Cookie got to go swimming for the first time yesterday. At least, it was the first time she’s swam since we’ve had her. I don’t know if she’s swam before, but she didn’t have much apprehension about jumping in. That may be because Simon had already jumped in.
Jess’s parents decided to build a tree stand for hunting. And when they decide to do something, the decide to do something. Look at this thing!
Tom built it as a ‘kit’ so it could just be put together on site for the most part. He, Jess, and I got it together one muddy morning a few weeks back. Since then, he, Cindy, and Diane have added steps, a bigger platform, and a railing.
We’ve been mountain biking a lot this year. We’ve gone nearly every weekend since Jess got her new bike in mid-April. We usually go to Bavington since it’s pretty close to home – about 20 minutes away. Today we took some pictures.
We rode a little over five miles in a little under 1 hour today. We were actually in the woods for about 1:15, but were actually moving for about 53 minutes. Given that it got up into the mid-90s again today, what would normally be a light-pace short ride pretty much pooped us out. Near the end Jess biffed twice, no doubt because she was beat.
Bikes are fun!
Remember those shock absorbers I got for Christmas from Jess? I finally installed them last week. They’re designed to lift the front of our truck 2.5 inches. The back was already lifted about that much because of the SuperSprings that are on there – a set of “helper springs” that allow me to fill the bed up with heavy stuff without it sagging. So with it lifted, it needed bigger tires, right?
Before and after:
(Click it for a bigger version.)
A few weeks ago we got stuck in the mud. Really stuck. In not very much mud. It was because the stock tires weren’t exactly made for mud. The Cooper Discoverer S/T tires we replaced them with were. Here’s a picture of the installed shock and you can really see how big the big hungs are on the tire:
Though I didn’t post anything about it at the time, we did hold our annual “Ruffin It” weekend in mid-April at my dad’s cabin near Clarion, PA. It was the typical rootin’ tootin’ good ol’ time with fishin’, guns, beer, and a constant torrent of porn on the TV. Yup, good wholesome fun. I got some pictures, but don’t worry, the porn didn’t make it into them.
This year’s cast included me, my dad, Ryan, Jamie, Joe, and Joe’s friend, um, I can’t remember his name. Sorry, guy. I’m just terrible with names.
