Autumn's Almost Over...

 Seemed like the leaves just started turin', and now they're almost gone. So here's a few pics from the last few weeks.

Even though we had our first frost in early September, the cool, wet weather kept the leaves on the trees longer than usual.

A poor job of blocking the back hoe attachment after it was removed from the tractor last fall left it sprawled out like some dead dinosaur. 

But some clever finagling with the tractor got it attached again. Like I always sez, it's better to be lucky than smart.

And it wouldn't be complete without a pic of the newly rebuilt 850T Guzzi. Finally got it out for a ride and it ran pretty well. Really a beast compared to the v650, but a pretty good feeling to ride it again after all the work on the engine this summer. A fitting end to the season, riding both the Guzzi and the tractor on a fine, sunny fall day!

The End of the Saga...

 As often happens, the saga of the blue bores has ended. The new cylinders are installed, the engines back together, and hard to believe, the motor's running again.

Now if it just stops raining, we'll be able to take it for a ride. It appears that the equinoctial storms of September have arrived, so it may be a while before the next ride. That'll give me time to recheck the head bolt torque and valve settings; there's always one more thing to do!

Bored S'more

 The saga of the blue bores continues. After several starts and stops, the Guzzi engine is back together with the new cylinders and pistons. The biggest problem likely was my angst about doing the project in the first place, though the real outcome won't be until it starts and runs again.

After removing the old cylinders and pistons, the next step was to get the piston aligned in the bore. So ripped a bunch of wooden shims on the table saw to hold the connecting rod centered to fit the new cylinders.

Next was to install the rings on the piston, then finagle it into the cylinder and align it with the rod. The precut shims worked pretty well, but the rod wasn't quite centered, so had to adjust the lower shims to get'er right. Then used a small socket that was close to the pin diameter to get the piston and rod in just the right position. I put the piston pin in the freezer, then had Andy's old hair dryer blow heat on the piston. After a couple of tries, got them just the right temperature and the pin slid right in.

After putting the cylinder head on, had to torque the head bolts. Used the old bending beam wrench that I bought at a garage sale 40 years ago to get them close, then the Craftsman clicker wrench that you can set to the exact torque to get the final reading.

Here it is, ready to be finished up after the valve covers, exhaust and carburetors are installed. I'd hoped to get'er done before the snow flies and go for a ride, so maybe that'll happen. Yah never know when you start a project how it'll end; still hoping for the best.

More Bores...

 Probably boring to non-gear heads, the saga of the chrome bore replacement continues. After dismantling the engine (noted in previous post), cleaning the cylinder head and valves was the next step. I tried using carb cleaner and a brass wire wheel on them, with only modest success, so I called a local machine shop about cleaning the parts and they said $150/hr for hot tanking and bead blasting. So for that much, being of thrifty Bohemian Czech upbringing, I figured I'd do it myself. Checking ebay, I found a sonic cleaner big enough to fit one head for $120, post paid. So I ordered it and it got here in a week. Sweet. In went the head and valves and after a couple of cleanings, they looked a lot better.

So here it is bubbling away in the sonic cleaner. One head and two valves done in about half an hour. So I decide to do the other side, pull the head and valves, and the cleaner doesn't work. Turn it off and on few times, nothing but the fan running, no bubbles. So I let it sit awhile, then try again, and it works. No idea why, but got the other head and valves cleaned. Had to touch up the area around the exhaust port on both heads with the sand blaster, too much carbon build up for the cleaner, but then they were done. The problem with the sonic cleaner is a conundrum. The manual offers little help, other than a brief note that if it overheats, it automatically shuts itself off. So apparently it went into auto-shut off mode and didn't return to operating status for awhile. Anyway, will be getting ready to put the new cylinders and pistons  on the engine, that'll be fun.

The cleaned head and valves, I should have taken a before photo.

Not a professional quality job, but good enough to keep the old Guzzi going for a few more years.

