Of course we could leave Tony and Elmer behind. These two little fellas always love a good adventure hike.

Not sure exactly how long this trail is but we did about a 5 mile round trip. In the past we have done much longer but with lack of people the trail is getting a little over grown and we started seeing bear turds. The constant human traffic on the trail kept the bears and cougars away. We decided it was a long enough hike and headed back. Plus I wasn’t in the mood to fight no cougars. I’m packing the 45 next time 😉

Hope you enjoy the views from the North Fork Walla Walla River _{Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App}

They said the record was 70mph in 100 feet. That is quick!!

A husband and wife were racing each other. Before each time they raced, they blew each other a kiss. How cool!!

Hope you all enjoy a little redneck fun!! _{Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App}

I’m considering doing another Subaru engine swap in the future. I see a lot of them with blown up engines for real cheap. Instead I picked up another car from my brother. A 2006 Mazda 3 with a 40k mile engine for $500. My silly brother had the engine put in then he never drove it. I put some tires, shocks, brake pads and brake rotors on it and it’s been running like a champ. Then she started acting up a bit. I’m beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. I’m pretty sure they are simple fixes so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Just a little update since I have been gone a while. Stay Blessed Hivers!! _{Uploaded using 3Speak Mobile App}

I tore one engine apart and my son tore the other apart. Parts from the old engine need to go on the new and there is a lot of cleanup. I found out one thing… my Son and I are really good at making a mess.

We really wanted to know what happened to the old engine. It was knocking really back and would barely stay running. Welp… after pulling the heads off we found the issue. Chunks missing from the top of the 2 pistons on one side of the engine. CRAZY!! I wonder what caused that??

The new engine is getting a little overhaul before we put it in the car. Headgaskets are the main thing on these Subarus. I went with the Six Star head gaskets because I heard they are the best ones. Timing belt and pulleys, waterpump, spark plugs & wires, valve cover gaskets and intake and exhaust gaskets are getting done too.

With a new clutch and flywheel, this 60k mile engine should last my Son a long time.

Stay tuned to project Subi when we attempt to put all the pieces back together and get this engine in the car. Fingers crossed… that it starts up and runs. :wink:wink

music from Apple iMovie
Monkey Machine
by
Oliver David Bernet
and
Roman Vinuesa

It must have been a rough ride across the US for this newer 60k mile engine. A couple broken sensors, plugs, but a broken valve cover and camshaft cap plate left me without a smile on my face.

The newer engine is going to get a good once over. The new clutch came in along with head gaskets, head bolts, waterpump, and timing kit. The rest of the parts should be in early next week.

Stay tuned to Project Subi as we make an absolute mess tearing these engines apart.

music from Apple iMovie
Darkslide
by
BT

So while I was replacing the insulators my coworker decided to get a little workout in. Plus keep warm. That breeze coming off the Columbia River was a bit nippy!!

After clearing the destroyed pole out of the way, we dug a new hole with the Line Truck. Then I hopped into the bucket to hold the conductors out of the way to make setting the new pole a routine task.

While up in the air I can’t help but have a look around… Harvested wheat fields as far as the eye can see.
Enjoy…

music from iMovie free to use
8 bit elevator by Alvin Risk

As you can see I’m using an extendable hotstick to do this from the ground. Some of these explosions can get pretty violent. I’ve heard of the fuse holder exploding and a chunk of fiberglass got stuck in a guys hand…. Not Fun!!

That first fuse blew so I know it’s got a bad spot in it. And wouldn’t you know it… the other one blew too. Looks like we have a fun evening ahead of us locating a bad spot and repairing it.

The only direction I got regarding the burning pole was that it was north of the highway off of Woodward Canyon Rd… That section of powerline wonders through the hills a long ways!! Couldn’t they be a little more specific?!?

No reports of anyone being out of power, just flickering and blinking lights due to the lightning. Hopefully this so called pole fire was put out with the massive amount of rain that poured down.

Then I found it!! As I came around a sweeping turn there was debris spread across the road. Shards of the power pole 5,6,7 feet long laying across the road. So much for a pole fire!! This frikken pole exploded!! It took a quarter of the pole off all the way to the ground and split the top in half!! WOW!! There were pieces of the pole over 100 feet away. they weren’t small pieces either. They were about 3-4 feet long. CRAZY!!

