Random Stuff...

Been outside a lot doing random chores since the temps have been 10-15° above normal. Got the old Ski Doo running after it quit the other day. Replaced the voltage regulator and put in new plugs, now it runs like a top again, so used it to break out a new section of trail for the dog team.

The dogs have been running the same loop for a while now, so they'll appreciate getting to see some new trail.

Finally finished  the plow installation on the wheeler and used it to plow the inch or so of snow we got this week. It'll be interesting to see how it works when we get a serious dump. So now both Guzzi's await repair, voltage regulator on the 850 and carb rebuild on the 650.

The clouds cleared off and the sunsets have been pretty spectacular. But it's supposed to cool off and be 20-30 below by mid-week.

New Dog...

Since the team has been doing so well this winter, I gave up on my search for a new leader and figured we'd get by with the ones we have. But the woman who we got Mac the puppy from sent an email saying she had to leave town for some family emergency and would I take her dog, Mac's mother. Well that was a surprise, to say the least, but she had told me before that she skied and  biked with the dog in harness and it was a good puller who lined out well. So I mentioned it to Andy, figuring she'd say "hell no" but to my astonishment, she agreed to it. 

Luna, a two year old female, looks nothing like Mac, but has some of his mannerisms and bark. She's a furry little thing!

Here's a pic of the team on the run yesterday. She started off doing real well, but then started to look around and slack off about half way out. Gave the team a short rest, while petting and talking to her, and then she did better on the way back. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes next time.

Whether the Weather...

Haven't published any monthly weather summaries for awhile. Not sure if anybody reads them, or this blog for that matter. Anyways, suffice to say that except for the big dump of snow in mid Nov, the weather has been largely un-remarkable. The only thing of note is that the coldest temp so far is -29° F, which is remarkable in that we haven't seen anything below -30 yet. But who's complaining?

Lot's of great sunsets this time of year and it's warm enough to appreciate them.

Here's another shot of the dogs crossing the road from the other day. I'm cleverly hidden behind a small spruce tree.

Here's a video Andy just shot today. It was in the mid-twenties above, so the dogs were kind of hot and moving slow on the way home. Normally they're hightailing it across the road.

New Years Eve...

 While 2020 has been a pretty bad deal for most folks, we've been lucky enough to avoid most of the problems. Since we're retired, we seldom go to town, maybe once a week, for groceries, gas, or whatever project supplies we need and always mask up. We spent thanksgiving, christmas, and new years by ourselves. Not our first choice, but better than getting the covid, I guess. But we still get out and do stuff.

Here's the old sled, silhouetted with the Dec. sunset, ready for another dog run. It was built years ago from some Tim White sled parts and rough cut birch wood. The runners, driving bow, and most of the birch stanchions were replaced over the years, but the original sled parts remain. Hopefully, it'll last for many more years.

Here's a shot of the team at the road crossing. A couple of weeks ago we were almost hit by the postal truck. Apparently, for the first time up here, they deliver packages to your house if it doesn't fit in the road side mail box. Talk about a special delivery that almost went postal! Anyway, he was able to stop and didn't take me or the dogs out. So now Andy goes up to the road crossing a while after we leave and watches for our return. She took this pic when we were crossing the road on the way back. It's a nice sunset sky!

Solstice stuff...

Here's some of the doings during solstice.With less than four hours of daylight now, the solstice is a major event up here as the days finally stop getting shorter. Because of the low angle of the sun, the days on either side are within a few seconds of the solstice, so we actually get to enjoy three shortest days.

Mac, the super sled dog pup, is doing great. He's now the largest dog in yard, so we sure hope he stops growing.

Put a plow on the new wheeler. It came from the old one. I'd given it to a neighbor years ago, who passed it on to a friend of his. He never used it, so I got it back for a six pack of beer.

While the rear mount fit, the front one didn't, so got a pulley guide on ebay and hooked it to the winch. Should be able to clean up snow in the places where it's too tight for the tractor.

Some of the old sled dog gear needed repairs, so this is a good time to fix it. The sled bag and a couple of the harnesses were chewed on by squirrels, so it just took some extra webbing and material, with lots of cursing at the sewing machine, to get'em fixed. Thanks to Andy, who gave me a time out when things got out of hand.

Bigfoot...

No, not Sasquatch or the Yeti, this was a large canid's footprint. The other day I went over over the hill to work on the dog trail. Since it was pretty cold, near ten below, figured it was easier to walk than try to start the old Ski Doo.  I walked up to the ridge, saw where my neighbor had walked his dog, and continued past his tracks down the other side. The light was getting poor, sunset comes early in Dec, so quickly started to shovel snow at the first bad spot. While shoveling I happened to notice something odd on the trail, so bent down and looked at this:

At first I didn't think too much of it and continued to shovel snow. But after finishing that spot, figured maybe it was a good idea to call it a day and head back home. While it's not uncommon for wolves to pass through the area and move on fairly quickly, well, yah just never know if one's sticking around. The next day I went back with a camera, a ruler, and the old .45. So I took a few pics, then went on to finish shoveling the rest of hillside trail. Never did see any other wolf sign, just a couple hundred yards of tracks on the trail before they went off in another direction. So was it a wolf or some neighbors overgrown malamonster? Who knows, but it's kind of cool to think some lone wolf passed through the neighborhood, especially if they're long gone!

