Every spring once it starts to warm up, I start to get all excited about resuming my summer hobbies, and just enjoying the great weather. I usually get motivated to do some outside chores. Even when I lived in apartments, I couldn't wait to get out into the yard and start raking, and repairing sections of the lawn that the plow messed up. This is my very first spring as a homeowner, and I'm really looking forward to doing some of these things, as well as plenty of other chores to spruce up the property. Before we do that we've also got to finish our winter-long half-assed attempt at repainting our living room. Once it warms up enough to keep a few windows open, we'll get that living room painted and be able to enjoy that room a little more.
In addition to all of the springtime cleanup type projects, I hope that I can also find time to start playing with some of my hobbies again. I need to do some work to the truck, and I especially want to resume my kick panel speaker project, since I expect that to be a good source of income once I get it produced. So much to do!
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
Wow, what a difference a week makes! A week ago I posted my pictures from my Sunday snowmobile ride. I also rode on Monday, tuesday and Wednesday. On thursday the warm-up came, and now a few days later it's like a different world out there. Bare lawns are now the norm down in North Adams and into Pittsfield, the sun is shining and temperatures are in the 50s. Of course we still have a ton of snow in our yard, but I suspect that by the end of this week all that will remain will be snowbanks and a huge mound of snow on the deck.
On Wednesday I went out for my final ride of the season. I had hoped to do a nice long ride, perhaps as much as 100 miles. The trails were still fantastic, but with Thursday's impending warmup, I had decided that Wednesday would be my last ride. About 30 miles into my ride I was approaching Kelley Stand road in Stratton when my oil light started flashing on the sled. I pulled over and investigated. Well apparently when I filled my oil tank before Tuesday's ride, I never put the oil cap back on. All of my oil had splashed out of the oil tank, all over my engine bay. Brilliant! Fortunately I found the oil cap wedged down between the body panel and the exhaust can. It was half melted, but still able to function properly, so I reinstalled it and headed toward home. I rode very easily so that I didn't run out of oil. Once I got back to Woodford I called Kristin and had her bring me some oil from the garage. She was of course thrilled to have a chance to come help me out of a jam instead of sitting home watching TV. She met me with a coke and a smile!
By that point I was so pissed that I had done such a boneheaded thing, I just decided to ride right home. Since this was the end of my last ride, I rode really agressively and actually managed to get home before Kristin did. All in all, I managed to put just a tad over 500 miles on the new sled, which gave me about 750 total miles for the season. Not stellar by any stretch, but not too bad either. On Friday I washed the sled and de-greased the engine bay to get rid of the oil that splashed all over the place. When I get time I'll wax it and install the new accessories that I bought for it. Pretty soon it'll be off to PLT to get the tunnel supports installed. Once I get all of my car issues straightened out and get the Corvette out of the garage, I'll pull the old sled in and start the dis-assembly process on it. I'm looking forward to working on the sled, and I can't wait until next year when I'll finally have a 2nd sled available for people to ride.
With this warm weather, it's awful hard not to start looking forward to summer. Now I really need to get the cars straightened out so I can start driving them.
On Wednesday I went out for my final ride of the season. I had hoped to do a nice long ride, perhaps as much as 100 miles. The trails were still fantastic, but with Thursday's impending warmup, I had decided that Wednesday would be my last ride. About 30 miles into my ride I was approaching Kelley Stand road in Stratton when my oil light started flashing on the sled. I pulled over and investigated. Well apparently when I filled my oil tank before Tuesday's ride, I never put the oil cap back on. All of my oil had splashed out of the oil tank, all over my engine bay. Brilliant! Fortunately I found the oil cap wedged down between the body panel and the exhaust can. It was half melted, but still able to function properly, so I reinstalled it and headed toward home. I rode very easily so that I didn't run out of oil. Once I got back to Woodford I called Kristin and had her bring me some oil from the garage. She was of course thrilled to have a chance to come help me out of a jam instead of sitting home watching TV. She met me with a coke and a smile!
By that point I was so pissed that I had done such a boneheaded thing, I just decided to ride right home. Since this was the end of my last ride, I rode really agressively and actually managed to get home before Kristin did. All in all, I managed to put just a tad over 500 miles on the new sled, which gave me about 750 total miles for the season. Not stellar by any stretch, but not too bad either. On Friday I washed the sled and de-greased the engine bay to get rid of the oil that splashed all over the place. When I get time I'll wax it and install the new accessories that I bought for it. Pretty soon it'll be off to PLT to get the tunnel supports installed. Once I get all of my car issues straightened out and get the Corvette out of the garage, I'll pull the old sled in and start the dis-assembly process on it. I'm looking forward to working on the sled, and I can't wait until next year when I'll finally have a 2nd sled available for people to ride.