Blue Bores...

 I've posted before about the problem of chrome lined cylinder bores in the older (60's and 70's) Moto Guzzis (Chrome Bores Part 1 & 2). Most mechanics who are aware of the problem recommend replacing the cylinders. There were none available for years, but recently a cylinder and piston kit came out, so I bought one. That was the easy part, now it's time to replace the old parts. With the help of a neighbor, was able to get the bike up on the lift table, secure it in the wheel vice, and put on a ratchet strap for extra stability. Surprisingly, the head and cylinders were fairly easy to remove, following the directions in the ubiquitous Haynes motorcycle manual.

So after removing the cylinders, got out a flashlight and did a visual inspection of the cylinder bore. To my relief, there was no pitting or flaking of the chrome lining, so the rest of the engine should be free of damage from ingesting chrome flakes. While that's good, then you have to  wonder why there's the urgent need to replace the cylinders. Better safe than sorry, I guess you'd have to say, and cheaper than a complete engine rebuild, if the flakes did get into the wrong place.

The clean cylinder bores, looking ready for another twenty thousand miles.

So then it was time to disassemble the head. Had to dig out the old valve spring compressor that I bought many years ago to work on Triumphs. Fortunately it fit the Guzzi head, but it was really hard to turn the crank to compress the springs. After wresting with it, found a short piece of pipe and slipped it over the handle on the compressor and it was a lot easier to turn. Occasionally gave it a tap with the rubber hammer, but nothing would release until suddenly, the collets popped out with a bang. Big surprise, then had to look around to find them. One was at my feet, the other about six feet behind me, apparently it flew over my shoulder. Was pretty happy I found it and it didn't hit me in the face. So then did the other valve and springs, no drama this time, it came off just as expected. Then I sorted all the parts out into separate containers, and put the tools back where I'd find them. When I was finally finished, I noticed an odd smell, like solvent or cleaner. Kind of odd cause I hadn't used any on the engine, though it did need it. Looked all around the garage and couldn't find anything leaking or spilled, so started to leave when I notice a puddle on the floor. I touched it and it was blue paint. Now that was odd, but there was an old can of blue paint on the shelf there, so I picked it up and took off the cap. No, it wasn't leaking, so put it back and looked around some more. Then I stepped outside the door, didn't see anything, but when I looked back inside, I could see a very faint mist coming out near the bottom of the spray can. I took it outside and in the light, could see a tiny dent and pin hole in the can. When that split collet went flying off the valve springs, it must have hit the can of paint hard enough to puncture it. So while it did make a mess to clean up, I was doubly glad it didn't hit me first. That would have hurt!

Later on I noticed that the blue paint had sprayed a thin line across the front of my old Partner hat and into my hair. Gives me that new age, with it look!

Summer Solstice...

 After an unusually cool May and early June, the dog days of summer have arrived, just in time for the solstice. The first day of astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere, in Alaska it's the long hours of daylight, 22 hours and change, that are most remarkable now. While it didn't quite get to a hundred in the sun, we've had a few eighty degree days this week, and that's plenty warm for us and the dogs.

The sad saga of the unridable seat was finally resolved. While still not what I wanted, at least they cut down the back end, so you're not constantly sliding forward, and used a denser foam, so it doesn't feel like you're sitting on the rear fender. Next time I'll send it somewhere they specialize in motorcycle seats.

Now I just need to plan some new trips to enjoy riding in comfort again!

Ride to Ester...

 Not much new going on, with the windows installed, it's been back to splitting firewood. Since most of the wood cut last year is split, went out today and found some dead and down trees and started bucking them up, variety being the spice of life. Did take the seat from the v65 Guzzi into the sole reupholstery shop in town and they did a remarkably bad job on it, so had to take it back for some improvements. But while it was on the bike, rode out to Ester for the monthly Airheads ride. Not sure why I did it, cause the seat was terribly uncomfortable, but it was good to get out for a ride and visit with some fellow bikers. It's like getting together with dog drivers and talking about sled dogs, only mechanical!

