Life is on hold for the moment

Foaling season has arrived and with it " night watching " which stretches the working day to basically 24 hours minus the little bit of shut eye time I manage to catch here and there. 
At the moment I am waiting on Poebe to foal and she is making me wait !!! , she was due on the 1st of February and still is not quite cooked !!! . So skiing , spinning , romantic Valentine dinners and now very possibly Birthday, are all on hold until after the delivery. 
Equine births are an explosive and quick affair , I would say that 95% of the time everything goes according to plan and there is no need for interference , but when things do go wrong there is a very small window of opportunity to right them and therefore that is why the 24 hour watch on the expecting mothers .  


The event of the week was that I did manage to get out on my 8 hour day off on Saturday and meet up with fellow Tour du Canada veteran  Ed . We where going to meet at the Hunt Pub but at the last minute I realized it did not open for lunch so I did a quick internet search for Pubs in the area and came up with "The Dub Linn Gate Irish Pub " in Vaughan , it suited the purpose as it was somewhat between us and more importantly it offered a large selection of beer on tap !!!!!

We had a great reunion even though there was just two of us ( we are working on getting more fellow riders there next time !! ) , time flew by as we chatted about everything under the sun and yet we did not manage to solve any world problems as we downed two very large pints of  Hoegaardens !!! ( a very nice Belgian wheat beer ) Before I knew it Evelyn was there to pick me up ( my car did not want to start today , that is a whole other story for another day ) to witch I was very grateful for as poor Ed had to walk around Ikea for a while before venturing to drive home !!! 


Also of note this week is that after a six month lay-up Biasca finally got the all clear from the veterinary when the X-rays taken last friday showed her leg sufficiently mended to be able to be turned out and feel the sun on her back once again. 
So yesterday we bandaged up her front legs , filled her up with tranquilizer and put her out , actually she dragged me me all the way to the paddock with me struggling for dear life to hold on to her !!!!, six month of being cooped up equals a very unstable and volatile  thoroughbred !!!!! But everything went well and she now will slowly build up turn out time until she can rejoin some paddock mates and return to normal horse life.

Catch up entry

Ok , I've been a bit slack in keeping up the blog , sorry !!!.

The biggest event that has occurred since the last entry is that I now have been here working at the farm for 20 years !!!, quite amazing for me as I kind of called myself a drifter , I guess I can't do that anymore !!!

I'm doing well , in a much better mental state at the moment !!!, physically still struggling even though I've been busy spinning and skiing !, but this not so young body is a tough one to punch back into shape !!!, and years of horse abuse doesn't help, but I will get there !!!

Bob, Ryan, Evelyn, Mark, Deb, Jake and Mary 

We have been up to the Pefferlaw Forest twice now , both times invited by Bob and feed by Bob !!!! First time was back mid December and we hiked , a great time had by all !!!

Our next visit up was last weekend , this time we brought our skies and on a beautiful sunny winter day we all headed out to the forest again and spent a marvellous afternoon skiing !!! I got some good pointers from Bob and Mark and after a 7 km outing ( during witch we lost and found the dogs ! ) I know I need longer poles and a lot more practicing before I can call myself a cross country skier !!!!

And as usual after following Bob on an "easy outing" , it took me two days to recover !!!! , my legs and groin were sore !!!!

On the bread making front , I think the bread maker has a twisted sense of humour !. My next attempt was a cinnamon raisin loaf , I followed the directions to a T, even putting a bit less flower in to correct the density issue from the first loaf, everything was going just fine until it came time to add the raisins, as per instructions the machine beeped at the appropriate time and I dumped the raisins in and promptly the machine stooped mixing !!! ???? ( %@&%#!!!) . 

I ended up with a very tasty cinnamon loaf with raisins on bottom !!!!

Waiting for the bread to be done.

So I decided to dig out the old bread-maker that has sat in the cupboard since we moved into the house five years ago. After a quick trip into town to buy yeast and shortening I was ready to measure out the ingredients into the baking pan, insert it into the bread maker and press the start bottom , I know the lazy way but at least it will be fresh !!!! I'm making an Italian herbed bread with basil, thyme and marjoram in it , it smells good but I still have to wait another hour before its ready, so I can't tell you how it tastes , no picture either !! I'll let you know in the next post how it turned out.


This was a week of recovering from a nasty cold , I almost didn't make it to work last Sunday and it took all my strength to finish the day, the rest of the week was a slow recovery and that recovery was mainly thanks to all the drugs Evelyn kept pumping into me !!!

And today was the first day back to the exercise regime as I did no skiing or spinning during the week. It snowed most of the morning so there was a thick carpet of fresh snow to break through and boy was that work !!! . We were out for about two hours going around the outer perimeter of the farm, it was fun , I managed to stay on my skis this time !!! and it was Evelyn's turn to take a couple of small tumbles !! 
By the time we got back I was soaked from the inside out with sweat, I'm going to have to learn to dress better !!!
Here are some pictures of our outing  

Out of control on the down hill !!!!

Oops !!!

Puppies to the rescue !!!

New Years Resolutions

Evelyn and I together with Monique and Jurgen brining in the New  Year ay Hogan's Inn

Funny how we govern so much of our lives by two symbolic dates, our birthday and the 1st of January, milestones they seem, suggestive of endings and beginnings, and in our mind we adhere to there power quite willingly even though truthfully they are just empty landmarks, just another day of the year !!! 

