Another first...*

Had a cracking pedal with my mate Al today up at Cwmcarn. The weather was cold and the snow was spitting about in the air but the conditions were spot on.

A knackered chain nearly put paid to the fun to start with but after a couple of adjustments it thankfully stayed put and didn't snap. That's not to say I didn't think of the potential damage to me if it had snapped on some of the climbs.
So, the first time on a singlespeed at a trail centre and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't make it on a couple of climbs, once due to chain jumping off with 10 feet to go and the other just running out of grip on the rocks. Hey ho. Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks for a good day out, Al.

*thanks for the inspiration, you know who you are.

Makin' Bacon

Oh what the hell, I know it's a cliché but it's about as accurate a title as any.
Last night I began cold smoking the side of bacon left whole. I maybe hadn't thought it through entirely as well as I should have given that my smoking shack AKA the lean-to greenhouse I built on the side of the house, was on the side of the house. By virtue of crap windows and old brickwork (I'm blaming the windows) quite a lot of the lovely smoky goodness came into the house. This means that even now, a day later, there is a distinct odour of smoke.
Anyway, with the apple tree woodchips smouldering away nicely I left the bacon hanging for 20 hours. There are no pictures because a) it was really smoky and you couldn't see anything for all the smoke and b) I forgot and went to spin class and by the time I got back it was dark and you definitely couldn't see anything.
This evening then with the bacon lovely and cold I brought it in, admired the texture and feel of it and then got ready.

You'll notice the Ginger Pig Meat Book in the background. A great read but actually doesn't say much in there on how to slice bacon. So I took a stab in the dark and sort of rolled and folded it in half before tying with some crap string to keep it together.
My first few slices were just to even the end off so I won't show you those. I also grilled them pretty much immediately to see what it tasted like. It was very nice.
I began with a carving knife as you can see here-

but I found that it wasn't long enough and it also flexed a little it felt like as I was cutting through the meat. I swapped to a thicker and slightly longer knife and progress was far better, with each rasher coming away much better presented.
After getting about halfway through the side the meat was beginning to get warm and so wasn't cutting as well. I wrapped it up and put it back into the cold room and bagged up the rashers cut so far.

Where do good pigs go?

You may, or may not, remember that I had two rare breed Saddleback pigs up on my friends farm; Cinderhill Farm. They were called Genghis and Aristotle.
Well the time came for them to go to the piggy seaside after seven months of living the life of Riley on the hillside. They went to separate butchers as they were different statures. Aristotle (a meat pig) went to my local butcher, Neil Lewis and in return I got some cracking joints, plain sausages made to his award wining recipe, faggots, diced casserole meat and a middle side being cured for bacon.
Genghis (a bacon pig) went to a chap called Gerald who does a lot of curing. I received close to 50lb of lincolnshire sausages, offal, bacon and some lovely hams, including this absolute gem.

That's for a special occasion.
Here's some bacon;

and lurking at the bottom of that box was this beautiful side that I'm going to cold smoke.

I am so pleased with how the pigs turned out. The meat is delicious and for those that will look at the bacon and wince thinking it will be fatty, I can assure you that all the lovely flavour from that band of fat melts into the meat and the result is truly outstanding. I have eaten a lot of bacon and sausages and modesty be damned, this is the best I've tasted.
If you want to know exactly where your meat comes from and how it is treated then speak to Neil or Debs at Cinderhill.

The Flying Gate

Stopped for a brew and some cake on a club pedal today and as we were leaving this lovely bike arrived.

A bit of rummaging and it's a T.J. Cycles Flying Gate
Very interesting and I imagine pretty responsive given the short wheelbase and rear wheel position.

Wall of Death by Barry Slevin

I know this chap. He's a good chap. By heck he can draw too.
This is his latest commissioned piece, titled Wall of Death

and some detail from it-

You can find him on that nasty place, f**ebook as Barry Slevin Original Artworks

Stir crazy

I am now fed up of snow.
As the cars disappear under it and blend into the landscape the white stuff keeps falling.

I can safely say that it's the most I've seen fall in the 7 years here.
I got busy with the shovel last night and got a path clear and was able to get the bike from the shed. Of course then it froze overnight.
Nevermind, and steady does it.

Man it was good to be back on two (motorised) wheels.

Snow days and singlespeeds

It's been snowing. I doubt you've missed it. First off walking back from the pub there was a family of snowmen, great to see although judging from the relative amount of snow on their lawn they must have been gathering snow from everywhere.

I thought they were brilliant.
Today dawned and although there no more snow had fallen none of it had really gone away. I really wanted to go for a pedal so got the time late this afternoon and got the singlespeed out.
Only went out for an hour and a half but it was good to do.

The bridleways were a mix of mud and snow were bikes had already been down and back up them. I'll be honest, I had to push part of this going back up after it came to a dead end. The biggest bugbear of the whole ride was the clips getting frozen with ice and then being unable to clip back in. Grr.
Back up from that bridleway and the road was a mix of snow, compacted snow and ice. Predictably just as I was thinking how well it was going...

Slip, slide and roll...
Ah well. Pick up and carry on.
The view from the top was rather lovely, the mountain (it's not really a mountain) was shrouded in clouds.

Back on. Along the road a little and then into another section of woodland before climbing back up into the final section. The light was coming back in there was still some pedalling to be done. After a last hurtle downhill that was it for the woods.

A steep climb back up to the village and job done. It was good to get out.