Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Vintage Raleighs

I went to an estate sale a few weeks ago to check out these vintage Raleighs. They were both in dire need of a massive amount of work, but looked to have lots of nice vintage extras. In case you're wondering, they were priced at $100 per bike.

women's with bike baskets
held to rack by leather straps
head badge
Brooks saddle

men's with panniers
tied to rack
Brooks saddle
filthy hub
I tried to scrape the layer of grime from the hub to see if I could determine the age of the bike, but it was just too filthy.

awesome handlebar mounted rearview mirrors

Monday, April 8, 2013

Cozies


I sewed these awhile ago, mostly to see if they were at all useful. I had low expectations, but realized the jar-glass cozy might be nice in the summer to prevent a sweaty glass from pooling all over a table. And the one on the mug is great, because I prefer to hold my hot tea by the body of the mug rather than the handle. And the cozy keeps me from scorching my hands.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

30 Days of Biking - Day 7 + Gardening!

The local deer have been browsing all winter on rotten crab apples that drop in our yard from the neighbor's tree. Now they think our yard and plants are for grazing.

deer stomps + seedlings = bad news
With a little searching online, it appears everyone has a favorite way to repel deer. And it also appears very little actually works. I decided to just put up some netting and see what happens.

hanger + wire cutters = ground anchors
flowers + Lenin bust = our flower garden
I hammered some wooden stakes at the back of the gardens and twist tied the netting to the top of the stakes. The bottom of the netting is anchored in the soil at the front of the bed with some ground anchors we whipped up. This side of the flower garden has iris, tulips, daffodils, and two kinds of hyacinth. Typically, the deer selectively eat the tulips. But this year they've been munching everything but the daffodils. I also planted greens in the other parts of the flower garden which are starting to sprout, and I'm not eager for the deer to get at those.

hoop house + garden = happy me
I'm super excited that I'm giving a small hoop house another go this year. Last years' attempt was an utter failure, so I'm shocked and thrilled that my family hasn't forbade me to attempt this again (it was that bad). Hoop houses are generally sort of an eyesore, but gardening in a zone 3 I really need to extend the season how I can. I'm hoping to warm up the seedling trays under here during the daytime.

low hanging clouds snowing on mountaintops
Temps were in the low 40s tonight, but there was no wind or precipitation falling in the valley. So it was perfect riding weather. I rode yesterday too, but just near the house and no photos.


Wednesday, April 3, 2013

30 Days of Biking - Day 3

Passenger Panda
And I even resurrected an old cycling jacket today that had been packed away far too long.