Fall's finished...

Well not exactly, it's been winter-like weather up here for nearly a month now, but just finished the last of the fall projects, insulating and sealing the ceiling.

Started off by sealing the length of the ridge pole with expanding foam spray. There's always been a problem there with frost forming on the outside. Standing on some old boards the were recycled for scaffolding.

Caulking the gable ends with an adhesive caulk before installing the trim boards.

Putting up the final piece of quarter-round trim; it only took forty years to get'er done!

Doggos...

The other day I received an email from the woman who we got Mac the puppy from. In it she referred to one of his litter mates as a lucky doggo. Well that was a new one for me, so googled it up and found out that doggo and puppo (or pupper) are internet memes for cute dogs. So not wanting to be left out of this new age stuff, figured there better be a doggo post. 

Back in June, when we got the puppo (Here and Gone 6/28/20), he was pretty small. But we were told his mother was part MacKenzie River husky and they can be pretty big doggos.

So here's the puppo when he was about three months old, he weighed maybe 25 lbs, and was getting a lot bigger, especially his ears.

So now he's a big doggo at 65 lbs (that's about 30 kg to the French) and he takes up half the couch.

But he still likes his belly rubs!  OK, that's it for the doggo/puppo meme, from now on, they'll just be dogs.

Snowed in...

 After enduring a week of 20-30° F below, it warmed up and snowed almost two feet. We had half a dozen intermittant power outages and I spent most of last week plowing snow. Since the snow was too deep to run dogs with the 4-wheeler, figured I'd put the sled trail in. So headed over hill  to break it out. Only made it to the valley bottom where I got stuck with the old Ski Doo. Had to walk a mile home on the soft, freshly broken trail. Andy and I went back the next day with a come-along and snow shoes and did an “intervention” to get it out. While she snow shoed out about a hundred yards and made a turn around, I hooked the come along to the only nearby tree, and pulled the Ski Doo out from between the tall tussocks where it had gotten wedged. The real excitement came when it started raining as we headed back, making the trail soft and slippery, so we got stuck a few more times before getting home. Now there’s only a two mile loop to run the dogs on, but eventually we’ll get’er extended out to meet the main Smallwood trail.

Here's the team coming back into the dog yard,. The trail's hard and fast now that it's cooled off again, so it felt like we were almost flying coming down the hill. The two new dogs, Mac and Gus add a lot of power and Missy and Tamarack are doing a decent job up front. The team's coming around and we can hope for mo' better runs to come!

Stoved out...

Back when we were planning to build the cabin addition, we decided to put in a basement first. So we dug a big hole, built the basement in it, then jacked up the cabin and moved it onto the basement. Kind of backwards, I know, but that's what happens when your hindsight is 20-20. At first we tried to heat the whole house with a wood stove in the basement, but that was a pain, constantly running up and down the stairs to check on and stoke the stove, so we put a Monitor oil stove in the basement and moved the wood stove back upstairs. That was over thirty years ago. Now, the company that produced the Monitor has stopped production. The local dealer switched to Toyo and no longer services the Monitor. So that was the conundrum, a stove that's worked great all these years, and still might have years left, is largely unserviceable. So after angsting over it for a year, decided to get a Toyo. But I checked out the other dealers in town, didn't want to go back to one who dropped the service, and bought it from a different one this time. I guess we'll see how that works out.

Jack Black likes the new stove just fine; it's a little bigger, so there's more room for him to hang out on it. It was kind of a pain to install, since everything was slightly different than the Monitor. But still, I got it working in a day. One real problem was the fuel line, the old one didn't fit and finally got it right after getting some help from a neighbor, the third time was the charm!

Dog Drivin' Again...

Finally got out with the dogs this week. Not enough snow for the sled so have been using the 4-wheeler and running the neighborhood roads. The first run was not so good cause Mac the pup got loose, chased us down the road, and forced me to turn around when I couldn't catch him. But he did run home with us so that that's something, I guess. Today I took him with, figured if he wanted to go, well maybe it was time to learn to be a sled dog. Except for a brief panic at the start, he did fine running with the team. Gus, the dog I got to replace Jabba our departed leader (Here and Gone 6/28/20), well not so much. He took us on a tour of the neighbor’s driveways, so I finally just turned them around and went back home. Maybe next time I’ll get around the loop! 

The team back home after a not so hard run. Mac, in the middle. did great for his first run. Gus, looking studly up front but not doing what he's supposed to, will likely be replaced in lead, but by who, well that's the question...

First Snow....

The NWS had predicted snow for the last few days, so we've been trying to get stuff ready. Before putting the bikes to bed for the winter, I suggested to Andy that she take hers for a ride. So she took it for a spin around "the island", the circular part of the driveway.

A little too cool for a serious ride, maybe 38°F, she got the "stink blown off her" as my grandma used to say.

And the snow finally did get here today. It was snowing lightly in the morning, but picked up a bit in the afternoon.

The roof on the workshop slowly turned white as the snow fell harder. It's cold enough, 23°F now, that it'll be sticking around for a while.

With the colder weather, Jack Black has been staying inside more. He keeps a close watch on his food bowl, letting us know whenever it needs refilling.