The weeks news. UTV trouble, the first hummingbird, and a short trucking tale.

It’s been a quiet week up here om the mountain, my little slice of heaven in the great northwest.

The snow is melting, but not fast enough for me. It takes more time on the north facing side of the mountain for things to dry out, and this year is no exception. Riding a snowmobile is becoming difficult, since you can’t be sure the machine will take off or bury itself. Our UTV has tracks now, and my son and I started putting them on yesterday. We got the rear ones on, then went to turn the machine around to do the front, only to find out that the drive belt, and/or the clutch can’t handle the drag caused by the tracks. This is a problem because I can’t get it home right now, nor can I make the repairs where it sits. So, as soon as we can drive a pickup all the way in, we will tow it up and make the repairs this summer. To get access to the drive belt and clutches, it means taking a good portion of the interior out to access it, and then, taking the protective covers off the motor to get at the clutches; not something I want to do where it’s currently parked. I decided that since I will have it apart anyway, I would also rebuild the wet clutch while I was right there, since I don’t know what shape it’s in. After the fiasco that occurred with the last UTV I owned, it’s safer to do it right while it’s already opened up. A UTV has three clutches, a wet clutch inside the motor with a shaft that supplies power to the primary clutch which, through a rubber drive belt, turns a secondary clutch that drives the machine. Sound complicated? It can be for someone who isn’t familiar with these machines. Since I have already had to dig into them before, it should only take a couple hours.

I saw the first butterfly today, and while putting tools away, was buzzed by the first hummingbird. I am currently making hummingbird food and will hang the feeder up shortly. Snowshoe hares are now almost all brown once again, even though we still have a bit of snow up here. Just a few days ago, they were a mix of white and brown. Down in the valley, farmers are now planting crops, while winter wheat, sleeping peacefully under the snow for the long winter, is now a few inches high.

Here’s a short tale from my early trucking days. I was a green driver, working for Yarmouth Lumber out of Freeport, Maine. I was asking one of the older drivers why our trucks (R model, and Superliner Mack trucks) were under powered, with 300 horse power diesel motors and only a 5-speed transmission (most big rigs have many more gears, and larger motors). The old timer looked at me for a moment, shook his head, and said, “Son, they all get there. Some five minutes later than others, but they all get there.” He then walked away. I have never forgotten that, and when I went into business for myself as an owner operator of my own rig, I never let big horsepower influence my thinking about my rigs. As another driver said once when we were talking about trucking, “More horses, more hay. The person that understands that, will make money.” It fits life in so many ways. When we’re busy trying to “keep up with the Jones’s,” we should remember, “We all get there. Some five minutes later than others, but we all get there.” Everything comes in it’s own time, no sense forcing it.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.