While it always seems a surprise here in August, fall often comes early to interior Alaska.
But the birch are soon to follow. After two weeks of rain and cool weather, it's finally cleared off and sunny. Amazing weather when the sun shines!
Besides rebuilding the carbs this winter, decided to replace the v65 handlebars. They were so low and narrow that they put a lot of weight on the wrists and forearms. As I got older, this became increasingly uncomfortable, I'd put old Triumph western style (cowhorn) bars on the 850 for this reason, so looked for somewhat higher and wider bars for 650. Found a set on the MG website, but they turned out not that much different, so they sat for a while before I decided to try them out. Unfortunately, the handlebar controls aren't easy to remove, so it took a lot of grunting to get them off, and as luck would have it, broke the turn signal switch. I went ahead and put it all back together and rode the bike a few times, but then decided to replace the switch. Since the switches aren't repairable, had to find a complete used switch console and harness on ebay, not easy for a thirty year old bike, but did find one and ordered it. This is what I got...
While the switch he sent looked the same, the wiring harness (a dozen wires) is almost a foot shorter, so had to reroute the bike's main harness, attached to the frame, and then it was still a stretch to hook the two together. I was able to get it to work like that, but am trying to get the seller send me a longer one. Will see how that goes.
Update: I got the replacement switch but it had wiring problems. So I was going to send it back, but no, maybe not, just got this email: "we don't take returns....these things are all 4 decades old....so best thing is to take the two you have and make something work." So it's back to work on it, no matter where yah go, there yah are!
It's all back together now and after some carb and throttle adjustments, runs like a top...so far.
We had talked about taking the bikes out for a trip to the park (A Ride in the Park 7/8/16). but then the rains hit. Last week we got over an inch and yesterday, almost another. This reminded me that the gutters, or eavestroughs, as I was once told: "gutters run next to the street, it's eavestroughs that are fixed to the roof," needed repairs. So on the next sunny day, we got out the extension ladders to fix the "eavestroughs."
While we originally had wooden gutters, they didn't like the winter's ice and snow load, so eventually replaced them with plastic. While the gutters hold up reasonably well. the support brackets are the weak spot and often fail when the snow and ice cascades off the roof in the spring. It's always a bit of a chore to replace them.
Andy volunteered to clean out the down spouts after all the repairs were finished. It takes a real knack to disassemble and clean the down spout while hanging off the top of the ladder.
When the line crews came through last summer and dropped the trees, they commented on the bigger ones, the "ninety footers" as they called them. I didn't think too much about it at the time, but now I realize how much work it takes to buck up, haul in and split the wood from a tree that big.
Tamarac was left at the local shelter (dog pound) with some of his litter mates. By the time I went to check them out, all the rest had been adopted. Since they had said he was shy, I stopped at the local Freddies (Kroger store) and picked up a box of dog biscuits, then put some in my pocket before I went to see him. While he did seem shy, he readily took a biscuit from me, so I figured, well how shy could he be? So we adopted him. Then I found how shy he could be. After two years, he still won't come to me when I call him and he freaks out whenever I move too fast near him. But he did learn to give paw! We teach the dogs to sit and give paw so it's easy to put on their harness when getting ready to hook up for a sled run. Tambo, as he's called now, is a star with his paw.
Whenever he's feeling friendly, he'll come up to me, as long as I'm sitting down, sit next to me and give me a paw. Then the other one.
He'll just keep doing that until he get's a dog biscuit, then go off on his way. He won't come back to me when I call him, but when he wants another biscuit, well then he's a one trick pony.
The French once had their own names for the months and July was Thermidor (The end of Thermidor 7/31/14). It means heat, I guess, and it sure has been hot. Not as warm as in Canada, the official temp at the airport here was 87° (that'd be 30° C to the French), but it was up over a hundred in the sun.
The garden's doing great in Andy's capable hands, tho it'd sure be nice to get some rain.
