Trek 4500 Part II, Manic Mushrooms, Jagged Edge

... got 'Muscle Girl Sarah' out on the trails last weekend - had planned on nothing intense, just a short trip out across the ridge and up to the local 'lookout point' and back - but a usual that plan quickly faded... we made short time in reaching the 'overlook' and by this time she has figured out her shifting patterns and along with 'Z-Man' is amped to move on to better stuff - we got a whole afternoon yet ahead, so decided to continue along the ridge loop which includes some steep hill climbing on now mostly very loose rocky terrain thanks to the recent dry weather combined with the multitude of four wheelers, dirt bikers, quads, side by sides and dune buggys that frequent the area...

... a short stream crossing thru 'Laurel Run'...

... didn't take many photos as we cranked along at a steady pace other than a few bit too frequent short breaks on my part to recover from some out-of-shape conditioning... all told we covered around 9.5 miles with around 650ft elevation gain - for the first time out Sarah performed like she was born for this stuff with a pretty strong performance - personally was gulpin' air a few times trying to keep pace - she surprised as well on the final downhill which drops a very rocky and technical 450ft in a little over 1/2 mile...

... back at the vehicles totin' a bit of trail dirt and mud... good job...

... noticed loads of 'Aminita Muscaria' popping up this season - that's a typical 'red cap' pictured above, the cap yet to spread out - at least we're pretty sure that they're 'Aminitas' - not an expert and always gotta' go back and pull out the mushroom book for identification...

... here;s a few of the white capped 'Alba' variety we photographed the same day growing on the lawn back at the 'Sanctum Santorum'...

... not yet "capped out"...

... same mushroom the next day - remember that these are the psychotic 'Berserker Mushrooms' that the Vikings would eat to prep for some intense pillage and destruction (see 'Magic Mushrooms')...

... Uh-OH!... it's 'Ig the Cat'... what's he up to?...

... "Get away from those things!!"...

... too late...

... didn't see him for a few hours afterward, so decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood to make sure he wasn't flattened road-kill somewhere... never found 'em but he was settin' on the front porch when we returned - appeared as normal as usual...

... thought it was strange, though, that all the neighborhood dogs had been hangin' out in the trees - never saw that before...

.................................

... 'Jagged Edge'...

... 'Mauch Chunk' sandstone, 15"x7"x1", around 10lbs...

Trek 4300 Build Up

... our favorite gal 'Muscle Girl Sarah' dropped off a 'Trek 4300' MTB a few days ago for a tune-up, intending to eventually do a bit of backwoods riding...

... just needed some air in the tires, lubrication and a few cable adjustments - got to lookin' at this thing - hey, not a bad bike - not high end components but Shimano at least - don't know what they're sellin' now'days as far as their mid range stuff goes but we'll definitely find out - figured that they always had more of a problem with us than vice-versa, anyway - don't know nothin' about the 'RST' front shocks as well, we'd prefer 'Rock Shocks' - but we've busted up a lot (supposedly) better stuff - and the (light weight per our standards) frame looks solid as hell - all that matters anyway - we can fix/upgrade all else... so we decided to "soup it up" a bit for her -  that's it above after our modifications - got rid of the "stock" (don't know why we talk like that) big, giant "gran-ma" (there we go again) pedals and replaced 'em with some steel MTB Sport pedals - added some bar ends which she's gonna' need for a few hill climbs we can't wait to get 'er on...

... replaced the stock knobs with a 'Tioga Psycho Genius 2.30' on the rear...

... and a 'WTB Velociraptor 2.1' on the front - have experience beatin' up a 'Gary Fisher' the past year or two with a similar set up and have no complaints...

... finished product - should do 'er well...

Happy Fourth of July

Stone & Steel

... steel...

... have been carving stone on and off for many years and had always wanted to combine some metal shaping to the process, so recently looked into constructing a gas forge...

... and as usual, wanted to keep it simple - came across an instructional 'You Tube' video wherein a guy builds a small gas forge from a coffee can - didn't appear that you could get much simpler than that - we modified a bit of the hardware by ditching the coffee can and substituted a more durable body constructed from an old and worn thin-walled concrete core barrel of tool grade steel - we used a final 1:1:3/4 (Plaster Paris:Sand:Water) mix for the refractory chamber after two failed attempts - we made a first trial batch (1/2 part water) which set great but we failed to factor in the workability of the mix - the working batch was way too stiff and hardened to a too stiff consistency before we could complete hand mixing and placement - the second batch we underestimated the quantity needed, so screwed that up as well - the third 1:1:3/4 mix we didn't mess around - was a great pourable grout-like consistency that we mixed quickly with an electric power drill and mixing attachment...

... heres the final assembly ready for test firing - that's a 'Bernzomatic TS 8000' gas burner and 'MAPP Gas' fuel cylinder supplying the heat...

... first test heat using some 3/8" threaded rod we had lying around (we got the chamber slightly off-center when the form shifted slightly while placing the refractory - who cares)...

... was able to get the rod to orange heat in a little over two minutes (we timed it) and near yellow heat in a little over three minutes - re-heating to orange on an already hot bar takes about 30 seconds...

... not bad...

... this quickly turned to fun - we decided to further test the process by hammering and "drawing down" (yea - we talk like that for those apparently losing sleep over it) the rod to form this (albeit rough) fourteen inch "snake"...

... sort of a hybrid "cobra-garter snake" we'd guess...

... pretty cool how the threads wound up resembling scales... all-in-all we gotta' give the operating Forge five stars (out of five) - the 'MAPP Gas' costs a bit more than propane but up to this point we've done quite a bit of heating and have yet to finish the first cylinder - it also is said to burn at a bit higher temperature than propane (but not as high as the original 'MAPP Gas' which ceased production a few years back) so we'll stick with it - that 'TS 8000' burner is quick on-off firing (although it occasionally takes a few tries while in use and "sweating")... the refractory mix is holding up very well - we gave it a day to cure before the first heat to avoid any cracking considering some of the mixed comments (none with backup - as usual with on-line negativity) we read - lots of people claimed to prefer a 'Perlite' mix... we'll see...

... stone...

... not brilliant but simple... we were playin' around with some new cutting wheels a few weeks back on a pretty crappy, rainy and stormy day - whipped this out in around an hour or two... 'Downpour' - Mauch Chunk Sandstone, around 6 inches (widest) x 15 inches x 3 inches, maybe 20lbs...