December Monsoon #1

  There was a stretch of clear cold weather for the last week or so. Cold for around this country anyways.

T'sek hot spring.

The temperature rose overnight a few days back with a forecast for a weeks worth of wet Pacific disturbance. Bastard, I know what that means. I had just made a few cold-weather improvements to my intake screens up the mountain that feed my generator, and now a potentially biblical series of 'wet disturbances' is headed this way.

 My buddy Josh Fairbrother, band-mate from Blackwater MC came out and moved into the trailer for a few days to work on some new songs and tinker around with his motorcycles, and made the mistake of offering give me a hand with anything that came up.  Before the front arrived I figured we better go up to the intake and make sure it was in good shape for some nasty weather and rising waters.

As an added bonus, it involved getting out some toys to get up there with.
We parked at the upper Sparrow Creek crossing and hoofed it in from there.

There is a bit of a challenging jaunt down to the intake-pond, one I've done a thousand times.  Josh has had the luxury of not being born back so early in the past century as his drummer and has been around here before, he went up last week and installed some safety ropes on some of the more interesting sections. 

I figured it was more for his protection than mine.

The intake pond, there was still a little residual ice stuck on the banks from the cold snap and the creek was flowing at what I'd normally expect this time of year.

My over-sized, double screened intake I had installed 10 days ago to deal with the frazzle-ice still had a iceberg attached and a whole pile of cedar droppings  still stuck on there. There had been several days of high winds recently that blew literally tons of these things out of the trees, most of them I'm sure, landing in my creek for kilometers upstream in an attempt to clog up my intake system and put me in the dark down here. The system was still all working fine, but we removed it and cleaned it off in anticipation of the warmer wet front rolling in that night.

If it isn't one thing, it's another sometimes.

Sure as Sh*t, the next day, steady rains have brought up the creek level condsiderbly.

And once more, I have neglected to turn off the generator before my screens up the mountain have blown out and sucked some debris down the line (penstock)  and jammed at the nozzle that drives the pelton-wheel.

This results in the undesirable condition of what us independent power guys call, 'power interruptus'.

This panel controls the generator loads and shuffles it around to your needs. 

But it doesn't have much to do if there is no electricity. Bastard.

So up the hill we went, leaving the toys in the garage due to the rain to see if there was anything we could do up there.

The creek into the intake pond was running about 5 on a 10 scale from what I've seen up there over 20 seasons. Sometimes you can't get anywhere near the creek let alone try and fart around in there. I could still stand up on the dam in my gumboots and get the now flattened-out and mangled intake screen off and more by chance than good management to reach into the boiling water and slide in the gate-valve plate to stop the flow of water and draining the penstock, a section of which had been knocked off by the force and was flaying around in the current. 'We' braved being washed over the falls to retrieve it and set it up the bank in a safe spot I pointed out to him until the creek cleaned itself out and the level hopefully dropped enough to do a repair up there, and left it at that.

On the way back after we hit the main road out behind here we noticed the culverts of Sparrow Creek were getting jammed with debris and a good possibility of over-flowing the road, which washes out more often than not, resulting in an expensive repair with heavy equipment, not to mention the only road to town severed. Josh volunteered to get in there and pull branches and debris free to open the culverts. 

There was still plenty of day left, and we still had that little problem with debris clogging up the nozzle back at the pelton-wheel.

Under my direction from an upturned 5 gallon pail for a seat, 'we' un-bolted the flanges and pulled out the heavy nozzle-feed manifold to ensure the main valve was free of crap.

I skidded my bucket-seat over a little to better supervise the un-bolting and removal of the awkward and heavy nozzle assembly that directs water at the pelton-wheel...

...and got a couple hand-fulls of crud out of there.

We got it all bolted back up and ready to turn the water back on once the water receded enough to complete repairs up top. It was still raining, with last I heard a week's worth of wet weather expected. 

All a cat can do is wait out Mother Nature.

