Getting there....

We're making progress, which is good.

This wall is coming out, just did the inside demo. The three bay slider should be in this week and a 12" LVL beam and framing will meet the existing beam.





The breezeway got a front door and some siding...







And the garage....

For your amusement.....

Ever see anyone lose a bet and have to run through an electric fence?

Carpenter Ants

So, I've been a slacker on the blog. Now that I have some nice pictures of the home improvements we are doing I thought I would share.

We have been planning on re-siding the garage for a while. It was in pretty bad shape simply from age and lack of maintenance for the last 40 years. The job seemed pretty straight forward, but we just didn't have the time to tackle it ourselves. We hired a carpenter friend since he was in between building houses for his company. And it's a damn good thing we did.

Once we started to demo the breezeway we found plenty of this....



Some more....




Two days later....



The breezeway is being completely rebuilt except for the roof. This will be nice as it's probably the most used room in the house during the summer and we'll have a nice 3 panel slider going out to the deck.

I'll update progress as it happens.

Sunday, October 8th

Well, the harvest fest went great for the spa and everyone else who attended. Saturday was an awesome day weather wise. I spent half the day running back and forth from the vineyard and Mystic on the Ducati running various errands. After lunch I parked the bike at home and went back to "participate" on the festivities.

Sunday I spent chopping wood with Kier and Huge and relaxing with a football game and made a spagetti pie. Pauls Pasta is good but mine is better :-p.

I finished a class last week, aced the final for a 98 overall. Mensa here I come. Time to pony up another couple grand for the next class....whoppie.

Chessie says happy Monday!

Zoom Zoom

Well, back from the track day. I have to say, the guys at NYSBC run a class act. I picked up my bike in the rain from Alex. We went through it and I was on the track within the hour. The machine is unreal, tons of power, incredible brakes. I need to change the fork oil and have the shock overhauled and resprung for me during the winter, butother than that it's a runner.

Other than another guys exhaust falling off right in front of me going 100+ down the back straight, and my unfortunate get-off in the afternoon, the day was beautiful. Not to worry about falling, I was out for the next session!

This was another group where someone got on the front brakes too hard before thier tires warmed up. The R6 you see while the bike is spinning is my friend Tony....having a bike slide past you while you are flat out in 2nd on an R6 will wake you up!



In other news, the spa is participating in a harvest fest at Johnathan Edwards winery this weekend and Jen is busting her ass with the preparations. I am finishing up a class in software engineering this week and I look forward to a couple week off of school. All is good with the homestead. I have been busy setting up the garage for the annual winter motorbike builds, upgrades, etc.

I'm thinking Jen and I should get back to skiing this year. I haven't skied in 5+ years and Jen longer than that. Let's see how the holidays and the tax man treats us this year........

Mondays Top 5 v1.0

Top 5 things that happend this weeked.......

1. Loris Capirossi won the Grand Prix of Japan. 2 more races in MotoGP this year. MotoGP Site
   
2. I scored some sweet racing boots from a local bike shop. Joe Rocket Boot
   
3. Gary S. confirmed delivery of his new DRZ400 SM and get's his cast off tomorrow. DRZ400SM
   
4. My mother bought the spa out of products...well, not totaly out but she left with a huge bag of Dermalogica
5. I lost at poker on Saturday, but won a fridge full of beer!

And I went.....WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Obsession

After a long summer of deliberation, I have settled on my track weapon of choice.....


2000 YZF-R6. Spankin'!

I'm heading to Pocono on 9/29 to pick it up and ride it. It's a bit daunting as I haven't ridden a bike this powerful (120-130 hp, top speed 170 mph) on the track, but I have on the road.

Riding technique is very similar to twins as far as turn set up, braking and body position. Keeping the bike in the power band is a whole different animal. While a twin might red line at 8-9K rpm, this bad boy spins up to 14.5K and hits it's power peak at almost 10K. Louder if nothing else.

Inagural Blog

Welcome to the blog. We'll see how long and interesting this site actually gets.