A short Saturday afternoon Flight

Got to spend a couple hours playing with Clint and his Bonanza under the excuse of getting some fuel down at Biddeford.

departing rwy 18 out of KPWM

lift-off with the tower and airline terminal of our right wing

looking back at the airline ramp

just crossed rwy 29-11

Looking back at the airport just past I-295 and the old boy's home.

Headed down to the Dexxi fix for the practice instrument GPS-6 approach to Biddeford

weather outside was snotty, low clouds and winds gusting 20 to 40 mph

The approach plate on the Garmin radio superimposes the plane in real time on the plate

and what it looks like on the glass panel

a wider view

SWLCH inbound for a circle to land at Biddeford

After we refuel with 80 gallons of 100LL we head back up the coast to KPWM past Old Orchard Beach, Pine Point and Black Point visible in the background.

we fly over Scarborough and my house, lower left hand side of the photo

turning base for Rwy 29 at KPWM over Morril's Corner on Broadway in South Portland

over the Merril terminal on final for 29

short final just about to cross I-295

Test . . . spring time

Test. . . pix seem to load OK from a website but not my files. hmmmmm? could it be interference with my antivirus protection??? seems if I load them on to the Picasa photo page first then I can upload to the blog "compose" page.

been working on some lawn repairs damaged from the road salt.

the view from my "office"

two straight weeks of bright sunshine and humidity in the low 20% has helped things bloom.

worked up an other 10 pounds of smoked fish

Got the smoker jut about dialed in now, Umbrella is there to keep the sun of the smoke box and keep the temps in the low 70s so to not cook the fish.

Picked up a few seedlings for our deck garden. 3 tomato plants parsley, sage and oregano.

Tulips are blooming now

and these funky purple bell thingies

and some pink ones

and the purple version of the pink ones

tulip

and more purple ones

What a difference 16 days makes !

Can it be real? the crocuses have bloomed

two weeks ago we had a foot of snow on the ground . . . .

and now but for a few patches its all nearly gone . . .

its been a long a cold one . . .

but just bellow the kitchen window . . .

where the sun hits hard . . . .

the flowers are sprouting out of the ground . . . .

life begins again . . .

must have been some hankie-pankie going on as the tag says they were supposed to be white . . . .

First day of Spring????

Started officially at 7:02 am today. Yet the scene that greeted us was 12 more inches of wet heavy snow. Thankfully the new chute I made for the snow blower seems to work quite nicely.

Tuesday it snowed for 36 hours . . . . Last year on this date it was 80 deg F and folks were at the beach sunbathing in their bikinis.

And here is why I dislike it so much. After shoveling off the deck once, then clearing the driveway and a path around the house, I have to rake the roof off . . . .  and  . . . .

then try to remove the rock hard snow from the deck.

Not sure whats easier, fighting the shovel or the machine . . .  I remove the snow from the roof as rafters are only 2"x6",  24" on center spanning 18 feet so I have some structural concerns should we get an other load or worse rain. And if I don't remove the snow from the roof the melting just makes a perpetual mess on the deck.

Habemus fumabat tructa

We have Smoked Steel-Head trout . . . . The white smoke from my smoker box signals it is so . . . . smoke from apple and mesquite wood around these parts have a more pedestrian significance than the smoke of burning ballots in Rome . . . . Yes we have a new Pope as well. An Argentinean fellow, Pope Francis his chosen name was the Cardinal from Buenosaires. A Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio I hear tell is a man of humble manners. As a Cardinal he refused the accoutrements accorded his rank such as cooks and chauffeured limousines, preferring to live in his own rented apartment and ride the bus back and forth to work. Lets see if Mr Bergoglio can scare some good Jesuit sense in to Mrs Kirshner and her goons in the rest of South-America, much the same way John Paul II faced off Mr Jaruzelski in Poland together with Reagan and Lech Walesa taking down the soviet empire.

. . . as I was saying . . . . I salted up an other batch of Steel Head trout last night

after a couple of hours under the fan this morning it went in to the smoker

5 hours of smoking

the results

The real sharp ones among you you will note one less piece than went in the smoker... that's because it has already gone down my gullet along with a nice beer.

Adventures in snow-blower repair

The chute on my Cra-p-sman Snow-blower has seen better days. One to many chunks of ice has gone through it shattering the brittle plastic in the bitter cold. The lower bolt holes busted out this winter and the chute would no longer stay on the geared mounting collar. I mended it with bailing wire just to make it through the winter.

Multiple repairs over the years. Including epoxy on the inside to keep things more or less contoured so the snow would not hang up on the rivet heads from the patches.

As Sears closed its repair and spare part annex last year spares are not available for Craftsman products locally. So I resolved to make a new one..... hmmmmm that 7 inch sewer pipe I left by the road crew on my lawn when they put in the new sewer lines a few years back might just do the trick. A few slices with the circular saw and a bit of heat seemed to do the trick.

On my first attempt the angled bit was not long enough so we did a second try. 10 inches long is just about right. I may actually elongate the holes in order to make it adjustable.

A bit of work with the heat gun does wonders to reshape PVC plastic

And as the insides of the new chute are much smoother than the old one the thing now shoots snow quite nicely.

The old chute would spit snow from the gap of the deflector hinge back on the hot exhaust of the engine at causing steam thus making the engine quit. In order to keep it running I had an aluminum shield over the engine. My new improved version has no gap thus no snow on the hot exhaust and no need for the shield.

The first sunny day in more than 3 weeks brought us nearly 40 deg F and in the sun in front of the garage and no wind it must have been nearly 70 deg F. An other successful repair.