Got Panniers?

Commuting to school with the physics tome (800+ pages) and the DC Electric text 700+ pages, plus two notebooks, two workbooks, misc other class items, breakfast, lunch, clothes, shoes, water, etc all stuffed into a pack and thrown on my back wasn't good. So I put the rack back on my bike and strapped the backpack to it. Still not adequate. 

I couldn't find a decent set of water resistant well made panniers at a good price. So I went to local canvas store and found some poly impregnated water resistant 8 oz canvas and designed on the fly a set of panniers. Stitched them up with a sailing needle which came across country with me, and used whipping twine for thread. They are thick, and easy to work with. Bags are stout and working great so far. 

I will probably have to modify the attachments to the rear triangle of the bike, and maybe a few other alterations, like a spot to tuck tubes and pump. 

Ready for a little bike touring. The goal for the 4th of July is to head out the morning after the Physics final, head north into the San Juan Mountain range loaded up with tent, sleeping bag, etc. I will see how it goes and modify distance and plans as I go. I know the first 20 miles is a road that goes up and down ALOT, after that the road must tilt uphill in general as I head into higher elevations. 

I bought 7 new inner tubes and a new set of heavy weight puncture resistant tires this week. We shall see if the flat tire jinx continues.

Cool bike sculpture / rack at the Aztec library. The economy of NM is booming and they are spending money in good places, like small town libraries.

Half Marathon anyone?

The last weekend of August is the NM marathon and half marathon. I'm signed up for the half. Ed and Rachel are flying in from DC to run. Ed will be doing the half and hopefully sucking wind. Rachel will probably do the full and then run the half after as a recovery run.

Last winter I screwed up my Achilles after a batch of plantar fascist foot issues. %% Insert Whining Here%% . It flares up occasionally and I still have not gotten into groove running regularly again. Signing up for this will mean I have to train. At least some.

Friday was to be my first 45 minute run in months...

Whew - made it "threw" my 45 minute run. As in "Threw Up".

If you need to add any humbling experiences to your list, try trail running in the high desert. It's like running on a beach. Uphill. The trail running portion of my 45 minute run was at least 1-2 minutes long before I bailed. Gimme some pavement!

http://www.newmexicomarathon.org/races/marathon.htm

In case anyone is looking to run one in somewhat cooler weather, NM has two more good sized marathons in October.
http://www.dukecitymarathon.com/
http://www.riograndemarathon.com/

This week I have my Physics final to look forward to, so probably not a lot of blogging going on again. Here I am, it is sunny (surprise) and 86 out. Light breeze. Stuck inside a library "studying physics" well, putting an entry into my blog. 

voodoo flats

So whoever has the pins stuck in the Brad bicycle voodoo doll can remove them at any time. Last week I get an email from my nameless friend's wife. She says "Did you jinx my husband? He is getting flats all the time." Apparently her husband is on a bad streak. (Sorry to hear it R-O-G-E-R)

Guess what happens next? I broke a spoke riding home that day. Yesterday, out on a ride into Colorado, THREE flats. Yes 3. yes it was a long walk home. Yup, walking in bike shoes is awful. Bike shoes are made so that the sole does not flex. When you walk you actually want the sole to flex. So then it starts to remove whatever skin you have on the back of your heel. Or you could take the shoes off. It's only noon and 93 degrees with the sun bearing down directly above, the pavement is probably not too hot, right?

The first flat came on a steep descent, always an exciting time when you have a flat on a descent. Then about 20 miles from home, I notice my rear wheel is looking less than happy. Slow leak. Well at least the front is hanging in. Nope. Few miles later the front has a slow leak as well.

Baby them. I had just one tube and one compressed air cartridge. Instead of using up 100% of the cartridge on the flat, I used about 80%. It gets the tire most of the way to 80 psi on 80% and the last part doesn't seem to get you the rest of the way anyhow. So I saved it in case of a slow leak...which I used with about 18 to go on the front wheel. The rear was hanging in there. Sort of. I managed somehow to get through the last climbs and descents and got about 3 miles from home riding the rims for the last couple of miles. Coulda been worse.

Q & A

You've got questions, I always have answers! 

Q: Do I miss the "green" of New England?

A: Not yet. Sure I miss some people, and whatever, it was my home for a long time. I thoroughly enjoy the west and the variety here. Open sky where you can see. Stars in the night sky and meteorites. The smell of vanilla in a forest with Ponderosa pines. I'm making do. 

Q: Green Chili Salmon Burger Recipe??

A: Well, in many grocery stores in the US you can get little jars of "green chilis". I think they are roasted anaheim chilis and cost about 89 cents. This can be used instead of typical condiments for any burger, sausage, hot dog, etc. 

If you want to make your own salmon burger, I'd say skin the salmon, mince or food-processor it. Add any or all: minced onion, scallion, garlic, shallot, fresh herbs like cilantro, mustard. Mandatory: green chili, and probably want/need a binder like egg whites. maybe 1 egg white per 4 salmon burgers. 

Skip the buns and gets some real tortillas. Grill up extra peppers with olive oil at the same time, if hot toss the seeds,  chop and eat it instead of high fructose artificial colored ketchup, mustard and relish (which I admit I love).

Heat up the tortillas on the grill.

Q: You quit your job to go back to school so you make less money in the future?

A: Yup. You bet. Never been happier with a decision.  I'm going into renewable energy and leaving computers behind.

