Had a wonderful weekend visiting family near Buzzards Bay. So many beautiful sights. Had a great time at the Jon Pousette-Dart show at The Narrows in Fall River.
Author: Barry Stacy
“Team Feeley, Yo!”, a team of 11 riders, took off from Tree House Brewing in Deerfield, MA on June 18th to raise money for Dana Farber Cancer Institute with the organization Bikes Fight Cancer. We did the 25 mile route and were the top fund raising team for the event!
The entire event raised $43,600.01, with our team raising $8660. Thank you to everyone who participated.
February 26, 1957 – May 15, 2022
This is not how retirement was supposed to go down for Mike. He had the most anticipated, and advertised, retirement of anyone I have known. Seemed he would ask twice a week “Hey, did I tell you I was retiring?“. Just in case you hadn’t heard. For two years he would ask you this and it just became a running joke.
Well, he did retire and life was good… for about a year. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. And then COVID restrictions put everything on hold. Mike never did get to do that bike ride around Ireland as he had planned on. He didn’t get to rent that lighthouse in Maine that he and Cindy had planned on for later this month. He did welcome a grandson into the family and that gave him a bit of energy and a lot of enjoyment.
Mike loved to joke around and make you laugh. We made a lot of changes in our ten years together, much of it when there were only two of us in the department, but even when things got stressful he would find a way to keep it light. I’m going to miss our conversations about anything and everything, A-Z, from light hearted things to the serious stuff. He was a boss, he was a mentor, and he became a friend who was more like a brother. He was there for me when my mother passed away, and he was excited when Linda and I started riding bikes (one of his passions) last summer. We talked about getting out on a ride together this summer, and I think he was as excited for the bike trip we are taking this fall as we are.
Mike passed away Sunday the 15th. He was only 65. This is not how the most anticipated retirement was supposed to go.
I’m going to miss you brother.
Mike was treated at Dana-Farber and they are having a fundraising bike ride on June 18th at Treehouse Brewing in Deerfield. Linda and I will be taking part in this. I know money is getting tight with the current economy, but if you can, please donate any amount you can.
https://www.Pledgereg.com/332289
After several colder than normal days, Sunday (May 1) popped up with a golden opportunity to get outside and ride, with temps in the upper 60’s and very little wind. We chose a new route that we had, kind of, mapped out over the winter; leaving Greenfield and riding into Bernardston, then over to Northfield and south to Gill, Montague and back to Greenfield. It’s a loop that took us a bit over 25 miles, or 40 kilometers. Let’s go with kilometers; it sounds better to say you rode 40 instead of 25.
It was a great time out on the bikes, but I must admit, for much of the ride my thoughts were on a friend who has been dealing with the big C. He and his wife were avid cyclists and had planned a bike trip to Ireland after retirement. Just about a year after retiring he was diagnosed, and for the last two years he has put up a valiant fight, but sadly, it is getting the best of him.
When we started working together the kids were racing motocross and we would always rib each other on pedal vs throttle. He would tell me about the different rides they went on, often in our “neck of the woods”. He would tell how these rides help with not only physical fitness, but with mental fitness as well. “When you get out on the bike and get closer to nature, you forget all the BS of the week”.
Last year Linda and I started riding bikes, slowing increasing our endurance and getting into riding shape. When things were still hopeful with his prognosis my friend and I discussed doing some of the routes that he and his wife enjoyed when he felt up to it. He would ask about our excursions; How far did we ride? How were “the climbs”? He would get a chuckle from my lamenting on the difficulty of “getting our asses use to skinny seats”.
One of the interests we shared was trying new craft beers. So when we stopped into The Brewery at Four Star Farms in Northfield for lunch it was only fitting that we raised a glass to him. All the while wishing he and his wife could be there with us.
Such is life. Make the most of the time you have here on this big blue marble. Be kind to one another, be helpful to those who need it, and stop waiting for “someday”. Cheers to you Mike.
Have to keep grinding on the Peloton. It’s almost outdoor riding season here on the hill. There have been a few “nice days”, but the roads have not been swept yet in our area. Would really hate to have the first ride of the year start out with a flat!
