Cold and colder...

After an exceptionally warm October and November, December's being contrary and keeps getting colder. Just been trying to get out with the dogs when it's up near zero, otherwise keeping close to home when it drops to twenty to thirty below; so here's a few pics.

One of the rare dog runs this month. When it warms up at the house, it's still going to be a lot colder down in the valley bottom where most of the trails are.

In December, the sun doesn't clear the ridge to the south, so the valley bottom stays in the shadows; it's like a trip to the twilight zone.

Sunsets are pretty cool this time of year, in more ways than one.

Chrome Bores...

While I knew the 850T Guzzi had chrome lined cylinder bores, never knew they were a problem until I started reading up on it in Guzziology, the bible of all MG gear heads. So put it on the lift, dropped the sump, and dumped the oil to send it out for testing.

According to what I've read and seen on the Wild Goose Guzzi website, the chrome eventually begins to wear away, plugging oil ways and destroying bearings. Since it has no oil filter, just a mesh screen, there's nothing much to stop it. While it's true that most mogu's will go 50, 60, 70,000 miles before needing a rebuild, the older the bike, the more likely there's a problem.

So from what I've read, there's basically three solutions...
1. iron liners - honed to match the original pistons (if they're reusable) and new rings.
2. have the original cylinders replated in "Nikasil". This also requires the original pistons be used since it's hard to get good replacement pistons.
3. "big bore" kits - but the piston assemblies would be heavier than stock, so lighter pins and weight removed from the piston itself may be necessary to get them to weigh the same as original piston assemblies (and they still might not be).

The "experts" at Wild Goose think the easiest/best way is #2 - send the cylinders to be replated, buy new rings and piston pin circlips.

So will send an oil sample out to a lab and spend  $28 to see if there is any reason to be worried. Then watch the oil carefully when it's changed annually. If it's not OK, well it looks like there's going to be some time and money spent.

Warm November...

While the Alaska Climate Center apparently never got around to posting their October summary, they had the November climate report done today. Go figure!

Weather summary for November 2019 for Fairbanks, Alaska.

Mean monthly temperature was 13.2°F, which was 10.6°F above normal.The maximum temperature was 38°F on the 22nd, while the minimum temperature was -11°F on the 9th and 19th.
The total monthly precipitation was 1.8", which was 1.2" above normal. Snowfall totaled 23.7" for November, while the snow depth was 14" near month's end.

Been trying to get out and get some decent late afternoon shots, since this is the time of year when the low angle of the sun (it's around 3°) provides interesting lighting. But I guess I either have to get out earlier, cut down some trees on the property, or head up to the top of the ridge to get something decent. Well maybe next time, or the time after that. So anyways, here's todays sunset shot, such as it is.

More Snow...

We keep getting more snow, half a foot or more this week, so it seems I'm either plowing snow, running dogs, or taking out the Ski Doo to work on the trail. Have extended it out to the creek crossing, where it now loops back, giving the dogs a longer run.

Heading down the trail extension, it's always good to get out and run more miles.

Taking a break after the turn around. Next week I'll check out the creek crossing, have to be more careful this time cause last year I fell through the ice. Probably have to build a ramp down from the high bank onto the creek unless the bridge is salvageable (Solstice Bridge 12/22/18).

Been waiting for the Alaska Climate Center to post their weather summary for October, but nothing's up yet. So here's the NWS summary with a graph from the USGS Little Chena River site.

National Weather Service's monthly weather summary, October 2019, for Fairbanks, Alaska.

October followed the September's pattern of above normal temperatures but also had above normal precipitation. The warmest temperatures of the month occurred on the 1st and 28th when it reached 48° F. The coldest temperature was 15° on the 15th. The average temperature for the month was 31.7° which was 7.5° above normal.

Precipitation totaled 1.58" for October which was 0.85" above normal. The greatest daily precipitaion was 0.40" on the 2nd. Snowfall totaled 3.3" for the month.

Getting Dogmatic...

With the recent snowfall, been able to finish the work on the sled trail and finally get the dogs out for a run.

Heading up the hill, the dogs stopped whenever they felt like it, so not the best run ever, but still good enough to get them out again.

Back in the yard, the older dogs acted a little tired but the younger ones seemed ready to run some more.

Out on the trail...

With the 8" of snow we got last week, figured it was time to put the sled dog trail in. After 3 days of plowing snow, it was a treat to do something else for a while. The neighbor who walks his dog up on the ridge told Andy there were some trees down on the trail, so took the chain saw along. But it wasn't bad, there was only one big dead spruce that had to be cut away and it should provide lots of firewood. After clearing it out of the way it was an easy run out into the valley.

