Let the biking obsession commence with the WARM weather

So it's freakishly warm out there - I think we hit +18C today, and I noticed a huge difference in the snow meltage when I got home tonight. CRAZY!!!! So we be biking up a storm in this toasty weather.  The humans are coming out to be active outdoors. That last sentence was ridiculous but I'm leaving it because I just feel kind of crazy tonight. World, look out.

And my oh my! There are some pasty white legs out there - not referring to my bike team, I only have the BEST things to say about them, because as a unit we are awesome. Alone... notsomuch, but other teams will be shaking with fear when they see us as a team this year. I'm not even kidding. You just watch! (and it may or may not have something to do with our glow-in-the-dark legs)

Back to pastylegs -  Yukoners sure don't work on tanning in the winter.  Really, what's the point??  However, my retinas are still kind of burning from the hot white glare. 

And Laura claims she "hates" getting her picture taken...

Yeah, right!

While Dave is more interested in his bills(!!??), Laura is all about being the centre of attention or perhaps she is just showing off her cycling fashion sense. 

Here we are trying to recreate the famous beach scene from a training ride 2 yrs ago.  We had to sit on the edge of the "glacier" this year. If you'll look at the pic from 2 yrs ago (below) and compare... well Heather pretty much is wearing the same thing, I should have kept my helmet on in both photos, and um, Laura is sitting rather ERECT in the top photo.  That's all I'll say about that.

Oh! And my gloves are no longer a part of my ensemble. I think one of the gloves made it through Ripper's digestive tract a couple years ago...

And us on the beach, alongside the glacier. It will be gone by the end of this week for sure!

We let Jon be in this picture. Aren't we nice?  

Oh surprise! Look who's striking a pose. AGAIN!  She does lose points for the quality of pose - which is similar to that of a 5-yr old in the playground.

Speaking of the playground...

I had no idea what was happening here, it was like they planned it ahead of time and all of a sudden both started digging vigorously in the sand. It was if they were sharing a (5-yr old) brain. You were thinking sand castles? No, not exactly.

Why, a bridge! For the finger people of course...!??? I don't ask questions. I just take pictures then make fun of everyone and hope they don't read this blog.


And the long road home...

Ok, I lie. This was taken on a ride out by myself this past weekend, not with the bike team. Same highway, same crappy, cracked and chipped pavement.

Pretty and a lack of snow!  I hear the Calgarians are jealous of our weather!! hahahaha... I mean, um.... sorry to hear it's snowing there.  :(     (heeheeee!)

Cheap recyclable (kind of) entertainment!

Do I know how to keep my dogs entertained or what?!?

That's right, a dwindling roll of toilet paper makes for a great toy!

Kuna was SOOOO proud of himself. He was very careful with the roll too, never tore it or bit it, he just strutted around with it like he was THE man.

Gracie gets a bit jealous of Kuna's new treasure... so the second he turns his back...

She steals it and rips it apart in seconds!

Good thing there is a whole other batch of toilet paper waiting to be shredded!

Whaaat? Did you expect any less from me??

Melting...

Yep things are melting like crazy around here. I found my keys thanks to the warm weather! Woohoo! And as I stated on Facebook, apparently when you don't check your mail for almost 2 months, the bills don't automatically disappear. I wish. Especially my power bill. Apparently living in a modest cabin with propane appliances, a total of three lights, a toaster, microwave and new baseboard heater makes your bill almost double that of an "average household" in terms of power usage.  Um, what?!?!   I've got a call into the power company, who also think things are a bit wonky so that's good. Either that or as Michael suggested, my dogs are running a grow-op outside!!! If only I could get a cut of the profits. *sigh*

Lots of grass showing through now.

Kuna is happy spring is here!!! Or he's playing dead.

Crusty old dog trail.

George thinks everything is hers, this table frozen in the snow being one of those things.


So why not get comfy? It's a great way to have a peek inside the cabin too (which is where I was taking the pic from)

Jack looks insane! They LOVE being able to actually kind of RUN through the snow.

Sweet keys hiding under the snow. woohoo!

