E-bike commuting and errand running.

Have I mentioned how cool my e-bike is? ;-)

This week I rode to work and back on a couple of occasions (it's just shy of 60KM round-trip). It's amazing to me how quickly I'm making progress. On each trip I get a little faster, and yet feel less tired when I arrive.

I have to use level 3 assist on the way to work, as it's more uphill. All the hills are relatively gradual, but the dirt roads have been graded recently, which makes them soft and tricky as well as power-robbing. I can use level 4 (max assist) on the way home as it's more downhill. This is nice because I can arrive home and not be completely bagged. I still feel like doing things in the evening.

When I bought my bike, I let the salesman talk me into a mountain bike style. I had big plans for hitting the trails and doing real "serious" mountain biking. Turns out, I was just kidding myself -- I did about 5 technical rides in 10 years.

So I finally decided that what I really needed was a bike that I was comfortable going relatively long distances on - in short, a commuter. So I set about "commuter-ing" my mountain bike. Off came the knobby tires and on went semi-slicks. It got fenders, a more-upright handlebar, a rear-view mirror, the BionX assist kit (which I love), lights, kickstand, rack and pannier baskets. In short, all the things it needed to make the bike USEFUL.

Today's ride home from work included a side-trip to the grocery store. It makes me so happy to be able to pick up some stuff on the way home. :-)

Here's what my useful bike looks like:


Here I am after a 30K+ ride in 30C+ temperatures:


And one final shot of Jordan getting some lovin' with flower petals in her fur.


Ahhhhhhh. :-)

Grant

Early Morning Walks and Not-Forgotten Kitties

Here is Angel watching the birds happy to be laying in the soft Spring grass of the backyard. She still knows all the cute kitten tricks like the silent meow and the eye blink. They are never wear out. She is starting to take to the dog and has started napping on top of the dogs crate.

Velvet doesn't pay the dog anymore attention than she does Angel. Though it does seem the dog is forming a common bond between the two of them. Heard a yelp yesterday and looked out to see the cats had the dog pinned in the corner of the deck. Both were working completely in unison like lionesses trapping a wildebeest.

This is Jordan in her element, our morning walks. We usually hit the gravel around 6am and take random paths through our neighbour's land. This is one of my favourite places, an old laneway that used to end at an old pioneer farmhouse. Here she is waiting for the slowpoke.

This is how the off leash part of our walk starts - pyschopuppy! That's what my neighbour calls it. The condition's symptoms are an arched tail, ears back and wild bounding leaps. I wish she had been a little closer but it is hard to catch her with the camera when she's in that state. This was a glorious morning; dew on the ground and clear bright sky.

A few more Spring flowers and the turkeys in the new tractor.

The Antoinette are quite different now a week later. I'm really enjoying them so I think I'll pick up more bulbs this Fall.

I also planted more Narcissus large yellow ones, pale yellow with darker yellow trumpets, an all white one where the sepals grow away from the trumpet, and white ones with tiny trumpets that have an orange ring. This is the all white ones, they are very elegant slender flowers.

Here is the "Pheasants Eye" Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus). They are in the herb garden, you can see the rhubarb in the background covering the early yellow Daffs.

The crab apple is glorious this year. I didn't think it was going to survive the winter. The bark is a mess and riddled with woodpecker holes. Speaking of which there is a little Downy Woodpecker at the sunflower seed feeder.

One last plant picture. Here is the Solomons Seal that Chris's and Tracy's Mother Joyce gave me a year before she died. It has really filled in from the three skinny stalks it started as.

I'll sneak in this picture of Charlotte Bronte Turken. Once I was past her bare neck, I found she was a wonderful bird.

So here are the poults in their tractor. They've settled in well and are already quite the fliers. I think they are finding the heat lamp too hot now and seemed happy with just the little "tent."

Jordan doesn't pay the chickens much mind any more but will whine when I'm in fussing over the turkeys. She started doing that from the beginning especially when I made them peep in alarm by picking them up to do daily health checks (e.i. looking at their little bums - it always comes down to poo).

Spring flowers and Anxious Puppies.

First some of the new tulips which I planted last Fall. This is "New Design". The bulbs were a good size so the flowers were quite large for their first Spring. Click on it to see the full image.

This is "Antoinette", it has a multi-flowered stems and it changes colour as it ages. Becoming a orangey-pink before it fades.

This is a scented double tulip called "Angelique". It starts out with just a tinge of pink that darkens slightly as it becomes fully open.

Here is Jordan butting into view as I was taking a shot of a little group of narcissus and a bunch of wild blue violets.
She follows me everywhere and I'm trying to wean her of separation anxiety using a comfy crate. She will use it on her own to rest especially if I'm sitting here at my computer. Today I learned a tip for making the crate more enjoyable by tying her "crate" toys to it.

The crate is a short term solution. Once she is free of her separation anxiety she'll have free reign of the house excepting the bedroom and basement which we'll leave as cat only zones during long days alone together. Keep your fingers crossed that she'll settle quickly.

This was Jordan's second full day with us and we've shared a few new experiences including:

A bath to wash away the stinky shelter life. It wasn't the greatest job but it helped. She's still damp in this picture. Her nails are getting a bit long too, so I think I may buck the country dog thing and take her to the groomers for a proper bath and nail clip. I want her registered and vet checked before we go.

Yesterday, I introduced her to a frisbee and it's her new favourite thing. I had to wait until Grant was home today to get some shots of her with it. I like this action shot. There is a guy on youtube that does training videos for disk dog. I'm going to watch a few more of them. I wish the bugs weren't so bad! They are making an itchy mess of her poor bare belly and "I've-had-babies" teats. I think the coating of vaseline I put on before she goes on walks is helping a bit.