I have never been one to make resolutions on New Years, never saw a point to it but this year for a change I have made some, and I find it a bit hard to actually define what they are but here we go :

The easy one , and the one I have actually started is that I want to get back into biking, it’s just good for me , keeps my mind clear and body fit , so the ride on New Years Day was the first step, spin classes that I have started are a second step to prepare for spring riding, and the 3rd step is to find a tour to do this year, nothing like last year !! just a week long outing somewhere , the planing, preparation and training will definitely do me good !!! and give me some purpose , something quite lacking at the moment. 

The next resolution is more convoluted and kind of hard to put to words. It seems that over the years I have warped myself up in layers of camouflage to the extent that at times I am not really sure who I am. 

So my next resolution is to start to unwrap myself and see who I find . 

Together with that I want to return to living the simple life of enjoying life !!!, I got a taste of it last year and liked it, unfortunately the last two and a half months of the year were tough on me and I got lost, summers end, short days and working alone didn't help, my mind drifted my body fell apart and I found myself in a state of depression seeing just the negative in life instead of the positive. 

So little by little I’m going to get back to taking the time to smell the flowers, I am going to have to try and set my priorities right, find some purpose in being, set some goals, all of this without unbalancing the simple easy approach to living I am trying to embrace. Life is to short to waste it !!!, I was reminded of it’s frailty this last New Years by someone very dear to me who in a heartbeat was fighting the battle of her life and luckily won, there really is no rhyme or reason for the beginning and ending of our life's, both usually quite beyond our control, all the more reason for living to it’s outmost the best you can !!!. 

Stepping out of this state of limbo I find myself in will take time but it’s a great New Years Resolution I think !!!!

And in keeping with the intent of revitalizing myself and getting out of my self imposed winter hibernation , cross country skis have been bought !!! and used !!! 

Last Saturday Evelyn and I headed up to Barrie to the new MEC store and made the purchase. Late in the day we arrived home with shiny new Salomon skis , Rossignol boots and a bag full of waxes, scrapes, etc ...On the kitchen table I, very non-professionally proceeded to apply a coat of grip wax to the bottom of the skis, an interesting operation !!!, then we dawned ski pants and stuffed our feet into the new boots heading out to preform what seemed like a clumsy mating dance with our skis attempting to attach ourselves to them , finally with boots firmly planted in bindings we headed out to the race track as the sun started to set and had a wonderful three lap inaugural outing , Evelyn managing to stay on her feet for it all , me taking a small spill and surviving uninjured !!! Definitely going to have to meet up with Bob for some instruction on technique !!! and maintenance. 

Starting early this year !!!

Just 24 hours after yesterdays picture and see how much snow has melted !!!!

For the first time since the Tour I managed to put in back to back ridding days . Today once again mild 9 degrees by the bike thermometer and rain so I dawned may rain pants , they were the only piece of clothing I carried all the way across the country and did not use last year , happily they worked like a charm and I had dry legs throwout my ride !!!.
Today I headed into the Marsh looking for flatter ground and even with the rain it was a pleasant ride , they way back a bit chalanging against the wind. Unlike yesterday I saw no other bikers on the road but then again there was not much of anything on the road after a night of partying brining in the New Year .
42 km today , mostly flat stuff with a bit of climbing , legs were better then yesterday which is amazing considering we were dancing till around 1 AM bringing in the New Year and had only 5 hours of sleep !!!.
This will probably be it for ridding till March now as the weather returns to normal tomorrow with temperature below 0 and snow predicted for latter in the week , so spinning will have to do till then.

Unfortunately the work to move the canals continues unabated , I understand the why, but I still don't like it , by the end of the year there will be no more riding by the waters edge and I love seeing the water right there with it's wildlife , oh well , nothing stays the same !!

View of canal from the bridge on Graham Side Rd looking north along Pumphouse Road , this is still untouched

View of the canal from the same bridge looking south , trees cut and shredded in preparation to move the canal. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Way back in March with snow on the ground I started riding training for my across Canada trip, from that a amazing summer developed with many miles at my back, and after a bit of a hiatus over the fall I am once again itching to ride. So today taking advantage of the unseasonal 9 degrees out there I carried the bike back out of the basement and after about an hour of preparations mainly trying to find all my biking stuff I hit the road for a very pleasant 25 km ride over the hills of King City. I wanted to do more but my legs disagreed letting me know they had not peddled at all for the last two months . Tomorrow 11 degrees predicted , perhaps I'll ride again !!!

December 31st , last ride of the year !!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL, MAY 2011 BE A GREAT YEAR AND BRING HAPPINESS, HEALTH AND WEALTH TOGETHER WITH MANY ENJOYABLE MILES OF BIKING !!!!

Signing off till January

Well not much going on around here, no hiking this weekend or last as Evelyn's and my days off did not coincide, and now with X-mas season in full swing we may not get out that much .
Today I gave in to the fact that winter is here waking to a covering of snow outside, so I put the bikes away in the basement and the long wait till March starts , I'll probably start spin classes again as they helped immensely this spring.
So Merry Christmas to all and my 2011 bring happiness, good health, and nice biking weather !!! to you all.
I'll be back sometime in January