Christmas Run...

 Spent Christmas day getting all the gear ready and then taking the dogs out for their first run with the sled. Nothing exciting happened after we got'em hooked up and left the yard, that's always the circus part,  so an unremarkable run's a good thing. Spent most of yesterday pulling a groomer with the Skidoo and fixing the bad spots on the trail so that made for a smooth run.  Here's a video Andy shot crossing the road on the way home.

Went to our neighbor's place yesterday for a Christmas eve dinner. It seems to get smaller every year as some people move away or others pass on. Times change but life goes on. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Second Time Around...

The first cataract surgery went well, so now I get to have the same thing done on the other eye. It's not terribly painful, just feels like pea gravel stuck in the eye, so compared to other surgeries, it's not so much, but still not looking forward to it. Today was the last day to catch up on the things that needed to be done before hand.

It'd warmed up 30 degrees (-14 to +16F) from yesterday, so of course the first priority was to run dogs. I thought I'd be on a sled by now, but still not enough snow. Then took the Ski Doo over the hill and drug a truck tire over the trail. It's pretty rough down in the valley where the mega-tussocks rule, so will wait until there's more snow before switching to the sled. Finally got on the tractor, cleaned up around the dog yard, hauled in a load of birch that I'd bucked up, then scraped the little snow we'd gotten off the driveway. We're supposed to get a big dump of snow in a day or two, so figured I'd get'er as clean as I could before the storm hit. Amazing what you can get done in a day when you have to!

Eye Ballin'...

Today might have been the last 4-wheeler run, since I go into town tomorrow for eye surgery. The cataracts have gotten worse over the years; haven't been able to weld for several years now and the project list keeps getting longer. So after much procrastinating, bit the bullet, as they say, and scheduled the surgery. 

Still hoping we'll get more snow, so I got the Ski Doo wide track running yesterday and broke out the sled trail. It was a pretty bumpy ride out in the valley with the tussocks barely covered with snow. But I only got stuck once, didn't have to walk home, so that's a pretty good ride for me.

Gus and Earl are the regular leaders now. Gus has been pretty serious up front for awhile, and except for getting overly excited at the start, he knows the trail and ignores the neighbors dogs and passing cars. Earl still acts like a goofy pup, just likes to harass Gus and enjoy the experience!

Still 4-wheelin...

 While we did get about a half a foot of snow this week, it's still not enough to put the sled trail in across the valley. The tussocks there are over a foot high, so you need at least that much snow to break out the trail. So until we get some more snow, we'll be wheelin!

The trail's mostly on subdivision roads now, except for a short stretch along side the highway. That part's always interesting, cause there's a lot of traffic going by and sometimes parked cars and trucks block the trail.

It seems there's a bit of relief when you get back to the dog yard, but also a little sad too, as another run's over.

Toboggan's a go...

Last spring the old toboggan, the one in the photo at the top of the blog, suffered a major impact event (Busted  4/7/22). It needed repairs. so I cobbled together a quick fix, but wanted to do a better job, then maybe fix some other stuff too. So last week Andy helped me haul it into the garage to finally get'er done.

This is what it looked like after the fix last spring. The center stanchions are what's left of the laminated driving bow that broke when I crashed. The black top piece is off Andy's old sled.

Made new center stanchions out of some old rough cut birch, then planed and sanded all the wooden parts.

After making sure everything fit together, took it apart and varnished all the stanchions as well as the sled runners. 

So now it's back together, not looking too bad for an almost 40 year old sled. It's on it's second set of runners and third stanchion rebuild, but still not much different from the original.

Replaced the poly rope and bungee bracing for the back supports.with an aluminum X-brace off an old Tim White sled that's been gathering dust in the garage loft. Maybe it'll help this sled turn better than a skid of logs!

Skidooed...