Then found a clearing and made a loop back to the trail. It's still way too rough to run the dogs on the tussocks down there and the ice at the creek and pond crossings would be questionable. So will head back down here once we get a little more snow and check it out further.

Stopped on the way back to cut up a down spruce that I ran over all last winter. Just shows how much more snow we had then.

All Chained Up...

After the "pineapple express" came through and melted all the snow, figured it was a good time to get some wood in. Andy had seen some dead spruce on the lower lot, so chained-sawed a bunch up, hauled it back to the yard and split it. Also got some birch from a tree that fell near the dog trail and an aspen that was down on the power line. Got it all stacked up just before the snow hit.

With the snow falling, removed the splitter from the tractor, hooked up the back blade, and then chained up the tractor. It was the usual circus, one chain went on fine, the other kept slipping off, wound up going on upside down, and took three tries to get it right. Now I know why Carl leaves his chains on year round!

Pineapple Express...

No, not the stoner movie, this is the weather pattern where an atmospheric river created by the polar jet stream dipping south to the tropics, then curves back north to Alaska. It can transport huge amounts of water vapor, resulting in heavy rainfall and much warmer than normal temps. (Wikipedia)

So now all the snow that's fallen this month is rapidly melting and soon we'll be back to the sloppy mud we had in late Sept.

Bleepin' George...

Posted this on another site (wildguzzi.com) as Goodbye George, a tale of woe and intrigue. Got some good feedback, so figured might as well have it here too.

George Rahn was the long time BMW dealer in Fairbanks. Not sure when he started out, but he was well established by the mid 70's when I moved here. His shop was an old barn and a collection of sheds behind his house on a side street off College Rd. The only indication it was there was an old, faded BMW sign.

In summer or winter, you'd see him putting around town on his R50 with it's flatbed sidecar. But George was a character with a heart of gold. He'd open the shop night or day to help out the BMW riders who passed through Fairbanks every summer to supply a needed part, fix a broken motor, or change a worn tire. But if you walked into his shop and said or did something he didn't like, he'd rip you a new one and send you on your way. I know cause I was on the receiving end once and kept my thoughts to myself after that.

When he got to be near 80, he had slowed down a bit, and while he'd taken on selling Royal Enfield, he decided to sell the BMW dealership to the local Harley dealer. Now the Farthest North Harley Outpost, as it was called, was originally run by a character almost as idiosyncratic as George. But when he died, his son sold the dealership to a group of local businessmen, They moved it from a small back door shop to a huge new showroom. They added Polaris and then BMW to the growing business.

So a few years after that, George had a stroke, then went downhill pretty fast. The last time I saw him was at the old College coffee shop. He didn't remember me at first, but when we got to talking, he warmed up when I mentioned the wife's Enfield, George liked the ladies, so then he remembered who I was. I said I'd stop by the shop when I was leaving, but his lady friend pulled me aside and told me no, not for awhile yet, he needed to get to feeling better. Well that didn't happen, the next time I heard about George was seeing his obit in the paper.

So then the Harley shop announced it was holding a wake for George in conjunction with the local BMW Airheads group. Now I wasn't too involved with either one, but I knew George since my wife had a bought an Enfield from him, so figured we'd both go. I called a couple of friends for moral support and we all headed over to the wake. On the way, the clutch cable on the T started to go, it was holding on by just a couple of strands, so diverted to my friend John's house and he let me take his '03 Stone.

When we got there, the place was packed, there must have been over 50 bikes, they even had guys out in the parking lot directing traffic. When we got inside, I saw a lot people who I hadn't seen in years, it was a bittersweet reunion, for sure. People were getting up telling stories about George, it went on for quite a while, until pretty much what was said was done and people started to leave.

So we went out a side door to the parking lot, saying our goodbyes to a bunch of people, when two "Men in Black" came out and hopped on a pair of Harleys they'd parked right by the door. Giving us the "stink eye" look, they fired up their Harleys and the noise was incredible. Straight pipes blasting into the side of the building and echoing into the parking lot, I remember taking a step or two back as the cacophony overwhelmed us. They sat there for what seemed like an eternity, revving their unmuffled motors, maybe they lacked proper chokes? IDN, but after several minutes and few more stink eye looks, they roared away. I think I said something like "well that was something" to the guy standing next to me, but he just shrugged, as if to say, "well what do you expect? " So that was George's final send off, getting bleeped by a couple of dirt bags.

George in happier times; after he sold the BMW dealership, he rode a Royal Enfield Bullet hitched to a Cozy Rocket sidecar. I'm sure his dog appreciated the comfort! (photo: newsminer.com)

Stumped...