With this warm weather, it's awful hard not to start looking forward to summer. Now I really need to get the cars straightened out so I can start driving them.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Snowmobiling in late March!!!
I had quite an interesting ride yesterday. We left the parking lot in Heartwellville with almost 8" of fresh powder on top of Saturday's substantial snowfall. Trails had been groomed since saturday's snow, but this new powder had very little traffic before us. We made it up to the Route 7 corridor in Woodford, but because of the conditions, decided that instead of going to Jenks like we originally planned, we'd head over to Peter's in Heath MA. Here's a pic at the corridor intersection in woodford:
The groomers hadn't been out toward Harriman Reservoir since before Saturday's snow, so it was a bumpy ride. We were one of the first out that way after saturday night's snow, so there was a lot of power covering the bumpy ride. My next pic shows my sled parked next to the damn, followed by two pics of the trail. The first pic is where we came from, and the second was where we were headed.
One of the sleds in my group is a Polaris 440 race sled, so we have limited range. Much to our surprise, when we got to Peter's store, we discovered that he was out of gas. This posed a major problem. We decided to ride over to Charlemont for food and gas. Specifically, we were headed for the Hawk's Nest Pub in the Warfield House. The problem was that nobody had a Massachusetts trail map, and the markings and signs for the trail system in that area absolutely suck. Here's a pic that I took somewhere in MA:
Every intersection has signs pointing you to other trail names instead of towns/destinations, which is completely useless if you don't have a map. Because nobody had been over the trail yet, we were on our own trying to find our way, which was made even more difficult by the poor markings on the trails that wound through the woods and endless fields. At one point about 3 miles from our destination, the trail came to a road, and we couldn't find where it picked up on the other side of the road. After riding down miles of paved road, we got directions from a local who got us back on track. Eventually we landed at the Hawks Nest and had an absolutely FANTASTIC lunch. This is definately a destination to go to! While we were there we tried to figure out how to gas up. The station at the bottom of the hill is closed on Sundays, and the other station is on the other side of town, and the Charlemont Police aren't real fond of sleds riding up the road. After a few calls, the gas station owner got back from snowmobiling and opened his store to help out some fellow riders. I don't know his name, but he gets a big thanks from me! He's the fellow on the right side of the pic of me getting gas.
After gassing up, we headed home. We got back into Vermont through the Yankee Rowe power lines, but on the way home decided to head to the Readsboro Inn instead of going right home. Here's a couple pics from the intersection on the power lines.
After refreshing there, we headed up through Readsboro on Howe Pond Road and up to the backside of Dutch Hill. Dutch hill is only a half mile from my home, but I had never been up there. The view from the top of the hill is absolutely breathtaking.
After leaving Dutch Hill, we went across the street into Alpenwald village and back to the Heartwellville parking lot. All in all, about an 80 mile trip. I enjoyed going to a lot of new places that I had never been to.
The groomers hadn't been out toward Harriman Reservoir since before Saturday's snow, so it was a bumpy ride. We were one of the first out that way after saturday night's snow, so there was a lot of power covering the bumpy ride. My next pic shows my sled parked next to the damn, followed by two pics of the trail. The first pic is where we came from, and the second was where we were headed.
One of the sleds in my group is a Polaris 440 race sled, so we have limited range. Much to our surprise, when we got to Peter's store, we discovered that he was out of gas. This posed a major problem. We decided to ride over to Charlemont for food and gas. Specifically, we were headed for the Hawk's Nest Pub in the Warfield House. The problem was that nobody had a Massachusetts trail map, and the markings and signs for the trail system in that area absolutely suck. Here's a pic that I took somewhere in MA:
Every intersection has signs pointing you to other trail names instead of towns/destinations, which is completely useless if you don't have a map. Because nobody had been over the trail yet, we were on our own trying to find our way, which was made even more difficult by the poor markings on the trails that wound through the woods and endless fields. At one point about 3 miles from our destination, the trail came to a road, and we couldn't find where it picked up on the other side of the road. After riding down miles of paved road, we got directions from a local who got us back on track. Eventually we landed at the Hawks Nest and had an absolutely FANTASTIC lunch. This is definately a destination to go to! While we were there we tried to figure out how to gas up. The station at the bottom of the hill is closed on Sundays, and the other station is on the other side of town, and the Charlemont Police aren't real fond of sleds riding up the road. After a few calls, the gas station owner got back from snowmobiling and opened his store to help out some fellow riders. I don't know his name, but he gets a big thanks from me! He's the fellow on the right side of the pic of me getting gas.
