Coop's Corner: Good and Productive Weekend

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Good and Productive Weekend

Saturday started early, the To-Be-Sold Honda had been loaded on the trailer Friday evening, so the 6AM cold rain and sleet really didn't really bother me; it's a good thing I hadn't planned on riding up to Mpls for coffee. With many of the guys attending other events, turnout in the back room was low but we managed well enough regardless.

From there it was up to Stacy with the '76 XL350 on the trailer, the rain at times rather heavy but by the arranged meeting time, the rain had stopped. The transaction was complete, time with some friends, one old and one new, was spent and it was back to the Twin Cities to pick up another bike, this time my brother's old (and first) bike, a '70 Honda SL100.

The little Honda has been in the family since 1970 and at least for the time being, will stay.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, our 'herd' of deer anxious to be out browsing and enjoying the warming sun.

Heading into Red Wing to pick up some lumber for the Raised Beds that I had promised Peg meant that I had to stop at the Rental store to pick up a Sod Cutter as well. The Cutter rented, the lumber and extra top soil on the trailer, it was back home and time to get some work done.

With one Raised Bed already built a couple of years ago, two more had been requested as Mother's Day/Birthday gifts for Peg. In years past, our gardens have ranged from a few tomatoes to almost an entire acre if you count the vine plants and sweet corn. The last couple of years saw our smallest gardens ever, with even less produce growing that when we had our small city lot in St. Paul.

This area had once been a big part of our garden, then it wasn't, now it is ........again ;)

With the sod removed and the frames built, I cut the edges down to fit the sideboards. Tomorrow evening I'll finish by digging the boards in a bit deeper, turning over the existing soil inside and adding topsoil to bring the level up within a few inches of the top of the boards.

Though they didn't help with the shoveling or even get dirty, I'd like to extend many thanks to Mr. E. Vedder, Ella, Mr. Lightfoot, Eva Cassidy and Claude Debussy for their much appreciated help today.

Happy Birthday Peg and a great Mother's Day!!

1 comment:

Erik RApril 29, 2012 at 9:47 PM
Nice SL-100. Back when I was young and in the old neighborhood there were 3 of us with little hondas. I had a 71 SL-70, there was a neighbor with an SL-100 just like that one, and another neighbor with a CT-90. We had a blast on them riding around the gravel pit at the end of the block. Just seeing that green bike brings back great memories. Thanks for posting that picture
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"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)