 Last spring I pulled the old Skidoo into the garage for some long overdo maintenance. After getting it up on the lift table, figured I had all summer to getter done. So last week I finally got around to working on it. Jacked up the front end, removed the skis, and replaced the ski skins and carbide runners with new parts I had ordered earlier on ebay. Of course they didn't quite fit, so spent a few days drilling and filing new holes, then bending the metal studs to get them installed on the skis.

Wanted to grease the suspension, but all the zerks are plugged solid and the replacements I had didn't fit. So will do that next time or maybe the time after that?

 Got'er started on the second pull and now it's sitting out in the wood yard, waiting for more snow. It did turn a lot better with the new ski parts, so at least one thing's fixed!

First Dog Run...

 Been trying to get the dogs out for a run for awhile now, but finishing summer/fall projects seemed to take prescedence. But after a couple of snows and some hard work, finally got'em out for a run.

Andy took the photo after we got back into the yard. Missy, at twelve, ran great. Gus did his usual crazy dog act in the yard, but did well up front until we got back, then flopped into the snow, presumably to cool off. The amazing thing to me is how much Earl has grown, he's almost as big as Tambo now. Running dogs, it's a way of life, I guess!

And here's the end of the second run. A little warmer today, so there's some hot dogs...

First Snows...

Had our first snow on the second, right on time according to the weather bureau. It all melted the next day, but then we got another storm that dumped a couples of inches.  

It looks like it might stick around for awhile.

Just finished winterizing the tractor and installed the backhoe for some late season dirt work and the annual filling-in of the dog yard holes.

With the forecast of more snow and colder temps, I guess I better get to it; it's always a race to finish before the ground freezes too hard to dig. Winter comes early in the interior!

Equinoxed...

We're past the equinox, had our first frost, and the leaves are coming down. So I guess it's officially fall. Figured I'd better get some bike rides in before the snow fell, so rode a ways out towards Two Rivers. 

The colors were kind of disappointing, this area was partly burned by a forest fire, so maybe not the best spot for a photo op.

Took another shot in the driveway. The sun had come out by then  so the colors were a lot more vibrant.

Fall Colors...

 A little later than normal, the leaves are finally turning. The fall colors usually peak around Sept 10, more or less, so we're running about a week late. It's probably because we haven't had a frost, or even much cold weather,  yet. Here's a few photos from today;  probably be more colorful in a few days.

While the birch are getting yellow, the aspen are still green.

Temps this morning were in the low forties outside, not bad for mid-Sept. Inside, it was the sign of the beast.

Some more photos, looking up the driveway.

A day later and the colors have intensified...

And a few more days later, the colors on the birch have peaked, while the aspen remain slightly green...

Jak Se Mas...

 I grew up in a midwestern town that was mostly Bohemian Czech. When I was a kid, you seldom heard English in the stores, most everyone spoke Czech. You'd hear the phrase "jak se mas" (how are you) all the time. As I got older, the town began to change as people died or moved away and other ethnicities moved in. By the time I went off to college, you seldom heard Czech spoken anymore. So It was a big surprise when I heard about a Czech-Slovak reunion happening a few years ago in Fairbanks. Eva, a young woman from the Czech Republic had settled here and started a family. She wanted to meet with fellow countrymen and women. The first meeting was just before covid hit and had maybe 30 or so people show up. It was a treat to sample Czech cooking again, even if I didn't know what each dish was, and hearing the language, which I don't speak well,  that was interesting too. Covid put a stop to the reunions, but just last week they had another. So here's what Eva wrote in her followup email:

"Ahoj Cesi a Slovaci,

dekujeme moc za hojnou ucast!

Thank you everyone so much for coming to Czech-Slovak Gathering 2.0 :) And we are sorry if you couldn't make it, but hopefully we will see you next time! Around 54 people came to our gathering and we were very pleased to see how much good food and baked goods and drinks you all brought to share with others!"

They had a catered meal instead of potluck so it was good to know what I was eating this time. Apparently the meal was cooked by a local Moldovian restaurant (who'd think there'd be one up here), so not exactly Czech cooking, but still OK. Eva plans to have another in two years, so we're hoping it will happen again. Here's a group photo she sent with the email...

