fouldsy.com

On the final day of the regular season, I ended up winning the fantasy football league! I was a bit concerned when we lost power as I couldn’t make changes to my team even I’d wanted to and figured some of my guys would be rested, but in the end I only missed out with Roethlisberger not playing and still had 20 points more than anyone else in the league. Picked up the 25 points I needed to catch up with Coleen and have won by 20.23 points which isn’t bad for only making two team changes through the season and being about 200 points behind the leader and at the bottom of the table after four weeks Also won a Rotohog cap after being in the top 5 of week 9′s biggest mover contest.

But, we’ve got a quiet New Year’s Eve coming up. Our neighbor Georgette did make a bunch of Chinese food for us, but we don’t have much else planned. Hope no-one gets too drunk tonight (I can think of a few likely suspects..) – I know we won’t

About 3a.m a lamp in the living room flicked on and the fridge + freezers powered themselves up. Apart from being woken up at 3a.m on a Sunday morning, it was nice! We’d headed over to Marie’s for a couple of hours last night to cook some food and enjoy some electricity We figured it was the smaller generator, as had most people in the village, so this morning we just had one light on. But, by the afternoon Frank starting pulling in the extension cords for the housing heaters and told me the main generator was up + running and everything back to normal. Not sure whether it was the main generator going first thing this morning, but at least we have power again.

Was so weird the last couple of nights seeing everything pitch black outside. Some houses were without a small generator or wood burning stove for heat and had got pretty cold, so hopefully they’re warming up now. The dogs were pretty confused too as they’re used to going to bed when it gets dark in the house, but that was at about 5p.m last night and Mia certainly seemed to be getting grumpy when we were still moving around at 10p.m! Didn’t get out ice fishing yesterday as the gas station was closed (duh!) but it should be open tomorrow and I might try it then.

After getting my snowmobile home a couple of days ago and checking everything over, it’s now running fine again. Still not sure why it was originally losing power, but I’ve put IsoHeet into the gas tank to stop any water in there freezing and causing fuel blockages again. We’ve had a bunch of snow through yesterday and last night so there’s a good 6-8 inches of power snow down, and I was out for 30-40 minutes this afternoon without any problems. It was fun going onto the river as I got from the little dock by the school to where the river splits upstream in about 3 minutes – took over half an hour in the canoe! Yesterday I’d tracked down the speedometer problem to the key in the driveshaft having broken, but at 4+ hours work (and not having the foggiest how to even take the driven clutch off, let alone take it apart!) to fix it, I’ve decided I can live without it. It’s not a more serious problem of a bearing failure on the driveshaft, and I borrowed Frank’s grease gun to add low temperature grease on a bunch of areas.

Later this afternoon Kat + I took the dogs out for a walk on the river and they both seemed to enjoy it:

Mia was full of energy and kept running around, even if she did keep loosing her footing on the ice underneath the snow at the edges of the river! Kept coming back and having a lie down next to us to catch her breath before running off again:

Kat tried to make a snow angel in the fresh snow, but didn’t get very far with all the dogs clambering over her – I did eventually help her out by calling the dogs away so she could get up:

My snowmobile tracks are somewhere in here from earlier – was so much nicer riding in the powder snow across the tundra and then on the river rather than the compacted snow:

Coming back off the river by the airport was fun – even close up it looks like standing water:

It is all frozen solid, but the wind and snowmobiles have blown the snow away. Still pretty dodgy walking over it and looking down to see yourself seemingly walking on water!

But, when we got home, the power was still out, having gone off around noon. Frank + Mark were dragging out extension cords to our duplexes and moving around inside the heater rooms, as they were hooking the heating units up the school’s generator. Didn’t sound encouraging, and turns out the frequent power cuts in the village have been due to only one generator actually working which had then frozen today and broken. There’s meant to be a smaller generator they can hook up, but it would only give out enough juice for each house in the village to run their heater and a single light bulb. That said, it’s now 7.30p.m and no power at all to the houses. Thankfully we at least have the heater still going at home otherwise it would be seriously cold, but it’s meant to be at least a couple of days before the power will be fully restored, and that’s “village” 2 days, which is likely to mean a week. No power, no water (electric pump), and nothing to stop the pipes from freezing for whenever power does come back and the water comes back on. The school’s generators are running fine, but they eat fuel at the best of times so things are being conserved here too. Hopefully something will come back on soon otherwise there’s an awful lot of food in the freezers going to waste, and it’s not like we can cook any of it either! A lot of the houses in the village can use wood burning stoves since they can’t get their mains heater going, and thankfully it’s around 15F today, as at the beginning of the week it was -20F and then people would really have had problems staying warm.

But, eyed up some ice fishing spots today just around the village, so might head out tomorrow and freeze my butt off catching nothing but a cold like over the summer! Apparently some people have been catching white fish and pike using nets and pots, but not sure about just using a line. Not like there’s going to be anything to do at home anyways!

