Time, she's a movin' on...

Early Morning

YOU know, if you get up in the morning and go to bed at night, and do nothing in between, time passes.  If you get up in the morning and climb Everest, time still passes.

Looking south on County Line road towards Long River

I'm into my 61st year now and time... she seems to be hurtling by at Warp factor three and accelerating!  So many of my friends are sending out "Getting Old" emails, I'm beginning to wonder if they're getting old?!

Anyway, I digress...

What a weird month, reminders of winter 2012 our first on the Island.  I've cleared the driveway four times and never more than a foot or so and maybe a handful of drifts reaching as high as three feet. 

Haven't hardly broken a sweat.  Last night there was ample snow on the ground to ride the Polaris... today the driveway is bare and green grass is showing obliterating my 15" wide tracks from just days ago.  My thermometer shows 5C!

After two record breaking winters in a row, I wonder if this will be an early spring like 2013 had been?

Mostly mussel and oyster shells, mounds of them!

Optimistic Brenda reminds me that last year we didn't get our huge dumps until the end of January and beyond, I hope she's wrong, I'd enjoy an early spring, birds out again, dry pavement.  There was still snow up the hill in the woods the first week of June!

Mudhole

THIS month I've been out and about on both the Big Bear and the Trail Lite.  No where in particular but I did explore some trails with the quad that I haven't been on before, which... considering this is tiny little PEI, is unusual.  By trails I don't mean in the sense of riding in British Columbia on the defunct Kettle Valley rail line or in some desert track in the mountains surrounding Phx.  These are more wood trails that people used to get from on field to another when tractors were much smaller than they are today.  Just the fact that what little snow was in the woods was generally crusty made for fairly easy riding and one stream/mudhole was frozen enough to get me through without having to push or winch!

Get stuck back here, you're winching.   That's about 3' of snow covered by a thin crust.

I spent a couple of hours in slightly below zero riding around the hood.  Nobody about, too little snow for sleds but just enough to make things interesting through the woods for moi!

It really is pretty country you know, not wild like it would have been when the French first arrived but still, even in winter, pretty.

Traversing an open field which would usually be posted for snowmobiles this time of year.

WE live in a little valley with a couple of active springs, in fact they are abundant in this area, hence the name "Spring Valley".  Summer or winter looking out the front window calms me and with all the stuff that is usually happening around the household, calm is a rare commodity and one I don't take for granted.

Lots of these little trails around.

Open stream from one of the many springs.

I've been rotating the batteries on the chargers, trying to keep some life in them.  I replaced five altogether last season and just replaced the unit in my Blazer.  It still carried the 11 year old AC Delco it came equipped with when I bought the vehicle new.  I guess a decade is pretty good life huh...

The seasonal pond down back on our place, frozen... today.

I have several tasks to do in the spring, getting the shed finished being one, putting the rear replacement tire on the 225 and at the same time installing the petcock kit, needle and seat in the carburetor and replacing the 15 tooth counter shaft with a 16 I picked up two visits ago down south.  This should lower my road revs a wee bit without taking away from the low end power. 

Yamaha Big Bear doing what it does best.

I have several trips in mind this year, last year I was away during the early summer in the Rockies and of course down south in the fall, so really didn't get to ride much locally.  I had sold my Velo scooter in the fall and hope to replace it with a larger model capable of off Island riding with my sweetie on the pillion.  I'm looking in the 300-400 cc range and have a couple in mind now.  I'd like to do some back-roading in N.B. where there are many small paved or gravel roads off the beaten path riding my 600 and perhaps a visit to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  If we do indeed get an early start to this season, I might just be able to fit things in.

Here's hoping that I have some things to do as time passes :)

This is the Irishtown Community Hall, for sale too!

Winter strikes again!

I apologize for being tardy with updates...

 

I just returned from Phx prior to Christmas and only 36 hours after my pal Phoenix was put to sleep.  To be perfectly honest, I have been bummed since and sure I will be for some time yet.  All my cat pals over the years have been special to me, but some stand out and little Phx was certainly one of them.  Just the fact that he found 'us/me" just before Christmas 2010, 9 months after my long time pal Einstein died, was significant in itself.  After finding his way into the living room, my heart and my Blazer... he covered a lot of ground with me, first the long January winter drive to Calgary and then 18 months later, as my co-pilot moving across this vast country to our current home on the wast coast. He was only 5 years of age.

Since my return, winter has hit with a vengeance, a very pregnant Lisa and Rick had come and gone after a Christmas visit and I've spent yesterday all day clearing snow from a  blizzard the night before.  Even today I will be out shortly to deal with the drifting from last night.

Last year was a record winter, cold and snowy, and I truly hope we get a break this year and have a milder time of it.  I actually like clearing snow but in small proportions!



Of course this time of year, my motorcycling takes a back seat to keeping the place warm, the driveways and decks clear and the vehicles running as they should.  That doesn't mean I don't think bikes believe me I do.  Been thinking of finally doing the Trans Labrador highway in Quebec and Newfoundland.  The road is much paved by now nothing like it was when I first lived here and thought about it thirty years ago, but nevertheless it would be quite the trip on either my XT 600 or V Strom 650.  We shall see...



In addition the Moto-East Maritime magazine is still simmering on the back burner.  Launching a new magazine is fraught with peril, it's not as easy as one-two-three.  There are a hundred considerations to make to get it off the ground.  More on that later.

Today, I plan on finishing the yard, catching up on emails (I am waaaay behind being behind) and of course this Blog. 

Brenda is gone to Charlottetown for the day, Anna is at school (I hope) and the cats are fed.

Stay tuned, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet as some of my friends thought, more to come.

Cheers

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!