Escape From the Prison Planet

[DRIVEN]

Funny you should mention that. Gliding came up in conversation while we were taking a break at the last photo location. I haven't made it to Salmon or Challis yet but I will next summer. Lots of places I want to explore.

You're right about that 3rd photo too. It wasnt much more than a goat trail. If you look really close at the 1st one there is an ATV at the very top, one stuck about 3/4 to the top with another guy standing next to it. That hill is steeper than it looks. Once the 3rd guy got stuck, the leader yelled down to us to go around on another trail. My dad and I took a 3-4 mile loop and we thought we'd meet them at the next junction. When they didn't show up we tried to come in to where they were from the top side. When it turned to single track my dad stayed behind and I kept going for a half mile or so. The 3rd photo is just after I turned around. To the right, that hill goes several hundred feet down into a canyon. I thought I got a pic of that but turns out I didn't. The other 3 guys ended up going back down that steep hill and circling around the same loop we did. I was the only one on a motorcycle. There were 3 guys on 4 wheelers and one guy in a tiny side by side. They all did fine if they were narrow enough to get through. They all had waaay more power as the smallest was a 600 and mine is only a 200. Some of the steeper hills, I could have definitely used more than 14hp but I'll take my maneuverability over horsepower any day.

A few more shots of the trip.

[wayno]

I think I can see a 4 wheel ATV pointed straight up next to a big shadow in the trail just before the trail goes out of sight, and just below there before the shadow there appears to be someone in a white shirt on the left side of the trail walking up the hill towards the ATV.
Near the top of the hill where the trail disappears I see 2 black spots, otherwise I can't see anything but desert, sagebrush, rocks, and a tree, oh and the guy at the bottom on the trail.
It's a great place to fly, and also to hike in the high places where it is cold, but hiking around in the low areas where is is hot and you cannot see anything is boring and a good place to get bitten by a Rattle Snake.
Even where we launched on Chelan Butte we had to watch for snakes, if we slept on top of the hill I slept in my vehicle or in my tent with the door zipped up, I found a scorpion under my packed glider once in Florida.

[DRIVEN]

The Compound finally closed today!

Meanwhile, back in paradise, still just pushing dirt.




Hopefully we'll be seeing concrete work in the next week or two. It's starting to get below freezing at night so things could get interesting.

[wayno]

When is it determined that the dirt/soil has been pushed around enough?
When they get bored?

[DRIVEN]

Seems like it's taking forever, right? Seems like the excavation guy hasn't been working for a month straight but he really hasn't. First he did the driveway, then the rough digout. Then we had to get the soil engineer out and restake everything. Then there was hunting season. Then more digout followed by bringing in rock and doing compaction. Then more soil tests. Lots of waiting in between.
Met with the contractor this morning and at this point we're waiting on the concrete guys and an engineering report for the foundation walls. Hopefully no more than another week. Hopefully. Also have a guy scheduled to trench from the power box up to the house and set a temporary meter.
If I would have built the same house down at the bottom of the hill as a single level it'd be done already -- and probably more than $100k cheaper. It'll be worth it when we're done. Between the additional basement square footage and the view we should get double the return on investment.

[wayno]

BTW, congrats on the Compound closing.

[DRIVEN]

Thanks, man. THAT took forever.

I almost completely forgot. My dad towed this home from Cle Elum yesterday.


It'll need some tinkering during the winter. It's only kind of interesting because we had one very similar when I was a kid. You'd never know it to look at me now but there was a time when I was a serious skier. I could run a course faster than anyone I knew. Did my fair share of wakeboarding, kneeboarding, and barefooting too but slalom was always my thing.
The original Natique got sold when I was about 15 and my dad had a dealer franchise with Ski West before they were bought out by Malibu. I've spent a lot of time around tournament ski boats. This should be as fun little trip down memory lane.

