Pumpkin Destruction!

Pumpkin Party at Paul’s Place!

Bring your pumpkin and a friend. And a handy selection of sharp instruments. And power tools. And incendiary devices.   I suggest that you buy one a week or so early, make sure it has a good stem, leave it uncut and keep it in a cool, dry place until the big day. We’ll also supply grub, goodies, and drinkables. If you want to bring something, you’re welcome to.

What: Pumpkin Party!

When: Sunday, October 25th at Noon.

Where: Paul’s House 

Why: Mirth, merriment, and monstrous mutiliation of melons.

Who: Yourself, and anyone else you want to bring with you.

The pumpkin party will take place in the garage. We’ll have a couple of space heaters running, but you might want to dress warmly anyway. If the weather is good, we can overflow into the patio area between the house and apartment for chit-chat and BBQing. If the weather’s not so good, we can overflow into the main house.

Please reply if you intend to come!

Here’s a picture of the house to make it easier to spot:

http://bruteforcetech.com/7210/newhouse.htm

Directions:

I-5:
Take I-5 Northbound or Southbound, depending on where you are coming from.
Take the Hwy 2 Eastbound exit.
Stay right at the end of the trestle, following Hwy 2 around to the right.
Take the Snohomish/Bickford Rd exit.
Turn right on Weaver Rd, not far after the Bickford Ford dealership.
When you come to a stop sign, you are basically looking right at our house.
Go forward through the stop and turn into the first driveway on your right.

Highway 9:
Take Hwy 9 Northbound or Southbound, depending on where you are coming from.
Take the southern-most Snohomish exit.
If you’re coming from the south, it is right after the bridge.
Turn West off of the exit. If you are coming from the south, that means go left, under the bridge.
Turn right on Ludwig Rd, JUST after the off-ramp coming from the north.
It is a deceptively sharp turn, and not well marked. Be careful not to turn onto the off-ramp by mistake.
Follow this road. It will go straight for a while, then go through a series of 90-degree turns, changing names, then go straight again.
Just before the stop sign, turn left into the last driveway before the corner.

 Here are some of our previous creations!

News

Hi

Last Friday, walking with Tom, Cheryl and Russ in the evening in Wenatchee, I stepped off a curb and fell on my right hand and shoulder. I broke my right pinky finger and bruised the rest of my hand and shoulder so since then have not had much use of my right hand. That is better now but is about to get worse again, as I am having finger surgery tomorrow.

I was already in trouble before this. For weeks, Sarah and I have been trying to paint the kitchen cabinets a couple of hours at a time a couple of times a week. The kitchen is a disaster, with most of the cabinets empty and their contents in boxes in other parts of the house. While it was relatively easy to get the doors off the top cabinets, the bottom cabinet hinges have been painted over with multiple coats of paint. I’ve been using a dangerous paint remover with a wire brush and paint scraper to try to unearth the hinges so I can get the doors off. One hinge took two days.

Now I am looking for a handyman to help us with this job. My physical therapist gave me the name and phone number of someone he thinks can do it, so I will call Jose today. Hopefully, we will soon have a kitchen again.

The kitchen isn’t my only challenge. I’m scheduled to sleep at Northwest Hospital tonight with 25 wires connected to me. I’ve been going to physical therapy twice a week and have a heavy duty set of exercises I’m trying to do, some of which are difficult when you can hardly move your right arm. Oh, yeah, I’m also starting a yoga class first of October. That was supposed to relieve my high blood pressure – right!

I still have to work. Typing has been a challenge, though it is much easier with the splint off. I have a new manager starting October 5^th, so may be asked to start working full-time in the office again around then. We have a number of initiatives happening at work that are very challenging.

I have made other commitments as well – going to Issaquah Salmon Days to pick up some custom jewelry I ordered, getting a permit and having our driveway built in Point Roberts, going to Wenatchee mid-October and bringing my mother back with us for a TMJ specialist appointment, the Ocean Shores Jazz Festival my birthday weekend, San Jose for Adobe’s annual sales conference in December, and, of course, the upcoming holidays.

I’m feeling overwhelmed. Guess I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other though. What else can I do?

Well, that’s my news. How are you doing?

Love, Mom / Grandma

Stand that Mortgage On Its Head!

A while back, I posted about refinancing my mortgage, and some estimated interest savings I hoped to realize by doing so.

Well, the results are in, and it’s looking good!

The top of the table below shows activity from the first three months of the year with the old 30-year mortgage. Then I skipped some activity while things were changing. The bottom of the table shows the last few months of the new mortgage. Each month has two entries because I have chosen to pay more than the due amount, adding a principal-only payment every month.

