Jay Richards

I was expecting to see some flakes flying this morning but just a raw wind with some leftover drizzle. ND is getting hammered. I wonder if anyone is going to try skiing. I know a few folks in Bismarck/Park River/Devils Lake that I could see trying it. Gonna be wet and sloppy though. My dad is planning on driving home from Sask. today. He is going to be on the north end of it. The back is loaded down with rock so he should be okay. He was up there hunting in the Lake Lenore area. He didn't shoot one snow this year. Some years we would get 40 in a day.

We always try to ask the kids at supper or when we are all together their fav and least fav thing of the day. Yesterday it was they couldn't go outside because of the weather. So after supper, all four boys and I went for a hike in the woods. Jake wanted to go off the trail so we bushwacked for a half mile and cut over to another trail. We came to some singletrack so Jake and Jon ran on that for a while while Jens and Jack and I did kung fu with some sticks. It started to rain so we were pretty wet when we got back. Good thing Jonell left to go to church meeting. I did catch it for letting Jack and Jon using their "school shoes"The best was at the end when Jack said " I want to roll down this hill". So he rolled down and got all full of leaves.

Yeah, every year it gets worse with the news media getting hyped about the weather. It puts folks in a mindset before anything happens. I pretty much don't listen to the radio between now and April as I can't stand someone telling me that I should stay inside and it is going to be too cold. I am glad we don't have a tv in our house.

Tonight is Wed. night cross at Johnson Park in MHD. Could be pretty nasty and classic. The mud in the valley gets gunky when it rains. Thinking I should be able to make it unless someone pulls the plug. Sunday I rode on the cross bike and did a true cyclocross. I did mainly ski trails and forest roads but was on this trail that came to a beaver cut so I jumped across that. Came to another one that I thought I could bunny hop and ride through but I dropped my front wheel and went otb. I then came to a slough I thought would be dry since it was a pretty dry summer but no way to get around. I followed a deer trail on some high ground but still had to run through some water to get back on the trail. When I came out I heard what I thought was a buck snort but I thought no way. Sure enough, after going down the trail a bit a big buck snorted at me and bolted through the woods.