After rototilling the garden, put the back hoe on the tractor and started digging stumps.

Now removing most of the stumps are unremarkable, the rotten ones fall apart and and come out easy, the green ones fight you all the way and can take some serious digging to remove. But the most interesting one was where some spruce roots had grown around the base of the tool shed stairs and jacked them up so now the door won't close.

I had cut the main root with the chainsaw, but with the limited space to dig, couldn't get the entire root out. Looks like a job for the man hoe!

Snow...

Had snow again today, the third time this fall. It snowed last week when I was driving down to Delta, but I wasn't here, so maybe that doesn't count? Then it snowed about half an inch two days ago, but again, I was in town and it melted before I got home, so today was the first snow here, for me anyway.

This one will probably melt off, like the first two. Expect we won't get the permanent snowpack for a awhile yet.
Update Sun. AM...Looks like about 4 inches of heavy, wet snow overnight. The forecast is for more next week, so maybe this is the beginning of the winter's snowpack.

Last year at this time I rode the Guzzi to the "air heads" meeting, well not this time!
Here's the NWS summary for September...
Unlike August, September 2019 returned to the summer's previous pattern of above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation. The warmest temperatures of the month occurred on the 2nd and 13th when the temperature reached 73° F. The coldest temperature was 27° on the 24th, while the 22nd was the first day below freezing. The average temperature for the month was 48.4°, which was 3.5° above normal
Rainfall totaled 1.04" for September, which was 0.06" below normal. The greatest daily rainfall was 0.35" on the 29th. Unlike many previous Septembers, there was no measurable snowfall this month.
Update 2. The Climate Center finally got around to posting their September summary.

Back to the Black Again...

It snowed some on the drive down from Fairbanks and the mountains had a fresh coating.

The survey site at Black Rapids, alway a great view.

Here's Mike by his name sake boat. Did a great job, like always. getting us around on the river.

Looking upstream at the upper survey site.

Mike programming the doppler meter before doing the survey.

A dust storm from the glacial silt blowing around in the valley; it sure was windy out there!

The clouds cleared off the second day and the Alaska Range was out in all it's glory.

Down by the river...

With the rains of August over, it's the time of year to take advantage of the decent fall weather and get out there. One frequent ride is to head down to the Chena River. The turn out at the river is often crowded on weekends, but during the week you can get the whole place to yourself.

On a stretch of road where it crosses the flats, there's a place to pull off where you occasionally can see geese, ducks or even a moose out in the marsh. But not today.

Fall has fell...

While the leaves started to change  colors a week or so ago, they really started to fall today when the wind got to blowing.

But the temps have warmed up some the last few days, so we're finally getting decent fall weather. Finished painting the trim on the garage, so at least got one thing done this month.

Rode the 850T out to the "air heads" meeting in Fox yesterday and it was a pleasant ride. Hopefully this warm spell will last for a while and make up for the crummy August weather.

Here's the NWS monthly summary...

August 2019 was slightly cooler and a lot wetter than normal. The warmest day of the month occurred on the 7th when the temperature reached 74° F. The coldest temperature was 33° on the 25th. The average temperature for the month was 55.6°, which was 0.5° below normal.

Rainfall totaled 5.58 inches, which was 3.7 inches above the normal, and occurred on 22 days in August.

Alaska Climate Research Center

Bigger footprint...

The side stand on the 850's always been a conundrum, cause while it's there to use, it's not too useful. It's hard to extend while seated cause it's so far forward. Then when you get it out, the return spring tries to retract it before you can get the bike resting on it. Then when you finally get'er down, the bike wants to fall over cause it's too short and the bottom is so small it settles into anything softer than concrete. While you can't easily fix the first two, figured I'd maybe make it a little longer and wider. So here's something that looked like it'd work.

Needed to clear the exhaust pipe, so had to make the pattern crescent shaped, then cut a metal plate from 1/4" thick flat steel; this should make it a little longer too.

Here's the plate welded onto the bottom of the side stand. While it has a bigger footprint, it's still kind of short, so will make another plate with a spacer to get it a little longer. Then I'll start doing some more stretching to make my leg long enough to extend it!
Update:  added a second plate with a spacer and while it's better, it's still kind of short. The next try will be to weld a bead on the top of the stand, where it hits the frame stop, to keep it more vertical when extended. If that doesn't work, well I can still carry the plywood spacers I made to keep it upright!

Guzzi work...

