Merry Christmas...

 With all the weird, crazy, and sad things going on in the world, it's great to just take a day and enjoy the good things in life. So merry Christmas to all and to all a good life.

After a snowy start to the month, it's just been cold lately. We spend much of our time hauling in wood from the stacked piles outside and stoking the wood stove.

Andy filling the wood boxes to carry inside for the stove. They say the wood heats you many times, when you cut it, split, stack, carry it in, and finally burn it. Good for the body and soul!

All Dressed Up, Nowhere to Go...

 Back in the day when we lived with my grandparents (Grandpa was a Carpenter 6/22/20), one of my Grandma's favorite sayings was "all dressed up, nowhere to go." Now a days, sometimes I'll comment like that as a joke when we're getting ready for one thing or another, however inappropriate it might be. Well now it's like that for dog sledding, whenever it seemed like a good day to get out with the dogs, it'd snow 2, 3, maybe 4 inches so I'd have to go plow the road, then re-groom the trail. Since the trail has a major reroute at the road crossing, I don't feel like I can run them without an well defined trail to follow. Now it's stopped snowing, but cooled off and dropped down to 25-30° F below. That's just a little colder than either the dogs or I prefer, especially my 11 year old leader who's not exactly ecstatic about running in lead anymore.

The sled's all dressed up, but until it warms up a bit, there's nowhere to go.

This is the time of year when there's less than 4 hours of sunlight, so you get pretty spectacular sunrises and sunsets. We just need the neighbor to cut down some trees for a better view!

More Odd Jobs...

 Not much new going on, the past few weeks have been mostly odd jobs, like cutting logs to be split for firewood, carpentry projects on the cabin, and cutting a new sled dog trail to cross the road. With the trees dropped by Cy last month lying close to the cabin (Firsts 10/22/22), figured it was a good plan to buck up and haul off as much as possible before the snow hit. So most of it got hauled down to the wood cutting area and stacked up for eventual splitting. The carpentry work involved sanding and varnishing the back log wall, similar to what was done on the opposite wall last fall (Random Stuff 11/28/21). 

Also got the trim finished on the back door frame, so that was a good score. Maybe it's time to refinish the back door?

The dog trail was moved due to some of the neighbors friends parking on the road and blocking the old trail crossing (Busted 4/7/22). It was a bit of a slog cutting out all the alder needed to clear the new sled trail, but another neighbor, David, helped and now all we need to run on it is some more snow.

Until then, we'll just have to keep running in circles round the subdivision on the wheeler!

Gettin' Older

Just occurred to me, hard to believe, that I'll be a year older in a month. So then I was looking at some of the dogs and I saw how fast they get older. Of course the first that comes to mind is Missy, our oldest dog, who was three when her owner died and we took her in, over 8 years ago.

When we got her, she was super shy and Andy to hang on to her just to get a photo. As the years passed, she's gotten a lot friendlier.

Tambo just had to push in for the photo, but Missy, even with him bugging her, stood pretty still. Like me, she's a lot more gray now, but she's still running up front, leading the team around the neighborhood with the 4 wheeler. Hopefully she'll keep'em going with the sled when we get some more snow, she still acts like she's born to run.

More of Carl's Stuff...

In addition to the tools, we picked up a few other things while we were cleaning out Carl's house. 

When we first got there, Andy's brother Pete took us on a tour of the house. This match holder was in the basement on a shelf, with the original box. It had never been installed anywhere. We couldn't figure out what it was doing there, but since Pete didn't want it, we brought it home and mounted it on the wall next to the wood stove. At one time, Carl had two Allis-Chalmers tractors, so I guess he meant to put it somewhere.

 Carl had lots of art work, this owl was a woodcut print done by his niece.

Carl was fascinated by ravens. The top print was one Andy had gotten for him years ago.

More bird prints, while he had other stuff, Carl mainly liked his birds!

Firsts

 We got our first snow (4 in) last week and our second (6 in) today.

The old sauna, now used as a storage shed, after the latest snow. 

Got the doggies out for their first run. They did  great, a big change from last year's first run when we had trouble getting around the loop. Everybody seems to know their job and does it, almost inconceivable!

Had some aspen trees dropped that were leaning over the old workshop/tool shed. Cy, the young fella who dropped the ninety footer spruce for us a few years ago, dropped this one and another leaner. Didn't want a replay of the aspen that fell on the garage earlier this summer. The fog in the photo didn't lift all day, that's unusual in hills where we live.

Carl's Stuff...

As noted in the previous post, we headed down to the midwest to help clear out Andy's brother's stuff after he died. He had sold the farm to his neighbor's, Bill and Vicki, who took care of him during his time of extremis, so we had to remove as much as we could while we were there. He was a collector! Her middle brother Pete, had cleaned up a lot of stuff before we got there, so we just had to help with the rest: books, music CDs, and DVDs, many unopened. Then there were the tools, Carl was a wood worker, so there were lots of tools. Pete had picked through what he wanted, but set some aside for us. Besides a few CD's and DVD's. here's what we wound up bringing home...

