A busy week

This has been an active week compared to the previous six months of winter. With the daytime temperatures up as high as the mid-60’s, with sunshine and light breezes, the snow disappeared quickly. The bare ground around my unfinished storage building revealed all the stuff I didn’t get under cover last fall. I’ll be sorting through the stuff and probably tossing about half – stuff I wasn’t using anyway.

After picking up our small motorhome last week, I started going through it and checking various appliances to make sure everything was working. So far, everything is working except the furnace. The blower comes on, but the propane burner won’t ignite. When I take the unit over to Cache Camper to get dewinterized, I’ll have them look at it. The furnace has always been a little “finicky.”

Since the motorhome hasn’t been used for a year-and-a-half, it needed service. I got it over for an oil and filter change, “twenty-three-point service,” and had the onboard generator serviced as well. I also changed out all the dishes and pots and pans we had on board. I substituted our metal camping dishes and cooking pots for what is now the nicest set of dishes and pots and pans we own. The good stuff will be moving into the house shortly.

I received the replacement mirrors for the six-wheeler and checked things out to make sure they would work. I went over to the local hardware store and bought the nuts, bolts, and washers necessary to mount the brackets. After struggling with the driver’s side mirror for almost an hour, I gave up and went back to the hardware store and bought four bolts that were a quarter inch longer than the first set. After getting them home, the first mirror was mounted in about two minutes. When you don’t have four hands, having the correct length bolt really helps!

The passenger side mirror mounted easily enough, but I had to make a modification to the window mount so the mirror would have enough movement to be pointed where I could see along the side of the unit. Next, I need to find a type of floor mat I’m looking for to line the rear box to prevent items slipping around and for water to drain, if needed. After I make these physical changes, I need to schedule an oil change and tune-up at the Polaris dealership.

I still haven’t ordered the new antenna for the riverboat, but I don’t expect installing it will be a problem. That’s the other thing I need to do also, schedule a service trip for the engine and drive unit. I might try to do that in the next few days so I will have the boat to use about the time the silvers start returning.

That’s a thumbnail sketch of maintaining the outdoor toys. The fun stuff like shooting and fishing is yet to start happening. I received an email from the chief range safety officer (RSO) a day ago saying the Upper Susitna Shooters Association (USSA) range is expected to open on May 9th. The Chief RSO was reminding his RSO’s to start scheduling when they will be available to work the range. I plan to have the motorhome and UTV up and running so I can work several days in a row without having to commute ninety-five miles a day to get in the work.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission (MSBFWC) will hold their last regular meeting of the season on May 9th. We will be discussing what ADF&G presented at a meeting of the Northern District Set Netters’ Association about how the Central District drift net fleet will be managed this season.

From what I’ve heard, it sounds like the department plans to manage the fleet differently from what the public and the Board of Fisheries members were told at the recently completed Upper Cook Inlet board meeting. I hope I’m wrong here, because if what I heard is true, once again the northern bound salmon stocks could be threatened.

My wife and I negotiated a deal to sell some property we weren’t using, or probably wouldn’t be using in the future. I’m getting serious about selling the mid-size Dodge pickup we have as well. It’s time to start downsizing possessions to make life a little easier.

On that note, I was also able to sell the short-barreled 44 magnum revolver I‘ve mentioned before here. And to top it off, I might, finally, learn to fly fish!