Enjoy!

Irish Soda Bread

• 5 c. flour (all-purpose or bread flour)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 4 T. sugar (can add 1 more T. if you like)
• 4 T. (1/2 stick) butter (or margarine, if you have to)
• 1 3/4 c. buttermilk or sour milk
• 1 egg
• 1 c. currants (can leave these out and you’ll have Scottish Soda Bread. If you don’t have currants you can substitute raisins).

Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Sprinkle a little flour over a large baking sheet, or line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put all the dry ingredients ito a mixing bowl and work in the margarine with your fingertips until mixture is crumbly.

Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk; add the egg and beat well. Add the currants and mix until all the flour is wet, then knead just to complete the mixing.

Cut dough in half and shape each half into a ball. Put dough balls on floured baking sheet, slash a cross into the tops of each dough.

Bake 40 min., or until a golden brown. Cool on rack.

I used raisins in this loaf. It's very tasty when warm and topped with butter.

Luckily, there is a website with the instructions on how to make the leash–a beautiful step-by-step that includes how to figure out how much cord you’ll need for your desired length of leash. There are a number of other good projects on that site as well.

How to Make a Four Strand Round Braid Dog Leash From Paracord.

Here’s how mine turned out:

I used a brass snap on the tan/black leash and bronze on the pink/black. The nice thing with paracord is that it’s strong, light weight, and resistant to mildew. This is a great choice for leashes for your traildog.

If you’re the kind of learner who really needs to see the motions of tying/weaving like I am, here is a great video that shows exactly what you need to do to make this kind of leash.

Edit: I highly recommend using a clamp to hold down the snap end of the leash while weaving the rest of the leash. You’ll get a tighter, more uniform weave than if you simply hold the cord. I made a couple more leashes this way and I think they look much better. I also greatly prefer the wood burning tool to a lighter for sealing and securing the ends.

We loaded up and traveled from Indiana to Pennsylvania to compete, where Ranger earned two 2nd place finishes in his weight class and two first place finishes, including first place in his class (60 pounds) in the National Finals pull. The pulling surface was difficult due to weather conditions, so his final weight pulled was 1107 pounds–just over 19 times his weigh-in body weight of 58 pounds. He did a phenomenal job considering the conditions, and I’m very proud of him.

Here is a shot of Ranger pulling the second-to-last pull of the weekend.

Ranger is off getting some special training this winter, so I hope he’ll get back in the swing of things when he comes home in the spring.

I’m very happy about the turnaround Ranger took this year–he went from standing in the chute wagging his tail without even trying to pull back in May to getting a new personal best weight, getting new titles, and winning on the national level. It goes to show what can happen with some time and dedication.

Looking back I realized I didn’t update with information of what I’ve been up to.

Last fall, about the time I got sick, Ranger stopped pulling when in competition. I gave him time off and restarted his training to see if that would snap him out of it. In May he was still quitting on pulls or barely even trying when I knew he was perfectly capable of pulling.

Back in June I took Ranger to the UKC Premier, where he finished his UKC Weight Pull Champion title. I made several mistakes, but he made up for them and did me proud.

This past weekend I traveled to Michigan to compete in a National Working Dog Association weight pull. I’ve never competed with this group before, but I knew many of the people there and wanted to see how Ranger would do. He completed his Weight Pull 3 (WP3) title by pulling over 23 times his body weight in the Saturday morning pull. He took 2nd place, defeating 3 dogs,  in the two pulls on Saturday. On Sunday morning he again pulled over 23 times his body weight and earned his Weight Pull Champion title (WP3CH) and taking 2nd in his class of 6 dogs. In the afternoon I decided to see what he could do since he was pulling very well and he smashed his previous best pull of 1455# on wheels by pulling 2525# in 32.72 seconds. This was over 44 times his body weight and earned him 1st in his class of 6 dogs. I withdrew him from competition because even though he was still wagging his tail and happy, and probably could have made one more pull, I decided he’d done enough. He is now ranked with the NWDA and is eligible to compete in the Nationals at the end of this month. I’m not sure if I’m going to go yet, but I’d really like to.

It’s pleasing to see him turn around from refusing to pull to pulling so hard that I have to withdraw him from competition because he wants to keep working but I feel he’s worked hard enough for one day.

It’s an early 1960s Huffy Eldorado cruiser. It’s got a sturdy steel frame and coaster brakes. And a tank. I loved it. The price was decent for what I want it for (see below). I went and got it.

It also looks not unlike the bike on the Fat Tire label and New Belgium Brewery logo. I’m a little jazzed about that.

I saw some cruiser bikes when I was in college but never got one because I wanted something with a little more flexibility since, at the time, I managed to bike a lot on muddy dirt roads. Since then fuel prices have increased drastically and I wanted something I could convert to a motorized bicycle (either electric or gasoline since even on gas it would be cheaper to drive for most errands than my Jeep is).