In the meantime, there was always the backup generator, which amazingly started up when I needed it. There was a little bug with powering up my panel which I'm giving a bunch of thought to, but we managed to run some cords out to run the essential loads. 

Essential loads being at this time, in order of importance were,  the refrigerator, the satellite Internet, the odd light around and powering up our sound equipment out in the garage.

A power interruptus was not going to get in the way of a good rock-out.!

The rain eased off over the night, and at first light I rousted my helper from the trailer.

The creek-flow had dropped just enough to do what work we needed to, replacing the screen and re-fitting the busted off pipe...before breakfast.!

We stopped again at the Sparrow Ck. culverts to remove more debris. It had dropped several feet there from yesterday.

We opened the big valve and let the pressurised water to the wheel.
Power interruptus over. For now anyways. Josh came up with some prior engagement he had back in town, and fired his gear into his truck and took off before the next storm hit and he got put back to work again. Actually, he has an interest in off-grid living, and enjoyed a hands-on, first-hand look at keeping this one going.

Maybe he'll write a song about it.
I don't know about him, but I'm going to sleep good tonight.
*If you are curious about this load control panel...
The green led indicates all is well. The red ones are relays that feed electricity to specific loads of most importance, #1 is living-room heat, #2 is the hot-water heater, #3 are the hallway baseboards, #4 is the heat in the 2 bathrooms.
The frequency meter on the left indicates 60HZ, which is right where you want it.
The percent load meter on the right tells you how much excess power is being burnt off from heater elements outside. It reads 60 percent load, so I'm not utilizing 60 percent of what I'm making over there with the pelton-wheel. The hot-tub was in heat-up mode and there were enough relays to operate anything that wanted to turn itself on, and still had 60 percent to waste off via heaters outside, so I did go over to the pelton-wheel shack and turn down the water flow a few notches so not to waste more excess hydro-power than I need to. Just the sort of stuff I keep track of going on every day around here.

The rest of today turned out rather nice, the sun came out and it was a nice break between Pacific fronts rolling in.

With the higher creek level today we noticed salmon coming in from the main river, splashing their way up the rocky shallow riffles to their spawning areas. 

So with the power system up and running (for now) I threw some wood in the shop stove and started on this post. I wanted to get it  off before the power went again, and sometimes its difficult to get anything done for some reason.

Before I do a much needed spell-check and post this, I can hear the rain picking up out there on the roof. I have a big powerful hand-held spotlight I use to monitor the creek level out front here. Later on, if it begins to rise and the rain keeps this up, I'll go over and shut the generator down and close off the main valve. The intake screen up the mountain may still get pounded into an unrecognizable shape by the force of the water, but no debris will come down the penstock. Of course, theres always the possibility it may keep this up for some time yet and resorting to backup genset for an extended period. But that's life off the grid, on Sparrow Creek anyways.

Walking With Panthers

   A few weeks back I was instructed to go see a specialist down in the city, probably something to do with that little heart attack event I had awhile back I would imagine, which I've almost forgotten about. The young doctor plugged me in and put me on a treadmill, then ran me uphill in my cowboy boots on my sore foot for about 15 miles it felt like, periodically increasing the treadmill speed until I sounded like some three legged horse on there. Failing to trigger another heart attack she turned it off and sat me down while my dangling eye-balls retracted back into their sockets.
"Blood pressures a little high" she informed me.
"Driving down here in the city does that to me"I said, and she probably thought I was joking.

"Are you on any regular exercise program?" 

"Well..." I said, thinking for a moment, " I just get up in the morning and it kind of finds me."

"Could you be more specific." she asks, needing to fill in the blank spaces on her form.

"Well..." I said, pondering over the previous several weeks for an example...

"I brought in the season's firewood!", figuring this alone would cover all the empty spaces.

"Oh yes!" she says, "It's good to get out and gather sticks in the Fall, ...and what else?"

I told her some of those sticks were several feet in diameter, and I would bring in and split another truck-load or two if it would make her feel better.
"That won't be necessary." she assured me.
"What else?" she needled, eagerly holding pen to form.

