Hot and Smokey...

Been working in the garage a lot, since it's been so hot and smokey lately. At least I'm getting a lot mechanicing done, so that's something I guess. Maybe we'll see one of the "dead motors" running this year!

(Photo from Anchorage Daily News)

Any way the wind blows, we get smoke, since there's forest fires burning on three side of us, though the closest is mostly contained. We've already had half a dozen days above 80°F and it almost hit ninety today. This is getting to be too much like the midwest!

May Weather Summary...

The Alaska Climate Center finally got around to posting their summary for this past month...

May 2019 was the ninth consecutive month of above normal temperatures for Fairbanks. The warmest temperatures of the month occurred on the 26th and 30th when the temperature reached 75° F. The coldest temperature was 29° on the 7th, which was the last day temperatures dropped below freezing. The average temperature for the month was 53.8°, which was 4.4° above normal

Rainfall totaled 1.01 inches, which was 0.41 inches above the normal. The highest daily rainfall was 0.35 inches on the 18th, which also set a record for the most hourly rainfall. There was no measurable snowfall for the month. (National Weather Service, Alaska)

May was pretty decent, warm and just enough rain to keep the garden damp. June's been OK, but we're already getting the afternoon thunderstorms. One lightening strike started a forest fire about seven miles NE of here and they're still trying to contain it. The helicopters shuttling the fire crews in and out of the site fly right over our place. It's a little too close for comfort.

You can read about it here:
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/more-crews-ordered-to-fight-wildfire-near-two-rivers-new/article_02150964-9384-11e9-a782-dfed0b1fcb45.html

Husky Revenge...

No, one of the dogs didn't get me again. This was my revenge on the "hernia maker" (All fools day...4/1/19). When we first got the new dog, Badger, he hadn't been "fixed" yet. One of the things that most rescue shelters require is that the adopted dogs are spayed/neutered. Since we got him on New Years day, we couldn't arrange it right away, so I promised Linn I'd getter done "pretty soon." Well that turned out to be a while, since I decided we'd probably be better off waiting until spring, that way he could run uninterrupted all winter in the team and not have his privates shaved off in the cold weather. But when I got the hernia surgery in the spring, we put it off again so I could handle him without worry.
So last week was his lucky day. We took him to one of the SNIP sessions, where they do a walk in spay/neuter clinic. When we brought him home, we kept him in the travel kennel in the garage at first, then into the basement.

Well he sure liked that, especially when he got up on the old couch. He's pretty well trained inside, Linn had mentioned that she thought he'd had some house training, and goes right into the kennel, so that made it easy to move him back and forth. The only real excitement was when the cat came down to visit. Badger boy saw "lunch" and the cat had to scramble to get back upstairs. He's pretty much back outside now, we only put him in the kennel when we let the other dogs off for their free run. He'll be back running with the rest soon enough, probably never realizing that I got my "revenge."

Tools are not the tools...

There's a blog I follow that occasionally has articles about tools:  http://progress-is-fine.blogspot.com
It kind of reminded me of my college days when I roomed with a guy who really was into wrenching on engines. His favorite saying was "tools are not the tools". Now "Crazy Bob" was a joker, but what I think  he meant is that you need to think things through before starting to tear into something. It isn't just the tool,  it takes brain power to get'er done.
Anyway, I never owned my own tools until I went off to school, I'd always borrowed some from my brother, dad or neighbor. so eventually had to buy my own. Now I have three roll-away tool chests full of them. But it all started with one crescent wrench; there's a few more now...

The top wrench, a 12 incher made by Diamond Tool of Duluth, MN, came from the Tractor Supply Center (TSC) in DeKalb, Il. I bought it just before I left for Alaska in '76, the great Buy Centennial year.  A big tool for a big move.

The next one is an 8 incher that I got at a local surplus store in the Chicago area back in the late 60's. It was in a big barn shaped building, crammed floor to ceiling with army surplus stuff and cheap tools. I loved that place. Made in Spain, this is the first tool I ever bought.

