Wow, its hard to believe how fast things happen once the first snows happen. All those ’round tuits’ get buried and the important projects happen out of necessity. Fortunately the important items like firewood and fuel are taken care of.
Snowmobiles
On the snowmobile front, I never got them all fired up and ready before the snow, but my favorite one did start. Its a Polaris XLT, which stands for extra light triple. The machine before we got this one was fun and fast and I nicknamed it the Ferrari, because this Ski Doo with a 500 cc motor was so much better than the old 80′s vintage sleds before it. So what nickname could I use for the XLT? Not being a sports car expert, I chose Lamborghini because it just sounds faster than Ferrari.
Forget the names, I had a large bolt rattling around the clutch when we tried to start the Ski Doo this year. While the motor almost started, I didn’t want to risk grinding something up with the noise it made. I couldn’t get this 9″ long bolt to thread back in the center of the front clutch. After some phone consults with friends, wisdom took over and we decided to take it in the shop.
Easier said than done.
Couldn't push it back!
Jackie has the bad back in the family, so it was up to the teens and I. We had to dig it out of the foot of snow and try to drag it about 30′ with the track not rolling. What a project! We spent several hours over several days trying to load the machine in the truck. Each day we’d make progress but run out of time because of Eric’s math class in town.
I wrote about how we all need our friends last summer and this simple task required the same. Eric and I could lift the machine, but Ondra wasn’t strong enough to pull it in the truck with its stuck track! Sunday we grabbed Eric’s friend a Church to come up and help. You know, another lanky 6 foot teen, just to pull us over the edge! It worked with thanks to Chet B.
Winter beauty
Jackie and I got a chance to take the Lamborgini to the ridge recently when the clouds were breaking up. Expand these pictures to see why we love the winter here. When we’re not existing as cloud dwellers in the fog, the mountains are beautiful with all the white snow.
Columbia River from the ridge
Its been and early snow by 3 weeks or so this year. We can chain up the Isuzu Rodeo, or take the Lamborgini snowmobile. I have to confess, we take the Rodeo more often because it holds the whole family, and has the “heated environmental chamber” for the ride. A couple times I took Eric down on the XLT, and man, was the ride home fun and fast! Reminds me of my old Yamaha XT 650 days.
Dogs join us on ridge
Whenever the next big snow arrives, it will be all snowmobiles for the ride home. I look forward to it when the weather is nice and good snow; I don’t look forward to suiting up in the cold and dark late at night on our way home from town activities. Isn’t that how life is? We love certain activities when in the mood and not when we ‘have to’??
What about your winter?
What aspects of your wintertime life to you love? Which part of those activities do you not like? Tell us in the comments below.
Related posts:
WOW! What a view eh! Our camp is situated at the highest point on our acreage which has an open view to the south/east, “just because” we can have the view!
I “know” how you feel when you look out over the distant hillsides. That sense of accomplishment for “living” in such an landscape that requires hard, honest effort. It really does make a person feel blessed
The spectacular view isn’t here but a 1/2 mile south. Lately the view around here is about 100 feet in the thick fog/clouds. Every year the clouds choose our elevation for a few weeks, but after its great.