December continues to be a month of excessive weather. Over the past weekend we received approximately 12 inches of snow, probably more. The storm began on Friday, briefly eased on Saturday, and then continued into Sunday.
It's the 48" Craftsman Snow Blade, Model No. 486.24483. It took most of the day to assemble (including about an hour spent looking for a small part that I'd lost). Now we just need some snow to test it.
We might even be able to persuade Erin to shoot a movie of it in action.
In preparation for a beautiful display of spring flowers, I spent the weekend planting daffodil bulbs, iris bulbs, and daylilies. With 100 daffodils, 100 irises, and over a dozen daylilies, this project called for a lot of digging! After pick-axing 50 holes into the rocky soil and digging up buckets of rocks, everything is neatly planted and ready for spring.
Check back for pictures of the finished product in April!
Erin has been looking for a new place to plant things and this seemed like a good location - good sunlight, size, and on show for people arriving at the house. Erin has also spend some time recently researching landscape design and well as plant and flower types. We came up with a rough layout for the new plantings seen here:
It's currently a work in progress. Erin has already transplanted 7 daylilies, and last weekend we transplanted several peonies. This is how it looks right now:
Watch this space for an update in the coming weeks.
| Dirt moved: | 8 cubic yards (17,280 lbs or 8.64 tons) |
| Dirt loaded and unloaded: | 30 cart loads |
| Trips up and down the driveway: | lots |
| Tractor hours: | ~4 hours |
| Grass seeds spread: | ~9000 seeds |
| Burlap laid: | 750 square feet |
| Peonies dug up: | 3 |
| Peonies planted: | 6 |
| Rocks collected while digging: | lots |
| Mountain Dew consumed (by Dan): | 6 cans (1,020 calories) |
| Man hours worked: | 34 hours |
The plan for the weekend looks like this:
I inquired about this over on the My Tractor Form ("The Friendliest Tractor Forum on the web") and they quickly suggested that I needed to install a bushing to prevent further wear. That sounded like exactly what I needed, but the trouble was I didn't know where I could get such a specific part. After another post, one helpful response pointed me to the McMaster-Carr website, and this is the one that I'm impressed with.
The dimension most important to me was OD (Outside Diameter) as it needed to fit snugly into the hitch hole. After selecting 5/8", I was also able to select the other dimensions and type of material, etc. It felt like I was effectively "building" my specific part from scratch. I'd recommend trying it, but doubt you'll find it as impressive as I did. Anyway, I placed the order at around 10pm on Monday evening, it was shipped at 8am on Tuesday morning would have arrived on Wednesday (if I hadn't entered the wrong zip code - but that's beside the point).
I think the site is very good for a parts ordering website. It's straight to the point functionality makes searching and ordering one of almost half a million specific parts a breeze. It's one of the better designed websites that I've seen, so kudos to them, and I can't wait to order my next part. :)
Our campsite on Pakenham Point was one of the best. It boasted unbelievable 360º views, an endless supply of firewood, and smooth rocks perfect for tent sites and lounging around the fire. It was also the perfect place from which to mount a day trip to Harriman Fjord, a fjord further to the west and home to Harriman glacier, Barry glacier, and Cascade glacier – just to name a few. We enjoyed a leisurely and delicious breakfast and then prepared for a day trip up to Harriman Fjord.
We reached the fjord and turned into the shorter arm toward Barry glacier. There was a lot of activity in this area – glacial, animal, and human. Though not as large as Harvard, Barry glacier was much more active with near continuous calving. Along with its roar of thunder, every fallen piece of ice set off a ripple of waves. When we entered the arm, we spotted three porpoises making their way through the ice and Dan headed off in pursuit. As we watched all of the activity, a helicopter flew into the fjord and along the glacier. What a way to put things in perspective! The helicopter looked like a tiny red toy compared to the dramatic face of the glacier.
When we started back, we had already paddled nine miles, so we knew it was going to be a long trip back to camp. As we headed out of the fjord, a storm came in over the mountains. Very quickly it became dark and soon after it started to rain. We pulled on our rubber rain gear and began the nine mile paddle back to camp. Our good weather charm held and the storm blew over quickly. Within an hour the sky had started to clear but it remained windy and the water was choppy. After a quick stop at the lunch beach to refill on water, we paddled the final three miles to camp.
What a day! We had paddled a total of 18.5 miles, but happily came home to a warm, comfortable, and mostly dry campsite with more dry wood than we knew what to do with. We quickly got a fire going, and before we knew it, we were happily eating lentil soup and warming our toes by the fire. Not a bad way to end an epic day…….
Once we did finally make it on to the water, we set off at a leisurely pace heading south. Midway through the morning, Andy unveiled his morning construction project – a kayak sail! Dad and Dan quickly joined in and rafted up with the double to create a kayak trimaran. I paddled alongside because the sailing endeavor clearly required photo documentation.
Unfortunately, it was not a very windy day, so the sailing speed (1-3mph) barely surpassed the speed of the tidal current (1-3mph). During lunch, the engineering team made some modifications to the sail and a second attempt was made. For a moment, it almost felt like the wind would cooperate and the sailors would coast off down the Fjord, but alas the day remained hot, sunny, and calm.
