Grain Run n Empty, PARAGLIDING PARKER'S photo dump, Fire, Grilling,...

WHAT A FUCKING BLAST OF A DAY!!!!

So things started out normally with a trip to town to pickup grain. It was a4 barrel load and I left the bed liner on the trailer just for this.

It took about 15 minutes to get all 4 barrels shoveled out into the liner and the steaming pile was good and heavy. Again I was a bit concerned about the whole contraption shifting in transit but at that point I had no choice but to go.

I stopped to top off gas on the way home since I was to go flying.

I was home in more than enough time to watch the waste of time Man Utd match. They are such shit and at this point it is coming down to ETH and his decisions. I don't see him making it another year as the head. They of course lost in the last minutes of the game. Just relegate them already.

After the atrocious match was over I went out to shovel out the trailer. I managed to spread the vast majority of the grain out into the two gardens. Most went to the main garden for a second coating by the greenhouse.

Then I finished covering the pole garden.

Which just left a small amount in the liner that I dumped out into the sheep pen.

It wasn't much but at least a bit of fresh grain for them.

Around 11am I was on the road north to Chewelah. I got to Inkler's and eventually the rest of the group all showed up. I had zero desire to fly Inkler's as I am NOT a fan of the launch. It is the highest point in the middle there and it is essentially a cliff launch. The group got up top and Manuel was the only one to fly, but he is also very experienced. The winds shifted weird and everyone else came down after a few attempts. I spent my time kiting my wing around in the LZ so I could feel it again since it was months since my last flight.

That was when we all drove over to the LZ for Parker's, gathered into 3 vehicles and drove to the launch. When we got there the wind was PERFECT but then the gusts picked up while we all setup.

Arron was the first to launch and he got plucked straight up. Then James launched and ended up hanging out with Arron for a while as Levi got in the air. I sat on the ground with my wing in my lap and just watched them fly and waited for the winds to cycle.

I had to wait about 10 minutes before a long enough lull between gusts happened.

flight 68.JPG

I got my wing laid out and everything ready then in a very nice mellow lull of the wind got my wing in the air very evenly and smoothly.

Made my turn and ran.

About 5 steps and I was in the air. My first flight since November 3rd last year.

For the first minute or so of the flight I was catching some lift off the hill but the wind was blowing strong enough that my wing wasn't able to go forward, I was only able to side slip to my right the whole time.

I made it over the rock ridge which gave me a little boost of altitude but once past it I was on full glide to the lz.

The real LZ is to the left a ways but the wind was pushing me north but thankfully the fields are all open and not full of crops.

At this point I got a sudden partial collapse of my right wing which made my butthole pucker. I looked up to see the tip flapping and I gave the brake a solid tug and it popped back out.

I chose my landing area of the field and made sure to get over and past the power lines.

I had to shift a little farther from the lines and then try to get down. I had to stand on my speed bar and feather my brakes and I began to lower out of the sky, STRAIGHT DOWN. It was like riding a slow elevator down.

It was so wild the feeling of slowly lowering vertically down without side to side movement. As I got close to the ground I tied to let of the speed bar but got lifted again so had to jump on it again to lower the last 4 feet to the ground.

Not the MOST amazing flight but a damn good one none the less.

I soon had my wing packed up and James and Arron were heading back to the main lz when Brendan landed out in the field along our way back. This was his shot of us.

In all 9 of us flew from Parker's with me being the 4th one off the launch. You can barely see Manuel who of course landed right by the cars in the lz, he is a good pilot.

Scout and Ralph coming in to land and they got a nice closer landing in the field close by. As Levi came in to land, he was the last one but the 3rd to launch, he was about 200 feet above the ground and took a full 50% collapse. We watched the wing collapse and him begin to spiral down when the wing slammed back open and he managed to land without a problem. MAJOR PUCKER FACTOR!!

7 of us went into Chewelah for beer and food at Sporty's. This is the bar that brought us to Washington. It is the first place I had Big Sky's Moose Drool, is exactly the same as it was in 1999, and has been a main stay of the town for years.

I was home by about 5pm and after unloading my truck got the fire going that J had tried to. He just didn't use enough cardboard was all.

I took the fire a while to get enough coals but finally by 7pm I had the burgers on to grill.

That was also when the Kraken game came on. They started the game in fast fashion with a goal after 45 seconds. But then they sprayed the rink with fetid rancid putrid so-called hockey. They lost 5-2 apparently as I turned the atrocious game off and went to soak.

Got an hour soak in under the full moon that was slightly obscured by clouds.

We are in for a week plus of shitty weather now, it will all be rain for us but some good snows in the mountains. I'm not really sure what all I will be doing today as nothing is screaming in my face that it needs to be done right at the moment.