My keys, my keys! Look how excited Pooh Bear is! Ok, she would do that exact same thing if I waved a frozen turd in the air. No matter, I'M excited.

We are finding lots of little gems under the snow - keys, balls, who knows what's next? Maybe the snowmachine key??!!

Esther happy in the slushy snow.

Pooh Bear! Always happy!!!! And excited!!!! And hyper!!! Did I mention happy?!?!?

The non-stop running begins. They like to chase the rest of the crew on the other side of the fence. It's really low maintenance exercise on my part. I watch. And laugh. And drink. Oh man I LOVE spring.


She's airborne!! And looks like a rabbit here.

The amazingly fun game of chase-the-pop-bottle.

Loki doesn't get this game at all.

Rupert moving slower after his night out on the town. He gave me a bit of a panic the other night, after he and Loki took off when I let them out to play. I forgot he's a bit of a wanderer in the warmer weather. But at 13yrs, you'd think he'd give that up!  But... if he's anything like his ol' ma, Kate, he'll be doing this till the day he dies. So Loki came back a couple hours later (conveniently at dinner time), but no sign of Rupert. It was getting dark, I was worried about all the melting of ice and imagined him getting stuck somewhere, and then there's all the coyotes around...

So after a restless sleep full of nightmares, I woke up at 6am when it was light and Kuna and I went out Rupert-hunting. I got to our little creek, no sign of Rupert there. Five minutes later who comes bounding up behind us... Rupert! As if to say "hey guys! Did you come to join me on my walk??" He was ok. And as MAD as you are at them for taking off and worrying you, he was rewarded with nothing but big hugs and pets. Brats! He followed me all the way home, didn't look too tired or anything. I really wonder what he was doing all night!

And then there's the crazy cow-dogs...

Channeling my inner horse whisperer

I came home to an interesting sight the other day!

This pack (er... HERD I guess) of horses seem to have been roaming around and hanging out near the highway for most of the winter. And apparently they looooove vehicles - they came RUNNING as I slowed down, like we were all long lost friends.

Hi again Friends!

This was definitely the leader of the pack! Look at him getting all in my face and trying to intimidate me and crap. Ok, so I stayed in the truck as I was totally outnumbered.

I guess they're coming home with me?

More like leading me home. Or them just doing whatever they want!

Here's a wee video of what it's like following eight horses down your driveway. Because I bet ALL of you have been wondering just what that might be like. Apparently, these guys they like to take their time and not to be rushed.

As you can imagine, the dogs went freakin' ballistic as these huge beasts came clomping down towards them.

It was pretty funny! I think they thought I was bringing home some friends for them (or food!)

Here they are in the big hole where the skidoo once got stuck. I like how they're gathered in there, ha.

You going to invite us in or what?!?! What's a horse gotta do to get some oats around this joint??


Ok, I must seem ok (or they're convinced I have food SOMEWHERE).

This is me trying to convince them to get going and be on their merry way. Here's where I realize - horses really suck at listening. And I now regret never watching that damned horse whisperer movie.

George was loose and was pretty funny as she ran towards me barking and attempting to look menacing in her own tiny 45lb way. Yeah, did that work? Not so much.

Now they're checking out the dog yard! These are some curious/nosy horses.

Then we had a little visit and near the end one of the horses reared up behind me and gave me a panic attack! It was a LOT scarier in person than it looks on video, I swear!  God horses are huge.

However, I did briefly think that it might be fun to have these guys around for awhile!

Hullooooo....

This is where I tried to "lure" them down the trail. Watch and learn from my horse whisperin' ways!

And finally! I convinced them they had better get a move on to better pastures! Yay, I win!


Ok, I lie. After this, they came right back about 4 minutes later. HAHA! Ah, I think I'll stick with dogs.

Rupert the fashionista

I think Rupert is trying to make a fashion statement here, but I not exactly sure what that statement is.



Does this mean he's come out of the closet!!?? 

My bloody dog

And I mean that literally not figuratively!!

See Exhibit  A - poor Ripper. You can't see his ear which has a tiny nick in it thanks to this guy...

