The weeks news. Winter can’t make up it’s mind
It’s been a quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.
It’s the first of February, and the weather can’t seem to make up it’s mind what season it wants to be in. While the Midwest has been locked in sub-zero temperatures, with killer wind chills, we have had spring-like weather here. Sun and rain have been in the forecast for the week, melting off the snow down below us and exposing the ice underneath, making it hard to haul in supplies yet again. Last year at this time, the road was dirt for the first mile, allowing us to drive right up to the snowmobiles and transfer our supplies. This year, the ground had a chance to freeze before the snow hit, and then, due to us packing trails and the hunters driving up and down in the fall, everything below the snow pack turned to a thick sheet of ice.
Things have gotten so bad that I found and bought an old ATC to use. For those of you unfamiliar with these, they are three wheeled machines that were popular in the 70’s and early 80’s. They could be unstable if used incorrectly and caused many injuries and a few deaths. When used as they should be, they are good, reliable machines; you just can’t “hot dog” on them. I should know; I had one back in the 70’s that came pretty close to killing me a time or two. But, I am hoping that if the ice melts along the edge of the road, as it has been doing in places, there will be enough room to ride this machine up from the pickup to the snowmobile, thus allowing us to haul in what we need again. I am also looking at buying a couple of four wheelers. My goal is to have four wheeled-machines and four snowmobiles up here by next fall, so we can all get around no matter what the weather throws at us.
I have not been in town much lately. However, when I am, I stop by Always Ground and enjoy a latte with the lovely wife in-between her bus runs, and of course, joke with Sam. Business has been slow there, so I try and stop when I’m in town, even bringing donuts when I go by the local market first. Sam has a love for sugar-coated donuts, so I try and include a few just for her. I haven’t seen much of the old loggers because the diner started opening an hour later due to lack of early morning diners, so I haven’t stopped in. By the time it is open, I am usually on my way to do the laundry, or to finding parts for our snowmobile.
Regarding snowmobiles, my son has had the worst luck this year. First, the Alpine, a heavy, twin-tracked machine and perfect for hauling just about anything, broke down and is currently waiting on a side road for spring when we can tow it home with the truck. Then, this last week, a machine he bought used and was having issues getting it to run, burst into flame at the local shop when they went to start it. From what I was told, the flames went all the way to the celling and needed the fire department to put out. Luckily, no one was injured and no damage occurred to the building. However, the machine was a total loss. This leaves us with only two working machines, and many headaches, as ours is built for speed, not power. This means we can’t haul anything in with it, leaving the other machine my son has to do all the work, but taking many trips to do so. We were counting on the bigger machine, now junk, to take up the slack. We are not looking for anything else this winter. We will wait for summer now because of the way this year is panning out.
Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.
