Milling Alder Logs: October 2, 2021

Catching up on posting to my blog, these photos are from October 2, 2021

Jim Horne invited us over to help mill up some old Alder logs. He used his backhoe to pick them up and put them on the milling machine.

Two men were required to balance the log while setting on the milling machine.

Heidi acted as "quality control" to verify the correct height of each cut.

We turned the slabs on edge to trim off the bark from each side.

The day was complete after filling the pickup truck twice like this.

Howell Mountain 2021

Aug 15, 6:49 PM
First night on the trail we camped at Paradise Valley and hung our food up high, out of the reach of grizzly bears.

Aug 16, 12:59 PM
Abby and Anthony at the high point crossing the mountain.

Aug 16, 1:08 PM
Climbing down the east cliff, we could see how much the glacier had receded. For the past four years it had reached to the red line I drew on the photo. Minimal snowfall last winter, along with unusually hot weather has caused this. Lucky for us, we now had two ways of climbing up/down the steep slope. We could walk over loose and crumbling rock, or put on crampons and go across the ice. The "snow" had melted down into solid, very hard, ice, covered with sand and rock. Crampons and ice axes penetrated only one quarter of an inch.

Aug 16, 1:35 PM
Here's a view looking south over the top of the glacier. See the vertical wall that has receded down to the bottom of the glacier, and the top edge is 100 feet or so below where it was last year.

Aug 16, 3:02 PM
To deploy our hoisting equipment, I clambored down over the ice while Lief and Louis deployed the Amsteel Blue, non-stretching cord. I brought my backpack with me but had it attached to the hoisting line rather than carry it. The passage across the ice was uneventful, even with the crampons only penetrating a tiny bit.

Lief and Louis had already carried their backpacks down over the rocks and then came back up to help me, and to carry Anthorny's and Abby's packs down.

Aug 16, 4:24 PM
Here's the view of the partially melted glacier from down below. Compare it to a similar photo from last year.

Aug 16, 6:54 PM
Finally arrived at camp, set up sleeping quarters and rested while supper was heating up. The blue tent has space for four normal-sized people. Three when one guy is very tall.

Aug 16, 6:55 PM
View of camp in opposite direction. My yellow two-man tent and Louis' tarp setup behind the wind break he assembled beginning in 2015.

Aug 16, 7:12 PM
Time to wash our feet in the ice cold mountain stream.

Aug 17, 8:59 AM
Finally the "lost" airplane wing from 2016 was exposed. I dragged it over to the new hoisting spot and Louis eventually cut it in half so we could use it as a sled for hoisting unusually shaped objects over the ice. This was the day Louis focused on taking apart the engine, leaving the hoisting task to Abby, Anthony, and me.

Aug 18, 8:44 AM
The rain and fog 'n mist began incessantly.

Aug 18, 10:25 AM
Lief is carrying the first of three loads for that day in his backpack up over the rocky route while the rest of us hoisted larger chunks over the glacier.

Aug 18, 11:01 AM
I began helping Lief by carrying one load up over the rocks. This is the view looking up the slope we had to climb.

Aug 18, 11:09 AM
This is the view looking sideways, so you can see the angle of the ascent.

Aug 19, 9:03 AM
The Fireweed flowers look great even in the fog 'n mist.

Aug 19, 11:43 AM
I'm taking up another load in my backpack over the rocky route. I had to rest after climbing over that jumble of loose boulders.

Aug 19, 11:58 AM
Part of the fuselage came up over the hoisting rig. I thought it was a good idea to photograph the partial number of the airplane.

Aug 19, 12:57 PM
Here's the spot where Lief got slammed by a falling rock last year. He was standing in the gap between the cliff and the snow, possibly on top of that pink colored boulder. There weren't very many recognizable landmarks like this. Erosion had taken a serious toll on the cliffs since last year.

Aug 19, 1:19 PM
Here's an ugly mangled chunk of wreckage that came up across the ice. I tried to carry it up the cliff by myself but Lief came along and took it away from me.