My plan is to–over the next year or three–fix up the chrome bits, add some carrying capacity (baskets and/or paniers), upgrade the lights, replace the rims and tires, upgrade the pedals and hopefully put on a motor of some kind (with upgraded brakes, of course). I’m not opposed to running both an electric wheel hub motor as well as a small 4-stroke gasoline engine. If I change the color I’m not sure what it’ll be. I like the red better than I thought I would.

Another thing I’d like to add is a side car for cargo and/or a dog.

This is a nice little side project that I can tinker with year ’round.

When I dropped off my Marin for its tuneup I picked up a little card for People For Bikes. Check them out–see if you can make a difference in your community.

I was cleaning out my gear closet and discovered that I have entirely too much stuff in there. I have a lot of dog packs for reasons I won’t get into here, but I want to get them out of my closet and into the hands of people who will use them.

Note: while I have prices listed, I’m also willing to work out a trade.

(Click pictures to embiggen)

They are:

*SOLD*Ruffwear Pallisades II pack, size medium, new with tags. It has a matching Bamboo brand collar/leash combo. Red. $65 US.*SOLD*

*SOLD* Ruffwear Pallisades II pack, size medium, new with tags. It has matching a Bamboo brand collar/leash combo. Blue. $65 US. *SOLD* NOTE: The Collar is still available.

Ruffwear Palisades II pack, size medium, well used, but has a lot of life left in it. It no longer has the water bladders–or at least I can’t find them. It’s also the original style from the “reboot” where there is no binding around the foam of the harness. Blue. $30 US.

**SOLD** Ruffwear Approach II pack, size medium, new with tags. Red. $50 US. **SOLD**

**SOLD** Mountainsmith Dog Pack II. Well used, but a lot of life left in it. Red. $20 US. Update This also has a small collapsible bowl that comes with it. **SOLD**

I also have some people gear:

GoLite Women’s Odyssey pack (2008 version). New with tags. Size: Medium. Color: Lip (brick red). $100 US.

I’ll ship anywhere, but the buyer pays the actual shipping. I prefer Paypal for payment. Please contact me if you are interested.

I’ll likely have more gear available before too long.

Please share with your friends if they are in the market for this kind of thing. I’ll likely list them at an online market or three if I don’t get much interest in a few weeks.

The Dirtbag Diaries Year of Big Ideas 2011 episode.

I’m in there, but I’ll let you guess which one I am.

It may not be the start of a new calendar year, but I just heard a little song bird outside my window announcing it’s the start of a new season. It’s starting to stay warm enough for long enough to get out on the trails… or at least it will be once they dry out a bit more. Plus, the ice is off the lake! Only a few weeks until it’s good paddling weather. Definitely time to do some spring cleaning and overhauling my equipment to make sure it’s ready to go for the warm weather.

I got a little behind on posting between an ice storm taking out my electricity/heat for several days during the same week as my brother moving the site over to a new content management system. Plus I’ve been traveling with the dogs again, so I’ll have some cool pictures and stories to tell in a few weeks.

Things finally came to a head in October with a scary episode that landed me in the ER one sunny afternoon. At least eight tests/scans and two months later I was diagnosed with epilepsy. Specifically I’m having absence seizures. From reports I’ve been having these at least since I was a toddler but for some reason they’re only now a disruption in my life.

What this all means is that I’m on anti-epileptic medication for the next few years at least (if I remain seizure-free I shouldn’t have to stay on them forever, which is what I was originally afraid of). I’m still adjusting to how the meds affect me, but once I adjust I’ll be back to my normal self—well, as normal as I ever was. After a little over two weeks on the medication I’m feeling better than I have in years.

Another complication with all of this is that Ranger seems sensitive to the dizzy spells I was having (not the absence “blips,” which I’d have multiple times a day), so I am still considering him to be a service dog to accompany me in various situations. Since he’s a social dog and now that the medication made what he was alerting to (if he was indeed alerting) go away, this may end up being a dead-end road. I will have to wait and see how this works out.

Some of the side-effects of the medication (according to various personal testimonials in various online epilepsy forums and I am seeing this already) is voracious appetite and lethargy, resulting in weight gain. Since I’m pretty good at that on my own, I’m once again giving myself some fitness/mileage goals for the new year (though I’m not yet sure what that’s going to be). I’ve also noticed that while the short-term memory problems caused by the meds are improving with time, my typing skills are still far behind where they were before I started the prescription. I hope this improves soon (my speed and accuracy is far off from where it normally is).

I’m also trying to better while keeping things convenient (and reducing my driving), so I’m working through books, magazines, and websites on container gardening. This way I can have fresh veggies on hand even during weeks that I can’t make it to the farmers’ market. I’ll keep you all up to date with what’s working for me (or not), links, reading suggestions and more.