The next pole down the line had a wooden brace that was blown apart pretty good. Nothing to get too excited about. But the second pole down had the top blown out too!! Down in a hole off the road about 300 feet. This pole will be fun to change out, down a steep hill and the ground is super soft and muddy.

During this storm we actually didn’t do to bad. Just lost a couple poles in the area. Further north a crew was running a line out and found 4 insulators that had been blown apart, 4 spans of wire broke and fell on the ground, and 3 cut-outs (porcelain fuse holders) that were also blown apart. Considering the amount of lightning we had… I expected things to be a lot worse.

I’ve been thinking about draining mine for a a few years but I’ve just never done it. The whole, “I will do it later” thing really gets me sometimes.

With my garage basically gutted to make room for my Son’s Subaru project, I decided to finally do it.

*Turn off Cold water supply
*Set thermostat to “Pilot” (natural gas water heater)
*open a faucet in the house
*open the pressure relief valve
*connect a hose and open valve to drain

It took about 1/2 hour to drain and I didn’t find much sediment. So I closed the hose valve, the faucet, and the pressure relief valve and filled the tank up. Then I drained it again. Doing this stirred up all the sediment on the bottom of the tank. That was frikken nasty!! I did this 2 more times before the water I drained out didn’t have any visual sediment in the jug. Granted there may have been some but I couldn’t see it with my naked eye.

I had the hose in the gutter at the street and I was amazed at how much sediment was piling up around the hose. I was blown away at how much sediment was sitting in the bottom of my hot water heater. NASTY!!!

So yeah, a friendly reminder to drain that bad boy once in a while.

The year before last I chopped my Marion blackberry bush down to nothing. Last year was just a growing season for it and this year… well that’s a different story. This thing is so absolutely loaded down with berries it’s insane!! I probably should have added wires between my posts and made a trellis for them but that didn’t happen. I will make sure to do it for next year that’s for sure.

I’ve had this apricot tree since it was a sapling about 6 inches tall. I found it under a giant apricot tree at a customers house about 8 years ago. Since then it’s lived it’s life in a half wine barrel. Last year it tried to produce some apricots but they just fell off. So early in the spring I planted it in the yard. I guess that made the tree happy enough to produce a good amount of fruit. It probably has close to 50 apricots on it and it’s only 6 feet tall. Those poor little branches can barely hold the weight. LOL.

There isn’t much in the Splatts garden but hopefully next year we will get our butts in gear and grow some more fruits and veggies.

Since they don’t allow cellphones on the rides I couldn’t get a first person point or view video. I wonder if they would have let me if I brought the GoPro?? Well too late for that now. So I got a little videos from outside.

Basically in the middle of the park is a rollercoaster called the RailBlazer. This was the most popular among the Splatts Family. One person per car made this ride feel so much faster than the others. When the ride would take you on turns through the tunnels you couldn’t help but duck your head to the side thinking you were going to hit. There wasn’t a boring part to this ride. Just as you came out of a turn, you were heading for another drop, spiral, or loop.

I’m working on a post about the whole trip to California’s Great America but decided to put together a little video about our favorite ride.

Thanks for watching!!

music: B Big
Alvin Risk & Team Ezy
Apple’s IMovie

People put in a lot of work building wijd blocking structures out of drift wood. They had little benches to sit on and relax and listen to the waves.

We found a cool tunnel in the rocks to hide from the wind and eat a little snack.

The higher than normal winds brought some surfers and kite surfers to the beach. Those kite surfers were really fun to watch but DANG!!! that’s gotta be cold!!!

After a couple hours of wondering around getting sand blasted, we had enough. The wind got really annoying. Despite the wind, this was a pretty cool beach spot that we would surely come to again.

Hope you enjoy the video

music ~ Illuminations by Michael Lockwood
Apple IMovie

I quickly ran and grabbed Mama-Splatts and we sat there and watched as these baby Praying Mantis kept crawling out of the egg nest or whatever you call it. They were fighting each other trying to get out.

I’ve seen thousands of these Praying Mantis eggs sack deleos but I have never encountered this!!

ENJOY!!