Homestead Heritage Farms 2015

A couple weeks ago the weather became favorable for a decent afternoon ride. We decided to take advantage of that bit of warmth and make it count in two ways. Riding and seeds! Seeds? Exactly that!

Margaret and I have been growing our own vegetables and herbs for over 10 years. The greatest success to our gardens have been due to our choice of seeds. It took awhile to understand that the best seeds are not the ones found in packages at your local garden store. Those seeds could have come from veggies from an entirely different region of the country, from different soil conditions, climate, elevation, etc. Which means their not acclimated to where we live.

We found Homestead Heritage many years ago and have attended seminars there to educate ourselves better about gardening. They grow their own crops and harvest the heirloom seeds from the strongest of the plants each year. This is often referred to as Seed Saving. By saving the strongest of the seeds from your crops the plants will become stronger and more acclimated to your local area based on temperatures, water, soil, and a whole bunch of other factors. If you diversify your crops to include many varieties of tomatoes for example, then you further strengthen the sustainability of your crops. For now we still purchase their seeds but we have begun saving our own with the purpose of eventually completely using our own seeds.

I don't want to turn this site into a political forum but I do want to mention something about seed saving and genetically modified foods (GMO's) since I have written about Healthy Living for Healthy Riding. It's very difficult in our world today, especially in the USA, to eat food that is healthy. I'm not talking about just eating healthy, I'm talking about whether the content of the healthy food you consume is healthy. A company named Monsanto is at the forefront of genetically modified foods. The Institute for Responsible Technology has an excellent write up on why GMO's are bad for you and I included the link instead of trying to explain it all here. There is also a LOT of funding by some of your popular companies such as PepsiCo for example that are strong advocates for the use of GMO's. Purchase a PepsiCo/Frito Lay product and you have become a supporter of Genetically Modified Foods. Congratulations.

What you purchase to eat can be healthy if you take the time to do a bit of research. I want to live a long life and be able to enjoy riding for as long as possible. A wonderful website called Eat Local Grown lists companies that do not use GMO products in their foods. They also list the companies that support GMO's and some products on the shelves associated with those companies for you to avoid.

GMO's are banned in Europe but unfortunately GMO's are still allowed in the US. I think everyone wants to eat healthy, live a long life, and in our case, ride a long life. What you put into your body is a primary factor in that goal which is one of the reasons we purchase our seeds from Homestead Heritage and grow our own garden.

Live Healthy, Ride Longer

Winter Down Time

If you follow my blog it's clear we haven't been very active of late. Even in Texas we become victims at the mercy of the weather. For the past few weeks between some rain and cold temperatures we have been confined to driving instead of riding. There have been sporadic breaks where we have gone on a very short, and I do mean very short, 5-10 mile rides for a quick lunch. Last weekend was decent and we participated in our Chapter's Freeze Yer Bunz Ride. It wasn't freezing though which I am thankful for. A couple days throughout the week I was able to ride my 120 mile round trip commute to work and back. But for the most part, no riding. On top of the weather, the end of the year brought about funding at work that had to be spent by years end so we fired up more construction projects which inevitably causes me to have to put in some weekend work. The overtime is nice though and its at a good time of the year since it doesn't interfere with our riding plans too much.

So what do we do that is somewhat riding related during these seasonal times? I've spent a bit of time optimizing my tools for the road that I keep in my saddlebags. Basically trying to limit the space they take while still having a good set of tools for breakdowns that could occur. I've been working on a post about tools for the road and once I'm happy with my tool setup I'll get that posted. We still check our tire pressure every week, not just to keep in good habit but keeping the tire pressure correct will prolong the life of your tires.

Margaret bought a couple shifter decorative parts for my bike at Christmas and my birthday which we installed on a somewhat decent weather day and did a couple of short videos that we hope could be helpful to someone. It was still cold while installing them so we kept the garage doors closed and used our shop lamps to generate some warmth.

Margaret has been wanting louder sound on her Softail so I bought her some Cycle Shack slip ons for Christmas and we installed those this past weekend and put together a video on the process and a before and after of the sound difference. Their loud! Like seriously, LOUD! Her bike now makes my Street Glide sound gimp. It's all good though, she loves the way it sounds now and that was the goal.

Margaret's Slip ons

One particular upgrade I've been wanting to do to my bike since getting it was some longer handlebars. The stock ones are just a bit too low for comfort and on longer rides I will sometimes get a pain between my shoulders from having to lean forward slightly. We were at our local dealership this weekend and there was a set of 12" Arlen Ness handlebars on a new Street Glide that I really liked. They felt great when sitting on the bike. We went to the parts counter and found that particular handlebar was on back order because of its popularity. BUT, they had one set which was the display that they sold me. Now I am slowly going to purchase all the other parts necessary to install them since the cables and wiring on the stock bike will be too short. That means clutch cable, brake lines, electronic controls, and throttle by wire will all have to be replaced. There will be quite a bit of tear down to make it all happen and well do a video on the process when I get all of the parts and a nice full day of good weather.

We did a few videos lately as well that I linked on the maintenance page. How to install slip ons, changing spark plugs, installing a shift lever, and lubricating throttle cables. We try to keep new helpful content rolling out.

That's about all for now. We do have a Sweetheart ride with our Chapter coming up on Sunday that well take part in. So if your not doing anything and have a sweetheart you would like to take on a ride then saddle up and head out with us!