Bighanded

used to do concerts at the tracks....long hot days...5 am arrivals, etc. had some cool pictures tucked away someplace that I'd take out the windshield of my trucks or van with it on the track at dawn...anyway...sold the biz about 4 years ago now and whether it's racing, or major concerts, I've just not been interested in going as a regular spectator...it was a lot of work , but cool, to be stage side, or down in the midst of it all in those days...but I'm good to be done... never got into watching it on TV. most of the time, my world was setting stage, doing the quick music, then getting things clear out before actual race start...then I'd usually just hop on my bike and tool around the infield and marvel at all the crazy rigs that guys come up with..sofas on the roofs, etc..that was more fun than the race itself. and yeah, I'm not shy about saying that I've stepped away from any "woke" pro sporting events. Haven't seen my ol Steelers in years...turned the NFL off when they didn't uphold their own rules and 'taking a knee" became more important than the franchise.

Lawd yes...used to hate the snow plow guy when we lived up north... my job when I was still a school kid (jr high age) was to get up early and shovel the driveway for my Dad...from garage door to road was 2 car lengths long.. i had gotten masterful at measuring his tire width and just shoveling tire path most times...especially if it was deeper...but if that dang plow came through in the morning before Dad left or got home that night, I'd be looking at a waste deep mountain of really packed heavy stuff to have to dig out of the driveway entrance.

ours had forecasted "maybe some flurries or a 30% chance of a dusting...instead we had a very nice 2" by midnight....low 20s...nice to have an old school honda (not water cooled) man does that motor heat feel good when you're out there cruising the snow trail and waiting on the wife to take more pics.

for you boys up north, this isn't even a dusting, but for the Carolinas...well, they get a tad excited. My wife is a Carolina girl, so this ol Ohio boy spent most of my time today sitting around waiting on her to take pictures of 'all the snow" did get a bit of riding in though...pretty morning.

The words he spoke certainly wouldn't agree with CRT. but as a kid growing up 20 minutes from the Camden riots etc, there was more to the MLK story than " I have a dream" that said, wish his dream coulda been realized by more, As for celebrating the day, it's one of the very few corporate holidays we get off (we don't get July 4th,nor Easter, nor Presidents, etc), so I slept in, and then enjoyed riding my Honda out back to take some pics of the rare snow.

and that sign is the reason we will never admit to having a nested pair of bald eagles here...we also have a pair of Ospreys...very common on the lake just 10 miles away, but these decided our pond was big enough for their eating needs so they have made home here. We simply enjoy watching them and leave it at that. oh and a family of gray herons, and regular visits from the Egrets (white crane type bird...whatever they are called) Thankfully the yotes are the largest predators. here...no wolves, surprisingly no bears and that's good by me.

you must be my neighbor(grin)...they usually go til about 2am...fire pit and drinking...but the rain got em this year. I don't mind, we enjoy watching their show, at least the bigger ones that make it up over our tree line..and some years I do worry about fire in my woods, but it was a wet one this year. it also takes my guilt away when I want to go out the next day and enjoy some backyard gun range time...normally folks aren't fond of a lot of gun noise, but after a late night of beer n bottle rockets out back, they can't complain too much when I let loose some booms of my own. seriously...good for you FF...always fun to see guys going big. ET

I thought I was in the Bahamas yesterday...78 degrees!! but looking for a shot back to reality tonight as this front finally fights through...forecast is 27....sigh...winter in the Carolinas. still, managed to get in some nice trail time on the old 300 this weekend, even tossed some rounds out back...used the range time excuse that the wife was worried about one of her pistols that had "acted up" on her the prior week when we did some range time with the grandkids...typical 22lr pistol...some cleaning and quality ammo and instruction on how to clear a jam and the pistol is back in service...then there was a couple Sig 9mms that just needed to remind me how much our of practice I was...fortunately, like riding a honda....it all came back fairly quickly (grin). but this morning was a wakeup call in the 5am time frame as the storm moved through, cut power, we heard 2 large trees thud to the ground out back and several more larger branches snap...i'll have to assess things later...I had to get ready and come into the city to my day job...and the first 3 miles is out in our country side...tree crews had already been working and had cut about a dozen fallen trees out of the road way...a carpet of smaller branches everywhere. but grateful that we haven't had the bad stuff like our friends to the West.

ol Bidhanded checking in late...busy holidays...just getting back to my laptop. Merry Christmas all you riders!! it's been in the high 60s, mid 70s here in the Carolinas...so some of the grandkids have enjoyed some saddle time out on my trails. Came darn close to putting the boat on the lake, but so many other plans already in place. I do have one of my kids households down with Covid, so they have postponed Christmas...good thing about an artificial tree, I can leave it up as long as I want. Lionels doing laps around it...yeah, I'm a big kid..

yep...pond out back is the lowest Ive ever seen it...creek is all but dried up..we seem to go from flood to nuttin around here. and when I say nuttin, the pond is about 6 ft off the bank and I'm seeing boulders in the shallow end that have never been exposed. the creek is about 14-25ft across and the bank is about 5.5 feet high, so for now, we've got maybe 4inches of water in the very bottom center...but last year that water was out of the banks and 3 feet high in the woods itself..with trail cams underwater and video of deer swimming neck deep in the rushing water.