Two Trick Pony...

As noted in an earlier post, Tamarack aka Tambo Rambo is a dog of few tricks (One Trick Pony 7/7/21). A very shy dog when we got him from the shelter, we've been trying, with little success, to socialize him as well as teach him new tricks. Since he constantly gives paw until he gets a dog biscuit, Andy's started teaching him to give a second paw at the same time, and I think he's finally gotten it.

While he's figured out how to give both paws, sitting up by himself is still on the horizon. The whole keeping his balance thing hasn't computed yet, so you have to hold him up while he wobbles about. Pretty funny watching him do stupid pet tricks and he sure doesn't mind as long he gets his dog treat. While sled dogs can be pretty independent, often ignoring your commands, their focus is razor sharp when you've got a dog biscuit in hand!

Dogmatic...

 When we go out to let the dogs off for their free run, there's always a few things that you can count on. They'll bark like crazy until they're let off, they'll run as fast as they can chasing each other around for awhile, and then Mac and Rudy (aka meathead) will get into their mock attack mode.

From the time we first got Mac as a puppy, he bonded with Rudy and they've played these attack games. Rudy used to pick Mac up, when Mac was a lot smaller, and toss him around. Mac seemed to love it and always came back for more. The odd thing is that Rudy is now 12 and Mac 3. It's really unusual for a dog that old to still play that rough, especially with a dog who's so much younger, bigger and stronger than he is. Just being dogmatic, I guess.

Bowed Over...

 The last few winters have brought almost unprecedented periods of rain, wind, and heavy wet snow. This resulted in many trees falling down, losing branches, or getting bowed over. While some of the bowed trees spring back up after the snow and ice melts, many don't. It's not just saplings, some of the birch are six inches at the base and maybe thirty feet tall. So I've been cutting down the ones that are still bowed over and salvaging what I can for firewood.

While most of the aspen were smaller saplings, some of the birch were larger and needed to be hauled up to the wood yard with the tractor. This is the same tree leaning over the dog yard in the first photo in Finally It's Spring (5/13/23). After bucking them up to wood stove length, they get split and stacked out to dry. 

With the wood from these smaller birch and a couple of larger ones that fell next to the dog trail, we'll have plenty of firewood for heating this coming winter. It warms yah twice!

Road Trip...

Back in January, there was an announcement on the public TV station that the Antiques Roadshow, a PBS program, was coming to Anchorage this summer. You had to enter a lottery to get tickets. So I did, not expecting anything, and we won two tickets to the show in July.  If you're not familiar, they have a bunch of appraisers and you bring in stuff and they appraise it. The best ones are filmed and shown on the TV program. So Andy and I drove down to Anchorage and did the stand in the endless lines for hours routine to get a few minutes with an appraiser. I brought a bunch of my dads WWII Army stuff and the ship in the bottle that my grandpa made. 

Surprisingly, the bottle was worth several hundred bucks, while the army stuff not so much. Andy's Roy Rogers lunch box and her mom's Navajo blankets were about the same.

So this is kind of how we felt afterwards. We drove to Palmer to visit Andy's friend Val and we assuaged our disappointment with several cold beers. The next day we drove back via the Palmer Fishook Road, a very narrow, rough road that goes over Hatcher Pass and eventually gets you to Willow on the Parks Hwy. The clouds were down to the ground on the south side of the pass, but lifted just enough to see the hillsides on north side.

Look ma, I'm on top of the world! Well at least 3800 ft in Hatcher pass. So besides seeing the pass, the highlight of the trip was stopping for coffee and ice cream at McKinley Parks glitter gulch. Tasty! 

Springing Back...

