We're getting there...

The construction project is pluggin' along at a snail's pace. I find it difficult to work @ the shop all day and come home to do more than ride my BLUE couch or mow the yard! Sunday was a BIG day! I hooked up the 22o dryer plug w/o burning our house down! I also finished connecting the 2 hot/cold supply lines that feed H2O into the laundry room. This was the adventurous part of the day....

If you're not into caving/spelunking, this isn't the job for you! Plumbing is simply not my cup of tea. To say the least I won't be quiting my day job to take up a new career! However, the invention of Pex pipe and the shark bites connections make it soooo easy a CAVEMAN could do it! As long as you cut the connection end of the pex perfectly square. They even make a handy tool for disassembly that only cost $1.50!!!

Monday, was the day to finish up the framing, hang some drywall, and get a door. After demo of the back wall was done. It was time for insulation and new drywall. The insulation was simple, stuff it in between the studs and staple into place. The drywall would give me fits on this day. That crap is heavy and I wouldn't advise hanging it by yourself! I got 2 of the 6 sheets hung and it was time to move on to framing the 2x4 wall.

The wall went together seamlessly! Getting the proper measurements for the rough opening of the door was the real fun part. They recommend 2" + whatever the door size is. I wanted a 36" door= ease of moving washer/dryer in/out of laundry room in future! It was of to Home Depot to buy a door. I got a SMOKIN' deal! I wanted an insulated door b/c we won't have heat in the room. They only sold insulated doors w/ drilling for a door knob and dead bolt. Who needs a dead bolt in a laundry room? So I found an all oak wood door, unfinished, pre-hung, and single drilled hole. Oh and did I mention it was a LH swing. All for $90!!! I'm thrifty...





Once the door was home, I measured it, roughed the opening 1/2" smaller than I had planned, and put that baby in. The opening was all square but it's funny how out of square the door was. Good thing I went ahead w/ the purchase of a pack o' shims. Installing the door wasn't rocket science. It went way better than I'd expected. It opens and closes w/ ease and stays put where you stop it. There's also a nice even crack all the way around between the door and the jam when closed! Watch out I'm gettin' dangerously good @ this; Maybe I will quit my day job...



Tuesday, proved to be another adventurous day...it was back into caving mode to hook-up the washing machine drain. Crawl under house, dry fit 4 90*'s, 40' of 1 1/2" pvc, hold it in place to get the proper fall, and tie it into the existing sewer; Simple, right? I was under the house for over 2 hours dry fitting and cutting. Once I began gluing it all together it went pretty quickly, I think...I may have passed out a few times from the pvc glue/primer high!

Makin' bread...

So this past week has been quite the blur! We went to a b-day party last weekend for Noah. He got a really cool new bike and was super fired up about it. Brian and Tara gave us a starter of Amish Friendship bread. If you haven't had it...u don't know what you're missin'! I was placed in charge of the daily bread obligations: letting the gas out of the bag from the fermentation process and "mushing it" daily. After a few days, you add some milk, flour, and sugar; then repeat a few more days and then do a whole lot to it! The recipe requires a ton of stuff but the finished product is, well...TO DIE FOR!!! After all is said and done you have two loaves and four starters to give out. Anybody wanna make bread?

Construction is coming along slow but steady. We are making progress and doin' it the BEST way I know how. We are into part of Phase#3/Walls and Phases' #4/Plumbing & #5/Electrical. Basically the plumbing and electrical had to be routed underneath the sub-floor and through the existing garage wall into the crawl space of the house. This required some fancy tools I didn't need to purchase. THANK YOU Jason Stephens for supplying me w/ the BIG ASS drill and hole saw. This made life sooo much easier.








Saturday was the 1st annual AMBC Poker Derby produced and directed by Harvest the Ride fame, Thomas Gaines. It was a beautiful spring day for a cycling event. The people came out of the wood work for this one. I never heard a final head count but it had to be close to 80!!! The coolest thing was watching the controlled, mass start roll down the greenway behind the shop. It was AWESOME seing all those bikes headin out for a FUN DAY! A post ride awards was held @ El Mezcal and party followed @ Union Jacks where the Yazoo Brews flowed.