Kat and I decided to take the dogs out for a Christmas walk (that and I wanted to to try getting my snowmobile back to the village), so we headed out to the new airport:

When we got to the snowmobile, I turned the ignition turned on, choked it, and it started on the third pull. I think I’m actually flipping it off in this photo…

I rode it a few hundred yards and it was still having problems, but I tried heading back to the village anyways. Was fine at a constant 6,000rpm along the runway, but then cut out twice on the trail back to the village as the revs rose and fell across the bumps. Finally, it quit and that was it. After another half an hour battle we retreated home to check things out a bit more (more commonly called calling my dad ). Still, was a pretty walk back, and it broke down only a few hundred yards out the village:

After a bunch of suggestions, I left it a couple of hours to settle itself down hoping it would start up again and at least get me home, but nothing. Don’t think it’s what was causing the problem originally, but it won’t start now due to some kind of fuel flow failure. Ended up with all the fuel lines disconnected and joints cleaned, but the fuel pump doesn’t seem to be drawing any fuel in after it’s expended what was already in the lines and the filter. There’s definately gas in the tank and the lines and valves all appear clear, and I’ve tracked down problems online with snowmobiles having sat for prolonged periods of time then having fuel pump and / or filter issues. Either that or there’s a blockage somewhere possibly due to freezing somewhere I can’t see, so all I can do is hope it clears tomorrow enough to get me home. Can then look at whether it’s worth replacing the fuel lines, filter and pump (fairly cheap and not too complicated) and whether that’s been part of the bigger problem.

I went out on the snowmobile this afternoon and came back to an e-mail from Mike with a little Christmas poem:

“The night before Xmas
nothin was moving…
Not even the speedo
on Fouldsy’s snow bike…”

How apt it is – I may have gone out on the snowmobile, but I didn’t come back on the snowmobile Broke down again about 5 miles out the village with exactly the same problem as last time. Got it going again after 5-10 minutes so pointed myself back towards the village but didn’t get more than a mile or so before it stopped again, only this time it didn’t fire up after 45 minutes trying various things. A long walk back in -20C plus windchill has given me a nice bit of frostbite on my face, and it’s too dark to get back out there now with someone else to either try to get it going or tow it back, though Mark didn’t really have any ideas on top of what I’d already tried. Ho bloody ho

Well, it’s been a year to the day that I moved out to the US Figured that since I’ve taken more photos in the past year than I have in my entire life combined, may as well use them to create some kind of year in review! It’s easy to feel quite alone and cut off up in Tunt, and even though it hasn’t exactly been an easy first year with delays on various bits of paperwork, I did get my green card and social security card sorted, as well as getting part-time work as a laborer with the school that brought in enough money to buy a used snowmobile for the coming winter

So, in some kind of order – riding a snowmobile for the first time:

Popping down to the post office isn’t quite the same as back in England:

Getting married was probably a big event

As was cutting our wedding cake – we had a lot of yummy cakes this year:

It was also a winter of feeling pretty damn cold most of the time:

Going out ice fishing was certainly more of a challenge than casting out a line on Derwent Water:

Although I didn’t get to see it (mainly ‘cos no-one paid much attention to Jenson Button and Honda’s woes this season!), I did get my name on an F1 car:

When the ice started breaking up on the river in spring, I took my chances on a piece floating by the river bank:

The river clearing also meant we I got to drive a motorboat for the first time:

As well as firing a gun for the first time, a .22 rifle:

The summer also meant riding the 4-wheeler didn’t require 3 layers of clothing!

Over the summer we got to a bunch of places. Too many landscape photos to include here! Instead, playing on Lake Tahoe – first on jet skis with Dan:

And then going out on kayaks the following day:

With all the family together in Lake Tahoe, I got to play chef with a barbecue by the beach:

Heading back up to Alaska, we met up with Nick + Dana and headed down to Portage Glacier in the rain:

Whilst in Anchorage, we got a dog from the animal shelter that has actually turned into a moose – we’re looking at claiming compensation based on false advertising…

I tried my luck fishing on the river up here, moving around in a spiffy Sea Eagle canoe:

Kat went all out with a cake and decorations my first birthday in the US:

Having missed my flights and then got weathered into the village trying to get down to Carson City to check out a flying school, I’ve had to make do with my flight simulator setup instead:

I bought a used ’91 Polaris Indy 500 SKS from Anchorage to get me out ice fishing and stuff during the winter – after a new throttle cable it runs great!

It finally got back to looking like Alaska through November and into December with everything freezing over and temperatures back to -25C:

And we managed to get a group shot of us, even if Mia wasn’t too keen on the idea of being dressed up with a pretty scarf!