From left to right, there's an in-shave, a spoke shave, an adjusting driver, an old screw driver, end cut pliers, large hole drills, and a drum rasp, probably used with the large hole drill. There was so much else, but since we had to ship it home and thought others might want some, well we tried not to take too much.

The most interesting thing was the odd looking screw driver. After I cleaned off the rust, the logo on it said W.H. Clay Ltd. Sheffield, England. So Googled that up and found it’s a “plane adjusting driver” likely made sometime in the 1920’s or 30’s. It might have been one of his grandfathers tools or maybe it was just something Carl picked up at a yard sale. Anyway, I'll keep it with my grandfathers tools, in a place of honor!

Out and About...

 As noted in a previous post, we took a trip to the lower 48 to visit relatives. Andy's oldest brother Carl passed this summer and the family planned a reunion and memorial for late Sept. Here's some photos...

Andy got a nice sunset shot of Denali on the flight down to Anchorage.

We spent the first few days with Andy's middle brother Pete, helping him sort through Carl's stuff at the farm; he sure was a collector! We had lunch in town at a local pub that turned out to be owned by a fellow Ukrainian.

Carl's tractor. When his old A-C needed a lot of work, he bought this almost new IH-Case. It apparently was love at first sight, as he bought it from the dealer as soon as he saw it, and never looked back.

Andy, her brother Pete, and three cousins, Basil, Cornelia, and Clare. I'd never met them before, so it was good to get to know them. While a little sad thinking about how much Carl would have enjoyed having almost all his relatives together at the farm, it was still great to get together with all these good people.

More Fall...

Was just going to append these photos on the previous post, but then figured, let's live it up and start a new one!

There were people picnicking along the river, they've made the Nordale boat launch area into a little park, and some left right after I stopped there. Coincidence, or maybe biker paranoia, who's to say.

The fall colors were a little past their prime down in the flats, but I'd been avoiding the Nordale Rd area since the state troopers were patrolling there earlier in the week.

Sometimes the ponds down here have wildlife in them, but there's no ducks or moose here today!

It wouldn't be complete without some fall colors in the dog yard. Mac's ready to go for another run!

Fall Colors...

 Mostly been jamming to get the fall chores done, as we're heading down to the midwest for a quick visit with the relatives. So here's few photos...

With most of the birch turning bright yellow, it almost hurts the eyes in the sunlight.

The workshop's in better shape with the roof fixed. The doors are now closing after a quick realignment. When the tree slammed down it apparently knocked that corner out of plumb, so will eventually have to find a permanent solution.

Been out for a few rides on the 650 Guzzi, but only got this shot in the yard. Maybe get some better pics tomorrow.

Up From the Ashes...

Last summer we had a problem with an arsonist in the neighborhood... 

https://www.newsminer.com/news/alaska_news/arrest-made-in-two-rivers-arson-fires/article_151d422c-0760-11ec-9f54-8b622207b95e.html

One of his targets was the locally world famous Two Rivers Lodge, an iconic log restaurant.

While we didn't go there often, it was something of a fixture in the neighborhood.

Here are the remains of the lodge a few days after the fire. I happened to be out riding the Guzzi, was stopped right there for road construction, so pulled into their driveway for a quick look and some photos. 

The Guzzi in the lodge parking lot. Tried to get some good fall shots of the area, but the burnt remains of the lodge haunted the scene.

No one I talked to knew if it would be rebuilt, since other places, like Tack's Store had burned and never returned. So it was a real surprise when I went for a ride the other day and saw this building under construction. When I went back today with a camera, it appeared finished, at least on the outside.

Looks like it might open up for business soon. Unfortunately, the old store down the hill from our place doesn't look any different than it did last year after it burned. Apparently they didn't have any insurance on it, since the store was closed at the time of the fire.

I guess some folks idea of being a good neighbor doesn't include cleaning up the mess on their property.

Arboreal Weeds...

 Back in the 80's when I worked land surveying, there was a character named Joe Vogler who was developing a subdivision on his homestead north of town. An itinerant gold miner and politician (Google: Battle at Weber Creek or Alaskan Independence Party), one of his idiosyncrasies was his dislike of Aspen trees. "Arboreal weeds", as he referred to them, were banned from his subdivisions and property owners were required to cut them down. One time when we working there, he stopped by to say hello, but the talk quickly turned to the "posey sniffing swine" that had taken him to court to stop this requirement (which he eventually lost). So now those trees flourish in "Voglerville" as we dubbed Joe's place.

