Biking, Tree Limbs & Handcuffs

I've been trying to get out two or three times a week to get exercise, sun and fresh air. Working from home, I feel guilty if I'm not working.....but then I get burnt out on sculpting if I do it nonstop. So I've found the happy medium is getting out of the house for an hour most days. I was getting bored with walking so the new bike has been getting ridden. The skinny little tires aren't real great on the dirt roads but they do ok, as long as there is no fresh gravel. The other day I was out for a five mile ride and decided to go a new route. The had just dumped fresh gravel and it was uphill with a 30 miles per hour head wind. I was bound and determined to make it and I finally did. It was brutal though.

The new route took me along a fence line with a herd of cattle with very young calves. The sweet little babies were all lying down napping when I came riding by. They would slowly open their eyes and see, what I can only imagine was, a hideous metal alien riding by. They would fly into the air in a state of panic and gallop off at high speed with their little tails in the air. I don't think they had ever seen a bicycle before. The mothers on the other hand just stood there chewing their cud. It was funny stuff.

Every Spring comes and I find myself with a huge to-do list. This year is no different. One of the items is figuring out what to do with the massive amount of downed limbs all over the property. I try and make piles throughout the winter but most of the limbs are just randomly strewn about the walnut grove. As you can imagine 200+ trees create quite the mess. My parents were nice enough to let us borrow their trailer and so I spent the entire weekend loading limbs, ratcheting them down and hauling the load off to the green waste site outside of town. I prefer this method over burning, especially since we've been dealing with wildfires at an increasing rate. I managed to take four big loads of limbs and probably cleared 95% of the downed limbs off the property. Yay, one item checked off the list.

Cub Scouts is winding down for the year and last week they scheduled a Sheriff to come talk to the boys about safety. When he was done talking they got to go through his belt and see all the cool gadgets up close. The boys were all very enamored with the hand cuffs and took turns trying them on. Wesley was adamant that I take a picture of him in handcuffs. So here he is. :)