[wayno]

Every time I thought about buying a boat I just remember that I don't spend anytime on water, with friends or otherwise, it would just sit in my driveway and rot, so I curb the desire.
I did buy this small sailboat and I sailed back and forth across the Columbia River one day, it was fun, but I only did it one time, and people were staring at me, I built a cover for it on the side of the house, it has been there since.
I suppose the people stared at me because the sailboat was made of Styrofoam. it is around 3/4 foot wide and almost 10 feet long, it has quite a large sail and has a 4 foot board in the center that can be raised and lowered in a slot to keep the wind form pushing the boat sideways when crossing 90 degrees to the wind, it would actually move pretty fast considering I never sailed a boat before, and I never came close to capsizing it.

[DRIVEN]

Never heard of such a creature. Sounds fun.

[wayno]

Search Styrofoam Sailboat and most of the photos are like mine.
It has everything like in thew photos except mine doesn't say Kool on it.

[DRIVEN]

Snow is almost here. Snapped this today just over my hill. The Owyhees are white right down to the valley floor.




My dad started in on his boat last night and I went over this morning to help. We got the seats and engine cover out and stored away. It hasn't been run in over a year and was supposedly professionally winterized but we're finding quite a few things that don't really support what he was told. First red flag was the axle that had to be replaced 100 miles from here on the way home. Seller claimed it was just serviced/repaired.

Also, the floor turned out to be worse than he said once my dad got there to buy it. Seller told him it had a soft spot which turned out to be most of the left side. That was why we pulled the interior. Carpet is coming out, then new floor. This was expected, just not to this extent.

What wasn't expected was the 4 freeze plugs that were popped out. He'll get them ordered up and we'll have to pull motor mounts to get them in. Super fun. No other visible cracks so we're hoping for the best.
The last thing we did was try to sort out the hilarious wiring. The boat is almost 40 years old so between the stereo stuff, power ports, LED lights and other "upgrades" there's plenty to set straight.

We isolated the stereo stuff and removed a 2nd battery that had been piggy backed to the one that's supposed to be there. Both were dead. After getting it squared away we fired it up briefly so now at least we know it runs. Later on we'll hook up the stereo to see if it all works then likely remove it and put it on CL.

[flatcat19]

Whew. All caught up.


Wife and I just watched a really cool documentary about Idaho on Amazon Prime a few weeks ago. It was kind of a tour guide of really neat natural spots all over the state.

Makes us want to take our vacation that way next summer.

Place is coming along nicely.

[DRIVEN]

I definitely plan to see more of it next summer. Camp trailer thread to follow.

[Taterhead]

Congrats on getting the old house gone. Now you can focus all your time and energy on the new one.

The amp in your dad's boat is a pretty good one. It looks like the same one I have in my Xterra.

[DRIVEN]

He hooked it up and said it sounds okay. No head unit, just an aux chord for an Ipod.


Had a dry windy day yesterday so I ran the mower over the leaves in the front yard. Heavy wind carried almost everything away. Looks way better.

Brown dog insisted on being outside with me even though it was only about 40*. Shivered the whole time. Dummy.




Today I finally put together my target stand then took it to the range to try it out while testing the 336W and an AR build. Both with open sights.

Ended up being one of only 2 guys in the whole place.

Always impressed with the view out there.

[DRIVEN]

A guy I know over here was getting rid of some rocks/boulders. All I had to do was haul them out. 1 trailer load hauled out by my dad and 2 loads on my trailer. We loaded and unloaded all of them by hand. Not sure where they're going to end up yet but it'll give me something to do in the spring. Rocks are heavy.

[wayno]

Don't let figuring out where to put them weigh too heavily on your mind.

Rocks are heavy

[DRIVEN]

They're in a big pile right behind where my trailer is in the last pic. I probably won't move them until spring when I rent a skidsteer for a couple days.

[wayno]

My neighbor built a mount near his tailgate to mount a crane/hoist to pick up rocks off the ground after he seen mine I use to lift heavy stuff into my truck, he filled his driveway with rocks.



Here is the start of filling his driveway.

[DRIVEN]

Whatever it takes.