A while back, I posted about the chrome lining the bores on the 850T Guzzi (Chrome Bores 12/15/19) and how they tend to start flaking off over time. This, of course, is very bad for the engine, especially one with no real oil filter. Since the replacement cylinders were no longer available, the only real option is sending them out to the lower 48 to be rebored and either fitted with metal sleeves or plated with a nickel alloy (nikasil). So while pondering this, I figured I'd mostly ride the 650 Guzzi (v65). Well now I'm reading online about how the double springs on the v65 are apparently too strong for the valves and can stretch the stems until they fail, with catastrophic results. The fix is to replace the springs with later model ones, but the catch is they're only available from a few dealers in Europe and are very expensive. So what to do.

The over energetic valve springs are just barely visible below the round caps at the bottom of the head.

So one solution is to check the valve clearance fairly often. As long the measured gap is nearly the correct, the valves are probably OK. So I checked the gap the other day and three were spot on, the other one was .01 too large. That's pretty good, cause when the valves stretch, the gap decreases, so they're probably good to go, for a while at least.

Went for a short ride today and the bike ran great. Well it should, since I didn't change anything, but it's good to know it'll run like that for a while,

Last of the Ninety Footers...

 Back in 2020, the local power company dropped a bunch of trees along the power line (All Spruced Up 5/22/20). Several were ninety footers. So in time, I bucked up and stacked all the wood. Now for the last few years I've been splitting the wood, first the smaller rounds and finally mega sized bottom ones. And now it's finished, splitting the last of the mega spruce.

Or is it? The line crew came thru late last summer and dropped another ninety footer on the far end of the property. Since most of it fell on the neighbors, I figured I'd just let him have it. But another neighbor saw it and wanted to use it for rough lumber, so told him to take it. I went by there the other day with the tractor and it's still there. Maybe I'll wind up with more mega spruce to split.

Almost three feet on the stump, it'll be lots o' work for whoever winds up taking it. I hope it's one of the neighbors, cause otherwise I'd probably salvage it for firewood and I'm still kinda sore from hefting the last bunch of mega spruce rounds!

Juneteenth?

 Well it is Juneteenth, but this is more about a moose being free in the driveway. I'd just started getting ready to split wood. After the last couple of days, the pile of stacked mega spruce rounds had finally started to disappear and I figured a few more days would get'er done.

But just as I was starting to split the first log, Andy came and called to me. "You need to come back to the house" or words to that effect. So I shut down the tractor and when I got back, this is what I saw...

A cow moose munching on fireweed shoots along the driveway. She ignored the barking dogs and the two of us yelling at her. Those must be some pretty tasty shoots. After watching her for a bit, I went back to splitting wood. Andy then got a stick and bucket and beat on it, so eventually the moose wandered off. Just another neighborhood moose enjoying a free snack!

Wacky Weather...

After the fourth coldest April on record, May seemed promising. It warmed up in mid month, the snow was gone from here by the 13th, and even set a record with 80° F on the 19th. We got the garden roto-tilled and Andy finished most of the planting. But nature can be fickle, it cooled off at the end of the month and started to rain. We've had almost an inch of rain, mixed with some snow in June, and overnight temps down into the thirties. Shades of the summer of 1992, when it was cool and rainy with snow coming late in the spring and early in the fall. Hope it doesn't repeat itself!

But I did get out for a few rides on the v65 before the rains hit and am looking forward to many more this summer.

All Greased Up...

Back in the day when I was still working, I took a one night course on taxes for  small businesses. The main thing I got out of it was that the quickest, easiest, safest way to get a tax deduction was to buy something for the business. This allowed you to deduct all or part of (depreciate) the cost as a tax deduction, as long as it had something to do with your business. So naturally it became an excuse to buy a bunch of attachments for the tractor, my so called business. One of the first purchases was a chipper shredder. Now back then, in the early aughts, I wasn't particularly internet savvy, so went to a local dealer and had him order one. Now the down side of this, besides paying full price, was that the dealer didn't know much about it, so just ordered the base model, when there were several better options available. While it fit the the tractor and worked fine, when it came time to service it, it wasn't very user friendly.

 According to the maintenance chart, you should grease it every 8 hours of use, but then in the written text, the manual says 50 hours. So I guess it's your choice. I know which one I'll choose. Then you have to remove all the black cover panels to grease three of the zerk fittings.

