One Year Later

Are we done?

This May we celebrated one year of habitation at the Crash Pad (May of 2023 was the big push when we finally ‘moved in’)! This year we have had the big push to get the Crash Pad comfortable while we are in habitation. We are far from done, but we are closer to done than we were a year ago! I will tell you more below, but first and most importantly…

The riding has been good.

April 21, 2024. Lake Helane, WI.

July 9th, 2024. Lake Helane, WI.

REALLY, really good.

left: Kurt at the finish. Right, me with my neighbor (in white) and her ride partners at the finish.

In May our Crash Pad neighbor asked if I wanted to ride the last bit of the Hungry Bear course with her (we called it the ‘Pirate Bear’), she picked me up at the Crash Pad driveway (where I saw a bear while waiting!) with her friends, and I had a lot of fun riding the rest of the course together into Cable, WI. I don’t ‘do’ event’s, so sort of doing one was more my speed. Kurt finished the Snacking Bear (60 miles). It was a great day ~ wonderful weather, wonderful people, seeing a lot of my cycling friends at the finish, and wonderful gravel biking!

After two years of dealing with the MPT, I finally feel SO MUCH BETTER. My rides are much better than the last two years. I don’t always feel like, or look like, what I have known as ‘me’ for my entire adult life, but the most important thing is I can ride my gravel bike and feel good on a ride, even perhaps kicking it down at times and nailing some tough runs. THIS is what the Crash Pad was built for, and it feels good, very good, to be in a place to enjoy it.

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Working on Cabin Stories took a bit of a back burner this Spring as I got myself back up and running, took some really great classes that I will be writing about, there was work going on at the Crash Pad that took a lot of time and coordination, I started months of physical therapy (a story for another day), and as we adjust to what split time at the Crash Pad is like (still working on that one). But I have managed to get a story together.

I will be creating a ‘mini series’ for the next few videos on the Crash Pad Systems. All the need-to-understand stuff for a cabin build in the woods ~ like what we use for electricity, water, heat, and the septic system. Here is the first one:

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*I had so much footage of the Robin’s, I made an addendum video. If you enjoy ASMR, this is for you.

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In GenX Notes…

I share my journey the last two years of dealing with an iron deficiency as a selectarian MPT athlete.

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In June I had the honor of being an 'alumni' guest speaker in the latest cohort of a menopause class I took through Feisty earlier this year. Yup, that's right ~ a menopause class!

clockwise from top left: Lynda Rowan, me, Selene Yeager, my classmate Abby

Everything I know about navigating menopause started because I am an avid gravel cyclist; to be in a room with one of THE Gravel Cyclists, Selene Yeager, was truly special.

I can’t wait to share more about this class in a future GenX Notes!

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So what HAS been going on at the Crash Pad you might ask:

Great things, and pure chaos! It definitely gets worse before it gets better! First the great things…

• We have a real bathroom!

  • We now have a SHOWER!!! (You can see some glimpses of it in the new video). The locals all sang the praises of Terry and we couldn’t agree with them more; Terry did all the tile work in our shower and did an artisan job at a very reasonable price.

  • Kurt assembled and installed the bathroom vanity and wall cabinet.

  • Kevin the plumber was back. He moved the utility sink to the kitchen area, installed our shower hardware, and installed the plumbing for the vanity sink.

  • Kurt put up the cedar ceilings in the shower and bathroom area.

  • Terry installed our ceiling fan in the bathroom.

  • I painted the bathroom.

  • The electricians were back and installed the lights, outlets, and switches and connected the ceiling fan!

There is nothing better than coming home after a ride and taking a hot shower washing away the gravel, suntan lotion, bug spray, and sweat!

• The electricians were back twice. They are not finished, but they made good progress.

  • They finished wiring for the ceiling fan

  • did a lot of cleanup work and finishing touches,

  • added a few more outlets

  • Installed our outdoor lights and security camera

  • And most importantly installed a battery backup system (more to come on this in the mini-series!).

• We sheathed the front porch area where the bike storage will be. The next step is to install the siding over the sheathing. But we’ve had a work stoppage from the Eastern Phoebe’s and Robin’s (see Crash Pad Nature Report).

  

  Not a couch.

• It feels quite chaotic in the interior where there are things waiting to go in place everywhere.

  • The Tongue and Groove wood for the interior finishing was delivered and installation has begun! Our living room was the staging area until we could break down this pile, which now is dispersed all over the Crash Pad (feeling a bit crowded in here).

  • We now have an actual wall between the toilet and the bedroom!

  • We brought up our closet system from Ikea. But we can’t install it until the ceiling goes up in the bedroom, so the big boxes are laying in the hallway.

• We are excited to have a full sized refrigerator and washer/dryer unit. Both make spending extended periods of time here so much more pleasant!

• Kurt now has an office desk and chair, and I have a nice office chair (working on the desk idea) ~ all of which are big upgrades to our live/work situation.

• After having a mouse emerge on my leg on my way to meet Room & Board at the Crash Pad, we now have a new comfortable couch.

• We also have a new comfy living room chair.

• We have a tv on a rolling stand which has made our Shetland watching much more enjoyable.

  

• We took two trailer loads to the dump full of building debris and our old patio couch we were using as our couch for a year.

In the moment it often seems like we have SO far to go and the chaos of having big piles in almost every square inch can feel exhausting. We wonder if we will ever finish this place. But at the same time, when we look back at all the work we have done, we are amazed we have gotten so far!

But the end goal always remains ~ we are here to bike. And along with the work we are sure to spend time here doing one of the things we love most.

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