Aug 19, 6:11 PM
Our wreckage hauling task was complete at about 3:00 PM, so three of us decided we could make the round-trip to the peak of Howell Mountain (and back) by 6:30 PM. It was three miles, and with the fog 'n mist we wandered a bit, consuming about four miles on the outbound leg. It turned out to include about 800 feet of elevation gain too. It was too much effort for me but I went at about 100% the entire time.

Aug 19, 6:12 PM
We spent only one minute at the cairn before heading back as fast as I could go. We arrived back at camp before dark, at about 7:30 PM. I was so exhausted I was unable to eat. Lief ate three helpings of various recipes.

Aug 20, 7:46 AM
We woke up to a half inch of snow on the ground. Everything we had was soaking wet. Abby and Anthony carried their own packs up over the rocky route. Lief and Louis and I had to finish hauling camping supplies and the last airplane wreckage up to the top. The top of the mountain was very windy with blowing snow. Abby got chilled while waiting for us so we went into emergency mode to care for her. There are no more photos but we got her over the top and down into the big trees where she was able to warm up. Lief carried her pack down over the fallen logs to Paradise Valley, then she carried her pack the rest of the six miles to the car.

Howell Mountain 2020

August 17, 9:27 AM, we have arrived at the bottom of the cliff, at the top of the glacier. We're preparing to put on our crampons to cross the glacier. There aren't any photos of crossing the glacier since we were all too busy with safety concerns. The bottom 100 feet of the glacier was very steep.

1:35 PM, we arrived at our proposed new campsite. Located in the trees just below the glacier, there were very few level spots and all of them were small. Lief and Louie began leveling out some sleeping spots. I went uphill about twenty feet and found another single spot for myself.

This is a panorama of the glacier, taken from the same elevation as our camp. The main flow of melt water comes from the center of the photo. It was ice cold and quite refreshing to drink. Our camp was located in the trees to the right of this photo.

Looking in the opposite direction, the air is clear, with thunderheads forming in the distance. We had brief rain and hail showers, then smog set in and we could barely see that nearest mountain to the east.

August 18, 2020, 12:19 PM. I have climbed to the top of the glacier to unhook loads of airplane scrap from our hoisting setup.

Another panorama showing the accumulation of scrap on the left, and barely visible to the left is our hoisting line, showing up as two white lines extending down across the snow.

Morning of August 19, Lief woke up early and made a cup of coffee. This photo was time-stamped 6:54 AM.

Here's the entire camp. Our four-man tent has been erected as a two-man tent, braced against the uphill side of a large boulder. Louie's black and grey tarp is barely visible on the far side of the tent. My sleeping bag is the blue patch to the right and uphill from the tent.

Abby, aka "the tough girl" made her appearance at 8:42 AM. The fact that she was here was remarkable, but the work she did was amazing.

9:57 AM, breakfast is finished. It's time to get to work again.

Lief took the task of climbing the glacier this time. He had enough energy to drag most of the loads of scrap up to the top of the cliff. Two loads are waiting in the background while the most recent load has just reached the top. Both snatch blocks are visible in this photo. We had a 2:1 mechanical advantage that became nullified by twisting of the lower snatch block. When the two white lines to the left twisted together it was like tying a knot in that line, so retrieval of the lower snatch block became more difficult than pulling up a load af aluminum scrap. I determined that we need to completely eliminate the use of parachute cord to resolve the twisting problem.

August 20, 9:39 AM, last day at Mooney Meadows. We're all carrying a full pack and intend to cross the glacier after pulling up one last load. Lief and Abby posed here at the original crash site and the only piece of the wreckage remaining here: the engine.

August 20, 12:06 PM, the last load of wreckage has been hauled up, Lief has crossed the glacier and now Abby is on her way. I climbed up to the top of the cliff to take this telephoto picture of her as soon as she came within sight. You can see she is standing now, not crawling on hands and knees up the steep bottom of the glacier. Louie is the last person at the bottom of the glacier and he's monitoring her progress, keeping the slack out of the line in case she starts sliding. She never did slide.