Didn't think to take any photos of the group or ride, so a shot of the Guzzi parked next to Steve's BMW in the parking lot will have to do. Maybe next time will have a decent seat to ride on and get some better pics!

Window to the World...

Window to the world is an idiom describing something that provides insight, knowledge, or a broader perspective outside one's immediate experience. Well in this case, it's been more like an out of body experience.

Trimming the excess expanded foam from inside the new windows, while Andy takes the photo from the deck, capturing a nice reflection of the trees behind her.

It started last year when we decided to replace the last of the old barn sash windows. They got iced up every winter from trapping moisture between the panes, so we had been getting a few new windows every so often. This time I talked to my friend John, who has a small construction outfit, about ordering some. "I'll come by and check it out" he said in May, so June and July went by and no John. I finally called and offered him some old motorcycle parts laying around the garage if he'd come out. When he does finally get here, we have few beers, load the parts in his pickup, and he leaves, telling me to just measure the rough openings of the windows and send him the dimensions. So I did that and his wife Sue, who does the ordering, told me it's be 6-8 weeks for delivery. Well August and September go by and the windows arrive the end of October, just in time for the first snowstorm. 

With the window installation postponed until spring, I mentioned to John I might need a hand with the larger ones, since they were replacing several double barn sash. He offered one of his carpenters, who was close to retirement and likely be available for part time work then. So this spring, Larry comes over after most of the snow is gone and looks over the place, asks a few questions, and says he'll do the job. "But I don't usually give estimates, it'd just be by the hour, $80. Figure on two days" That was a bit of a surprise but everything costs more now and that's what the plumber charged last time. It's only money, right?

The old barn sash and new window after installation.

Larry showed up on Thursday and we got all the windows installed on one day. He was pretty efficient at his work and I ran around being his "gofer" so things went better than planned. The  last thing he did was spray insulating foam around the windows. He talked about how he needed to trim the excess before it expanded too far and made a mess, but got busy and apparently forgot to check before it was too late. 

The green and white expanding foam covering the window frame like malignant worms.

Larry offered to stay longer and clean up the windows, but for $80 an hour, figured I could get'er done myself. So I spent about four hours cleaning up the windows over the next few days, that's the picture Andy took from the deck. Now all I have to do is replace all the trim boards, inside and out, and I've got all summer for that. No sense being bored!

Rasputitsa...

Breakup has arrived, or as the Russians call it, rasputitsa, the season of mud.

This time of year, the dog yard slowly turns into a slushy mix of melting snow, straw and mud. The upper dog yard, to the right, has been cleared of snow, so will move the dogs up there as soon as it dries out.

The driveway's clear of snow and is pretty solid, at least in the middle, so you just have to be careful where you drive.

The road's clear too after scraping off the melting hard pack of snow and ice after going over it most every day last week with the tractor and rear blade. It's always good to see the snowmelt flowing in the ditches and not down the road!

April's Change

After the coldest March in over fifty years, April's been too warm. The trails out of the dog yard into the valley have softened up and are starting to disappear. Then the moose came back and post-holed much of what was left of the trail. So I guess the dog running days are over for this winter. Here's some pics...

Heading up the trail in mid-March, still pretty cold then with lots of snow.

Heading for home on the last dog run at the end of the month. The snow's starting to settle and melt back from the trail as the warming sun does it's work. Did get Earl to run up front for a couple of trips across the valley over Sawmill Hill and back. We'll make a leader out of him yet!

Company!...

Back in the day when we had visitors, friends or relatives over, we said we had company. Don't hear that expession so much now. Anyway, we had company today, a female moose.

At least I think it was a female, the males have shed their antlers by now, so not sure which.

She obviously found a birch tree to her liking and proceeded to munch on the lower branches.

