John is a carpenter, bicycle enthusiast, and all around fun guy who I volunteer with at Sibley Bike Depot. I have already helped John with a few small building projects at Sibley, and last week we all decided that the bike shop really needs a cool coat rack. (now that winter is almost over) John conveniently knew of a tree that fell this winter in a park in Saint Paul, and got permission for us to go get it.He brought a freshly sharpened antique two-man saw, and we cut that tree into a ten-foot section. The sawing went surprisingly fast!
The next step was to get our new coat rack out of the woods, across the street, and loaded onto the bike trailer. Estimated weight of the log: 350 pounds! (I'm still not sure how we managed this, I guess I'll have to chalk it up to my super-human vegetarian strength!)The log was secured with recycled inner tubes. (they make great bungee cords!)
Then I pedaled that 350-pound log all the way across Saint Paul to the bike shop! (Just kidding! John was the real strong man who mastered this tree... I just tried it out for the last few blocks to see what 350 pounds feels like on the back of a bike. It's surprisingly not that bad, although, I didn't have to go uphill! ...The hardest part was reaching John's pedals!)
The funniest part of the day was that someone had to put weight on the bicycle at all times, or it would go flying up in the air from the weight on the trailer, kind of like a see-saw!
When we got to Sibley, thankfully a few friends were there to assist with lifting and securing the log. The next day, John returned and added these recycled bike parts as pegs, and voila! The new shop coat rack that already gets A LOT of use!stay tuned for the next big bicycle adventure... LA to Boston!
~casey
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