Sunday required a break from construction. What better way to rest than go to Windrock for some DH action w/ the gang. The word was out and people showed up from all over. 1Speed Brian, Murray, Eric, T, Profro, Loonatic and his boys, Lil' Joey, B.Hann, and a few others rode on one heck of a spring day. Many runs were made, new trails were worked in, and FUN was had by all. The gang seems to be fallin' into the groove of DH @ Windrock and all are kickin' ass! Its fun to have some fresh faces around to ride w/ up there. Not that I'm tired of chasing T down the hill. He still challenges me every run we make together.

CONSTRUCTION....

For those of you who know...I didn't stay @ the Holiday Inn last night?!?

I just think I know what the hell I'm doing here! A little history to shed some light on our current situation I've gotten us into....I HATE HOME IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS!!!

Over a year ago, I talked Jen into me attempting to tile our kitchen floor. It took countless hours, some really BIG tools (not me or Brett), and countless BEERS to demolition and remove the numerous layers of old flooring. There were many head-scratchers along the way: the numerous layers of old floor, whether to take out the cabinets or not, and finally, the sub-floor in the pantry was rotten b/c the washer hook-ups had been leaking for who knows how long? All damage repaired, tile floor in, and life back to normal, right???? WHOA Mule!!!! I made the executive decision NOT to put the washer and dryer back in the kitchen pantry. They didn't fit anyway b/c, you know who, didn't measure before we bought 'em to make sure they fit. So we've been going to the redneck laundr-o-mat for a while, now that we have $2000 of laundry equipment rendered useless just sitting in the garage.

We decided it would be easy to build an 8'x8' laundry/mud room inside our existing garage. Simple right? B.Hann drew me some plans in 2.4 minutes on a 2x2 post-it note. I'm GOLDEN, Baby! This was 2 weeks ago and after several bids of $85/sq. ft. x 65 sq. ft. = Jen and Jay can't afford it!!! I decided, it's not "Rocket Science", I'd build the laundry room myself.

We began this past Sunday w/ phase #1: Demolition. We had a small room in the back 1/4 of the garage that had to be removed before we could build anything. It was 2x4s and Sheetrock...nothing too difficult to tear out, unless you don't have the right tools! It's like trying to build a bike w/ a straight screwdriver and an adjustable wrench?



As you can see, most of the wall/room is gone and we're on to phase #2:Sub-floor construction. This process required way too much thought. Measure once, cut 5-6x??? Get the board level??? Make it square, what? How do you do that?






As you can see, I've made ok progress. I still have all my fingers and toes. We're @ stopping point b/c it's now time to figure out the whole electrical & plumbing thing and where it all needs to go. We may have some professioanl help on the way:

I LOVE this sport! It's the only other thing besides mountain biking I can drink BEER while participating!

Maybe by the weekend we'll have moved on to phase #3: Walls????

Mind BLOWING!!!

We live in a pretty sweet location for riding some really kick ass places!
On Saturday, Jen and I hit the Snake in Dalton, Ga. Sunday, I was able to hit the DH scene @ Windrock w/ Profro, the Champ, T-Dog, Patrick, T. Gaines, and 1speed for most of the day. We were killin the runs when Thomas washed the front wheel out in a rock garden on the old windmill. His right hand took the brunt of the crash. A lengthy trip to the ER revealed NO break, only a major impact which will result in severe bruising. I'm sure glad it wasn't broken! Following the incident everyone bailed on me; so I hooked up w/ Tryon, Josh, and Tommy from Nash-Vegas for a few more runs. All in all I got 12 runs, 2 crashes(myself), and had one killer 2nd day of the year on the DH rig!

For a recovery ride, BIG Al, Burrito, and I headed to BSF on Monday. I can't say enough about this place. It's simply MARVELOUS!!!! Joe Cross has done a tremendous amount of hard work to keep the trails in shape and advocacy for mountain bikers to time share several hiking trails. We rode Grand Gap loop and John Muir for 20 or so miles of the most scenic singletrack trails you can ride in the South. We didn't see any other riders, only a group of backpackers from Ohio on a spring break trip. Rumor has it there's going to be a race there sometime in '09!!!