The fourth zerk appeared to be located under the black plastic cover, but after removing it, I could see there was a cutout on the bottom to access the zerk. So now I now where all the zerks are for the annual greasing. There's nothing in the manual to show their location, just a brief note about maintenance at the end. It took several hours of removing various panels, some with difficult to access nuts and bolts, others that didn't need to come off, just to find them all. On the job training at it's finest.

Finally It's Spring...

 After the fourth coldest April on record, spring has arrived in May. I was able to run dogs until almost the end of April, the last time that happened was in 1985!. But after scraping the melting hard packed snow off the road and clearing the upper dog yard last week, we're ready for spring.

This is what the dog yard looked like last week when I started clearing the upper part of the yard.

This is what it looks like now. Pretty amazing how fast the snow finally melted, considering it was well over a foot deep on May first.

Yankee Doodle Dandy...

I've written before about how, when I'm doing something kinda boring like scraping the slushy, melting snow off the road with the tractor, odd things just pop into my head. Sometimes it's songs I hadn't heard for years, like The Shape of Things to Come (2/28/23). Well this time it was I'm A Yankee Doodle Dandy. This song was written by George M. Cohan for a musical at the turn of the last century, but became a big hit in a Jimmy Cagney movie of the same name, back in the early forties. Read about it here...

https://unrememberedhistory.com/tag/james-cagney-yankee-doodle-dandy/

So the other day Jimmy was still singing in my brain when  I was cleaning up the dog yard. I started singing it to Mac, the Mackenzie River Husky pup we got a few years ago. Since Andy calls him Mackie, I changed the words a little bit, so now the song is...

Mackie Doodle Dogo...

He's a Mackie doodle dogo

He's a Mackie do or die

A real live nephew of his uncle Cy

Born on the fourth of July

Mackie doodle came to town

Just to pull a boggan

Mackie's a real good boy

Now sometimes Mac's a good boy, sometimes not so much. He sure doesn't care if I sing, cause mostly his head's buried in my pocket, at least as far in as his big head will fit, searching for a dog biscuit. But goofing with the dogs breaks up the time you're out there shoveling up dog poop, so that's a pretty good thing.

Cryosphere...

With the cold weather returning yet again, it certainly feels like we're stuck in the cryosphere.  The dictionary defines it as that part of the earth’s surface where, at temperatures below 32°F (0°C), the water is frozen solid. While even a small temperate pond that freezes over in the winter can be considered part of the cryosphere, it mostly refers to large regions covered in snow and ice for much or all of the year. Fairbanks certainly qualifies, but the way some people are reacting to this spring cold spell, it might as well be labeled cry oh dear. But for me, it's just another opportunity to get out for a dog run.

Yesterday we went out with Missy and Gus in lead. Just a short run over to sawmill hill and back. Except for a few icy spots, the trail's still in great shape.

Today it was Earl and Gus in lead. The usual excitement and cacophony hooking up and heading out of the yard, but they quickly settled down to a nice trot. A little warmer today, but still had a nice run with a cool NE breeze blowing. A fine way to end the season, again!

Last dog Run?...

While you're never really sure when it's over, it certainly looks like the dog mushing season is drawing to a close. We did get out a couple of times this week, but with the temps in the 40's today, that might be it.

On Monday's run, Missy may have taken her last run in lead. She turned twelve this year, she was born on Easter, in fact that was her name when we got her, and she's done great. But like a lot of older dogs, she's having trouble on the longer runs because she doesn't want to slow down, so probably gets more tired than she would if she paced herself. Will miss her spunk next year.

Yesterday we ran with the new leaders, Gus and Earl. It's the usual circus going out with this crew, but once we get out of the yard and over the hill, they calm down and do great.

Rudy the meathead, as he's known for his goofy antics, might have gone on his last run too. A good, dependable team dog, we got him the same year as Missy. He'll be twelve this summer and while not as driven as her, we'll miss him in the team next year.