Apparently the upper branches have more food value, so she tries to reach up as high as she can get. The dogs sure got excited, barking and running around while she had her snack. We don't get as much company as we used to, so it's fun to have visitors now and again. 

Cold and Colder...

Minus 33 this morning, hardly looking like spring is just around the corner. But it does warm up in the afternoons now, so getting out with dogs isn't too uncomfortable.

The snow we had last month hasn't hardened on the trails yet, so slow runs have been the rule.

The dogs have been running great and seem to enjoy the cooler weather.

Back in the yard after a good run out into the valley. This normally is the time of year when we'd be running longer distances and doing trips. But with the weird weather we've had, some trails are still not broken and cold temps limit how far you want to run.

Flashin' Around...

February turned out interesting, to say the least. After a couple of weeks of normal winter weather, it started to snow and kept it up for over ten days. Wound up with about three feet of snow falling and spending many hours plowing snow. Then it turned cold and the last five days have been thirty to forty below. Needless to say, didn't do much dog driving the last few weeks. But there's always time to read stuff on line, like the blog called "Progress is Fine, but it's Gone on for Too Long". Here's a photo from a post about Flight Magazine.

Now the article wasn't about the aircraft on the cover, but it reminded me of something else. Then it came to mind, the cockpit of the aircraft resembled the front of the spaceships in the old Flash Gordon serials. When I was a kid back in the day, I didn't care for cartoons too much. I preferred the old time movies and serials they showed on Saturday mornings. My favorite, of course, was Flash Gordon. Fighting Ming the Merciless to save Earth with the help of Dr Zarkov, who designed their spaceship, The Baron, and even the duplicitous Queen Azura. A perfect thriller for the cold war era when the old Soviet Union imperiled life as we knew it.

You have to wonder if the British aeronautical engineers at Handley Page who designed the Victor bomber hadn't watched the Flash Gordon serials when they were kids!

Interestingly. Ming's Mongo spaceships bore a striking resemblance to Zarkovs. Convergence of great ideas or cheap special effects? You'll have to decide, but I thought they were pretty cool when I was a kid.

De Tourin' the Dogs

As mentioned earlier (Out with the Dogs 1/30/26), a large gully is blocking the main trail we use to run dogs. I've been clearing a trail around it and finally got it finished. 

The old trail's on the right, with the gulley in the distance, while the detour's on the left under the sunset. Kind of hard to see in the low light we get this time of year.

Heading back towards the detour after running it on the way out. Kind of exciting on the first run through, bounced off a couple of trees, but no blood no foul, I guess. This will give us access to all the trails in the valley now, so we can start doing longer dog runs. This is the time of year when the days are getting longer and suns up enough to feel some warmth, perfect dog drivin' weather!

Out with the Dogs...

 Now that the sled trail is in, mostly been running dogs out into the valley. Unfortunately, the thermokarst gullies that have been forming in the fire breaks and dozer trails (Out and About 3/24/25), have grown and blocked another trail. So until I can put a detour around the newest gulley, it'll be short and sweet dog runs.

Coming home up the back side of the ridge, the sun just barely clears the ridge top now.

After crossing the road on the way home, happy dogs heading to the yard.

Back in the yard, there's no tired dogs on these short runs.

First Sled Run After Freezing in the Dark...

 The cold spell that started in early December finally ended; thirty two days where it didn't get above 0° F and almost 3 weeks of 40 below or colder. Amazingly, it didn't set any records, but it was the longest cold spell like that since 1980. So I was waiting to post about the first sled run and now it's here, 6 weeks since the last dog run and that long a break set a record for me. 

Andy hadn't made it out to the road yet when we came barreling down the hill on the way back and crossed the road in front of her.  She got a quick photo of the dogs as they passed her along the trail, while I was hidden behind some trees. I guess it'd be a good photo to post for those who don't want to be seen on line.

Cold Enough?...