Finally getting some work done on the V65 (All Gassed up 5/25/19). Removed the gas tank and replaced the gas taps, then pulled the valve covers off and adjusted the valves. One side was fine and the other needed quite a bit of adjustment, not sure if that means anything. Then, after replacing the valve covers, added some head protectors that I'd ordered earlier this summer.

So now the question is whether to rebuild the carbs now, since the float needles probably need to be replaced, or ride it some this summer and do the rebuild this winter. Decisions, decisions!

July Summary...

Spent the last half of the month getting the backhoe ready, then did some odd jobs for the neighbors and continued to clean out the ditches along our road (Road Rage 10/23/18). Nothing exciting,  not really worth a photo, so here's the monthly weather summary. Kind of boring to some, I suppose, but that's life up here sometimes.

July 2019 was the eleventh consecutive month of above normal temperatures for Fairbanks. The warmest temperature of the month occurred on the 9th when the temperature reached 87° F; this tied a record from all the way back in 1915. The coldest temperature was 50° on the 2nd and 31st. The average temperature for the month was 66°, which was 3.5° above normal. Rainfall totaled 0.89 inches, which was 1.27 inches below normal. (National Weather Service Alaska Region)

Raining Cats and Dogs...

Well not exactly, but we're finally getting some steady rain. It's knocked down a lot of the forest fires, the smoke that hung around through most of the summer is largely gone. Since July is, on the average, one of the wettest months up here, it's about time. Read about it here:
http://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/rain-slows-wildfires-along-yukon-river/article_56848f80-b245-11e9-ae4c-87c2ae66ed07.html

One of the sled dogs, Little Missy, or Pissy Missy as I call her, has been acting up lately, so we thought bringing her into the house might help socialize her. The interesting thing that's happened is that while she's the loudest, most obnoxious dog in the yard, she's pretty mellow around the cat. Jack Black was apparently raised with a dog, but it was about his size, so he's not too sure what to make of the monster dogs that we have here. But by and large he's curious enough, or maybe he's just lazy and doesn't want to move, so he stays put on the couch when she comes in. Makes for interesting visits.

Backhoe's Up Again...

After blowing out a hose last fall (Hosed Again 11/10/18) and then getting the hoses replaced (All Hosed Up 5/1/19), finally got the backhoe working. Didn't want to finalize anything until the tractor was parked in place for hookup, so the length of the hoses could be checked.

So after finishing splitting firewood, removed the splitter, then had to install the mower to cut the grass before the dog yard disappeared from view. Finally got the backhoe hooked up today; I can see why farmers have more than one tractor, it's a pain to always change implements. But then there was only one leak after hooking it up, where I forgot to tighten one of the fittings. Also put the protective sleeving material over the hoses so they won't get banged up so much. They now run under the foot boards, instead of next to them, so should be pretty much out of harms way.

Hopefully these hoses will last as long, or longer than the old ones. Next project 'll be to hook up the pressure washer and clean off all the oily dirt that accumulated after the hose blew and sprayed hydraulic fluid everywhere.

Still Hot...

While we did get some rain and cool weather the other day, it quickly warmed up again. Figured I'd take advantage of the warm spell and get the rest of the wood split that was hauled in this spring (All Fools Day 4/1/19). Normally I'd have split the wood in May to get'er drying earlier, but had to wait to heal up from the surgery.

Here's the weather summary for June. The Climate Center over at UAF seems to be getting these out later than usual. They used to come out the first week of the month.

Mean monthly temperature for Fairbanks in June was 63.5°F, which was 3.1°F above normal. The observed maximum temperature was 89.0°F on the 29th of the month, the minimum temperature was 44.0°F on the 4th of the month. The total monthly precipitation was 1.5", which was 0.1" above normal. (National Weather Service, Alaska Region)

Almost a Triumph...

Finally getting around to putting the '64 T-bird back together. We got this bike on a trip to England back in the early eighties. Everybody likes to bring home a souvenir and I guess this was mine. Drove it around here for about five years, mostly to work, but then it quit on me on the way home one day. Had to push it the last few miles to my neighbors place, then walked home and got the pickup and hauled'er back up the hill. One thing I'll never forget, while pushing it down the road, I was passed by a group of Harley riders and they never even slowed down. Well so much for the brotherhood of bikers!
When I got it home and checked it out, there was a major short in the wiring harness and it pretty much fried it. That got me to tear into it some more, figured I might as well rebuild the engine and restore the rest. But then I got the '72 Triumph and '75 Moto Guzzi and the T-Bird was kind of forgotten, until now.

After getting most of the bits back on the bike, took some rubbing compound and rubbed out the tank and fenders. Surprisingly, the original paint still looked pretty good after all these years. Amazing!

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?