Early spring!

I can hardly believe that it has been a little over two years since I bought this plane!! This pic is on the first day I saw this plane, had a ride in it and then we met with Carl Green the following day..... I was hooked.



Here's a photo taken by a friend as he was flying next to us. It was at a fly-in by Wild Rose the summer before last. I hope to get back there this year. It's a cool event with some skills tests, like bombing a fake ship with a volley ball, dropping bean bags in the letterdrop event, and spot landing competition... stuff like that.



Here is the left side of the plane's engine. See all the blue hoses? See the duct tape on the oil cooler at the front of the engine? This is the cooling system layout, an oil reservoir, hoses, etc. The trouble with this set-up is that in cold weather the engine runs too cold, hence the tape on the cooler. Until mid summer, it's a constant re-adjustment of tape.



So, I got this cool little rig that will allow the oil flow to bypass the cooler until the oil is at 180°, then keep the oil at that temp via a thermostat in the bypass mechanism. No more tape, faster warm-up in the winter, no more dropping temps during a descent in cooler weather. Now I just need to get it installed.



Recycle time.... John and I were out with the camera one day and we saw these people laying on the ground at the Ottertail.... Peggy, Yram, Mag, Bryn and Lucy. What the heck, we said???? Turns out they were spelling out "Hi" with their bodies. I guess this qualifies as groupies?



I thought this pic was especially nice... it's a bridge somewhere in Alaska and it casts a cool shadow. Almost as nice as the shadow next to my plane in that pic a couple of posts back....



Just realized that this Show is over in less than a year!! I wonder which puppet show will follow? Which troupe will be pulling the strings in the background? You can be sure that it will not be what it appears on the surface.



Hey, it's that time of year again, maple syrup season! Here is a view of my cooker a number of years ago. I really need to do a cooking session one of these years. It's one of those rare activities that get you out into the world in March and early April when it's not really spring enough, still cold at night, cool during the day, muddy as heck some times, but you go out and spend lots of hours day and night for the "cooking".



Here are Kate and Lucy and Bryn keeping watch at the cookhouse. That was the first year I cooked under a roof at the Ottertail. We built that lean-to structure the fall before and had it ready to go. It worked out well and many a starry evening was spent out there, with the only sounds being the crackling fire and the occasional owl hoot.... perfect.