The most important thing to note is how in the old mortgage, the interest was more than twice the amount of the principal in every payment. I HATED that! Also, each month, the amount of the interest payment went down by only $3.

In the new mortgage, the interest is only a little more than HALF as much as the principal. Also, the interest amount is reducing by $6 each month.

I’ve also chosen to make a larger principal-only payment each month, so the curve is even steeper. If I can keep this up (and there is every indication I will be able to), this mortgage will be gone in no time!

Brute Force 750 is going… going… GONE!

It’s a weird scenario, but I have to say it is oddly appropriate.

I got a call a few days ago from a kid named David. He’s 12 years old. He wanted to know about the Brute Force 750. I told him its story, how it ran out of oil and that the engine is destroyed, but the rest of it is in fine shape. He wanted to know whether we still had all of the engine parts. I told him that yes, we did, but that the parts cost to rebuild it was excessive, and he’d probably be better off buying a used ATV than trying to rebuild this one. He persisted, asking more questions about stuff, and I answered them all.

We negotiated the price at $1400, and he got his dad’s approval to spend the money. I decided that when they showed up, I would do my best to make sure that the adult knew exactly what they were getting into.

Graig lost the title, so I put together the appropriate paperwork. We collected the Affidavit of Loss/Release of Interest, Bill of Sale (with a bold statement that the vehicle is not in running condition), Seller’s Report of Sale, and the registration. Angela is a notary, so Graig came over to sign the papers and Angela notarized it.

The buyers showed up today. They’re a Russian family. David is 12, Anastasia is 18, and Ivan is the father. They arrived in a maroon 1990 Toyota Pickup (Long Bed) that has over 250,000 original miles on it (120,000 of them are Ivan’s), without a rebuild or even a head gasket replacement. Ivan is a mechanic. Apparently he came to the US in 1991. His first job here was to replace the head gasket in a Toyota pickup engine. He’d never seen one before. He started at about 5pm, and finished at about 1am.

David is learning about mechanic work, and already has a small collection of motorcycles and scooters that he has taken apart and fixed. He currently rides a 125cc ATV. I questioned whether this was the right ATV for David, who is a big kid, but looked pretty tiny sitting on the BF750. I explained that it weighs about 700 pounds, and how if it rolls over on him, it’ll crush him like a bug, and how if he nails the throttle, it’ll throw him off the back.

They looked it over, and I explained in more detail what happened to the engine. I gave them the parts list that the dealer gave me, and explained about the crankshaft bearing that is pressed into the engine casing, and how you can’t buy a new bearing from Kawasaki without buying the entire new set of casings. I told them they could buy a good used Prairie 360 for $3500 that is in good condition. They discussed it between them, and Ivan called his wife (I could hear her voice on his phone about 4 feet away).  They decided to buy it anyway. We loaded the ATV and the totes full of parts into his truck and tied it all down with four straps and about a half dozen bungees. There’s a hell of a lot of ATV in the back of that little 2WD Toyota pickup.

I was originally going to sell the shop manual separately, but since they’re going to rebuild this thing themselves, and David is going to be doing most of the assembly, I decided to throw in the manual. They’re going to need it a lot more than I want the money.

We talked a bit about the title transfer paperwork. I explained about the lost title, the form that replaces it, and the instruction sheet that goes with it. I told him he’d need to get that title transferred within 15 days. There was a bit of weirdness there too. Ivan is applying for a loan and doesn’t want any additional vehicles registered in his name. Anastasia is 18, so they’re going to put it in her name. They didn’t understand that even if they don’t drive it on the street, it still needs to be registered and have tabs. I told him he doesn’t need tabs if he only drives it on private property, but for public forest roads and trails, he needs the tabs.

If anyone can put this thing back together and make it run without spending a fortune, this family can. They know what they’re getting into, they know they have other options that might seem more sensible to us Americans who aren’t mechanics, and they’ve decided to do this anyway. Who am I to deny them?

I’m sending in the report of sale today to cover myself, and I think it would be a good idea to hang onto the cash for 30 days, just in case – but I believe the BF750 has gone to a good home.

ATV Modification: Adding a Recoil Starter to the Arctic Cat DVX 250

The Arctic Cat 250 utility model comes with a recoil starter, in case the battery dies and the electric start doesn’t work.
The Arctic Cat DVX 250 model does not.

It’s the same engine, and the recoil starter isn’t terribly heavy. It might add two pounds. So why didn’t they include it? Having a cheap, lightweight backup system is always a good idea.
Maybe they didn’t add one because the DVX is more likely to be spending its time at high RPM in the sand than hopping logs in the forest.

Anyway, I ended up with a DVX 250 that I intend to use deep in the forest. We never ride alone, but a dead battery would still be a big pain in the butt.

