More Fall...

Mostly been doing the fall chores while getting ready for winter. Got the stairs fixed on the shed; had to remove the stairs, then dig out the old footings, backfill with gravel, and then set some concrete footings I picked up at Lowes. The stairs fit just fine and the door now opens and closes without sticking. And it only took me about five years to finally get'er done. Then, while digging out a stump behind the shed, I managed to hook a root that went all the way underneath. When I picked up the stump with the backhoe, the root lifted it up enough to knock over the shelves under the overhang. So I've spent the last two days resetting them and sorting through all the crap that spilled off them. Lots of stuff going to the dump!

The leaves are pretty much down now, I'd meant to get some more photos when I went for some bike rides last week, but managed to forget the camera every time. At least I'm consistent. So here's a photo of the Mogu parked by the garage surrounded by the recently down leaves. It's called fall, after all!

Fall's Here...

It's been creeping up for awhile, cooler nights, leaves starting to turn, but Sun. turned out to be the real deal.We had our first frost, think it got down to 31° F, then we had brilliant sunshine in the afternoon to highlight the fall colors.

Spent most of the day running the backhoe. Did a small job for the neighbor, then redug some of the drainage ditches next to the road, finally dug out the approach to the old garage, buried some large rock to improve drainage, then covered it with geo-fabric and crushed rock. Today's project is to  dig out the old stair posts that have been jacking out and replace'em with concrete block. Gotta get'em all done before the snow flies!
Here's the August weather summary from the NWS...
The average temperature for Fairbanks this August was 59.7° which was 3.6° above normal, making it the first month this summer with above normal temps. The highest was 79° on the first, the lowest, 44° on the 14th and 30th. Precipitation was 2.12" for the month, which was 0.24" above normal.

Had a nice run of sunny, warm days in mid-month and rain was not so much of an issue like last month. Hoping for the same in Sept!

Northern Hydraulics...

No not the famous tool store, this is about changing the hydraulic fluid on the tractor. It was actually due last fall, but better late than never. The reason it's late is that it's a chore, and I can always find a way to postpone stuff that's a chore. The reservoir holds 5 1/2 gallons, the drain is underneath the differential, since that's the lowest part of the hydraulics, so how do you fit a large enough pan there to hold that much fluid? In the past I built up some blocking and drove the tractor on it so a 5 gal bucket will fit. But that's kind of a funky deal, since you gotta crawl underneath the tractor. A while back, years ago I'd guess, I found some built up panels in the dumpster. Part of a shipping container, IDN, but thought they might work out as a pair of risers to get the tractor up enough to fit the bucket. Well time passes, they gathered dust, in fact they had some moss growing on 'em, before I decided to make 'em work. First, had to pull out a few dozen nails that were sticking out, then put some spacers on to get the height to match on both, then ripped some angle boards to act as ramps. Surprisingly, they worked!

The tractor's rear wheels sitting on the riser panels. The hydraulic filter is cleverly hidden behind the step, so I usually mange to bang my head, smash a hand, or both when changing out the filter.

The bucket sitting underneath the differential. It fills up almost to the top with fluid, so it's a lot of fun to try to get it out without spilling it. But it's all done now, so it's good to go for another 500 hrs, or so.