Finished!

The new bike racks are finished! Here is one of them, all powder-coated red and installed at the Uptown Askews. The "revival racks" took six months from beginning to end, the most time spent dismantling old bikes.

Up-cycling at its best...

Just testing the spacing and mounting with the half-finished frames on site.

One of the finished frames before powder coating.

All winter I've been pillaging bike parts from various sources to create two bike racks for the new Askew's grocery store. Old steel frames are best, brake rotors, handle bars, sprockets and chain rings are also good to use. A few kickstands and fenders have made their way in. Once complete, all will be powder coated, then installed in groups of four at either end of the Askew's entrance. Should be finished by beginning of April. The question is... who will be the first cyclist to use it?

The Key to a Good Morning

I'm working on a few small metal wall sculptures for the Affordable Art Fair. A piece of an enamel wood stove came to me, and I'm using it as a background on a few of the works. It gives a lot more contrast between it and the mixed metal. The two keys were given to me by Lin Maxwell, what great additions. My wife already wants to keep it. But with only two weeks until delivery day, it's going in the exhibition.

Art and Tomatoes

Artist-wife and I have been having discussions about sculpture as fine art and sculpture as functional art. I seem to fall in between somewhere - being inspired occasionally to make something functional, being commissioned to make something functional, and being free to create something entirely artistic. It would be tough to make a decision to do just one all the time. Then I noticed that about a month ago when the tomatoes were leaning dangerously to the right after a wind storm, I used three garden sculptures to prop them up. They seem to work well, and I like how the tomatoes have warmed up to them. The decision was made for me in this case.

Too many greens?

How can it be? Can green smoothies be bad for you? Recently had to stop using swiss chard for the morning smoothie because T. can't tolerate the high levels of oxalic acid. Lambs quarters also high in that little irritant. It's good to rotate the crops, and I'm back to using dandelion and boring old lettuce.

It's Easy Being Green

Before

After. See? Easy!

Ran into a friend in the produce aisle of Askews today. She asked what I've been putting in my green smoothies these days. The usual; spinach, lamb's quarters, a few younger dandelion leaves. What else? she asks. Good question. I like to use pineapple coconut juice, about a half cup. Place the huge handful of greens into the blender with that, then a whole banana, then fill up to the 3-cup mark with water. Makes two full glasses for me and my green wife. We don't add yogurt, because whizzing up yogurt breaks its fragile bonds.

Peddling and Paddling

Enjoyed a morning bike ride to town today with Tracey, via the urban network of roads. I was inspired to ride back on the nature trail, believing there to be a few inches of water to get through. Well, nature photographers near Christmas Island must have thought I was nuts when I peddled past them into the water on the flooded trail. It got deeper and deeper until the water was over my front wheel. Large fish were scared out of my way, ducks were fleeing, and my face was taking out spider webs between the tree branches. Debris jammed into my gears and cause the chain to come off. Had to stop, pick my bike up out of the water and put the chain back on. I was thankful for granny gear right then. Otherwise, the water was warm, the sun was shining and I was the first bike through the trail in a week. I arrived home with a real sense of accomplishment, and gratitude for aluminum frame bikes that drain well.