It has been a very busy fall so far at Whetstone Boys Ranch. In October we had one boy graduate and one who left because we were past the point of benefit for him. Those are hard sad days. I was able to get in another century ride in Springfield. Thank you for all of your support for my rides and for WBR.

This month we already have one who graduated and another one will graduate this week. These ceremonies last about 2 hours in total with staff, resident and parent presentations and are a precious reminder of why and what we are doing in southern Missouri in answering God’s call for our lives.

We have also had 4 new boys come to the ranch to start their journey here. During chapel one Tuesday, I mentioned to the boys and staff that I believe that God chose these boys to come to WBR for this training and therapy so that when they go home they can help others during these hard teenage times and to be an ambassador for Jesus.

We’re now 8 months into our time here and it still feels like we just arrived and yet we only have 16 months left to accomplish our reason for being here. My heart aches when I reflect on how fast it is all going.

I have not been able to ride as much due to a week long illness and just the busyness of our work here. The organized century rides are done until April so for the next few months I will ride to various locations around the area. It looks like next Monday 11/25 will be a good day for a long ride. Mansfield is about 55 miles or so from our house so I will make that my destination for the ride this month. If I have time I will try to take a look at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead museum while there.

There is a small consignment store in Mountain View and I have been able to place some of my woodworking items there for sale.

I plan to make some more salad hands, butter knives, spoons and spatulas for the store.

That is all for now. If you would like to donate to my century rides please click here: Gary’s Century Rides.

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary

 

This was a Springbike Club sponsored ride this past Saturday. We had a choice of two ride distances, 100 or 50 both metric. Only 8 of us showed up and 6 decided to do the shorter distance leaving 2 of us to ride the longer one and spend more time in the rain. Tony (my riding partner for the day) and I started out and made about 24 kilometers when the heavens opened up for the first time. We stopped at a convenience store and had some hot chocolate. Tony discovered that his bike computer was out of battery life so the store clerk charged it for us. It was raining hard enough so we didn’t mind losing an hour and a half waiting for his computer to charge. We needed it because he had the route stored on it. After we finished our drinks and there was some charge on the computer we started out again. Most of the route was flat but we found some hills about 45 kilometers in with some good inclines. We also saw some beautiful farmland and some farm houses.

3 rides down and 17 to go.

Thanks for perusing,

Gary

Gary’s Century Rides

I’m writing this on Tuesday morning before I go out to the wood shop at the ranch. In four days I will be riding another century ride to raise financial support for some projects that I am personally involved in at the ranch. This will be the third ride with fifteen to go over the next 18 months that we are in Missouri.

As I am writing this and preparing to go out to the wood shop for the day I thought that I should share where we are in the dreaming and development of the wood shop.

The barn is about 120 yards from the house so each Saturday I will take three boys at a time for about a 1&1/2 hours time to learn joinery and hand skills. I would love to have a separate dedicated shop but it is not even on the horizon yet of anyone else’s dream just mine. Let’s just say it would be nice to have it closer to the house and to be more airtight.

The space is 9’x 16′ and fortunately it is a raised platform. This provides an easier floor to stand on and protection for dropped tools. I have plans for two additional benches with wall hung tool cabinets for each. I have donated the bench above to the ranch and also some of mine hand tools that I have been gathering over the years. The wood in the back ground is some 4″ boards that I cut out of some fallen trees from the tornado in 2015. These will become the bench tops and the 4″x 4″ boards on the left will become the legs and stretchers. I need to buy some vice screws and some hold fasts for the benches. Inside each wall cabinets will be: 3 handplanes, 3 saws, 3 chisels, a mallet, various marking tools for laying out joints and some other as needed tools. Inside another cabinet will be some specialty tools that will be shared by all three bench stations.

I’m looking into having a heater for the winter months and a fan for the summer( it reached 114 degrees inside the barn this August).

So there is my dream and so far you have helped raise $795.00 of the $1500.00 for the wood shop. Thank you so much. In addition to riding for Whetstone and raising money, Kristin and I fund these rides out of our pocket, so everything you give goes to Whetstone. Again, I thank you so much. The link to contribute is:Gary’s Century Rides.

I’ll report this weekend about the ride in Springfield. Have a great week.

 

Thanks for perusing,

Gary

 

Here I am at the start of Ride the Rivers Century ride in St. Charles MO this past Saturday. It was a great day for a long ride, cool and overcast with an expectation of rain. I joined between 400-500 riders to tour the streets of the greater St. Louis area and to follow the Mississippi River before crossing it back into St. Charles. There were riders who wanted to go fast and some who took their time. I was somewhere in between. When the bike weighs 30 pounds, it’s hard to keep up a fast pace and still have something in the tank for the steeper climbs and the headwinds of the afternoon.

 

I enjoyed the ride even though it was back in a city with a lot of traffic and pedestrians and even a 5k race by the river. My riding time was about 8 hours with an additional 2 hour period of rest stops, lunch and fixing 4 flats.