So, I went down to my local Arctic Cat dealer and spent some time looking at the manual and the fiche with the parts guy. Here’s what I came up with:

Purchase these parts:

3303-643 – Recoil Starter Assembly – About $65
3303-828 – Plate Ratchet – About $28
3303-643 – Gasket, Crankcase Cover, Left – About $35
3303-101 – Gasket, Starter Cover – About $6
Total Parts Cost: About $135 (plus sales tax)

Here are the parts lists in case you need to look at them:
Arctic Cat 250 Utility
Arctic Cat 250 DVX

Installation is fairly straightforward, and should take you about an hour (90 minutes if you’re the cautious type). There’s just one tricky spot. I’ll go over the whole process here:

1. Remove the black plastic outer crankcase cover on the rear of the crankcase.
2. Remove the intake hose from the front of the crankcase cover.
3. Remove the exhaust hose from the rear of the crankcase cover.
4. Remove the small aluminum cover that goes where the recoil starter would be and clean the old gasket from it.
5. Remove the crankcase cover and clean the old gasket from it.

6. Here’s the tricky bit: Make yourself a holder to keep the pulley compressed using one of the crankcase cover bolts and a few large diameter fender washers. Screw this into the top-left-most hole in the crankcase cover, with the fender washers overlapping the drive pulley. Tighten this down so that the drive pulley cannot spring out when you remove the flange nut from the crankshaft.

7. Using an appropriate holder to keep the drive pulley from rotating, remove the 14mm flange nut that holds the drive pulley onto the crankshaft.
8. Remove the small spacer between the flange nut and the pulley. This spacer does not show up in the parts fiche, so don’t lose it! If you ever go back to not having a recoil starter, good luck buying one! You’d have to use washers instead. I suggest using a zip tie to attach it to the old recoil starter cover, and then store them both in a safe place.
9. Put the plate ratchet in place, making sure that the splines on the plate ratchet engage the grooves on the crankshaft. This is why you need to hold the drive pulley compressed, so that the grooves are visible.

10. Put the 14mm flange nut back on (without the spacer you removed in step 8 ) and, after making sure that the splines of the plate ratchet are still in the grooves on the crankshaft, tighten the flange nut to 72 ft-lbs of torque.
11. Put the crankcase cover back on, with the new gasket, and put a couple of bolts in hand-tight for now.
12. Put the recoil starter in place, with the new gasket, and put all of its bolts in hand-tight.
13. Make sure the recoil starter works. Assuming it does, proceed. If not, take it back apart and figure out what you missed.
14. Put the rest of the crankcase cover bolts back in and tighten all of them to 8 ft-lbs.
15. Tighten the recoil starter bolts to 8 ft-lbs.
16. Re-attach the intake and exhaust hoses to the crankcase cover.
17. Put the black plastic outer crankcase cover back on.

That’s it! You’re ready to ride, and you have a backup recoil starter!

ATV Trip to Conconully (2009)

We went to Conconully for an ATV ride and camping trip. It was a heck of a lot of fun! Angela didn’t ride, but found some things to do on her own (strolling through a cemetary at dusk, for example).

Oh, no! That guy’s got a camera! Lock him up!

Maybe you’ve heard this already, but this dude (Shane Becker) was shopping at REI, took a picture with his phone of two guys refilling an ATM. They didn’t take kindly to it, and the situation escalated. Dude was taken downtown in cuffs, but no charges filed. At no point did either the Loomis guys or the cops ask him to delete the picture from his phone, which seems to imply that this was more about power than about threats to security or property.

Amusingly, this week’s copy of The Stranger features the picture on the front cover, and the story on page 12.

Here’s my little contribution, taken at the Safeway at Frontier Village today. I drove 10 miles to use this ATM because it can accept checks without an envelope or deposit slip, which I dig. Thinking that 4pm on a Saturday was probably a good time to catch this machine without too much of a line, I drove out there. Lo and behold, this geek had it wide open, and when I asked, he told me he’d have it out of order for at least another half hour. So I figured it was worthy of a snapshot.

Of course, learning from the Shane Becker situation, I didn’t stick around to find out if anyone noticed me taking the picture surreptiously and being frightened little rabbits or opportunistic bullies about it.

If visibility of an open ATM is a security risk, then these guys need to start setting up privacy screens with them when they service the machines.

I encourage everyone, if you see an ATM being serviced in plain view of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and anyone else who cares to look, PLEASE take a photo and post it publicly! Long live civil disobedience!

Follow-up: Maybe you saw the news article a while back about the UW professor who was arrested and detained, handcuffed in a police car, for 25 minutes because she took some photos of some power lines, and some wuss at the Bonneville power administration freaked out and called 911? Well, that has come to its conclusion, and I am happy to say that the city has to pay out some cash for its mistake. Even if that money includes some of my taxes, I feel that it is a good investment, to teach our government that this kind of crap is NOT OK. Here’s the link to the followup article.

