I scaled this up to try and fit my watch but it was a bit too small still, the buttons got pushed when fit into the space. It fits J's though so I set it on his door for him to use.

Mid day I headed up to the launch with staked and flagging. I took a 3 piece section of whip antenna and fit them together. I then tied flagging to it at intervals and then mounted it to the t-post.

As I was installing the flagging the winds were PUMPING with gusts well over 20 mph. It made tying the flagging hard.

Soon I had the fence lined with flagging and it looked perfect for denoting the winds at various levels. I watched as the gusts died then kicked back in and the top of the pole would get hit first then it would work its way down.

The major task for the day was mowing. I took the mower down to the creek area and cut back the whole flats between the pear trees and the creek.

Then it was across the creek into the deep and tall grasses. I had cut it once this year but the rains and weather had it grown back really tall. The string mower does a great job with the tall stuff and hacks through some of the bushes. The temps were only in the mid 70's but damn was it humid by the creek and in amongst the brush. I was sweating like mad by the time I was done. While I was mowing packages delivered which I went out to get once cooled off some.

Trying out the auto feeder for the dog so we have more chance at weekends away this summer.

It was about 3:30 when I headed up the hill with my wing to go do some kiting. I was fighting with it for a half an hour before I managed to finally get it to sit up over my head for more than a second. The stumps were also giving me a bunch of trouble and really need to be hacked down flush.

The clouds were strolling through and there was some bigger stuff built up out to the west.

SOOOOO... I had been kiting for about an hour and I had gotten plucked and spun but landed on the ground. My flight tracking app thought I was flying so started a flight to which I took the phone out and turned off the app since "I wasn't going to be flying". Phone in pocket and I told myself, "this is the last time for the day" and got the wing up, it fell, I pulled it back up and got a really nice bit of kiting. I was leaning back in my harness since the wind was pushing a bit and the wing wanted to lift.

Suddenly a gust hit my wing, it lifted and spun me around to face forward, then lifted me straight off of launch about 10 feet.

I was suddenly in the air looking back down at the launch trying to figure out how to get back down. I was feathering the brakes trying to go backwards but the air wouldn't let me down.

I was looking around me trying to figure out what my next move was when the wing got a bit more distance from launch and I had to decide quickly what was next.

There were a number of options but most of them did not manage to enter my brain. At this point I just gave in and slid into my harness and tried to get a flight in.

I flew towards the highway and then turned left to try and stay in any lift along in front of launch.

I turned to cross the highway but as soon as my feet got over the edge I felt ZERO lift and knew it would be WAY too close to cross over traffic and between the trees.

So I turned right to stay on our side of the highway and hoped beyond hope that I had enough glide to hit an open spot along the highway.

Looking at it now I nearly could have top landed or just stuffed myself into the hillside since it is nice and soft.

The trees were my main concern and I was very aware of my wing tip on the right side.

I skimmed tree tops and damn near kick the town sign as I flew over.

Next was a bit sketchy as I flew along the swale I suddenly got a blast of wind and speed when the car went past and I had to try and check it quickly.

I bled enough speed off and flared hard then let off then buried the brakes as I stomped my feet atop the tunnel of our creek going under the highway. I ended up about a foot from the edge of the tunnel, my wing came down next the the highway and the guard rail, and I was insanely surprised and delighted.

I gathered my wing in my arms and began to run back for the house. A guy had stopped when he saw me flying and came to check on me as I climbed over the fence onto our road.

I dumped the wing in the yard and found that I got a small 2" long tear in the top of the center cell. I have repair tape for it and will fix it this morning.

I flaked the wing out to double check it then got it packed away.

I had to run back up to launch to get my stuff. I had my camera recording on the ground and it missed my take off by just 2 minutes. And in all of the excitement I got not one of my data recording devices to actually track me. No Garmin activity, no XCTrack activity, and no Vario. Thankfully I had my camera on my helmet running so I have something to tell how long it was, I can find the elevations easy.

The rest of the evening was spent trying to calm myself down from the excitement of the day.

Today I'll get the boys to school first, fix my wing, pull weeds in garlic, work on coop door, make syrup for the bees, my new flight deck will be here so I will install the reserve in it, probably kite some more, and cut more grass around the farm.

SIGNUP FOR YOUR NEWTON PORTAL ACCOUNT AND WE BOTH EARN!