"Well...,  sometimes I gotta go up the mountain and check the intake, and I walk or ride pretty regular down to the hot spring...., and I bang on the drums..., and I walk the cats and...
"Wait a minute." she giggles before I get it all out, "Did you just say you walked your cats?"
"Well doesn't everyone?" I asked, cracking her up again.
She laughed and laughed at the vision of some idiot out walking his cats.  I think she probably figured I took them out to the local park to prance around on a leash or something.
   Well..., cat-walking has been a tradition as long as there have been cats around here.
SkoOk and ChUk when they were kittens use to follow me about when I was puttering around the yard and I began to take them on little cat adventures, down by the water, following the river-side trail or down the airstrip, places they normally wouldn't go on their own I would hope.

I made sure the brothers completed my Monster 101 course before we embarked on any adventures.

   As they grew older they would come get me when they decided it was time to go for walkies, often when I was headed out the shop door off to do something and often you just can't say no. At least I can't.
And I can't say every day, but most days I try to take the cats for a walk, although it's probably the other way around, and some days, weather and time permitting, we may have several.
I often get cajoled into after dark adventures too. Understandably, the after dark excursions are my least favorite, and try to limit them to within the yard lights if possible so neither one of us gets grabbed by some beast from the woods.
And if you have ever walked your cat, you will know you don't get anywhere very fast.

    With the low water out front lately they like to take me down on the dried-up channel to check out any new smells. Most soft-padded wildlife traveling at night will take the rocky channel, leaving their scent on common rubbing spots, like driftwood or a certain old stump, which the cats take particular interest in. It keeps them on their toes, and makes them more aware of the ever present dangers when you leave the yard. They don't venture off too far from the compound on their own as a rule I don't think, but with the 'big cat' tagging along they feel safe to go off and explore.

I'm not always the troop leader either, these days girl-cat ChYk often likes to take the lead.

The buggers often challenge me to the slippery log walk, who says cats don't have a sense of humor.

We practice our defensive tree-climbing skills.

ChYk and ChUk, checkin' out minnows.

Once in awhile we might head out beyond the big fire-pit, past the cable trolley and along the river trail, and have a sit-down at Skookie's resting spot.

Chuk's brother Skook was called back to heaven one cold, depressing January several years ago that is forever etched in my mind. This is his final resting place, with a cast likeness resting above.
We often rest here in the shade too on our walks that he enjoyed so much, and there is a great view overlooking the river channel, ... even through fogged-up glasses.
Considering the ever-present dangers out here with the coyotes, bobcats, cougars, and eagles from above, it was a moments negligence on my part that took the precious life of our wonderful little friend and hiking partner.
But I can't talk about that right now.

All that adventure can tucker an old cat right out.
With the shorter days and cooler weather now it's nice to sometimes lay back in the afternoon with a book and pull on the pre-heated cat blanket. Cats are good for something after all!
I suppose cat-walking may not be the best cardio work-out around, but its pretty good for the old soul.

Gettin' Ready.

   Sure a great time of the year, my favorite maybe, and I'm enjoying it while I can.

Mowed the grass a few days ago for what I hope will be the last time this year.

Getting plenty of exercise out at the wood-shed.

 

I brought home this backup generator last week, a used 10kw propane job I rounded up on craigslist.
Before you write in and ask what happened to the 10kw propane genset I brought home and wrote about this time last year, it acquired some sort of electrical gremlin that I'm going to need some time this Winter to figure out. So this is a backup for the backup.

I set it up under cover next to the house, it was handy to wire in and access but I just hate the thought of something like that so close to a structure in case of fire. I ended up moving it into the orchard, splitting the difference halfway between the house and the propane tank and set a structure over it.

I ran a propane line over and after a bit of cranking it fired up. I hope I don't need it, but I'm sure I will. I'll leave it set-up and ready to go until March.

It would be nice if it stayed like this until Spring, but I know theres some nasty Coast Mountain weather on it's way this Winter.

Thanksgiving Weekend, and the day after.