Sage - that ain't paint on his side.

It seems that when you go for a skijor and have to run beside the dog who's ear you just bit, he tends to BLEED ALL OVER YOU!!!

I hope Sage learned his lesson. 

His pretty white coat is tarnished.

Ripper was fine - two seconds after the nip in the ear he was dancing around spraying blood everywhere (god ears can bleed!) as he bounced around excited to go for a run.  Then as I was checking out the ear, leaning over him, he shook his head... splattering my face, the skis, it was dripping on the ground... it looked like a freakin' crime scene!!  

So what did we do? I harnessed those two up and we went for a skijor. What else are you gonna do? 

There's nothing like going for a run with the three of us covered in blood! 

I would have laughed if some unsuspecting tourist took a wrong turn down my driveway that night!

Time to hit the road... bike

The bike wanted to pose amongst the dwindling wood pile before we headed out on our inaugural first ride of the season.

Got it in early for a major tune up/clean-up and it's ready to roll. She's sparkly clean. Wonder how long that will last?

Dry highway, man this time of year is sweet.

Wow, the bike was SO smooth and quiet... I guess a tune-up every couple years helps!

It also shows that my great brush pile and almost-out-of-control-and-too-close-to-my-stuff fire of Fall 2007 may have burnt part of the handlebar and the plastic rear derailleur-thingy (yes, envy my geeky technical side), but it didn't do permanent damage, yay.

Sure I could pay hundreds if not thousands for a new bike (um, no I can't, that would require a little thing called money) because it's not perfect. It's not the BEST bike out there, but I am devoted to it as much as my butt will be contoured to the seat by the end of June.  I will spend the next *maybe* 5 months on it, so I will keep faithful to this road bike till it really catches fire or meets some other harrowing fate. 

Snow bunting mania - look hard and you can see the psychotic flock.

These little buggers are SO annoying when you're driving. I don't remember seeing them along the road last spring when I was riding, but try cycling near them... hoo boy! For a couple km's I was following the flock, then the flock would all maniacally rise at once like a confused swarm of killer bees and then they'd swoop ahead and land.  Then repeat the cycle 50 times since they always flew just a bit further in front of me.  And if a car was coming towards us, they made extra sure they swooped right in front of the vehicle, and THEN all 50+ birds would fly right back towards me!

Whew! There were a few close calls where I was almost beaned in the head by a snow bunting.

But it could be worse, you could be beaned in the head by something much more ugly.

Like this:

Although I haven't seen too many of these on Yukon highways this summer. Yet!

Or this...

Oh wow, I really think I want one of those!

Or god forbid, this:

Agh! Not a sink full of kittens!! The horror! 

Or the worst of all... THIS!!!

Ow! My eyes, my eyes... they're bleeding profusely. Paris Hilton has been known to do that to people...

Anyhoo.

Moving on down the road, it seems Kusawa Lake road is still a bit wet


Stony Creek, my 10.8 km halfway mark. I didn't realize until the second I turned around...

that I had a tailwind the whole way... doh!  No WONDER I was flying down the road with ease. Damn I hate when that happens!  The ride back was a bit tougher because of the lovely wind and because I was feeling a wee bit tired on the first ride this season. No to mention I still can't find my iPod (or car keys, or work keys, or skidoo key, or mail key...), so it made the ride seem extra long.

Stony Creek is still full of snow. And stones. And ice. Under snow.

Time to head back, my butt ain't sore yet!

And then after getting off the bike with sore legs/butt I got to do the joyful task walking the 1/2km down my snowy driveway. Ah, I guess it felt good to stretch it out.  

That was my early afternoon. Then I went skijoring! What a day, what a great place and time of year to be able to do both on the same day. It's almost like.... like my own little piece of heaven... I'm so spoiled and wonderful and wow, aren't I sooooooo lucky and isn't my life just sooooooo perfect?!?!?

Haha! Ok, I'm not THAT fake and cheesy... *gag* 

Enough of this snow already, the trails are crap to ski on and the dog shit is getting soft and squishy. Blah. Bring on hot summer days Mother freakin'-Nature!!!