.
Of course we spent time with sheep. Jade is always the favorite. We spent every morning that Kirby was here working with the lambs that would be going to the fair. Maybe I didn’t get photos of that.
I wanted to do some dye projects for my fair display. Kirby learned something about preparing indigo for the dye pot.
I do the cold fresh leaf method.
State Fair time is when the blackberries are ripe.
We picked blackberries together.
It is a challenge when we have irrigated because the blackberries are on the other side of the ditch. Its a good thing that I had an extra pair of rubber boots to share.
Kirby and I spent time in the barn sorting and cleaning the horns and skulls to use for our touching table at the fair.
I’ve been distracted, but now I’m ready to finish this story. At the end of Day 2 I said that we got to the Ironman start at 5 a.m.
The race was supposed to start at 6 a.m. At the last minute the organizers changed the start time to 6:20 because they also shortened the swim course. The normal 70.3 Ironman has a swim of 1.2 miles. This was shortened to 500 yards because of the high winds. The water was very choppy and maybe they were worried about not having enough people to monitor the whole course under those conditions.
After leaving the transition bag with the bike we had to wait until athletes started to line up for the swim start.
To space them out the swimmers were allowed in the water two at a time every five seconds. It took over an hour to get all the athletes in the water. Each athlete wears an ankle band with a chip so times are recorded individually at the start and finish and at checkpoints along the course. We were able to pick Chris out of the crowd since he placed himself, based on expected time, near the front. There were a lot of black wetsuits and green caps, but his goggle straps were under the outer green cap and that was an identifying feature, at least at this point.
He is the on the left entering the water.
The original course would have taken swimmers out to that last yellow buoy, then left to the buoy at the far left and then back to shore. The shortened course had swimmers turning at the red buoy in the center of the photo, to another buoy out of the photo and back. There were at probably a couple dozen people in kayaks, rafts, boats, and even scuba divers to watch for problems.
Swim/bike transition. The wetsuit and goggles are left behind near the bike rack.
This is the only place we saw Chris on the 56 mile bike course.
Bike/run transition. Leave the helmet and switch shoes. The run is half a marathon–13.1 miles.
Chris’ support crew. We don’t provide actual support (food, etc) but can cheer him on.
This is the first loop through town.
This is right at the end.
The finish line.
These times are all different because they are measuring total time based on when the athlete entered the water. The stats on the Ironman app where we followed him throughout the course. show 34th out of 135 in his age group. That’s in the top 25% and that was also true over all.
It was a quick trip for all of us, but we’re glad that we were able to be there to support Chris and to hang out with Meryl while Chris was on the course. We didn’t linger after the race because they both had to be at work on Monday and we needed to get back here. Chris was finished before noon we all left by about 1:30. We made it home at 3:15 a.m. Monday.
Day 1 was the travel day. Day 2, Saturday was when the bike was to be checked in and we would drive the bike and run courses. We weren’t due to meet up with Chris and Meryl until mid-morning.
I decided to go on a walk since I’ve been doing it regularly at home and I sure needed to get some exercise after that 13-hour drive the day before. I took this photo for Dan because I thought he’d get a kick out of those cars.
The staging for the Ironman gets complicated. After the athletes get out of the water on race day they move to where the bikes are staged. The clock is already ticking so they want transition time to be as quick as possible. The bike needs to be ready to go and some people leave their gear bags there the day before or may plan to bring them back on race-day morning. Transition from swim-to-run requires a towel, whatever clothes you are going to put on over swimwear (after of course removing the wetsuit at the end of the swim–there are usually volunteers to help pull it off), and cycling shoes and helmet. The bike-to-run transition is usually just switching shoes and leaving the helmet behind with the bike.
After Chris checked in he was given all the numbered stickers for his helmet and the bike. He takes great care to make sure that sticker is on perfectly straight and even.
This is NOT the gear he will wear on race day, but after putting wheels back on the bike he needed to take it for a short test ride.
There are racks set up for all the bikes. Gear bags are left with the bikes or brought the next morning. We drove the course, checking out the long uphills on the bike course. After we had seen the course and spent some time exploring the lake shore roads we went back to the hotel for awhile. Dan was out of reading material and saw that there was a book store on the same street as the hotel. This place was called EntertainmentMart and it calls itself an entertainment superstore. It was a pretty amazing store but we didn’t explore it all–just the books, used and new. Here’s an abrupt change of photos.
There was a table set up just inside and an author was there with her first book, a fantasy adventure. I talked to her and her husband for awhile and they said asked if I wanted to put on the gloves and helmet that were for their display. I chose the gloves. And I bought the book.
The store also had music and a section of vinyl records. This was an interesting use for some of the none-collectable LPs.
Back to the main event.
On Sunday we set the alarm for 4-something so we could meet up with Chris and Meryl by 4:30 and drive to the event. You never know what traffic will be like when almost 2000 people try to get to the same spot at the same time.
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