Unfortunately, they also grow around our place and with the recent wind storms,they've been falling down with regularity. A couple of weeks ago, two fell on the power line and we were without power for two days. Then a few days back, a second wind storm blew one down on the garage.

The only good thing about it was that by landing on the garage addition, the tree didn't hit the pickup truck. And while the garage roof suffered some damage, the wall apparently was fine, so the repairs should be minimal.

I tried to lift the tree off the roof the loader, but all it did was lift up the back of the tractor. So after cutting off most of the lower part of the tree with the chainsaw, the rest rolled off with a little help from the loader.

Will post more pics as the project progresses.

So here's what it looks like now after removing the trashed metal roofing and busted roof framing. Most of the roof framing is replaced and should get'er done tomorrow, hopefully before the rains hit!

Screwing down the replacement metal roofing. Then will have to replace the damaged trim boards. 

My favorite way to work on the roof, sitting down with all the tools laid out in the bucket. So now the roof's good to go, at least until until the next windstorm.

Need to Vent...

Back when I was getting ready to retire, we bought some implements that could be used in the business, Tractor Works, I'd hoped to start after retirement. One of them was the flail mower. Now these mowers are none too common up here, in fact I don't think I'd ever seen one in Fairbanks. But back when I was still in school, one of my summer jobs was cutting grass along the county highways and park strips and we used tractor mounted flail mowers. So I called the local John Deere dealer and as luck would have it, they had one, a rental, in Soldotna. They'd ship it up to Fairbanks and if I wanted it, they'd do any necessary maintenance. When it got here, it was in kind of rough shape, but they said they'd make it right. Since then it's worked great and except for backing it into a tree once, never had any trouble with it (Dandelion Don't Tell No Lies 6/10/22).

So it was a surprise the other day when I checked the gear lube and the fluid came pouring out of the level hole. Since none had been added recently, only a little should have trickled out or maybe none at all. So figured I'd better go to the dealer and talk to a mechanic. He said it could be water in the case or a plugged vent. "What vent?' I told him, "there's no vent." He suggested removing some of the gear lube using a suction tube, since there's no drain, and check for water and look for a plugged vent. 

The arrow points to the unpainted bolt where the vent's supposed to be in the gearcase.

So that's what I did when I got home. Turns out there was no water and of course, no vent either. So it was back to the dealer to order a vent, which they charged me for, even thou I told them it wasn't installed at the time it was purchased. So a week goes by, they call, and I go back to pick it up. As luck would have, the shop manager is standing there, so I tell him my tale of woe and he agrees to a refund. So back home again and in removing the bolt from the appropriate hole in the gear box, it's quickly apparent the vent is the wrong size. So this time I dig around in my John Deere stuff and lo and behold, there's a parts manual for the mower. On the page for the gearcase, there's a vent, but it comes in three parts. They only ordered one. So back to the dealer again to order the rest. This time they remember me and immediately agree to the order being no charge. That's great, but what a pain in the butt. Three trips to the dealer and I still don't have the right parts. But at least by writing this, I feel a little better, cause I needed to vent!

Everything From A to Zerk...

Back in the day, every piece of heavy equipment and even most cars and trucks had zerks. A zerk is a fitting that lets you inject grease lubricant into critical moving parts like bearings, ball joints, hinges, and u-joints. Now a days they're not so common with sealed bearings, but the JD tractor and implements have quite a few. So it was surprising when I hooked up the rototiller and went to grease the drive shaft that I saw one of the zerks was missing. Now in all the years I've worked with equipment and had to grease them, I'd never lost a zerk. Since the rototiller was made in Germany, it'd have metric fittings, so had to go to the dealer. Of course they don't sell them anymore and didn't have anything that fit. So went to the local NAPA store and they had them in stock, almost inconceivable! But the best part of the story is the grease gun. I'd been using an old mechanical grease gun that I'd bought in the '70s and a few years ago decided to try a pneumatic gun. Well I never got it to work right until I recently was reading a blog that had a post about them. It said you needed to use the pressure relief valve to clear air from the gun after loading the grease. So that's what that button is for! Now the brand new zerks will be greased with the newly functional gun.

One of the shiny new zerks, freshly greased, in the u-joint of the rototiller.

The recalcitrant grease gun with the release valve in the center of the cylinder. I didn't get any instructions with it, so it took a serendipitous blog post to get it working right.

Moly or not to moly, that is the question...

Haven't had too much to blog about, I've mostly been doing chores around the house and staying inside on these hot smoky days. You don't need a weather man, with forest fires all over the state, it doesn't matter which way the wind blows, we get smoke now. So other than cutting up, splitting and stacking wood, I've been staying in the nice, cool garage working on the Moto Guzzis.

