Danika dancing to Spanish music while Karli ran errands. Karli makes fun of me but I worked landscaping for 4 years and listened to this music the majority of the time. I was usually the minority and therefore only listed to English 25% of the time. For about the first 2 years it drove me crazy and occasionally we would have radio station battles. Whenever somebody left listening range of the radio it seemed to change from English to Spanish and visa-versa. After a couple years of being annoyed it started to become not such a big deal. And by the time I quit landscaping I occasionally enjoyed listening to the Spanish radio. Now that I no longer work landscaping I sometimes miss it and if I run across a station on the radio I usually listen for a few minutes.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
No Work
Due to my arm and a recent slow down at work I have been home a lot recently. We went out as a family today to run errands.
Progress on the XR600
Dec 11, 2012
Tonight I found the motivation to bear the cold and dark(I hate working with false light and shadows) and work on the XR600. When I bought the bike I had never heard it running. I noticed it was low on oil. So I filled the oil and it almost started but it still never ran. The next day I noticed a large puddle of oil under the bike and the culprit was the seal for the kick starter. Tonight I changed the oil and installed a new seal. I put the tank on and sprayed some starter fluid on the air filter. After several kicks it fired up. It didn't run for long. I still need to clean the carb because the floats are stuck. I did manage to crack the throttle about 1/3 open and the motor sounds like its in great condition. Previous owner said it has a recently installed top end with low hours since that. And from what I heard tonight I can believe that.
Tonight I found the motivation to bear the cold and dark(I hate working with false light and shadows) and work on the XR600. When I bought the bike I had never heard it running. I noticed it was low on oil. So I filled the oil and it almost started but it still never ran. The next day I noticed a large puddle of oil under the bike and the culprit was the seal for the kick starter. Tonight I changed the oil and installed a new seal. I put the tank on and sprayed some starter fluid on the air filter. After several kicks it fired up. It didn't run for long. I still need to clean the carb because the floats are stuck. I did manage to crack the throttle about 1/3 open and the motor sounds like its in great condition. Previous owner said it has a recently installed top end with low hours since that. And from what I heard tonight I can believe that.
Probably the best picture I have of the bike
draining oil
oil drain hole
oil drain hole in frame
oil filter removed
wiped clean
spring installed
hold in kill switch
AND kick over a few times to get all old oil out
new filter
I love Tusk products from Rocky Mountain ATV/MC
Honda oil
kick starter removed
removing seal
old seal
no seal
new seal with grease
new seal installed
Temple Square
Dec 10, 2012
Tonight for FHE we went to temple square and city creek center and walked around in the freezing temperatures
Tonight for FHE we went to temple square and city creek center and walked around in the freezing temperatures
tendonitis in the shoulder
Dec 9, 2012
Apparently while in moab i injured my left shoulder. While typing my blog last sunday my shoulder started hurting. So for the past week i have been on advil and tylenol and my left arm in a sling. Since it is difficult to type with 1 hand i will retype this post at a later date.
Apparently while in moab i injured my left shoulder. While typing my blog last sunday my shoulder started hurting. So for the past week i have been on advil and tylenol and my left arm in a sling. Since it is difficult to type with 1 hand i will retype this post at a later date.
UPDATE: It was later determined that my shoulder was actually out of socket. This was after a week of sleepless nights and days of excruciating pain due to a pinched nerve. My shoulder has still not fully healed(as of March 2015) and will most likely always give me some issues.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Moab
Dec 2, 2012
Heading Out
So Monday Nov 26 I headed down to Moab for work. I had been told about the possibility of working on the Wed previous. Plans were not confirmed til mid day Monday so I threw my things in the truck and headed out. We headed down as a family. We managed to squeeze all my work tools and supplies along with our personals and the bikes into my Tacoma bed. It all fit but it took some thinking to make it all work.
Price
We stopped in Price for work. It was an easy job and just involved installing caps on some valves and drains; and also installing outlet covers. We needed a few more outlet covers so we stopped at a local hardware store called Do-It Center. If you are ever in price and need something home and garden this is the place. They had great prices(comparable to my local Home Depot) and home town service. We ran back by that house and completed the finishing touches and headed to our motel in Moab.
Moab
We arrived at our motel around 8 PM. I uploaded my work photos and we headed to the hot tub before going to bed. BTW it's hard getting used to living in 1 room when you have a baby... She did not like going to sleep when we were up and doing things or had lights on. So usually at night we turned off all the lights and tv or computer for about 30 min so we could put our daughter to bed.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I woke up and unloaded the bikes so I could use my bed for work. I headed out to my first house in Moab to meet with Andy. I have never met Andy and he was a great guy to work with. We cleaned out 1191 and took 4 truck loads to Bob's Sanitation. We completed the big task of debris removal and an over allowable grass cut at 1191. Then as it was getting dusk I headed to 261 to install a new numbered lock box to replace the lettered lock box. I headed home and uploaded photos along with spend some time with my family.
