We got to Steamboat after a few hours of white knuckle driving yesterday. Highway 40 in Colorado was a super highway compared to the other roads. Kent and Katie were doing stuff, so we just walked around town for most of the afternoon. We helped Bo’s sister (employee at Eriksen Cycles) get her car unlocked. Her car was locked with the engine running, windshield wipers going and radio on. It was easy and fun.
We drove up Kent house around 4. He lives up the road to the hot springs in Steamboat. You’re supposed to have chains and/or 4WD with snow tires. My AWD van was good. His driveway is crazy steep and long. I don’t know how many acres he has up here, but it is a beautiful setting in Aspen trees. His house is constructed of Aspen too. He has been working a ton on it since the last time I was here. He lives off the grid, electric wise, so you have to watch the consumption. We cleaned the snow off the solar panels this morning and it is cranking.
Yesterday around 4pm, Kent thought we should go Telmark skiing up to the ridge above his property. Bill and I have never done that. It is pretty easy going up. That is compared to going down. At night in the dark. It took us as long getting down as going up. You can see the town of Steamboat Springs from the top. The snow is deep. Bill left his skins on to slow down the descent. I, maybe unwisely, took mine off. I only fell 20 times or so. The falling isn’t the problem, it is the trying to get vertical again when you can’t get you’re pole to touch solid ground. I was wasted.
This morning, we cleaned off the solar panels, fired up the diesel cat and plowed the driveway. I’ve never driven one with a joy stick. It isn’t that hard, even though I did get it stuck once.
We’re about ready to head over to the nordic center and skate ski this afternoon. I’m not looking forward to the first ski on the year at 8000 ft. I struggle enough at the sport at sea level.
I could hang here indefinitely. Kent has a million projects going simultaneously. Most of them I am super interested in.
I realized my hands aren’t doing all that well after Saturday’s race in Bend. It is taking nearly no cold temperatures at all for them to throb. Plus, I have an infection in my knee from scrapping it down to the knee cap. I thought I’d cleaned it out super good. Guess not.
Okay. Back to playing. I need to find a trainer to use soon. It irks me to death that I’ll be riding a trainer when there are 1000 things more fun to do here athletically.
Kent's house. Mainly a log cabin of Aspen.
Pretty nice view this morning. This is a new railing that he made from ski lift cables.
Corner of the new addition. Kent handmade this door.
Both Kent and Katie's cats, Barnum and Bailey, are very interested in Bromont.
Kent build a ski lift/people mover the few hundred meters from the road to his house. Now you can drive all the way up to the house.
Kent firing up the diesel CAT snow blower.
Kent's '62 Volvo in for the winter.
Trudi back from her morning snow shoe with Bromont. He bailed on her because of ice between his toes. I sympathize.
I hope your knee gets better.
I would not play around with the knee too long. Those infections can get nasty quick. Off the medicine and on to bike racing. As a veteran of motocross, I have often wondered why they don’t have a starting line that would fit around 50 riders. In motocross, it would usually funnel into the course at around 70 to 100 meters. It would favor a sprinter, but everyone would have a chance for the front. That would solve the TT problem
Make up some normal saline solution and wash out your knee wound with that, and make a thorough job of it. Warm it up a bit before you use it. Try to use kosher salt, not table salt with sodium silicoaluminate or yellow prussiate of soda or any of that other stuff added – or use white sea salt.
here’s a recipe: “If you can find a clean, sterile container that holds a litre or a quart, this will be handy too. You could use a well-cleaned plastic soft-drink bottle. Rinse it well with water that has been well boiled, then give it a small final rinse or two with some fresh distilled water. To really give your containers a thorough sterilisation, you could use a solution made with sterilising powder from home brew or winery supply shops. However, you’d have to use a fair bit of distilled water to rinse it out completely. Several small rinses are generally much more effective than one large rinse.
Now comes the only hard part: approximating the correct amount of salt. You are aiming for 8 grams per litre to make “normal saline” as it’s called. If you have access to laboratory or jeweller’s scales you’ll be laughing. You can buy electronic jewellers scales fairly cheaply on eBay these days. Otherwise, use a teaspoon measure of the kind that is used for cooking. Make sure it’s clean and sterile (boiling water is a good steriliser). A teaspoon holds about 5 mls, so allowing for the density of salt, I find that a very slightly heaped teaspoon is perfect for a litre of water. A quart is close enough to a litre that you don’t have to worry if that’s what you have – just make sure it’s a very full quart.”
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_make_a_normal_saline_solution_for_washing_a_wound#ixzz18Iq856ws