I really do mean for this to be an anti-Facebook site. There is enough sludge on there that you don’t need to read the same stuff here. But this is just too big. It’s not about your rights, it’s not about big government. It’s about saving the lives of our friends and neighbors.
Saw this on a friends Facebook page and had to share it. Seems to quite accurately sum up the state of society in the US lately.
“We no longer have those principled and informed arguments. The foundational knowledge of the average American is now so low that it has crashed through the floor of “uninformed,” passed “misinformed” on the way down, and is now plummeting to “aggressively wrong.”
People don’t just believe dumb things; they actively resist further learning rather than let go of those beliefs.”
“These are dangerous times. Never have so many people had so much access to so much knowledge and yet have been so resistant to learning anything.”
― Thomas M. Nichols, from ‘The Death of Expertise’
We crashed through reason down past facts and are now landing into a place where society believes only the world I want to exist is acceptable no matter how incredible or fantasy based it may be.
Thank you Gregory. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
The dreaded and divisive vaccine. I woke this morning to news of emergency room in Oklahoma being overrun with patients who have overdosed on ivermectin… Ivermectin?!
Yes, people are adamant about not putting “the vaccine” into their bodies, yet they are readily buying up all the stock of ivermectin from Tractor Supply! Can’t make this up. Perhaps it’s the culling of the herd.
Wait a minute, Tractor Supply? Yes, you see ivermectin is horse de-wormer medication. They won’t put a vaccine, developed for humans into their bodies. But somehow de-wormer that was developed for large horses is a valid treatment. Here is where your little emoji eyes are either shock, or rolling in complete disbelief.
We are doomed as a functioning society.
After watching several reviews of the CCS-58V Idecides to take the plunge into the word of battery powered tools. I’ve had a Milwaukee battery powered drill for many years, but that’s just a drill. Never had anything that actually required some horse power… er, volts.
I doubt you would want to do any heavy logging with this, but I find it very handy for smaller wood cutting, limbing and property cleanup.
Now that we are all home bound (for the most part) we have been playing around with the camera on our walks outside to get fresh air.
Besides the obvious concern for everyone’s health and the looming hit on the worldwide economy, it has been interesting to see how it has affected the natural world around us.
Here is an interesting article from The Atlantic that discusses what seismologists around the world have noticed as countries have been affected by COVID-19.
You can view a gallery of photos we took in our yard by visiting the Photography page of our website. Enjoy. Be safe, Be smart.
You read that right… in the coop. You get use to the sound of the chickens making a racket over the slightest thing; announcing that they just laid an egg… the sun is coming up, there’s a dog in the yard… all the normal, everyday stuff. This sounded different though. There was some panic to it. And with good reason.
Seems the cold days of winter have made finding food a bit more difficult for wild life. I had noticed the red tailed hawk circling above just the day before. It’s nothing new, but this time it was a bit lower in the sky and it was being harassed by a much smaller bird. It flew off to the west and I didn’t give it anymore thought.
Our coop is inside the barn and fully enclosed with chicken wire, top to bottom. It’s doubled up with 1″ chicken wire on the bottom 3 feet for added protection to keep out the raccoons and skunks. There is a run for them to get outside and enjoy when they can’t free range. Plenty of room for all 25 of the girls. Not only is it fenced in 8 feet high, it has a couple of strands of electric fence around it to also help keep them safe from the critters who love the taste of chicken. Doesn’t everyone? There are also strands of wire strung across the top of the run every 18″. Just enough to foil the wingspan of aerial predators… or so we thought.
Seems this raptor had been checking out the “Stacy Homestead Restaurant” and found his way through those wires and into the run. He wasn’t even fazed by the plastic owl with the head that swivels in the wind. Now I don’t know the first things about birds of prey other than, don’t mess with them. This guy was thrashing around in the coop when I walked into the barn and once he saw me, he began to guard his dinner, wings spread wide, as you can see the the photo gallery below.
Yes, this was over 40 years ago, and the game has changed a lot in those years, but the game is still about will, and heart, and desire. It’s about taking people from diverse backgrounds and getting them to work as a team, to work for a common goal.