• Hikes,  Missouri,  Trips

    St. Francois Park Mooner’s Hollow Hike 5-2-16

    Since the weather was so nice, we headed out to hike Mooners Hollow in St. Fracois Park in MO. The boy was ready for more adventure: This was the first time the little girl got to ride in her pack for a decent hike. She didn’t really care for it, but eventually settled down: The boy plum wore himself out just riding along:

  • Garage Projects

    The Mighty Merc – Front Winch Bumper

    Being able to self-recover is something I try to strive for with my builds. In that vein, I make it a point to fit a winch to the front of my toys. I will admit that it doesn’t get used that often, but when it does, it’s a big help! The goal was to tuck the winch in as tight to the body as I could in hopes that I could reuse the stock bumper cover for a cleaner look…

  • Hikes,  Missouri,  Trips

    Shaw Nature Reserve 4/21/16

    We kicked off the 2016 “hiking” season this past weekend with a trip to Shaw Nature Preserve in Gray Summit MO. I say “hiking” as we mostly stayed on the easy trails as we toted the 3 wheel stroller around the park, but there were several off-road sections we (dumbly) dragged it through. Couple of random photos: This was one of the less friendly jogging stroller parts, there were a few others on the River Trail that were even messier,…

  • Garage Projects

    The Mighty Merc – It’s Shocking and bumpy, and occasionally tracking the right way! (Part 1)

    I spent way more time fretting about shock selection than I probably should have given what I wound up going with. The best I can tell, I needed about a 10-12” travel shock in the rear, and an 8” travel shock up front. With that in mind, I was going back and forth between the Bilstein shocks and the Rancho shocks. I had mixed luck with the Rancho’s on the last rig so I was hesitant to go down that…