A visit from Porky...

Yesterday the dogs were seriously barking, so went outside but didn't see anything. Later on, they started again, so Andy went out to check on it. She called to me and when I came out, she pointed up into a small spruce tree. When I walked over, I could see it was a porcupine, about ten feet up, looking for a place to hide. Now we've seen lots of porkys, they are everywhere in the interior, but this is the first time (that I can remember anyways) that one's made a visit to our backyard. So got the camera and took some pictures. He (she?) was pretty big, maybe twenty pounds or so, probably an old timer.

Figured we'd leave him alone and maybe he'd leave. After going inside for awhile, Andy looked out and saw him waddling up the path to the wood piles. So I grabbed the camera and headed out for a real wildlife photo. But the porky would have none of it. Shifting into his high speed waddle, he cut between some wood piles and headed off into the woods. All I could get was a shot of his butt as he waddled off to his next adventure. 

Ridin' into fall...

This is the time of year when it dawns on you that summer's about over, the leaves are starting to turn, and winter's just around the corner. So it's time to get serious and finish the summer projects. But more importantly, it's time to take advantage of the rare (for this summer anyway), sunny day. So we got the bikes out and went for a ride. No particular destination, just headed out on some of few twisty roads around here, (the DOT seems bent on straightening all the main roads), and enjoy the beautiful weather.

The Enfield ran great; the electrical problem's apparently solved.

A little while back, we went for a ride to George's memorial. He had been the long time BMW/Royal Enfield dealer for Fairbanks. He was somewhat retired, turning over the BMW business to the local Harley dealership (where they held the memorial), but still kept the Enfield side going. There were at least fifty or more bikes there, mostly BMW's, and Andy rode the only Enfield. George would have been proud.

 Photo from a nice article about George at:

http://www.adn.com/opinions/2016/08/09/one-man-fairbanks-motorcycle-shop-became-legendary-with-bmw-airheads/

Stooped again...

Had a bunch of water issues on the addition to the new garage. Finally decided to dig up a new drainage and get rid of the water problems. That led to deciding to pour slabs in front of the three doors on top of the drains. So after mixing 14 ninety pond bags of reinforced concrete, here's somewhat boring photos of what we've been doing the last few weeks...

After digging up the ground in front of the door, putting in a bunch of drain rock, compacting the surface, then framing a stoop*.

Here's the stoop after pouring in the concrete.

After removing the framing, re-grading the gravel, and digging a drainage ditch to divert runoff, here's the completed stoop. Now there's only two more to finish. Hopefully it'll take care of the water issues.
*Stoop: From the Dutch stoep ‎(“platform", "pavement”).