 The Canadian Thanksgiving was this past weekend, and it was sure a wet bugger. The tail-end of some disturbance out in the Pacific apparently. Another one of those times I almost felt sorry for all those campers huddled under their tarps down there at the hot spring campsite.  I wandered down under my umbrella, but it looked like they were all having a great time regardless. Having a hot spring sure helps in nasty weather.

The hot spring source was steaming in the rain.

The weather brought the river up. It was wet all right, and windy too, blowing down a few trees across the road.

I spent most of the weekend holed up in the shop on my back under pickup no.1  

Before the weekend I had decided to check out a little annoying noise from the rear end, and next thing I knew I had rear-end guts all over and the place stinking of gear oil.

In the olden days out here, I would of had to hitch-hike all the way to town to order parts, and probably end up walking most of the way, or flag a local down on the road and give them my credit card to round up parts for me in town. Come to think of it, in the olden days I would have been working outside on the wet ground too.  These days I can get on the Internet to round stuff up, usually. I emailed the owner of the auto parts place up in Pemberton. I received an automated message back almost immediately that read...'Gone hunting'.  

I dug around for the card I recalled I had from a parts kid down in Squamish, then wrote him a detailed note about the parts required. After about a day and a half waiting for a reply, I started working my way down my email list of anyone who might be coming up for the long weekend. 

 Finally,  some long time hot spring folks Rick and Gail offered to round up some Ford parts down in the big city and dropped them off on the way by Friday. That's pretty good service way out here, and I had something to do for the rest of the weekend.

I remembered another little emergency I had going on. It seems there had been a mis-calculation on the cat food order the last trip to town. My two chubby guard cats were in danger of having to fend for themselves. 

 At the last moment I got on the T'sek Hot Spring Official facebook site and posted if anyone was coming up, there was a cat-food emergency at the Lodge.  

 I posted a picture of my pitiful looking, soon to be starving cats, for effect.

Camper Liane offered to include a huge bag of cat-food with her camping grocery order and thus averted a certain feline famine. That's pretty good service too, especially considering I didn't have enough money to pay for it.

Today it broke clear as a bell, now that all the campers have gone home of course.

ChUk and I pulled out the hot-tub heater today to check out, its developed some problem.
If it isn't one goddamn thing, its another.

Back In The Saddle.

   Well, looks like it's been a few months since I've posted here. I get out of the habit and it is always difficult to start in again, like I don't know quite where to start. So I suppose the best idea is to just start right up again like it never happened.
  Fall is here early feels like, and I need to take advantage of this decent weather to bring in some wood. I usually keep a season or two ahead in the wood-pile but with all the storms and electrical problems we had this year I burnt through the entire contents of the wood-shed. Firewood is not as easy as you may think to find out here, and I should have been working at this a long time ago, but during the Summer it was so dry it was unwise to work in the woods, anyways it was too damn hot. Then it got too wet to go out for wood. Then along came that little matter of the heart attack I had a few weeks back. Oh I'm OK, not much of a story there, it came on while chasing a bear out of the yard. I got a  ride in the back of an ambulance to the big city and a stay at Vancouver General for a bit. They stuck some little part up in there and turned me loose again. Like I say not much of a story there and I'm as good as I was before, but it sure interfered with some Fall projects I had planned.

 I went out on the bike a few days back scoping out some year old log slash I knew of about 10 miles down the road then took the truck down the next day.

I took along a 100' cable to drag logs out to where I could get at them. They usually got hung-up on a stump but close enough to buck them up and toss the rounds out towards the road.

 Oh bastard. During one of my numerous tea breaks I left the thermos on the rear bumper and backed away. I heard a couple crunches as both wheels went over it about the same time I noticed it wasn't on the seat next to me.

It didn't break inside, and the flattened out cup is actually easier to drink out of I found.

 I brought in and split two of my little pickup loads over a couple sunny afternoons and didn't fall over dead so it looks like the old heart is good for go now. That's a good start and I'll try to half fill the shack over the next few weeks if the weather holds.