oh that's purty...love to see the snow...hardly ever happens here in the Carolinas..and yeah, Fri/Sat gonna be in the low 70s...I think I hear my boat calling...rain coming in though on Saturday...so we'll see.

copy that Wonder...hard hard thing to experience. but you're a good man to have stepped up to help. long time friends live in Paducah...bout 9 miles from Mayfield...I had prepped my home to receive them here when he pinged me last evening to tell me the power was restored for them...they'd been huddling through the 28 degrees since Saturday and limited comms...but he is grateful to have not had direct impact from the twister. he said it was a mess, but seeing your pictures really brings it to reality.

LOL...yeah, i've got one section deep in the woods that I originally cut for the 2 wheel bikes...but if you're a tad careful, the smaller 300 can make it just fine. The bigger quads can be a problem and the wife has tried to snake the golf cart through there.. I have actually managed to get the golf cart through there when I was setting up the haunted trail, which parallels this hidden woods trail.. I used this smaller trail to position the honda eu2000 and all the power lines I had to run to feed the main trail creature features. I probably should get out there now that all the summer green has died back and take the Echo brush blade to the 2-3" trees that really the problem.

thankfully, my ol 300 cranks every time I open the garage door. just the usual few laps around my trails in the back woods this weekend before the storm moved through. grankids are excited...week of Christmas I'm off work and have promised a lot of ride time...bringing the other unit over so we'll have 3 machines here to play on...checking to see if my other soninlaw will bring the hunt club rig here for the week too.

good bud of mine lives 9 miles from Mayfield...said it's a real disaster..he expects to be without power/utils for a long time.

yep.. I've got a small air pump (bout the size of 2 deck of cards). lift the seat, cable up to the battery and pump. I know a lot of guys use the little CO2 cartridges, which is great for a flat fix.but a waste just to maintained the slow leakers. but the gauge on that little pump has no ability to register the low pressure, so it's more about stepping on the tire. I need to order a nice low pressure gauge. I do likely run more air than I should in the front tires, I just like them to turn well and I'm not on any harsh terrain.

yep...don't know what it is about the 300s...but still...to this day...bring the big smiles. I honestly enjoy the smaller bike for scootin around riding fun.

this likely doesn't count cause it doesn't show my ol blue 300 with me in the saddle...hoping one of the other kids caught a better pic. I coulda hauled the big 10ft trailer out, but I was worried that some of the adults would have tried to ride on that as well and I'd definitely be over loaded...that bigger trailer weighs 750lb dry.

I know.. I've asked the kids if any of them happened to get a pic of them riding out there...we'll see..anyway...half dozen or so piled into a small trailer with a couple hay stacks..this trailer is just big enough to load an ATV on...but they still had fun doing it. it's only about 300yards out to the trail head where we made them walk the haunted trail..making memories!

nother halloween in the bag. son-in-law brought over his smaller trailer that he hauls his 4wheeler with. about half the weight of my big one. loaded a couple hay bails, and 8 grandkids on it...old blue 300 had no problem hauling them back around the pond and to the trail head in the woods of the "haunted trail" good time had by all.

I hear ya on the braking...pretty much flat country here...and will be going super slow with the kids back there anyway...thanks All

see..that last spec...30lbs on tow ball? that's where I am worried. I"m having one of the son-in-law bring over a slightly smaller landscape trailer...so I'll shed a couple hundred pounds there, and we will only ride the kids and hay bails on it. and I'll center most over axle.. not worried about pull weight...it's the tongue weight the concerns me... just guessing, I'm thinking I've had a good 80lbs on it in the past...based on my effort to lift the trailer up and onto the ball hitch

nope...not legal here. course it does't stop some of the neighbors from scootin around..couple of ATVs, one Razor, and a couple of 2 wheel dirt bikes run up and down the road regularly..so do golf carts and only mine and one other I know actually have the permits and insurance required, not to mention the street legal light upgrades. We are all country and neighbors, so we don't think twice about it.

Halloween is coming up. it's been about 10 years since we did this at the house - and I had a larger ATV back then. what we do is setup a "haunted trail" kid friendly, and we hay ride the kids around the back of the pond to where the trail starts into the woods. the small 5x8 trailer that is used to haul to ATV gets hitched to the ATV so it pulls it and the kids. I've pulled my larger 6x10 landscape trailer with my lil 300 several times..hauling branches from limb work...definitely at weight limit in both tongue and towing, but it works. with the smaller trailer, that's already less weight and I guess I can make sure only the smallest grandkids sit up in the nose of the trailer, to reduce tongue weight, but i can imagine I might have at least one adult on board as well. so, how concerned should I be with tongue weight..when Honda advises only about 60lbs? the plan for the adults is to ride most of them out to the trail head on the golf cart and keep the hay ride for the kids to keep weight down. advise appreciated Ed