One of the maintenance chores on the Guzzi's is to change the oil (gear lube) in the differential, or rear drive as it's called the manuals. The problem is there's not the same listing of lubricants and capacities in the different manuals I have. So I checked with one of the Guzzi forums I follow and as luck would have it, there was a recent posting about this same topic. And typical of most forums, there was a split opinion, with people lining up on both sides to add their  voice on whether or not to add moly to the gear lube. Now moly (or molybdenum disulfide) was an additive used to reduce friction in high speed gears back in the day, but is not so common today. The consensus in the group was that moly is no longer needed with the current, high tech gear lubricants. Either they'd talk about how great their super high tech lubricant works in their bike or cite other bikes, like BMW, that they rode and never used moly. But of course there also were the stalwarts that said "if it's called for in the manual, then use it."  Fortunately, for me at least, someone posted an excerpt from Guzziology, the bible of all Guzzi mechanics, that not only called for moly, but listed the amounts to use in each model. So that was good enough for me, all I had to do was getter done.

Now draining the lube from the 650 was no problem, a 17mm nut that came loose without any trouble and the oil dumped down the drain I'd made into the pan with no spills, But 850, that was another story. While the manual said to remove the drain plug to dump the oil, a close inspection, that required a mirror to see underneath the rear drive, showed a ribbed cover with six hex head bolts. Apparently, it has a sump that requires removal of the bottom plate to drain. So I spent the next hour or so, lying on the garage floor trying to get a wrench on the nuts that I couldn't really see, then carefully removing them without stripping or breaking the bolts. Of course the gasket was glued in and tore apart, so had to scrape it off both the differential and the plate. Which means I'll have to order a new gasket before adding the new lube. 

Here's the bottom plate that goes on the rear drive. Why they didn't put a drain plug in it is beyond my comprenshion.

But I did get the 650 done, though I apparently added too much lube at first, so when I switched to adding the moly, the lube started running out of the level plug. Oops, now did the proportion of moly to gear lube get screwed up, or is it close enough to not need a do over? Like most things, I suppose it'll work out, one way or the other.

Yes, We Have No Delvac, A Tale of Two Oils...

Back in the day when I worked land surveying, one of the guys on the crew had an older brother who apparently was a perfectionist. One of his quirks was to get his old engine oil tested after changing it. After trying many different brands, he decided that Mobil 1 Delvac synthetic was the best oil. That got me started using it in the old Volvo wagon since we had just installed a rebuilt engine. So when we got the tractor, it got the same oil.  

This spring when I went to change the oil, there was less than half a gallon left and it takes five quarts. The bulk plant, where I usually get it had been closed, so I called first. Well it turned out they're open, but all out of Mobil 1 Delvac. So I checked the local auto stores and they were all out too. But then I noticed that one store had Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck oil. What's the difference? Here's what I found on line...

Mobil Delvac 1 ESP 5W-40 is an advanced full synthetic oil specially fomulated for diesel engines that works to extend engine life, fuel economy potential, and deliver long drain capability for modern diesel engines operating in severe conditions. Rating CH-4, CI-4, CI-4 Plus, CJ-4, CK-4, SM,SN

Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel Truck 5W-40 is a full synthetic heavy duty diesel engine oil that helps to extend engine life while providing long drain capability and fuel economy for modern diesel engines operating in severe applications.  Rating CI-4 Plus,CJ-4,CK-4,SL,SM,SN

So they sound the same. Checked the operator's manual for the tractor and for diesel engine oil: API Service Classification CE or CD. The API oil classification system lists backward compatibility for current types of oil and CH and CL are compatible with CE and CD. So apparently both Mobil 1's are compatible, which begs the question, why have two oils that are so similar, they're seemingly for the same use. Then we see the labels on the containers...

Apparently the Delvac oil is for the big rig eighteen wheel truckers.

While the Turbo Diesel is reserved for monster pickup drivers towing huge trailers.

So I bought the Turbo Diesel, but it'll just have to remain incognito since it's for a compact utility tractor. BTW, the arrow points to the oil filter, easily accessible with side panel removed. I always fill the new filter half way up or so when changing the oil. This was another tip I got, from a Harley rider, hard to believe, and it keeps the engine from running without oil for the first few seconds when starting it up right after the oil change.

Dandelion don't tell no lies...

It seems like just last week that I was scraping snow off the road, but now the snow's all gone, the garden's rototilled, Andy's got the starts planted, and the grass is high enough, at least down by the dog yard, to be cut. So today the flail mower's on the tractor and after the usual greasing and gear oil check, it's time to mow.

The area where we had Macs puppy pen (Here and Gone 6/28/20) has turned into a dandelion jungle. Those weeds must really love puppy poop, cause they're growing everywhere around here .

While not real obvious, the area in front of the tractor is a solid jungle of dandelions, right where the puppy pen was set up a few years ago. I suspect we'll be looking at them for a while now.