Gardening

We finally started our garden this past week. After tilling a few times, I put the fence back up to keep the bunnies out and we planted. We purchased starter plants from Black Creek again this year. They have a really wide variety and their prices are very good.

We planted more Roma tomatoes this year so we can make more sauce and also dry some more, since it worked so well last year. And instead of 4, I just have 1 cherry tomato plant and 1 regular early girl variety. We also planted a hill of cantaloupe, watermelon and zucchini squash, lettuce, and several rows of corn, beans and peas. Our oregano bush survived the winter and is also growing very well.

Owen loved trying out his new watering can. After we put plants in he was helping out by patting down the dirt around them and in his words... making them all comfy.

Pocono

Allison gave me an awesome combo Christmas, b-day, anniversary.... everything 2008 present this year. A 1/2 day racing experience at the Bertil Roos racing school at Pocono raceway.

Half the afternoon was consumed with some class time learning about the driving principles, driving the track in road cars and learning about the race car itself. We then ran 2, 20 minutes track sessions... no speed limiters, no pace car. The only requirement was that you passed in an approved passing zone with flagged acknowledgement. There was a group of 18 people there, so we ran in groups of 9.

The cars are Formula 2000 chassis. Basically a small open wheel racer. The cars they use for the school are right from their spec series, with the addition of some additional crash safety equipment. Powered by a 4cyl and weighing about 1400 lbs, they are very quick compared to typical road car standards. Top speed due to gearing was about 110 mph flat out. Given the shorter South course we were running on, and some wet spots, I don't think I would have wanted to go much faster in the space we had.

Yes it did rain, but most of my track time ended up being pretty dry.

The first session out, I kindof felt like I was missing out a little because everyone was running so slow. I was also stuck behind a guy that kept ignoring the passing flag for half the session. They finally black flagged him off the course after 5 laps so I could get by. Even with that, it was still good to learn the car and the corners. In-between sessions they had their instructors giving us pointers on how we could improve to drive faster for the 2nd session.

The 2nd session was great because everyone paid attention to the flags and I didn't get stuck following slow folks. There were 2 or three people that quit after the first session because they couldn't get a handle on shifting. Upshifting was easy, but downshifting took some practice to manage without synchronizers.

If you ever have the opportunity, do it. It's guaranteed fun.

http://www.racenow.com/

Mowers

Catching up here with some pictures. When I was putting the mower on the tractor a few weeks ago, Owen was driving circles around me with his little loader. He's a perfect fit for it this year...

I think he's having fun here... :)

Track Time

I was changing tires on Allison's car Saturday morning and they had complimentary passes to Maple Grove for that afternoon. We worked it out and I took Owen over for his first race car experience. I was so proud when he covered his ears and eagerly watched the cars run down the track. They were running rails and funny cars. Most in the 6-7 second range. He kept asking questions why their tires were steaming..... and why they were backing up. After I tried to explain the process, he got it. We watched for almost an hour and headed home. The time he spent up before he went to bed he was running between the kitchen and the living room pretending he was a race car.