Home Archive by category "Weather" (Page 3)

Category: Weather

First Drive

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Yesterday I went for my first real drive in the new Subaru. I headed up for the Keweenaw. The weather was quite gloomy, but that really didn’t matter, I was mainly giving myself time to get use to how a Subaru drives, and I have to say, very very well. I drove on pavement, sloppy snow, ice and then some climbing in snow and ice. This car is very impressive. I went to the end of US41 in Copper Harbor and say that the road out had been traveled, but I just wasn’t ready to give that a try yet, so I headed on down the shoreline. When I passed the road that heads up to Brockway I noticed tracks heading up, but I still wasn’t ready. Finally after stopping for photos along the shoreline, I came to the back entrance  to Brockway, I passed it at first, then said fuckit, I’m going for it, so I turned around and headed up. Following the few tracks heading up, a couple spots I did hesitate, but continued. There was not one single spot this Subie had any problem, it just goes and goes. At the top of Brockway was really cloudy and kind of surreal without anyone else around and during winter. Now it was time to drive back down, so I first put the Subie into Sport Mode (the gear shift can move to the left from drive, that puts it into Spot Mode and allows for tighter gearing), though that was still letting me roll to fast for the snow and ice, so I put it into Manual Mode (from Sport Mode, you can down shift and up shift which places the Subie into Manual Mode). This did the trick going down the steeper parts of the drive down. After getting back to the main road, it was time to head home.
All in all, I think I’m going to be very happy with this Subaru, and even with working it quite a bit I averaged 28 miles per gallon.
I do realize that thick mud and very rocky areas will be out of the question with the Subie, but I’ve been thinking, do I really need to go into the mud? No I don’t, besides, it’s a pain in the ass to clean off.
I need to figure out a name for the Subaru.

Top of Brockway

Heading Down From Brockway

Bleak and gloomy Lake Medora

Keweenaw Shore

Keweenaw Shore

Snowy billion year old lava.

Not Much…

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Nope, not much happening today, mostly watching the snow fall. I’ve also dug into more of my bags of clothes in search for my comfy t-shirts. I found them and they are being washed. Also, hunted / looked for cars / SUVs online, and I’ve found a couple. I need to contact the bank for a loan first to see what they can do for me. I know what kind of payments I can do, so it’s mostly up to the interest rate to see what the amount can be.

Slate River Hike

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Headed out this morning to an area I thought would be about the easiest to get to, the Slate River. It was nice out there, nice and peaceful with not a soul around. I went down river to start with until I got to where there are a couple hunting camps, then back up across the road and followed the east side of the river. I rarely go up this side because you can’t get as far without really bushwhacking. I spent about 3 hours taking photos and just enjoying the river.
I learned something else today… I need a fucking vehicle. First I barely made it up the first hill of Arvon Rd. Then as I drove down the road to the river I needed to turn around because there was no room to park without going into the few inches of snow. While turning around, I got stuck, stuck on flat fucking ground with only hard packed snow. So I got un-stuck and drove all the way back out to Arvon Rd and parked there. I guess it’s time to start hunting for a vehicle. I can’t live without being able to get out and about, it’s part of my life, and without it, I might as well cut my throat.

Lake Superior Performance Rally

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Pretty cool having these cars pass right by the house. I stood out at the end of the driveway, waved and took photos. A good number of the honked as they went by, and a few waved. I tell ya, the smell they give off is definite of some high octane fuel.

I’ll edit and add more photos and info later…

I haven’t had this much fun taking photos in a long time, just wish I had someone to talk to about it.
I saw other photos on FB with some carnage done to the cars, one even on it’s side. I’m sure this was quite a challenge for the drivers with the snow and slush.

First Snow

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First snow of the season and first for me here at the new house. We only got 0.5″, but still it’s the first.

Continued…

Other than the snow this morning, not much else happening. I did end up making a loaf of bread and chicken curry for dinner. I guess that’s it.

First Snow

So Tired, and Other Things

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This not sleeping has got to end, and end soon. I’m so fucking tired. I’ve tried just about everything, but no matter what I do, I only sleep for about 3 hours. I get up, watch some TV, drink some coffee, take a shower, and then, and only then, I can take about an hour nap.
Anyway… Yesterday was another rainy day making a 3 day rain total of 3.8″ of rain here at the house. Around 10:00 AM UPS came and the driver said that Houghton was starting to flood again, so knowing I needed to go to the dreaded Walmart, I headed out before the weather got any worse. Before even getting to the main road, I crossed over Menge Creek, and it was over flowing it’s banks, as was the next unnamed creek. I got to the main road, US-41, and the waves were crashing onto the road with logs and such right at the edge of the road. The drive all the way to Chassell was a slow one with heavy, heavy rain. Just past Chassell, there were police with their flashers on marking an area where water was flowing over the road and a front-end loader was pushing dirt and rocks off the road. About 2 miles further, the same thing. Once in Houghton it didn’t look too bad until I saw one of the downtown road that was just repaired a week ago starting to wash away, again. I did my shopping and headed for home. US-41 was getting worse in those same two spots with MDOT at the seen. The waves seemed to have calmed down a bit where they were crashing onto the road earlier. Thankfully the heavy rain didn’t start back up as was forecast, so things shouldn’t be too bad.
One more thing… the pellet stove. I got a quote for 1 ton of hardwood pellets delivered for $235.85, that’s $4.00 per 40lb bag (50 total bags) plus delivery charge and tax. That seems pretty good to me and under the cost of what I’ve read. Something else I never thought of about using a pellet stove, they are worthless if the power goes out. The damn things need power in order to work. I found this out because later yesterday we lost power twice.

Update… I just ordered 2 tons of hard wood pellets. That’s 100 40# bags. They will be delivering it today at 2:00 PM. Pretty fast service.
According to the stove manual, one 40# bag should last 24 hours burning at the middle setting (5). Now, that’s over 3 months worth of pellets burning 24/7. I have no plans to burn that much, and definitely not at night, so I think this could last me through most the winter, we shall see though.

Added a photo looking out toward the back of the property. The gazebo is in the center of a circle of birch trees.

The back of the property