Next month I will be in Springfield MO for my next century ride. If you would like to donate please go to:  https://secure.qgiv.com/event/garcenrid/.

Something that we stress at Whetstone is to do things with excellence and I take it a bit further in the wood shop. I encourage the boys to “be willing to sign their name to what they’ve built”. That is something my dad instilled in me and I tried to pass on the message to my three sons.

So when my middle son asked me to build a Corn Hole game for the college where he works, I jumped at the opportunity. Since it was for him and York College, I gave them a ridiculous price for it but I still needed to do my best work. Normally the game sets that I have seen are made of heavy materials that sometimes require two people to carry. Collin told me that the girls at the school would want to play so that was who I designed the game for. I also wanted it to make a statement about the work that I like to do so it needed to show some pride in workmanship. At first I was going to set it up so that the surface would clip into the frame but in the end decided to attach them. York Nebraska also is a fairly high humidity area so I wanted weather resistant woods that would last with some minimal care involved.

I made the base from 1″x 4″ Redwood since it would be in contact with the wet grass or on the concrete. Dovetailed corners and through mortise and tenon joints keep the base strong and square.

 

To keep the game surface light weight, I used Eastern White pine with Black Walnut breadboard ends with Oak dowels to keep everything flat. I installed a 1″ x 1/4″ Oak spline help keep the two pieces of pine together and give some reinforcement.

This was a fun project and for a good cause.

 

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary

 

The mind and the body are truly amazing things. Sometimes they work together and sometimes they are in conflict. They lie to each other and conspire with each other. I found this out this past Saturday while riding in the Stonewall Century in La Veta Colorado.

In last year’s ride I was not sure what to expect so I rode the entire thing not realizing how hard it would be to ride 100 miles, at elevation, with only a month to prepare, on a new bike, and it was hot. This year I knew about the immediate 17 mile climb from the start to the top of the pass, I knew about the 37 mile descent down to Segundo and then climbing back( including the last 1&1/2 mile 10% plus grade). I have ridden almost 1800 miles since last year, many of them in the heat and humidity of Missouri where I now live. I have ridden in the rain, and mud and dust, up and down hills that exceeded 14% grades, pulling my tools in an old bike trailer as I went to work on various houses. I would ride in the heat of the day to prepare my body for being hot. My mind was telling me that I was ready to leave living at 1100 feet above sea level and ride somewhere between 6,000 – 10,000 feet for 104 miles.

I was ready, until I wasn’t. The wind woke me at 2 AM and I had trouble going back to sleep but knowing that I needed to to. 5:00 would come too early and I wanted to get on the rode. I was determined to not be the last rider in as I was last year. The first mile told me everything I needed to know about this year’s ride. Riding up even a small grade like 5% was difficult at 7,018 feet especially into the wind. The majority of those 1800 miles were training rides of 30 miles or less. I did all 219 miles of Pedal the Plains last year but that was September. I only had 1 ride of 60 miles this year and that was three weeks before Stonewall. I did remember to increase my water intake to make up for the elevation gain. But even that was not enough.

And then the battle began. I started cramping in different parts of my legs. First my right calf and then my left hamstring and it just continued to move around like an evil itch. Frustrating.  Then the mind kicked in and stated telling me that it was a lost cause and to turn around at the 12.5 mile stop. 104 miles was just too much, never make it, too weak. Then for some reason, my back side started to hurt. Normally that wouldn’t happen until around 45 miles in, this was too early. It lasted only about two miles but it took its toll on the brain and body which had a battle Royalle going on. Yes I can, No you can’t, Yes! No! On and on it went. Okay, so maybe I can’t ride 104 miles so I’ll ride to the top of the pass and then turn around. Or maybe not even that. Mind and body teaming up against me. Mind and body fighting against each other. Oh, the pain of it. All the while I continue on to 9,995 feet above sea level.

I rode to the top of the pass and then down to the next rest stop.

 

 

 

 

I remembered this fine group of people from last year. They had the best homemade goodies and some pretty good coffee. I decided to turn around and face the 8 mile climb and yes the 10.5 % grade was still there. I decided to admit that the length of the ride would defeat me for this year but not the elevation or the steepness of the pass. On and on I climbed but I refused to use the lowest of my gears as I did last year.

I rejoiced when I made the summit and knew I was almost done. A quick 17 mile descent with some bursts to 48 mph and I was back in La Veta. Ready for my recovery meal of a cup of coffee and a Snickers bar.

So, some things that I learned;

1. It’s hard to train for a ride that starts at 7018′ above sea level when one lives at 1140′.
2. If one is to ride 104 miles at high elevation, one needs to have more training rides of longer duration than only one at 60 miles at lower elevation.
3. One can still accomplish a hard thing if one tells the mind to shut up and the legs to keep pedaling.

I rode 50 miles at elevation for Whetstone Boy’s Ranch and to raise money for the new air conditioning unit.  Next month I am riding in Missouri for Whetstone and to raise money to buy tools for the wood shop. More on that later.