The birch that's being split now has a wicked twist to the grain, so not only does it hang up and not split cleanly, it'll sometimes twist sideways when splitting and one time even knocked over the wheel barrow. Too much fun!
Went into town the other day to run some errands, then meet my friend Bill for coffee. We do this most every month and it gives us a chance to swap stories and catch up on news. As is usual, the conversation turned to dogs and I mentioned the sled dog pup we got last year had grown into a serious hulk. He wanted to see a picture, so when I got home, we let the dogs off for their free run and then Andy tried to take a photo with her i-phone. Well that didn't work so well, they all thought it was a new treat and tried to eat it. So I sat down on the grass and started playing with a few of them, then called Mac over for the photo. Here's the results...
It's been up in the 80's the last few days and it's way too hot for the dogs.
Last summer the power line crew came through and dropped a dozen or more trees along our property (All Spruced Up 5/22/20). While I got a few of the bigger trees cut up and split last summer, there's still a bunch left. But first we had to clear all the brush piles that the line crews left.
The last few years were hard on the Guzzis, first the 650 swallowed all the gas, then the 850 had electrical issues. So after putting off any meaningful work, except for ordering parts, finally got'em back together.
The 650 gas taps had leaked fuel down into the engine and filled the sump. Replaced the taps last year, but then decided to rebuild the carbs. Finished them this spring, then replaced the air cleaners, fuel lines, and filters. Should hav'er on the road soon. Will then have two running bikes again, hard to believe!
Here's your science lesson for today...
About fifteen years ago, in the early to mid-aughts, there were a lot of forest firses around here. The local government, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to clear large areas of black spruce for fire breaks. This was done by shear blading. Shear-blading involves the use of a track dozer with a blade that shears the trees off at ground level during the winter months when the ground is frozen. The blade is supposed to float along the ground surface leaving the vegetative mat largely undisturbed.
When clearing a series of fire breaks in the Smallwood Creek valley behind our place, the dozer operator apparently got lost and followed our dog trail, widening and clearing the trail as he went.
The trail after shear blading. The large mounds on the left are the vegetative mat that was stripped off, rolled up, and pushed off to one side. The Ski Doo is parked on the other side on the original trail.
One of the gullies that formed out in the valley after shear blading. It's maybe 20-30 feet wide, up to 10 feet deep, and extends for the length of the cleared area. It can be a challenge to cross with a dog team or even a snow machine.
One of the usual results of surface disturbance to permafrost soils is thermokarst. Karst is a term that's usually applied to limestone sinkholes, but up here it's used to describe the consequences of permafrost degradation. This is evidenced by dips, hollows or gullies produced by the melting of ground ice and subsequent subsidence of the ground surface. A year or so after the clearing, forgot when, a pond began to form next to the trail right where the Ski Doo was parked in the first photo. Since numerous ponds and gullies were forming out in the valley where the clearing was also done, we were concerned that the erosion would get worse, maybe even making the trail un-runnable. While the state's contractor had attempted to reclaim the damage, we've been keeping an eye on it, even covering the pond with moss and leaves in the spring to keep it frozen longer into the summer.
So we hiked out there yesterday to check it out, we hadn't seen the pond unfrozen or without snow cover in quite a while. Surprisingly, it's apparently revegetated and stabilized, now it's just a little "tundra pond." Hopefully it'll stay that way!
After almost two weeks of sunny warm weather, we woke up to this the other day...
Lots of bare ground, not much of the recent snow left and the snowpack almost gone. But at least I finished up on the sled pack that was started last month. Meant to get'er done for the dog sled trip to the park, but then that was cancelled (Blue Skies 3/21/21), so it sat for awhile. I've wanted to put pockets on the outside so it'd be easier to access the gear. Now I can put spare gloves in one, snow goggles in another, and maybe dog booties in the third. That way the main pack can hold all the ropes and extra gear and I won't have to fumble around, trying to find what I'm looking for, while the dogs are banging to go.
