Jay Richards

Hard to believe a week a go we were down in the cities. Week zipped by quick. Went down last Thursday for hockey tourney in Blaine with first game Thursday night. Jon was skating with the Fighting Loons, team based out of Bemidji with mostly northern kids and probably half from borderish towns in MN and also the Canadian border town of Fort Frances. Stopped in Elk River on way down and hooked up with the Warner family and Jake went down with Tom and Trent to race the Thursday night race at Buck. Jake said the race went okay for him. Hot and hard, good training. Jake went back up with Warners to spend the night. Thanks folks.


After Jon's first game, which they won against a good cities team, we caught some of the Thursday night lights racing at the velodrome. Never been there before and we enjoyed checking out that scene. Very cool.
The tourney consisted of teams from birth date 2000 to 1992. Jake's good friend Ethan skated up with a 1992 team based out of Fergus Falls and we got to catch some of his games. The super rink is a amazing facility with 8 rinks all connected toghether.
Jon skating through traffic.

Getting ready to take a tough angle shot. With his Moorhead team, they thrive on dumping the puck with a stiff forecheck and physical play. With the Loons team, Jon skates with the puck a bit more and seems to be in this position a lot. Worked out pretty good most of the weekend, scoring a few goals and getting the puck on net and juicy rebounding for a team mate to knock it in or passing it over to the slot for a crasher. The fourth game on late Saturday night was the most exciting. Jon put two in early in the first period to give the team a lead but the Siouxland Buffalo came back to tie it up and at the end of the third it was 4-4. Went in to ot, no scoring and then shootout which they lost. Tough loss but fantastic game to watch. Stayed at Jonell's sister's over the weekend and non stop action with the cousins playing shinny, football, baseball, basketball....

Goalie Grant, from Bemidji, had a solid weekend. The team in whole started to gel after not much practice beforehand and fun to watch the styleo of each player. One more tourney in Duluth not til August.
After one of the games we dropped off Jack and Jens with the Matt Johnson family so they could help Cole celebrate his birthday. They spent the night had had a good time.
Sunday morning Jake and I went down to Mankato for MNSCS #4. I was on the sidelines, sitting another one out as I work out the funk. It was a good time nontheless, taking in the racing action and was fun watching and cheering Jake. Jake had one of his best races of the year rolling across 15th A great course to take in the action. There was only a seven minute span I didn't see him and most of the time it was 30 sec to 4 minutes about 6 times during a lap. Just as I enjoy watching ski races and the different techniques, same goes for bike racing. Everyone has there own style.
Rich Omdahl having a gay old time as he sets things up nicely. I pretty much caught all of the Elite riders and most of the Comp riders. Rich ripped the quick release section faster then anyone, I would have to say.

Chris Fisher with a sweet remount after having to jump off because of a downed rider. Hand on the rear brake, keeping steady from grabbing the root. Section is much steeper than it looks. Jen might not approve!



Jake ripped through pretty darn fast.
Said it was crazy following Tommy Miller on the first lap. Both he and Heath pulled him around pretty good.
Greg Blasko absorbing as usual. Greg hears it all. Doesn't get the credit he deserves. Nicely done Greg.
Good to be back home enjoying the beautiful summer we have had this week. If one of the boys has a friend over, then everyone wants to have a friend. Just fine by us. What summer is all about. Jake caught a dandy largemouth and was pretty stoked about that. Fried it up and thought it was some of the better tasting freshwater I have had in a while. Jon missed the picture because he was sleeping. Last week of waking up at 5:45am for him which will be nice.
More friends over, enjoying supper after some sweet riding with the Wenzels and Jamie B from Fargo.


With all the rain in June, the underbrush is going gangbusters. We started brushing out some of the singletrack sections that have grown over. Peter pretty much spent the whole month of June weed whacking. Works 4 hours a day times five days a week equal 80 hours of weed whacking.
Peter has it figured out. Has a leather belt to keep the mixed gas and water jug close to the body, the baseball cap on the cutter, and bug dope in the back pocket. 73 years old and still going strong. He doesn't need to take shots of juiced wheat grass at a juice bar, he gets it breathing in the mist from mowing down 100's of different wild grasses and what not.
Jake following behind with the blower, clearing the grass away. Jake has been working on the new singletrack quite a bit since the last few weeks of school, getting the riding done before school so he could work on the new track in the afternoon/evening. Nicely done Jake. Probably on hold for a while withe mosquitoes getting bad and deer flies ready to cut loose. We have a Chinese boy coming next week to work for a few months so will try to get out with him.
Have a safe and happy 4th.