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!