After gassing up, we headed home. We got back into Vermont through the Yankee Rowe power lines, but on the way home decided to head to the Readsboro Inn instead of going right home. Here's a couple pics from the intersection on the power lines.
After refreshing there, we headed up through Readsboro on Howe Pond Road and up to the backside of Dutch Hill. Dutch hill is only a half mile from my home, but I had never been up there. The view from the top of the hill is absolutely breathtaking.
After leaving Dutch Hill, we went across the street into Alpenwald village and back to the Heartwellville parking lot. All in all, about an 80 mile trip. I enjoyed going to a lot of new places that I had never been to.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A River Runs Through It
Not the movie, my yard.
Our septic problem was that we had a MASSIVE amount of water, snow, slush and ice surrounding the pump tank that holds the liquid overflow from the septic tank, then pumps it up to the leach field. What happened is that this massive amount of water was getting into the tank and the pump was overwhelmed. Not only did this tank fill with nearly a thousand gallons of water, but the pump pumped as much as it could up into our leach field until it was completely saturated and the vent pipe was actually draining the water back into the tank. There was so much water that when we lifted the lid, it didn't even smell.
That fluid should smell like sewage and be murky, gray/brown. It was clean. No smell, no color. Completely diluted because of the massive amount of water. The lid was under almost a foot and a half of water. Usually, even after a super heavy rain, the lid is 6" ABOVE water. In addition, the area behind my garage was flooded, and the flooded water was actually running right through my carport and under my truck that's parked next to the carport. It took the excavator half a day of pushing snow/ice to create a drain path from the water to the brook. What amazed me was that after he did this, instead of just draining standing water, it actually became a path for running water of endless supply. There's an endless supply of melting snow above us. Attached are pics that I took this afternoon. The first pic is a shot of the trench he made to drain the water. The second shot is a closeup of how much water is running continuously. I took these pics many hours after the work was done.
Our septic problem was that we had a MASSIVE amount of water, snow, slush and ice surrounding the pump tank that holds the liquid overflow from the septic tank, then pumps it up to the leach field. What happened is that this massive amount of water was getting into the tank and the pump was overwhelmed. Not only did this tank fill with nearly a thousand gallons of water, but the pump pumped as much as it could up into our leach field until it was completely saturated and the vent pipe was actually draining the water back into the tank. There was so much water that when we lifted the lid, it didn't even smell.
That fluid should smell like sewage and be murky, gray/brown. It was clean. No smell, no color. Completely diluted because of the massive amount of water. The lid was under almost a foot and a half of water. Usually, even after a super heavy rain, the lid is 6" ABOVE water. In addition, the area behind my garage was flooded, and the flooded water was actually running right through my carport and under my truck that's parked next to the carport. It took the excavator half a day of pushing snow/ice to create a drain path from the water to the brook. What amazed me was that after he did this, instead of just draining standing water, it actually became a path for running water of endless supply. There's an endless supply of melting snow above us. Attached are pics that I took this afternoon. The first pic is a shot of the trench he made to drain the water. The second shot is a closeup of how much water is running continuously. I took these pics many hours after the work was done.
Life in a small town is never as dull as one might imagine
Last night at 10:30 (Halfway through LOST!!!!!!!!!!), my septic pump alarm went off. For those not familiar with mound type septic systems, there's a holding tank after the main tank that has a pump in it. When the water level rises, the pump turns on and pumps the liquid up to the leach field. Well my pump stopped working last night. Fortunately the guy who installed the septic happened to be meeting my father today, so they're headed up there to try and straighten it out. The guy thinks that the float in the tank may be tangled.
Thanks to this little mishap, we haven't been able to use any water or flush the toliet since last night. Yay us.
Thanks to this little mishap, we haven't been able to use any water or flush the toliet since last night. Yay us.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Finally some closure, an endcap on part of my life, time to move on...