Right now I’m definitely looking forward to spring—I spent much of the last few months (while hanging out around the house trying to figure out what was wrong with me and thinking it was a cardiac problem) knitting holiday presents (5 hats, 11 market bags, 11 wash cloths, and 1 pair of wristers–I knitted well over 4 miles of yarn this year, mostly since June):

And doing things with Ranger, which gives him even more letters in front of his name:

And my friends helped me out with a gift for me to use with Ranger once the ice comes off the lake:

I obtained a canoe via a trade last fall and want to take Ranger out in it. The float coat will help me out (even though he’s a pretty good swimmer to begin with) because he’s got a bit more buoyancy and a little handle to help me get him in and out of the boat (or on a dock) safely. I’m excited for this.

My brother is in the process of updating the software for this site, so once I get my stuff squared around I’ll be able to post much more often (gee, I think I’ve promised to do that before). You may see some craziness here and there during the transition over the next couple of weeks. (Plug–if you need some web hosting or design services, fire off an email to Tikki via his website).

Thanks everyone for the support you’ve given me in the nearly 10 years I’ve been running this site. It’s been a steady companion through countless ups and downs and I’ll continue to stick with it as much as my life allows.

See you in 2011.

To use, enter the weight of the block (or bags or iron bars, but for simplicity’s sake let’s stick with “block”, the weight of the equipment, and the weight of the dog.

The sheet will calculate the amount of weight the dog needs to pull for UKC points. It will give the weight needed for a qualifying score, as well as 5, 10, 15, or 20 point pulls as defined by the current champion point system. These are also the percentages for All Star points (minus the Q counts only for the UWP title and Total Dog, but not for the All Stars or for Champion points). It will calculate the weight of each individual drop, as well as the cumulative weight of the blocks on the vehicle.

Once you know the weight your dog needs to pull for points you can better decide how to vote when deciding on blocks-per-drop and which drops you need to pass on to save energy. This will also allow you to better dial in your dog when starting (this is probably more important for new pullers than for seasoned veterans).

If you want only the number of blocks on the vehicle during each drop, enter “0″ for the weight of the vehicle, and “1″ for the weight of the block. This is especially helpful if you’re going for the closest weight needed for your dog to make his or her points pulls.

The sheet does not designate pounds or kilograms.

I attached the file to this post in two different formats. It’s available in Open Office format (.odt) or in Microsoft Excel (.xls).

If you have any questions (I’m typing this up as I’m very tired), please leave them in the comments below and I’ll address them. If you have trouble downloading, please let me know that as well.

I’m told it will work on smartphones and the like, however I have not tested this myself as I don’t currently have such a device. That said, I know the columns may need a little tweaking by you for your device. It does work well in google docs (which is where I did much of the editing, so you may notice that none of the cells are locked).

As always, the information provided here is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. That means, share it so long as you don’t sell it and you give credit where credit is due. If it needs correction (as I found a bad cell after three days of tweaking), please let me know. If you have improvements or suggestions, let me know that as well.

Weight Spreadsheet–narrow (MS Excel)

Weight Spreadsheet–narrow (Open Office)

The big news is that I just got back from a short jaunt to Ontario where I competed in a Canadian Rare Breed Specialty with both of my dogs. Yup–both of them. I got to see Ranger as the original plan was to take him home this weekend, however I will be waiting to get him back until after a field trial in two weeks. This is to allow him more time to exercise, train, and socialize before that trial. He’s in excellent condition and has much more confidence now than he had just a few short months ago.

Ranger did not place in the Specialty, but that is just fine. Beau won the Canadian Bred class and brought home a nice new fluffy bed to sleep on.

My other big happening is pretty lame, but I feel I should share because I try to give tips on saving money and/or resources as possible. My stove crapped out. It was at least 16 years old and has a digital readout that has already been replaced once (prior to my moving into this residence) for the tune of $80-90. When the controls went out I could no longer turn off my oven, so it was constantly on at 400 degrees F. Not good. I shut it off at the breaker box then turned to my good friend, Craigslist for a replacement. I found a similar, but older and dial-controlled, model of my stove for $30. The upside is that I saved something from the landfill, but the downside is that it’s not terribly energy efficient, so it uses far more electricity than it should. It will, however, last me until I can afford to buy and Energy Star certified stove. The broken stove will be headed to the scrap recycling center this week.

My other frugality of the year is that I’m attempting to make a large portion of my winter holiday gifts this year. I have an embarrassingly large collection of cotton yarn, so I’m making a number of mesh shopping bags. Each will be filled with some sort of goodies for the recipient. I will post pictures later as some of the people who are getting the bags read this blog and I want to surprise them at least a little bit.

The weather and my work/travel schedule has been killing my shot at miles for the year. I bought a new saddle for my bike and haven’t been able to really try it out. Instead of moving the goalpost I will continue to chip away at the mileage goal. Even if I don’t make it is a good goal for me. My clothes are fitting better, so I know I’m doing something right.