 

Thanks for perusing,

Gary

It has been a busy month for the Whetstone community. Some good things like Adventure Week, a graduation with a young man able to go home with his family and a staff members’s family grew in number with a birth of a baby girl. There has also been some bad things. We lost a ranch truck in a flash flood. It had gotten stuck coming through a sandy portion of the river bottom in 2″ of water that swelled to 2′ of water in a couple of minutes. Fortunately no one was hurt and it was insured. A couple of weeks ago the main air conditioner for the house finally died. One can only imagine 9 sweaty boys plus a couple of staff members coming back from a two mile run, the heat index approaching 100 degrees and the house is hot. It did not smell pretty. It took about nine days for the unit to be replaced but it is running well and everyone in the house is happy again.

There is a point to this and it is that we had to put the A/C unit on a payment plan for a few months. This got me to thinking about what I could do to help the ranch out even more. One of the joys of my life is to be able to ride my bicycle to work and to many other places. Over the years I have ridden in a variety of cycling events that were fundraisers and have raised thousands of dollars that way. So I thought how I could use my love for cycling to benefit the ranch.

 

So this August 10th, I am returning to La Veta, CO for the annual Stonewall Century ride. It’s a 104 mile out and back event that has an elevation gain of around 7500 feet. The ride starts In La Veta (7100 ft) (and climbs to Cuchara Pass at 9,995 feet and drops to Segundo (6500 ft) and then reverses. The last mile and a half up to the pass is over 10 grade and has a fun 17 mile run to finish in La Veta.

If you would like to be a part of helping out Whetstone Therapeutic School and Ranch, please go to the website: whetstoneboysranch.com and click the donate button.

In September, I plan on riding in another century ride in St. Charles MO. I’ll post more about that after this ride.

Missouri has about 16 century rides per year and I would love to partner with you in benefiting Whetstone. I will also ride in this particular century ride each year ‘just because’.

 

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary

So one of the ways that we help out at Whetstone is having one of the boys over for dinner and spending time with them at the ranch playing disk golf or other games. On Tuesdays, I have the privilege of talking at chapel and we have staff meetings every Wednesday morning. We also take care of the staff children from time to time as needed.

This last week was Adventure Week for the newer boys and the ones who have been here were able to go home for a visit. Adventure Week lived up to its name but that is for another post. We had the job of driving to the Springfield airport to this last weekend pick up the boys back from home visits. Originally we were to pick up 3 but one of them had their flight cancelled due to weather so he stayed in the San Antonio airport overnight.

Here is one of the boys on Saturday.

And here is Kristin with the one on Sunday fresh from San Antonio.

 

On Wednesday, I helped one of the interns with his car. Right before Adventure Week he was on his way to our house to hang out but instead had a flat tire and ruined the rim trying to find cell service in order to call me for help. We were able to get his car to our house while he was gone. So on Wednesday, I drove him to Springfield to purchase a new wheel then to West Plains to buy a tire and then back to our place to install said tire and wheel. In all, a 212 mile adventure complete with a thunderstorm for most of the journey.

 

We are so blessed to be here and to be able to help out as needed.

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary

 

So I’ve been in southern Missouri Ozark country now for about 3 months. I believe that’s enough time to become an expert on the roads around here and give a report for fellow cyclists.

We live 1 mile north of road N which is a paved road with a speed limit of 55 and no shoulder.

This is looking to the west. To the east is a slight hill that is supposed to have a 35 MPH speed limit. I’ve almost been hit here while driving in my Jeep. A motorcyclist was killed here in 2014.

While I’m not afraid to ride on a road like this, I have promised Kristin that I would stay off of the road except to cross. In various places around the county we have signs like this.

I also don’t ride here. I’ve only seen water up to the 1 foot level so far.

So, since the closest paved road that I can ride on is a 6 mile car drive, I am left to ride on gravel roads made up of crushed limestone and flint. Here are some examples.

For the picture on the right, the grade going down is 14.4 percent and then rising up 13.6 percent with a river at the bottom that also floods. This road has washed out several times in our time here. It’s also the road we take to Whetstone Ranch.

So far, I’ve experienced 12 flats on both of my bikes. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the tires are tubed or tubeless. Usually they occur at the bottom of a hill complete with some standing water and mosquitoes. A pleasant place to repair a tire. Last week, I experienced 2 flats 10 feet apart and had the privilege of walking 3&1/2 miles home. I’ve been working on a house that is only 3 miles from our house so I refuse to drive such a short distance. I had my bike trailer with me in order to carry some tools home and wanted to get in some extra miles. It was only 95 that day with a heat index of 103 and 92% humidity. A most pleasant day to walk home pushing a bike with a trailer attached and loaded with tools. It all helps get me in shape and keep me young.

I continue to explore the best routes and the countryside. It is a most beautiful place if one can stand the obvious and not so obvious hindrances. Here are some of the sights on my 34 mile round trip ride to church.

So here are the last pictures I want to share. This is our 1/3 mile driveway. It is it’s own adventure. Interesting enough, I have not had a flat on this goat trail.

 

Thanks for perusing,

 

Gary