Road Rage...

We live in an area where there's no maintenance on the rural roads. The state takes care of the main route, Chena Hot Springs Road, but the borough only accepts roads that are up to their current standards. The subdivision is so old that the roads would need expensive upgrades and no one is willing to contribute. So we do the work ourselves, though the condition often varies from mediocre to not so good. One neighbor, who's a heavy equipment mechanic, got a road grader into his shop for repairs. After fixing it, he apparently called a friend of his who's supposedly a retired operator, and told him to "check it out and maybe fill some potholes." So the guy took it upon himself to re-grade the whole two miles of subdivision road, pulling the ditch material up on the road to re-crown it. While this works on well maintained gravel roads, these hadn't been graded in 20-30 years. So what he pulled up was mainly silty muck and occasional cobbles and boulders, probably  left there by the original contractor in the '70's. The road became an obstacle course, trying to avoid the cobbles and boulders while not getting stuck in the mud. Great fun.
So eventually another neighbor got a friend of his to come by and regrade it again. Though he did the best he could, getting most of the muck and rocks off, it's still real slimy when it rains and the ditches are now filled up with muck. Most of the neighbors are pretty upset, they call or stop by to complain, but what can you do, sometimes shit happens, so just move on. Since they don't do much, I've been cleaning up the worst spots with the tractor and rear blade, then installed the backhoe and started digging out the ditches.

Re-digging the filled-in ditches. Tried to keep them shallow so the neighbors that drive too fast don't get stuck when they slide off the slimy road.

Also filling in the the dog yard holes. This is the same spot in the third photo of previous post "Is It Fall Yet" (9/16/18). Used to hand shovel these holes back in the day, but now the hydraulics rule.

First Snow...

Supposed to have gotten our first snow this past weekend, but while it cooled off quite a bit, it stayed dry.

So spent some time up on the roof, painting the garage/workshop and then cleaning out the stove pipe. Andy took this photo cause she thought my system for working on the roof was, well a little different. I just didn't want to fall off!

But when we got up this morning, the first snow had arrived.

It wasn't much of a snowfall and had largely melted by late afternoon, but still...winter's here!

Last Ride?...

Switched out the battery from the 850 to the 650 Moto Guzzi and rode down to the Nordale Rd. bridge. Back when I was working, it was my favorite after work ride. Besides being a short but scenic trip, there was a decent size parking lot to loop through. Of course the state, in it's infinite wisdom, had to improve it by putting in designated parking and boat launching areas; in doing so, they blocked off one side, so you can't drive around the loop anymore. It must be great fun on a busy weekend to maneuver a 20 ft river boat and trailer with a crew cab pickup.

The 650 MoGu down by the Chena River

While the leaves are pretty much down now, the temps have stayed in the upper 50's to low 60's this past week, about ten degrees above normal. But the forecast is for cooler and possible snow coming soon.

The "exotic" trees, those not native to Fairbanks like the choke cherry and mountain ash, turn colors later and keep their leaves much longer than the native birch and aspen. The birds must have been eating the berries and crapping the seeds out cause there's little choke cherries growing everywhere!

September summary and then some...

The NWS summary for September in Fairbanks, Ak...

The average temperature for Fairbanks in September was 48.2° F, which was 3.3 ° above normal. The highest temperature was 65° on the 13th, while the lowest was 27° on the 30th. The first frost occurred on the 9th, when the temperature dropped to 30° at the airport.

Precipitation totaled 1.86" for the month, which was 0.76" above normal. While there were no major storms, 1.27" of rain fell from the 20th to the 23rd. No snow was recorded at the airport, but some of the surrounding hills reported light snow during the month.

Chart from Alaska Climate Center

Spent most of the month working on the cabin. About every ten years we wash the log walls and then give it a coat of log oil/wood preservative. This year we also did the back porch and the tool shed, since they hadn't been done in quite awhile. Also did some work on the windows, pulling off the trim,  removing the old fiberglass insulation, spraying foam in the gaps, and finally sealing them with new caulk. 

The cabin should be good to go for another ten years.

Been going to the "Airheads" meeting the last few months. They're a group of BMW riders who meet once a month at one of the beverage dispensing establishments for "barley therapy".

Quite a few bikes showed up since it had warmed up into the sixties. Everything from high tech, state of the art BMW's to some nice vintage iron. I got harangued by one Airhead for riding my Moto Guzzi, not a BMW, so he said he'd do me a favor and sell me one. I told him I come for the comraderie, not the bikes, but thanks anyway. You know what they say, if you can't take a joke, well...