It certainly doesn’t feel like a year since I rocked up in Tunt surprising Kat, as so much as has been crammed in to what seems like a pretty short space of time. An awful lot of highs and lows, an amazing road trip in the summer, and a whole bunch of new experiences (like living off 150 gallons of water a week!) have meant it can hardly be classed as a boring year! With Christmas vacation starting today, we’re looking forward to relaxing in the village (though not sure how relaxing it will be since we’re looking after Rocky for three weeks – he’ll at least keep Mia company!) and figuring out plans for next year.

Kat + Marie called off their walk this morning as -25C plus windchill was a bit too much for them. From the comfort of a warm bad at 7.15a.m I muttered something about them being big softies… I waited until this afternoon when at least there would be some warmth off the sun (that plan didn’t quite work out) and took Mia for a walk down by the river. Didn’t quite have the courage to go on the river as I couldn’t figure out the ice right by the river bank:

I guess new layers of ice keeping forming as the tide moves underneath and then a frost over the top, so although I guess it’s solid underneath since snowmobiles have obviously done it, I didn’t fancy risking it! Mia didn’t seem to mind as loves chewing on ice like Rocky:

The sun only just about creeps over the horizon by 11a.m, and stays pretty low throughout the day now, meaning you get some pretty cool lighting effects:

And this one of a boat tied down on the river bank (in case the wind blows it away…?) which isn’t going anywhere for the next 5 months or so:

But, at least with everything frozen you can wander wherever you want rather than being stuck on the boardwalks to get mowed down by 4-wheelers We actually got a circular reminding people of the speed limits around the village – the school’s 4-wheeler doesn’t have a speedometer and the one on my snowmobile don’t work so I could at least protest innocence! Makes going for walks out of the village a bit calmer and quieter as you can move around trails through the ‘woods’. Mia seems to like it more than just being on the boardwalks too and I don’t blame her. Maybe next week I’ll take onto the river where she can run free.

It’s about -4F (-20C) this afternoon, so I pulled on the snowpants, jacket and big mittens and took the snowmobile out for a ride. There hasn’t been that much more snow, so it was still pretty bumpy, but not as bad as last week. I was also a bit more confident in the snowmobile itself, and once the engine warmed up it ran nicely. I’m still waiting on the new spark plugs which is a bit annoying as at low revs it still has problems and cut out at the start of the ride a couple of miles out of the village which would have left me with a none too pleasant walk back, but after checking things over, there was air in the choke. A local out chopping wood had stopped to help too, so is nice to know that at least if something does happen, so long as you’re on one of the main trails you shouldn’t be alone too long.

This was up by the new airport – there’s still a ton of machinery up there, and some weird metal grill contraption running about half the length of the runway. Not quite sure what it is, but don’t think there’s too much more work to be done next summer to get it operational. There were also snowmobile tracks on the river at the end of the runway, but I decided not to try it and swung back across the to of the village instead! It’s still going to be a hairy landing depending on the wind as you’re going to be coming in low right over the river like you do know, but at least the runway is slightly longer – at the moment you’ve got the river waiting at the other of the runway too! When I’d dropped Kat + Pam off a couple of weeks ago when they flew to Bethel, I was speaking with Lincoln up there who was telling me the original runway from the 1950′s was built by the locals with shovels and pickaxes, and had a bend in the middle as it followed the river bank! He said there were one or two ‘incidents’ were the pilots didn’t quite get the bend right coming in to land

But, schools breaks up on Friday and Kat’s looking forward to a bit of a rest! They have a Christmas program tomorrow at school with each class doing a short piece, but other than that they’re just trying to keep the kids from getting too hyper!

Today is Mia’s first birthday and whilst Kat was in Bethel last week she picked up a squeaky hedgehog toy for her as a present. Don’t think Mia has a clue as to why she’s got a present, but she seems to be enjoying it! We got her the exact same toy from Anchorage over the summer and it lasted really well.

Kat put up our Christmas tree a week or so ago and decided we should have a family Christmas photo! It’s also a chance to show off her new quaspec she bought from the craft fair in Bethel over Thanksgiving:

Although there hasn’t been much snow the past few days, it has been staying around 20F (-7C) so the lakes are pretty much frozen over solid again. It’s actually down to 5F (-15C) today and looks like it’s been snowing as it’s so thick with frost and it’s lunchtime! I took the snowmobile yesterday out for a ride around the tundra to the north of the village for a few miles to see how it ran out in the open, but it was very bumpy without much snow down on the frozen ground, and the small streams and ponds were mainly just covered in ice making it pretty slippery! It was all good fun and it’s certainly got a ton of power under acceleration

Guess we didn’t mess up installing the throttle cable yesterday, as I just ran it up to the gas station and I’ll second Mark’s comment of it feeling like it’s got a new throttle cable Runs very smoothly which was handy since there’s still quite a bit of standing water on the way to the gas station! It’s not too bad, maybe just an inch or so of water on top of the ice or frozen ground. Just keep the throttle open and head for dry land… But, the guy at the gas station thought it was a ’97 model so I guess it is in pretty good shape, and he also laughed when saw how few miles it’s done too!