We also manage to introduce her to her crate successfully enough that she will actually choose to sleep in it. We have not yet closed the door to contain her. We've been using the spare room for nights, until I can trust her free in the house. The crate will still be needed once we start in dog sports.

Her house manners seem really good so far. Yesterday, she spent the day with the end of her leash on my belt, so I could give her corrections as soon as she stepped out of bounds. Such things like too much interest in the cats or the garbage can. I tested her this morning after our walk without the leash in the house and so far she has passed muster. We have also had her off leash in our fenced (well mostly since our east fence is in very bad shape) yard under supervision. I still tie her when I have to duck into the chicken coop. The black flies and mosquitoes are so bad right now that we only go out to check on the chickens, play frisbee, or go for walks.

Here is a close-up of her crazy eyes. I can't understand why this dog was left tied in front of the SPCA.

Welcome Home, Jordan.

Well, we've finally done it. After years of thinking about it, discussing it and planning how we'll handle it, we finally took the plunge.

We got a dog.

Now, to most people this isn't that big of a deal. But to the Totten/Taylor household, it's a very big deal. Mostly because we're very committed to being good dog owners. We studied our Dog Whisperer, we read dog books, we did pretty much everything we could to prepare ourselves.

Today we drove down to the Kingston Humane Society and visited with "Muppet". We took her for a walk and talked with the staff, who just loved her. We discussed it and decided to go ahead and bring her home. We weren't really planning on taking her home on the first visit -- we figured we'd visit her, then go home and discuss it, then most likely pick her up on the weekend. But we decided we'd go ahead and take her home, since we were sure we wanted her.

We've decided to call her Jordan. She's named after Jordan Mountain in New Brunswick, where Laura's father grew up. As a child, her father had old type collie farm dogs, and when Laura first saw the picture, she thought of them. So that's why she's called Jordan.

Here are some pictures of her. We'll take some better ones tomorrow so you can see her crazy half blue half brown eyes. She's a bit thin and still has mommy tummy from having had a litter of pups before she was abandoned at the shelter. If she needs a little fattening she come to the right household. :P



Welcome home, Jordan.

Cheers,
Grant and Laura

I Survived the Tour Nortel!

(And I got a t-shirt)

Yesterday I biked the 70 kilometer (45.5 mile) route at the Tour Nortel. I raised $240 for the CHEO Foundation, and had a great time!

The weather was gorgeous - nice and sunny, with a cool breeze. The route was good - no gravel paths, no struggling with traffic, lots of volunteers to point the way and cheer you on, plenty of rest stops and so on.

I did it in 3.5 hours with my BionX PL-350 on level 1 or minimum assist. The battery lasted all the way to the end, which I was very impressed with. The BionX manual says that on level 1, you should be able to make it 62 miles (99 kilometers), but I think their test environment was a 100lb rider in a completely flat, smooth and windless environment. Not exactly "real world".

I should have rested a bit more at the turn-around spot -- I just got some water and an orange slice and took off. The last couple of KMs were a bit tough, but I made it.

There was one hill about 7 KM from the turn-around that was just BRUTAL. It was a long and steep one. As I pedaled along, I gradually kept gearing down until I was way down in 1st gear. Barely crawling along. But I made it up the hill. I briefly considered boosting the assist up to level 2 or even 3, but I knew that if I did that, I wouldn't have enough charge to help me the rest of the way. So I just ground my way up the hill. When I made it to the top, I paused to catch my breath and drink some water and enjoy the view.

That hill was MUCH more fun riding down. I hit 52km/h without pedaling. Wheee!

Thanks to all that sponsored me for this ride. I was happy to be able to do it. Now I know what it feels like to ride 70K in a day. Whew! ;-)

Cheers,
Grant

E-bike commuting

Well, today is a banner day. Today I rode the full 30.6KM to work from home on my electric-assist bike! I'm very happy. A little tired, but happy. ;-)

The route is pretty good - click here for an overview. It avoids the heaviest traffic areas and is relatively efficient. There might be a few slight optimizations I can do, but I think this is pretty good.

I made it in 1 hour and 20 minutes, which is probably quite slow for "serious" cyclists, but pretty good for me. I'll be improving that time over the summer, I'm sure.

The battery was pretty much 100% drained by the trip. I started out on max assist (level 4 on the BionX system), and then cut it down to level 3 assist at around Stittsville, so I'd have some juice left for the rest of the journey.

The weather was cool and crisp, blue sky and sunny - excellent riding weather.

One thing I'm quite proud of is that I pedaled the entire way - I didn't wimp out and just hold down the throttle and cruise. Good thing I didn't, too -- I certainly wouldn't have had enough battery power to make it.

I'm looking forward to the ride home. It'll be warmer out, so I've brought some cycling shorts with me.

When I was leaving this morning, Laura set me up with a water bottle in a handlebar bag that really saved my bacon. At various points on the trip I got a nice drink of water, which really improved the experience. Thanks, babe!

I consider this trip to be training for my Tour Nortel 70K ride on Sunday. If you've not sponsored me yet, please consider doing so. It's for a good cause and apparently you get tax receipts.

I would have liked to have had a few more training rides, but the schedule just hasn't worked out. So, I'm sure the ride on Sunday will be a real challenge. I'm quite tired after riding under HALF the total kilometers, so I expect to be wiped when I finish on Sunday afternoon.

Whew...
Grant