12:14 PM Abby is close enough to not need a telephoto picture. The slope is quite steep and she's standing at about 10,000 feet elevation, so lots of rest stops are needed.

12:20 PM, success at last! Now we need to get Louie up to the top and he's never walked on crampons before.

This is the final setup: Louie is climbing the glacier with the hauling line set at a 1:1 ratio. I'm keeping the slack out of the line and prepared to hold it if he starts to slide. He never did slide. In fact, he climbed up so fast it was amazing. But he's acclimated to the elevation and didn't need so many rest stops.

In these two frames you can see why I was amazed at Abby's strength and willpower. She hefted that collection of aluminum scrap straight up the face of the cliff.

Across the top of the mountain and down the west side, through the forest, Louie told me, "I want my 'little cousin' to see a bear" and sure enough, 1,000 feet down through the forest, she spotted a bear. Nobody else saw it, but minutes later we came across this freshly stripped tree, covered with bear claw marks.

"One more thing: I want my 'little cousin' to have a chance to shoot my Colt 45 Long pistol," Louie said. Abby was uncertain for a long time, then suddenly her face took on a deadly expression, she set the hammer back and pulled the trigger. I knew it was going to be loud but it still surprised me, causing my ears to ring for a few minutes.

August 21, 3:29 PM we arrived at the trail head. Everybody still feeling well enough to smile. We had been on the mountain for six days.

Bunny Nest

We discovered a bunny nest among our Perriwinkle vines. The vines had grown so much that they were developing a fungus infection, so I used my hedge trimmer to cut the vines off at about 1-2 inches above the ground. The next day Monya decided to rake up the dead and brown leaves I left behind after I picked up the vine cuttings. While raking she noticed some grey fur mixed in with the leaves. Upon closer inspection she discovered a baby bunny was in a nest, just below the surface level of the ground. She covered it back up with a few leaves and vine scraps, then left the nest alone.

We've been watching for the mother bunny for a week now. She hovers around nearby most of the day. We've never seen her on the nest, but two days ago I watched as a Scrub Jay was trying to land on the ground near the nest to pick up some of the fur Monya had raked away from the nest. The mother bunny chased after the bird and the bird squawked loudly and flew up into the nearby tree. Each time it tried to land the bunny would chase it away, sometimes even leaping into the air in an attempt to make contact with the bird. I didn't know that a bunny could act as an aggressor like that. In the end the bird had to give up and it flew away.

Last night we were delighted to spot a tiny baby bunny hiding under one of the shrubs near the nest. It was so small that it looked almost like a mouse. This morning the mother bunny is still standing guard, so we think the babies are in week 6-8, the phase where they could leave the nest at any time, then the mother will not need to guard them any more. May 18,2020.

We have decided to refrain from any pruning efforts in the Spring from now on. It only exposes these nests.

House Painting

We've had problems with the exterior paint on our house, ever since we moved in. I dutifully scrape off the loose paint, apply a fresh coat of primer, then a new finish coat. But the paint blisters again, usually where the old paint has not been removed, but sometimes even the new paint blisters and peels, within months of being applied. I decided to try a different approach this time. I'm taking off ALL of the old paint, sanding the primer residue down to the wood, then applying an opaque stain instead of primer and acrylic paint. This siding is wonderful old growth Cedar, straight grain. It looks so wonderful that I even considered using a transparent stain but there are patches and spots of putty where somebody made a goober and filled it. So we really need the opaque stain.

Here the old paint has been mostly removed and the siding has been sanded, but you can still see some of it, in its blistered condition.

In this photo the entire wall has been sanded, first with a belt sander using 60 grit, then with a random orbital sander, using 150 grit.

The finished wall looks almost like new. The color is amazingly similar to the original acrylic paint.