 It'll do, at least for now, we seem to be back in the fifties, sixties, or seventies when 40 to 50 below for weeks at a time was the norm.

But with the new normal climate we've had for the last twenty years or so, it seems unusually so.

Our Christmas photo, such as it is. We didn't put up a tree this year, since the neighbors hosted Christmas eve dinner, so we took the pic outside when the frog said forty below.

But it can be nice outside even at those temps; sunset illuminates the tree tops on a clear, cold afternoon.

Heatin' Things Up...

Back when we first built the cabin, there were a series of wood stoves used for heating. The first was an old barrel stove that we borrowed from a friend at work, then an Ashley heater that another person from work sold us. But I liked the way that old barrel stove held a load of wood for overnight fires, so was on the lookout for one. When I was on a survey job down by Tanacross, I found a decent old barrel at a military dump site left over from when there was an army air base there in WWII.

Made from heavy steel with cold rolled edges, the barrel was so tough I couldn't pound out any of the minor dents. The door kit came from a stove works in Benton Harbor Michigan. We used that stove for almost thirty years. You could stuff it full of wood and it'd burn all night, but it sure left a lot of creosote in the stove pipe. So I finally got an EPA approved wood stove that left very little creosote behind, but the fire box was a lot smaller and it seldom kept an over-night fire.

While we didn't like the new stove as much, Ruty our old cat sure liked to sleep in front of the door, since a lot of the heat came through the glass.

We had a Monitor oil stove in the basement for years after we put in the holding tank, septic and  water system, rapidly advancing us into the twentieth century. But when Monitor went out of business a while ago, I finally decided to replace it with a Toyo stove. My neighbor had used them in his rental cabins and thought they worked well. Well maybe in his cabins, but not our basement. Even though they sell an extended exhaust kit and the dealer assured me it'd work fine, "just like a Monitor." After taking it in 3 times for service in the last five years, I finally talked to a different service provider and he told me Toyo's don't work in basements, their exhaust system is apparently not as efficient as the old Monitor and they fill up with soot when using the extended exhaust. So we had the old Monitor serviced and put it back in the basement, then moved the Toyo upstairs.

Marking the wall where the Toyo stove exhaust will be installed. It was no problem drilling through the sheet rock, but a lot more interesting drilling a 3 inch diameter hole through the log wall. We also had to install a pump and new fuel lines to bring the fuel upstairs to the stove. Then wired a new electrical outlet to plug in the stove and pump. 

The Toyo and fuel pump installed upstairs. After all that work, the stove fired right up first time and has been working fine, just in time for our first real cold snap.

Both stoves running at near thirty below; a sight that truly warms the heart as well as the house. Now we don't have to get up early in the morning to stoke the wood stove when it drops well below zero overnight.

Thanksgiving...

 Another Thanksgiving and the group keeps getting smaller. There were just a couple of neighbors over this year; it seems like only a few years ago when we celebrated with a dozen or more friends and neighbors. People move on, move away, or ultimately pass on. But it's still good to sit down with friends and share a good meal.

The goings on in the world gives less reason for thanks. It seems like the current political climate is just one of constant bickering and turmoil. Maybe the best view is from Charles Dickens that was quoted in the local newspaper: 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Perhaps we're entering the Season of Unreason…So here's another sunset photo, maybe something light to appreciate in darkening times.

Sunsets...

 This is the time of year when the sun is so low in the sky, it's only about 6° above the horizon at solar noon, that we get these great sunsets.  Here's some random shots that Andy and I took in the last few days.

The sun was just starting to set when we had the dogs off for their free run around 2:30. Andy took this with her iPhone.

So about a half hour later I got these shots with my trusty old Canon.

The alpenglow really takes off this time of year as the sun gets lower in the sky.

The sunset lasts for over half an hour; plenty of time for pics.

One final shot that Andy took a few days ago. Lights up the whole sky like a volcano or forest fire; pretty impressive!