Yard work today was preempted by about 120 miles on my Harley Street Rod followed by a big meal at Lil Burro. Went to fill up and the button on the gas pump where you have to select or reject the loyalty card was jacked. Hit cancel and a couple of other buttons and it kept taking me back to the same screen. Hit the help button and no one responded. Finally hit a button that prompted me to lift the nozzle and select the grade of gas. Selected ethanol-free premium and got 6 cents of gas before the hose went limp.
I put the nozzle back in the pump and received a receipt for the transaction (to my surprise). Cursed a bit and tried another pump. All the buttons worked fine, but no gas was delivered. The hose immediately went limp. At this point I assumed they were out of premium. Went to another location and their ethanol-free premium was only 87 octane, which I would call regular. 91 octane is recommended for the Street Rod and the last fill up was 87, so I wanted to get the right grade. Went to a third location and finally had success.
Came home and cleaned the bug butts off the Street Rod, ate a cookie, cooled off a bit, and contemplated if I had enough in the tank to do some work on my local mountain bike trail. I have probably done about 30 hours of maintenance on the trail this year to include: clearing back bushes with clippers; cutting back grass, weeds, stinging nettles, and stickweed with a string trimmer; clearing fallen trees; and shoveling dirt to fill in ruts and holes.
Late last week I noticed two new obstacles. One is a really large tree that fell part way down some time ago. It broke over about 6' from the ground so you could ride under it. But it finally separated from the stump and fell to the ground. The diameter of the trunk where it crosses the trail is about twice the size of my chain saw blade. So I am not going to deal with it.
The second obstacle was along a part of the trail that is pretty much a canyon and sometimes a tunnel through the brush. Some very large vines and a branch had fallen in a part of the tunnel I had recently cleared of smaller thorny vines and stinging nettles. I didn't want to touch the large vines without work gloves as I was concerned they might be poison> So I worked my way around them and continued my ride.
Went back to the tunnel section today with my chainsaw and a compound, bypass lopper. Someone had pulled the vines partially out of the way, but some limbs over the trail had been pulled down too low. I cut a bunch of the vine out of the way then went to town with the chain saw. This created a tangled mess and clean up was complicated by the narrowness of the trail. Basically I had to pull cuttings out of the tunnel section and then throw them out of the trail, but tossing the up and over the brush. There was also some hollows in the brush that I stuffed with the cuttings.
Did my best to clear several other tree branches that were hanging too low. Also sawed the jagged end off of broken tree trunk to open up a narrow part of the trail
There's always way more work than I can do. But I notice that my effort make my rides much more enjoyable. I am sure other riders benefit as well, but it's totally selfish on my part
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On the down side, I have neglected a great deal of the yard work on my own property. The grass is cut, but the back yard has several large flower beds that have been getting worse and worse over the years...especially this year.
I hope to do a mountain bike ride tomorrow to enjoy the fruits of my labor. A man's got to have priorities, and that is mine.