That's right. The snowmobile season has come to an end. I took a 70 mile ride last night and the conditions were absolutely terrible. Considering that they were still very good on Monday night, this surprised me. Slush, rocks, dirt, snirt, blah blah blah. I didn't enjoy the ride. I can't really explain why, but while riding in these conditions, it brought about a feeling of anxiety & perhaps a bit of depression. Not unlike the feeling you had when you were 15 years old and finally realized that your favorite blankie, which was full of holes, dirty, and smelled bad, had perhaps finally outlived it's usefulness and was ready to be retired. And so it was as I made my way back last night. Snowmobiling in 50+ degree temps with dirt and rocks all around just isn't fun. But, it was a good thing that I went anyway. For the last week after getting my new sled, I've been absolutely insanely obcessed with riding. By taking this ride in such lousy conditions, it allowed me to close the door on that obcession and now I can confidently say that I'm looking forward to spring.
Time to play with cars again.
Time to play with cars again.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Snowmobiling in the rain sucks
As I pulled the sled into the yard yesterday evening, the odometer casually flipped from 188.9 to 189.0 miles. Not bad considering that I took delivery of the sled on Wednesday with 0.1 miles on it. On Wednesday night I limited myself to a quick 20 mile ride to Harriman Reservoir and back. I didn't dare go any farther (or faster) since I didn't have registration or insurance yet. On Friday I spent the morning getting the reg & insurance taken care of, and then in the afternoon I rode into Stamford by Sucker Pond, over County Road and eventually came out on a logging road at the end of White Oaks Road in Williamstown. I put approximately 50 miles on the sled on small back-woods trails. Now that I live so close to the Stamford woods and also have a network of trails that connect right from my house, I really enjoy exploring and learning my way around up there. On my way to County road I ran into a guy from Pownal who showed me around over there and over toward Williamstown. Now I just need to find my way to Winchester's so that I can ride over there for lunch!
On Saturday morning my father and I went to PLT to pick up my old sled, and I promptly transferred my VAST sticker to my new sled to finish out the season. I went through Woodford all the way to Sunderland where I did a little bit of exploring and found a couple nice trails. I also found a trail that took me over Glastonbury Mt. I should have turned around when the trail got small, but I figured I'd go a little bit farther. Once I did, I found myself on a trail so small and tight that I couldn't turn around if I wanted to. The trail kept getting steeper and twistier, and I started seeing a lot of ruts from other sleds that had gotten stuck. I felt very fortunate that I had the new sled with the long track because I was able to go right through these areas that swamped other sleds. I was also very nervous, because when you get a long track sled stuck, it takes twice as much effort to get it unstuck. I continued on, going by more and more spots where others had gotten stuck. After a couple miles, the uphill turned into an equally difficult downhill. By this point, it had started to rain, which certainly didn't help things. The last thing you want is to get soaking wet, then get standed in the woods. It made visibility difficult. Eventually the trail flattened out and opened up to an old log road, which was a welcomed sight. After a mile or two of that, I found myself on the Glastonbury Loop section of the groomed trails. I headed straight home, and by this time the rain was coming down pretty good. I couldn't see with my face shield down, so I had to ride with it up, which allowed the rain drops to hit my face and eyes at 40+mph, which made it feel like a constant barrage of needles in my eyes. Riding in the rain sucks and I was glad to get home.
On Sunday I headed out once again. I met up with the Tatro clan up in the hills of Stamford and rode around a little bit. In truth, we did more sitting and talking than riding, but it was a good time just the same. After heading back toward home, I took a quick jaunt up to Woodford to get in a few extra miles.
By now the trails are almost gone. The groomer was out yesterday, but he was moving slush around more than snow. I think that the warm weather won't be too much of a problem over the next couple days, so I'll get a couple more nights of riding in, but I think that once the 50+ degree rain comes mid-week, that'll about do it for the trails. Overall this has been a rollercoaster snowmobile season, but I'm satisfied that I was at least able to get a couple hundred miles of riding in on my new sled, and now I can look forward to next winter!
Attached is a crappy picture that I took with my camera phone on the trails in Woodford yesterday.
