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!