The next is a 6 incher that came from a hardware store in Delta Jct, AK. I was on my way to a job in Chicken, a mining town on the Taylor Hwy, and had forgot something, maybe some nails or screws, I forget. Anyway, I saw this on the bargain-bin table and couldn't resist. It's a cheap Chinese knock off and seldom gets used.

The bottom one is a 4 incher that came from my father's tool box after he died. There was an 8 incher in there too that I still have. This little one was probably the most used of all of them, until I got a good set of small combination wrenches. It's the only made in the USA Crescent brand wrench I own. Amazing!

All Tabled Up...

Been trying to get lots o' projects done, rebuilding an old Triumph, fixing the 4 wheeler and 650 Mogu, while still doing the spring chores like rototilling and mowing. The garage/workshop is full of projects, so all the benches are covered with parts and manuals. So what's the solution? Clean up the mess? No of course not, let's build another shop bench.
Back in the day, don't remember when, we got some foldable steel legs and built a spare table so we could have more folks over, mainly at Christmas. And for some reason we got two pair of the legs. Later on, don't remember that either, I found a piece of a packing crate, about 3x5', that I thought would make a nice work bench. So they sat in the garage loft for maybe twenty years, until I figured it was time to do something with it.

Now the top was kind of rough, had lot's of holes where I pulled out the nails that held the crate together. So asked Andy to pick up a small can of wood putty to fill the holes before I put on a coat of varnish to seal the grain. So she brings home a can of this stuff that looked like wood putty, but is really some kind of after the fact filler that can't be sanded or stained. OK, so whatever, I fill all holes, let it sit overnight,  then sand the filled holes. It works, sort of, but it obviously didn't harden. So I went ahead and varnished it. That didn't work out so well, as the filler shed varnish like a duck's back. But then I applied some stain after the varnish dried, so it's not looking too bad. Now I know, it shouldn't matter too much what a workshop table looks like, but still, why would you make a wood putty that doesn't harden or can't be stained or varnished?

All Gassed Up...

After riding the 850T in between several snow/rain storms, decided to take the 650 (v65sp) out, since it's easier to ride in the mud (Road Rage...10/23/18). I'm too cheap to buy two batteries, so switched it over from the T, put some air in the tires, and rolled it out of the garage to check the oil since that side of the bike was against the wall. When I unscrewed the oil cap, a plume shot out, covering the apron with a gas/oil mix. So put the plug back in, got a pan, and drained a couple more quarts of the pungent liquid. At first I thought I'd forgotten to close the petcocks last fall, but no, they were in the off position. So I guess I need new petcocks and float needles.

The 650 Moto Guzzi in happier times.

Later I talked to my mechanic neighbor and he says he always closes the petcocks on his Harley, even when he stops for just a few minutes. And in the fall he drains the gas from the tank. I always filled it up cause I thought there'd be less problems with fumes and gas degradation over the winter. But isn't that the conundrum of riding old bikes, there's always something new to fix. I'll soon be wrenching on the carburetors and gas tank before riding it again.

April Weather...

Although less extreme than March, April 2019 was again significantly warmer than normal. The Interior sites, Fairbanks, Delta Junction and Gulkana saw substantially warmer temperatures, but the highest departures from normal were recorded in the northern and northwestern coastal areas. As in March, Kotzebue recorded the highest temperature deviation of all with 12.4 °F above normal for the month.

Fairbanks monthly temperature was 37°F, which was 4.5°F above normal. The observed maximum temperature was 69°F on the 30th of the month, the minimum temperature was 12°F on the 4th of the month. The total monthly precipitation was 0.6", which was 0.3" above normal. Snowfall in Fairbanks was 5.4", which was 2.9" above normal. (Alaska Climate Research Center)

Green Up...

Just saw this posted on the Weather Bureau's forecast page:
Green up occurred in Fairbanks on the evening of May 1, 2019. Chena  Ridge was beginning to show a faint shade of green in the  afternoon, but the ridge turned more distinctly green by  evening.  The average date of green up in Fairbanks is May 9. The earliest  green up date recorded here was April 26, 2016.
I guess this means it must be spring now. It's a good thing we didn't get the snow storm they predicted for this past weekend. Anyway, we went for a hike today. Now that I'm pretty much healed up, I can get out and do stuff again. So here's a few photos...