We spent the afternoon paddling on calm water into the hot sun. As it moved into late afternoon, we began thinking about where we would stop for the night. We had already gone about 10 miles, and pretty quickly, we decided to continue making our way to Pakenham Point - another 5 miles down the Fjord. We were making good time and figured that we could get there in another hour and a half to two hours. It might have ended up taking a little bit longer, but it was worth it!
We found a beautiful campsite on a long rocky peninsula that juts out into the Sound at Pakenham point. Everyone was a bit tired out after our 14.9 mile paddle - it was after all our longest day yet - but we were also getting pretty good at setting up camp and we had plenty of water with us (in the form of glacial ice). So it wasn't long before we were all relaxing around a roaring fire and enjoying tasty black bean soup followed by biscuits, tea, and bed......
On our sixth day in Prince William Sound, we awoke to a beautiful, sunny morning with breathtaking glacial views in every direction. Camped on the east side of the fjord, we could see up to Yale glacier, across to Harvard glacier, and along the row of colleges on the opposite side of the fjord. The mountains that had previously been shrouded in clouds were now in full view and it almost felt like we had stepped into a magnificent picture.
We packed up camp in the hot sunshine and prepared to explore the Harvard arm of College Fjord. As we prepared to set off, we listened to the rolling boom of thunder in the distance. It sounded like a thundercloud was looming around the bend, but this thunder had a different source. When pieces of ice crash off the surroundings glaciers and tumble down the icy slopes, the resulting noise echoes across the Fjord creating the sound of thunder. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “white thunder” and is often so loud that you look around in alarm expecting to see a massive chunk of glacier abruptly crumbling into the water. In fact, the opposite is usually true. With respect to the size of the glaciers, most (but not all) of the crumbling pieces of ice are quite small, and because sound travels more slowly than light, by the time you hear the thunderous boom, the event that caused it is over leaving you to wonder about the dramatic show you missed.
During lunch, we had decided to go to a point about 1 mile from the face of the glacier and then traverse across the fjord to the west side of the arm. As we drew closer to the glacier, the wind picked up dramatically and the waves swept out from the face of the glacier pushing back against our lightweight boats as the thunderous roar of ice falling into water continued. Despite the noise and drama, we actually saw very little ice calve off the glacier face, but it was an impressive site nonetheless.
Once we had the boats unloaded, Dan and I set off to find water. We walked toward the glacier and found nothing but dry stream beds. We turned around and set off in the other direction, but still we found nothing but dry stream beds. On the way back to camp, we came across some grounded icebergs and Dan had the good idea of carrying a chunk of the ice back to use for water. This was a good solution, but it can take awhile for glacial ice to melt, so while Andy, Wendy, and I went about setting up camp and preparing dinner, Dad and Dan got in the double kayak and set off on a half mile paddle across the bay on an expedition for fresh water.
By the time the water crew returned, it was time for a late dinner (delicious Thai rice with vegetables and extra portions for everyone) and our usual assortment of quality biscuits with tea. It had been a long and very satisfying day but also a tiring one and it was starting to get dark, so we made our way to bed to rest up for another day on the water.
Boat Placement Formula: can be calculated by the rule of 12ths (or was it 14ths?) and by considering the following factors: low tide time, low tide level, prior high tide line, predicted high tide level, high tide time, offset from tide chart origin, current time, amount of supplies eaten, amount of gear to load, rate of gear loading, beach terrain and the prevailing weather conditions.In any case, we had about an hour to wait before the water reached our boats. After casting off, we briefly entered Coghill Bay before making our way around Coghill Point. We encountered some head-wind, and after a couple of hours it was time for some lunch. At this point we'd paddled about 2.5 miles and ended up 0.5 miles away from the campsite we'd left - needless to say we hadn't been paddling in a straight line (see the GPS track).
We hoped that all the gear would fit in the boats, but we hadn’t done a dry run. So we moved the boats down to the “where we thought the tide would be in two hours” line (superbly identified by Andy) and began distributing gear. After some careful stuffing, rearranging, and gear swapping, everything was loaded and ready to go – and just in time too as the water was beginning to lap at the boats!
As we continued north after lunch, we kept a sharp eye out for bears and eagles. We didn’t see any bears, but we did see at least half dozen eagles. Eagles like to perch on dead tree limbs and there happen to be quite a lot of those lining this section of the Sound. In 1964, the Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful recorded earthquake in the U.S., reverberated throughout southern Alaska and caused sections of the shore in part of Prince William Sound to drop 8-10 feet. This dramatic change meant that many trees were now in tidal zones. While this killed the trees, hundreds of them still stand along the shore.
After the waterfall detour we continued paddling through rain showers and fog well into the evening. We were aiming to camp near Coghill Point. After hours of paddling and having traveled 13.4 miles, we finally approached the potential camping spot, we noticed a disturbance on the beach. A dozen seagulls were making a tremendous racket but it wasn’t until we landed that we saw what all the fuss was about. Someone had killed a seal and very recently by the looks of things. The head and guts were left on the beach and we later found a pair of abandoned gloves. Beyond the beach, we also discovered fresh bear poop and plenty of bear trails. Despite all this, it was quite a nice campsite with plenty of space for three tents and a kitchen area plus fresh water nearby so we decided to stay.
We went about the process of setting up camp. First, we had to decide where to put the tents. We were on a flat grassy area criss-crossed with bear trails, so we ended up flattening some grass and setting the tents up around (but not on) the bear trails in the hope that the bears would just walk on by.