Team Ed decided to properly celebrate daylight savings w/ a Tuesday night "Full Moon" ride. Nine souls arrived @ the Back Porch in Walland for a cruise into the Cove. We took the greenway to "Y" hung a right and headed up into the Cove. Upon our arrival, the moon was Full and brighter than I'd ever seen. Cades Cove was lit-up w/ minimal clouds and no fog. We cruised from the gate to Rich mtn road where we lost 2; the rest of us continued around the Loop to Hyatt Ln. After a quick G$ photo shoot, it was off to climb Rich mtn and to the cars. It was AWESOME being able to ride the Cove and the climb up Rich mtn w/o lights. We made it to the car where our sub-3 hour 35-mile effort was handsomely rewarded w/ a nice cold BEER!!! Courtesy of this guy????? It was a FANTASTIC ride w/ GREAT company, and SPECTACULAR scenary. The post-ride Huddle House was extremly good. Thanks "TINY" for the waffles, oh and Wally needs more BUTTER!!!!

It BLOWS my mind that more people don't do this ride or for that matter, get the F' out of Haw Ridge for one weekend a month and travel outside Knoxville! I mean REALLY? A short 2-2 1/2 hour drive you can be at any one of a dozen destinations that will blow your mind w/ killer singletrack, tech descents, breath taking views, and the real deal BIG MOUNTAIN ride vibe that you can't get ridin' the greenways of HAW! Comeon' R U SSSSSSKKKKKEEEERRRRREEEEEDDDDDD???WTF!!!!

I'm off my box...

PARTY like it's....1979!!!!

Happy 30th B-Day Mary Beth Tugwell! We'll never forget this evening...

Freddy presenting his lovely bride w/ a flaming cupcake?

The Crew

What??? Farrah Fawcett...where?

Which "ANGEL" is she?

I made my last $100 billion in oil! Does she really just like me for my facial hair? How'd he get out, I just hand-cuffed him to my bed?!? Beaker escaped the Muppet show to try out a new science experiment...I think the ALIEN likes it!

The SNAKE went into the SNAKE hole!

Another Snake has come and gone. The 2k9 edition proved to be more challenging for Jen but hey that's what she signed up for? This year she decided the 34-miler was going to be her poison. Following a strong performance in the Jan. TT w/ fellow Knoxvillian Ms. Parker, we were headed to GA for the final round. The usual suspects were there, including some celebrity appearances. Pisgah Bruce was in town for a short ride before the Cougar Nat'ls in Chattown. Willow(3:13) and Sam Koerber(2:36) showed up and threw down. I traveled down to "ride" the snake. I got hooked up w/ Jut, Bruce, and Pills for 4 miles or so before pulling into the 1/2 way stop. Jut and I decided the BEER back @ the parking lot sounded better than the second 1/2 of the ride...we BAILED!!!! Jen came in while we were still hangin' and looked really fresh. She wanted to bail but marched on...and I'm really proud of her for that. This race is really NO F'N JOKE! The Pinhoti is as hard and technical as anything in Pisgah. Jen rocked it out finishing w/ her BEST time to date 4 1/2 hours for 34 miles and 2nd overall. She took 16 mins off her time from Jan. CONGRATS babe I'm proud of you!

Women Under 30 34
443 Buerkle Chrissy Feb 9:54:47 14:16:16 4:21:29
229 Smelser Jennifer Mar 9:51:34 14:22:16 4:30:42
437 Parker Emily Jan 10:13:35 14:58:42 4:45:07

Jen rockin' the "Team ED" kit

Damn I'm tired of CLIMBING!!!!
Jen solo on the Podium

Welcome to our world...

This past week has been a little slow in our world. It was however, the 6th annual UT Outdoor programs' "Outdoor Festival". This festival celebrates the outdoors and the PLAY we enjoy in them! All to benefit the Access Fund through the Telluride mountain Film, a bouldering comp, and trail day @ the Obed.
Here is a short film that Jen and I both could relate to...our morning ritual



Fellow CAT owners will find the HUMOR in this!!!