Well the aspen trees are sprouting their leaves here too, it's nice to see that they got that right.

Big old spruce tree went down on the trail. We've had a lot of wind lately and it looked like this one was infested with carpenter ants.

But the surest sign of spring is washing the dog harnesses and the winter gloves. They pick up the oil from the dogs fur and can get pretty oderiferous if not washed every few years.

All Hosed Up...

After one of the hoses blew on the backhoe last fall (Hosed Again 10/11/18), I parked the tractor and removed the backhoe, then took the hoses into town and got new ones made. They sat in garage over the winter, since I didn't need to use it until this spring when I finally got to working on it again.

The two closest hoses are the one's being replaced. I angled the fittings so that both hoses go around the outside of the frame and then wind underneath the control panel. The previous setup had one hose over and one under the panel. I think the one that blew was the one that went over and likely was often kicked or stepped on, since it ran next to the foot boards. Hopefully it'll be out of the way now that it'll run under them.

As soon as the ground dries out, I'll back the tractor up over the sub-frame and make sure the the hoses hook up. Then fit some protective sleeves over the hoses and seal up all the fittings. Of course it might be awhile before the ground dries up. Here's the latest forecast from the NWS:

WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT THURSDAY NIGHT TO 6 AM AKDT SATURDAY...Rain and snow expected. Rain will change to snow by early morning Friday. Plan on slippery road conditions. Slushy snow expected, accumulations of 1 to 2 inches in the valley, with localized  amounts up to 5 inches in the hills. 

Spring snow storm...

For once the weather service got it right, they predicted 6-10" of snow and that's pretty much what we got.

It's hard to tell exactly how much fell, cause there was mixed rain and snow at times and the temps were above freezing during the day, so it probably settled a lot.

The only good thing was that we just had a short power outage, maybe an hour or so. The last time we had a late snow storm like this, it knocked out the power for a couple of days.

Wasn't going to plow, but there was still lots o' snow around this afternoon after the storm ended, so wound up plowing the road and driveway. Since the road surface was thawed, had to keep the rear blade up slightly, off the ground, and angled as much as possible to keep it from digging into the soft gravel road bed. I think it'll be better than before clearing, since at least the water should run in the ditches now. I expect the neighbors'll let me know if it's not to their liking. But one thing's for sure, I'm glad I didn't take the chains off the tractor back in March after finishing the road clearing back then.

Spring's over...

Woke up yesterday morning and saw it'd snowed about two inches overnight. After almost a month of near fifty degree weather, it looks like we're in for a return to winter.

While it cleared off today and the sun melted most of the snow, there's supposed to be a major storm coming next week. (https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=AKZ222&warncounty=AKC090&firewxzone=AKZ222&local_place1=Fairbanks%20AK&product1=Winter+Storm+Warning&lat=64.8378&lon=-147.7164#.XLz9ei-ZMnU)

At least the dogs got to hang out on their houses and enjoy one sunny day. Looks like the Moto Guzzi's going to be parked for awhile longer!

Ice's Out...

Not much to do while recuperating, so been following the Nenana Ice Classic. Every year since 1917, when engineers building the Alaska railroad started it, there's been a guessing game to figure out when the ice goes out on the Tanana River. Tickets are sold all over the state and the winning prize is around a quarter million $ now.

This year was interesting, to me at least, because record high temps in March could cause the ice to go out real early and break the record of April 20. But when the weather cooled off a bit at the end of the month, it looked like it might freeze up again and delay breakup. As luck would have it, the warmer temps returned last week and the river began to carve an open channel through the ice.

The tripod's leaning as a channel opens up near the south bank of the river on April 11.

The the channel widens and the tripod tilts over the open water on April 13.

Finally, the ice breaks up on April 14th and the tripod drifts downstream. The official end time, when the tripod moved far enough to trip the clock wire, broke the record by almost a week (six days, fifteen hours, six minutes to be precise!).  http://www.nenanaakiceclassic.com