On Saturday morning my father and I went to PLT to pick up my old sled, and I promptly transferred my VAST sticker to my new sled to finish out the season. I went through Woodford all the way to Sunderland where I did a little bit of exploring and found a couple nice trails. I also found a trail that took me over Glastonbury Mt. I should have turned around when the trail got small, but I figured I'd go a little bit farther. Once I did, I found myself on a trail so small and tight that I couldn't turn around if I wanted to. The trail kept getting steeper and twistier, and I started seeing a lot of ruts from other sleds that had gotten stuck. I felt very fortunate that I had the new sled with the long track because I was able to go right through these areas that swamped other sleds. I was also very nervous, because when you get a long track sled stuck, it takes twice as much effort to get it unstuck. I continued on, going by more and more spots where others had gotten stuck. After a couple miles, the uphill turned into an equally difficult downhill. By this point, it had started to rain, which certainly didn't help things. The last thing you want is to get soaking wet, then get standed in the woods. It made visibility difficult. Eventually the trail flattened out and opened up to an old log road, which was a welcomed sight. After a mile or two of that, I found myself on the Glastonbury Loop section of the groomed trails. I headed straight home, and by this time the rain was coming down pretty good. I couldn't see with my face shield down, so I had to ride with it up, which allowed the rain drops to hit my face and eyes at 40+mph, which made it feel like a constant barrage of needles in my eyes. Riding in the rain sucks and I was glad to get home.
On Sunday I headed out once again. I met up with the Tatro clan up in the hills of Stamford and rode around a little bit. In truth, we did more sitting and talking than riding, but it was a good time just the same. After heading back toward home, I took a quick jaunt up to Woodford to get in a few extra miles.
By now the trails are almost gone. The groomer was out yesterday, but he was moving slush around more than snow. I think that the warm weather won't be too much of a problem over the next couple days, so I'll get a couple more nights of riding in, but I think that once the 50+ degree rain comes mid-week, that'll about do it for the trails. Overall this has been a rollercoaster snowmobile season, but I'm satisfied that I was at least able to get a couple hundred miles of riding in on my new sled, and now I can look forward to next winter!
Attached is a crappy picture that I took with my camera phone on the trails in Woodford yesterday.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Here's my new sled :)
Last night I picked up my new snowmobile from Pittsfield Lawn & Tractor. I have to bring it back when the tunnel supports are in, but at least I'm getting a chance to ride it a little bit. So far I'm quite happy with it, though I definately need to make some adjustments to the suspension. Right now it doesn't turn well because there's not enough ski pressure. The throttle response is impressive, and once I get used to the machine I think I'll be very happy with the handling. Right now it's so much different than my current sled that it feels unnatural.
Last night I took it for a short ride up to Whitingham Lake and back. I made myself very sea-sick. Sometimes when I ride at night I get like that because the tunnel vision makes you get a bit of a disconnect between the motion you're feeling and the motion you're seeing. I made it a lot worse this time because I kept yanking on the throttle to feel all that new power. :) I'm still a little sick today from it. I'm also very tired, which isn't helping. But in any case, tomorrow I'll get it registered and insured so that I can take it for a ride on the trails during daylight.
Here are a couple pics I snapped last night:
In other snowmobile news, my insurance claim finally got straightened out. Last week I got my estimate for the damage claim on my old sled and it came in almost $900 under what I expected because they gave a $35/hr body shop labor rate instead of the $70/hr snowmobile mechanic rate. We got that straightened out yesterday and my check is on the way now. Once I get that check I'll be able to pay off my Corvette loan and then my new sled loan will be the only loan payment I'm making on vehicles. Over the summer I plan to fix the old sled (with a lot of help from Dad) so that I can have a 2nd sled for Kristin/Dad/Friends. I'm very excited about that because it will give me the opportunity to introduce some new people to snowmobiling and to ride with them.
Last night I took it for a short ride up to Whitingham Lake and back. I made myself very sea-sick. Sometimes when I ride at night I get like that because the tunnel vision makes you get a bit of a disconnect between the motion you're feeling and the motion you're seeing. I made it a lot worse this time because I kept yanking on the throttle to feel all that new power. :) I'm still a little sick today from it. I'm also very tired, which isn't helping. But in any case, tomorrow I'll get it registered and insured so that I can take it for a ride on the trails during daylight.
Here are a couple pics I snapped last night:
In other snowmobile news, my insurance claim finally got straightened out. Last week I got my estimate for the damage claim on my old sled and it came in almost $900 under what I expected because they gave a $35/hr body shop labor rate instead of the $70/hr snowmobile mechanic rate. We got that straightened out yesterday and my check is on the way now. Once I get that check I'll be able to pay off my Corvette loan and then my new sled loan will be the only loan payment I'm making on vehicles. Over the summer I plan to fix the old sled (with a lot of help from Dad) so that I can have a 2nd sled for Kristin/Dad/Friends. I'm very excited about that because it will give me the opportunity to introduce some new people to snowmobiling and to ride with them.
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