 Here’s a comment from a friend of mine regarding the situation:

I wish it had been more than $8,000.  Apparently there wasn’t even an
apology or an admission of fault, or if there was it didn’t make it into
the paper or come with a clause that the chief couldn’t crow that they
“made the right decision at the time” and drown things out.

My Hyundai Santa Fe is all paid off!

Finally, my Santa Fe is all paid off. We now own all of our cars! Woohoo!

The Santa Fe has about 115,000 miles on it. The loan was larger than it should have been because I traded in an Accent to get it. I should have let the dealer fix the clutch problem in the Accent under warranty, and then sold it used – but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Anyway, I hope to get at least 200,000 miles out of the Santa Fe, and it’s doing very well, so I think it will last. Now that I don’t use it for towing ATVs around anymore, and the driveline and one axle was replaced under warranty, I think I have a pretty good shot at realizing that goal.

Oregon Dunes ATV/Camping Trip

On May 1st, we headed down to Coos Bay, Oregon, to check out the famous Oregon Dunes Recreation Area. We’d heard such marvelous things about it, but we were somewhat skeptical. Still, even if we only went once, we had to know. So Eugene, Graig, Dad and I loaded up our gear and hit the road.

First, I have to say that it was the most physically punishing and financially draining trip I have yet made in the RV. Part of the issue is that I was pulling a trailer that is very heavy even before you load anything on it. By the time you load four 750-lb ATVs on it, some extra tools, spare tires, and a ramp, it’s extremely heavy. I have no doubt I was exceeding both the recommended tongue weight, and the recommended overall towing weight of the RV. The front end of the RV was lifted somewhat, which made the rig more sensitive to bumps in the road, side winds, and any ants that happened to be crossing the freeway. It also affected the angle of the headlights, which was not so good when it got dark and very rainy. It was challenging to keep the thing going in more or less a straight line, and keeping it on the road in the twisty hilly areas once we left I-5.

Another issue was stopping distance. We had to keep a very respectable stopping distance in front of us, which was difficult because even when we exceeded the speed limit, other cars kept pulling in front of us and then stomping on the brakes when traffic slowed suddenly. The horn got a lot of usage on this trip. If Dad hadn’t shared in the driving, there might have been a serious accident, or it might have taken us half again as long due to rest stops.

I learned all about weight ratings on tires on this trip. It turns out that the tires which came on the trailer did not have a very high load rating, and we lost another one. We ended up replacing several tires, to prevent any more blowouts from the remaining questionable ones. Fortunately, on the trip home, the ground was wet the entire way due to rain, which helped with the tire heat/wear.

Once safely home, I resolved to buy a new trailer that weighs much less, and can only hold three ATVs instead of four. If we make a trip with four ATVs in the future, we will have to bring a second vehicle. Gas is cheaper than tires, when you blow tires on the freeway.

OK, enough about the driving.

We visited two sand dune areas. One was accessible directly from the KOA RV Park we stayed at. The dunes were about three times as big as the ones we have seen in Eastern Washington, and pretty fun. Unfortunately for Eugene, he left after this portion of the ride and did not go with us to the other riding area, which had much larger dunes.

On the second riding day, we loaded the ATVs onto the trailer and went to the “Winchester Bay” area. Those dunes were simply amazing! The place called “Banshee Hill” turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. We suspect its fame is due to its proximity to the parking area, not due to any other virtue it has. It was fun, but not as fun as the reviews made out. Further in, we came across dunes so tall and smooth that we were afraid our ATVs would roll down the hill end over end instead of rolling down on their wheels. The ones that had a nice long, smooth face, we could see all of the way down, and that had plenty of stopping space were the most fun. We gunned the engines and sped down the face of those ones. Well, I did anyway. The others were a bit more cautious.

We had a really good time on that second run, and it made the trip worthwhile. However, they are still just sand dunes – and eventually the fun wears out. Also, we have big, heavy utility ATVs with traction tires, not light, sporty utility ATVs with sand tires – so our experience will never be as good as it could be, unless we buy another set of ATVs.

All of that being said, I doubt we will make another Oregon Dunes trip. If we do, it will likely be in conjunction with some other riding in the area, so it’s not all just about the dunes.

Next up: Another trip to Conconully! Check out the previous one!

ATV Riding!

Dad’s wrist seems to have healed up well enough to ride ATVs again. I invited Glenn along as well, and a good time was had by all! There were  no serious injuries either to person or ATV, although both took a bit of a bump toward the end of the ride.

Glenn and Dad on ATVs

Glenn takes it deep!