Leather Bars

Thanks 2014

The feast continues even as I post this. I needed a break from the din and love. Somehow missed pictures of the wonderful turkey and magnicent ham - thank you to Larry and Linda. And thanks for Larry's health.

Chris A.
The brewmeister pours his ale.

Miscellaneous wine,

Gravies, rouxes and stews. 

Mother and son.
Mother and daughter.

The feast - course one.

The Hanson sisters.
The heart of our family,
the reason we are together.

Kids, dogs, talk, and football.

And thanks to all for the food, drink, and unconditional love. - G.

Snowgiving Eve

All of the extended Hanson family, siblings, children and grandchildren are trying to fight their way through the weather to get home for Thanksgiving. The snow is just at the beautiful stage, but more, too much more, is forecast. Everyone here has grown up driving in snow so we all know the drill, all know the rules. Be careful out there, don't speed, stay in your own lane, don't do something stupid.

The Growlery Garden:

Cjell Video Ad

Kvale Details

Still in process - Brooks Swallow saddle, new handlebars will get laced-on honey leather. With the Paul brakes and after I installed the Curtis Odom hubs, the old CLB brake levers looked less and less appropriate. Now I need new bars that will accept the MTB sized Paul levers.

The tires are 700 x 28c Panaracer Fairweather Travelers. The Pacenti rims and the tires are both fine products, but a bitch to marry. Fair warning. The tires need to be stretched like old tubulars to get them on the rims. God forbid I get a flat out on the road. 

Here is what I have so far. 

Who I REALLY Want To Be

Check out DEC 10.  ;-)

I have a childhood friend, Mary Mac, who left Minnesota after high school and never looked back. Well, that isn't totally accurate. Part of her never left; she still clings to little scraps of news about people that populated a time that probably only exists in her memory. 

Minnesota has storytellers. I have even been told I tell stories. I have heard it from enough people that I guess I have to plead guilty. Anyway Mary Mac refers to me as her own private "Garrison Keillor", which always makes me cringe a little. Minnesota's great storyteller isn't Gary Keillor, it is Kevin Kling. And I think Mr. Keillor would agree to that. Certainly Kevin's stories are far more insightful and philosophical. And, in my opinion, funnier.

Give this video 10 or 15 minutes, then quit if you want. But get back to me if you think he isn't a great storyteller.

Hillcrest Neighborhood Kids

Earlier this Fall our Lanesboro neighbors, Marv and Carol asked if their grandchildren could "use" the leaves under our maples. A couple of weeks ago I figured they had used up all the fun in the leaves and the season was getting long. Winter was coming. Lorna had friends coming over last weekend for a yoga weekend so I went over the day before and chopped the leaves with the mower and dragged them down on a tarp to compost under an evergreen tree.

A couple of days ago we were back in the Boro and my pile of leaves had been scattered about a little. The kids again? Shortly a deer came out of the woods and curled up, soon to be joined by a couple more. Yearlings. Yeah, the kids.

Soul

Growlery Ceiling Fan

Lorna is gone this weekend, spending three days with her sister from Alexandria and three close friends at the Lanesboro cottage for a yoga immersion weekend.

It is a little cold to be outside much, but Lestrud came over Friday afternoon and into the evening to help me pass the time. Always a pleasure. This morning L.P. and I went out for a late breakfast and we took a short tour of the north side - mostly checking progress on their remodeling project.

I received a couple of packages Friday, a ceiling fan for the Growlery and bar end plugs for the '84 Galmozzi. A ceiling fan in a shed, you say? Among my numerous vices is smoking cigars and the smoke tends to hang heavy in the confined space of the Growlery. I do have an exhaust fan, but it's noisy. I have been using a small portable fan. but it really wasn't satisfactory. Installing a ceiling fan should take about an hour. It took me most of this afternoon. Christy didn't seem to be around, but I fired up a celebratory test stogie anyway and it seems to work pretty well.

The plugs were were made by Scott Gabriel, He painted the infill to match the blue and green of the bike. The thin green lines don't show much in the photo, but I am quite pleased with them. If anyone needs to pimp out a special bike contact me and I'll give you his email address.

Be well, and stay warm,
G.

Random Shots From 11/2/14

Today Lorna was raking leaves and invited me to do the same. I was busy - busy re-routing the brakes from left to right on the Kvale. Busy listening to Leon Russell's Guitar Blues, a marvelous little self-published CD on which he wrote all the songs and sings them with his wonderful rough soulful voice, and plays all the instruments ... except for the drums, which were played by his son, Teddy Jack. The producers are listed as "Teddy Jack and Dad".  Love that.

While I listened to the blues I was also busy paging through a couple of coffee table books of photos of the gardens of Kyoto, Japan, which were gifts from Tom Sanders. They are books which make me put my primitive little garden into perspective, but inspire me to reach higher and simplify, simplify, simplify. Simplify.

I have been blessed to live in Oakwood, a really lovely little piece of the world. Here's a few shots of my late sunset evening, before climbing the hill to homemade potato soup and my choice of banana bars with creme cheese frosting or homemade apple pie. These are really tough life choices.

I hope your life is half as fine as mine. Live well, be well - G.

Wildflower Garden

The "formal" perennial garden is situated on a flat area which 50+ years ago was a half of a tennis court. The lot was split in two and now Judy and Christy have the other half. But I digress, the hillside between the garden and lake is now dedicated to native wildflowers, trying to do our small part to feed the birds and butterflies. I think there are half a dozen species of Milkweeds, which the Monarchs require. Their population has crashed and I am afraid we may see them vanish. 

Eventually the arch at the end of the perennial garden brick walkway will lead to a grass path through the prairie flowers down to the lake. I was going to get some pictures when the wildflowers were in bloom, but I procrastinate. This is what it looks like after two nights of hard frost. :-(  Next year I'll get some better pictures - I promise.