Q: Where's the bitterness? (As in "your blog sucks, where's the grandstanding?")

A: For those of you who don't know me, I may have a reputation of being rather acerbic from time to time. I left it in the Northeast. I'm not taking it back. (OK maybe it has something to do with not working full time, etc). 

Q: What's the weather forecast?

A: Sunny. Sunny and Warm. Sunny with a breeze. Sunny. Sunny with winds gusting. Sunny. ETC!!!!

Off the Grid

I am house sitting in Aztec, NM in an off grid house. Aside from a couple of short stints living on boats this is my first time living off the grid. So far so good. I kept track of my electricity use the last few years, and I typically use what could be generated by a modest PV system in MA. 

The basic set up:

6 PV panels feed DC electricity to charge a battery bank. The battery bank runs to an inverter which changes the electricity to use household type electricity instead of battery type electricity (AC vs. DC). The panels, batteries, and inverter are in the garage. 

The garage is heated with a solar hot water system. Solar hot water panels on the garage roof have water in tubes, which receive heat from the sun, and then the water is pumped to run to the tubes in the cement slab of the garage. The slab gets warms and releases heat into the garage. This keeps the batteries from freezing, and allows Carl to build boats in his garage in the winter without being cold. 

The house has no electricity coming in from the grid, (No More Paying The Man!), but it does have natural gas. 

There is a regular gas stove, hot water is made without a tank, as needed the water is heated, and the house is heated by gas. The clothes washer is a washer/dryer unit, but since it is desert dry, I can hang my clothes to dry and they are ready to go in a couple of hours. This will work in winter here as well. 

The house was not set up to be off the grid originally. So the the only solar hot water usage is for the boat shed/garage/utility room for the battery bank (it's great if you can remove them from living quarters, but not required).  

The house is well insulated. At night I open windows, close them in the morning. It stays cool inside all day. Last week the temps were highs of about 85F (26C) and lows varied between 65F (16C) and 38F (2C). At peak summer there is a "swamp cooler" instead of A/C. I'll describe that later. These are not used much in the Northeast, and I hear they have LOT'S of issues. That's ok, the fridge holds plenty of cold beer, chilled by the sun. 

  

Yes I froze riding my bike to school on the morning it was 38. I was in denial and I already have to carry 30 lb (15k) pack with books, clothes, etc. so I did not want to stop and track down a jacket, cap, and gloves, although I wished I had once I was under way. It's June in the desert - I can't need a cap!

It's a great little house, and functions just like a "regular" home. I don't use much electric, but in the summer there is more than ample even if I wasted it. I check the state of charge on the batteries in the morning and afternoon/evening. It is pretty cool to see that after I've been off to school, the batteries have soaked up the sun, and are reading 99% or 100% charged up. 

He owns "water rights" to the property which is not always the case in the southwest.  That means he has access to run-off water for use in watering plants outside. They have a great mix of desert plants and since they have ditch water for irrigation, they also have roses, grapes, herbs, onions, tomatoes, and such. It's a great spot in a climate that is perfect for a lot of outdoor living. I spend hours each week studying and reading in different shaded spots in the backyard.  

SPP Wilderness and 25 year old cat

Another Physics test on Monday morning meant no camping over the weekend. So I needed to study and stay local.

On the bright side I got invited to a birthday party for a 25 year old cat. Great excuse to buy a keg (tasty and refreshing), cook some green chili salmon burgers (outstanding), watch the sunset from the ridge they live on (outstanding again), watch the stars fill in the night sky (always great out here) and then John and Mary, the hosts, brought out their telescope. Clear view of Saturn, the rings, and the moons (I'll give that an awesome). Met some folks that live locally and got invited to a group ride Sunday morning, and the ride was followed up with brunch at someone's house. Score!! I now have people to ride with that know some good routes, and they like to eat chorizo and eggs and tortillas and green chilis after! They are mostly mountain bikers rather than roadies, and with the terrain here I am very interested in trying this new mountain bike fad.   

I also had a full day to do some exploring by myself on the road bike, and wanted to look at Rt 96 between the Jicarillo Apache Rez and the San Pedro Parks Wilderness. SPP is high alpine meadows, no significant peaks. I wanted to look for places to cycle in, or drive in and do some more backpacking. It will be a sweet spot to explore while waiting for deep snows to fade from higher elevations. My snowshoes are about 2800 miles (4500 Km) away from here.

Excellent riding, started off with about 18 miles of rolling hills with great views. No significant climbs. This is good as I am flatlander and suck a lot of wind trying to get over hills. I am hoping to learn to climb here, but it won't happen overnight.

No significant climbs is the goal for the day, so what happens? I start a sweet descent that runs about 2 miles, nice curves and not too steep. Turn around point is Coyote, NM, 5 more miles. 

Then I see the trucker sign that tells trucks that a steep descent is coming up. Then I see the steep descent "next 5 miles" sign. Uggh. Beautiful twisting descent, that goes on and on, zipping downhill minute after minute, and knowing the whole way that I have to turn around and climb back out. It took 50 minutes to climb back out. Grind. Yikes, that was hard work. And not even a significant climb for the roads here. Very different riding than back east.

Thumbs up on the route for cycling, and the SPP wilderness will be next on my backpacking list. Always check before a 7 mile descent if there is a tail wind, because that small tail wind going down is a rock wall going back up. Lata.