Wednesday
Our daughter struggled sleeping most nights and was also sick most of this trip with a horrible cough. Wednesday night I woke up to help my wife out and allow her to get a little sleep. After getting both my daughter and wife back to sleep I was wide awake. I tried to go to sleep but to no avail. So i got back to my paperwork and worked from 3:30 - 4:30 AM. I tried to go back to sleep but I was still too alert. I got ready for the day and headed to Continental breakfast at 6 AM right as they opened. Tuesday Andy and I had made arrangements for me to pick him up at 8:30 AM and head out to our Blanding house in order to hopefully complete it in one day. After completing a full day out at 275 Blanding we headed back to Moab. I got back to the motel and uploaded my photos that day and spent some time with my family.
Thursday
Wednesday Andy and I had made plans to start our 261 trash-out first thing Thursday. I wanted to try to complete as many of the items on work orders as I could while I was in that part of the state so Andy could complete the easy items after I had left. Well my boss had a different outlook. He wanted to completely finish every work order and then move on to the next. So the plans for Thursday drastically changed. I received a text at 6:30 AM informing me that we would have a 3-way call at 7 AM to discuss the plans for that day. So I headed to grab breakfast before the 7 AM call. We had a 3-way call from 7:00 - 8:00 AM. Plans after the call were that I would be heading back to Blanding to do some repairs to the 275 house. So I headed to the Moab True Value which was pretty decent sized and had an attached lumber yard. I grabbed the needed supplies and materials and headed back to the motel room to pick up my wife and daughter who had been getting ready while I was at True Value. I headed to Blanding and let my family tag along for the drive. We stopped briefly at a beautiful overlook on the way. Once arriving to Blanding they mostly waited in the truck for me to finish work. Blanding ended up taking about another 3/4 of a day. We headed back to Moab and spent a little time at 1191 doing some finishing touches after Andy worked there all day.
Friday Work
The original plans for the Moab work trip were to work Mon-Wed and then I would use Thursday as a play day. But with the additional work I decided to play Friday, plus I had to be left Friday regardless to be in Manti. I woke up Friday and checked my work email. I had another house in Moab; a winterization. I knew all along our last day was going to be interesting because checkout was at 11 AM. I headed to 737 for a winterization. In the craziness I forgot my winterization paperwork and stickers. So I wintereized what I could and headed back to the motel for my paperwork. I decided to take my daughter to work with me to allow my wife to pack without that distraction. I don't normally take my family with me to work because houses can really range in cleanliness. Because 737 was a house I felt comfortable taking my family to I took my daughter. I also knew I wouldn't be there too long before I finished. I also asked Natalee if there was any additional paperwork that I needed to fill out while in Moab. She said that we needed CC photos for 1191. This worked out pretty well. I needed a place to park my work supplies for the dirt bike ride we were hoping on going on that day. So I headed over to 1191 with my daughter and took the CC photos and unloaded my work supplies into the house(the only place I had access to in town to store the excess items I had in my bed).
Friday Slickrock Bike Trail
I headed back to the motel and loaded up the bikes in my now empty bed. We loaded our personals in the bed between the bikes and checked out of the motel. We headed to the slickrock bike trial for a family ride. We unloaded the bikes and I put my daughter in my carrier on my chest while my wife carried the backpack with our supplies. We headed out on the trial that was less than 3 miles long (just the practice loop). It was a great ride for our family. My wife who is very new on a dirt bike came across some challenging sections and I had some areas that were somewhat challenging with my handicap of having my daughter on my chest. Overall it was an enjoyable ride with a few sections I rode my wife's bike up the obstacles. And 1 section that I took off my daughter in order to safely make it up. We were on the trail for about 2 hrs. We wish we had more time to hit up other trails(possibly fins and things). But due to the amount of time I had to work that week we were unable to. My wife said she was glad because she was physically soar and exhausted. We had plans to meet my family in Manti at 5 PM and we still had some other things we wanted to see that day. We drove to 1191 and loaded up my work supplies along with my bikes and our luggage. And we were ready to say goodbye to Moab.
Friday Drive to Manti
We fueled up the truck and headed towards Manti. Earlier this year I rode dirt bikes with my old boss on a trail called the Devils Racetrack. It heads south and loops under the I-70 bridges and goes past a cabin and some pictographs. I have told my wife about these and wanted to take her to them. We were tempted to go to them when we went on our Little Wildhorse Canyon hike. But we were in our Echo and worried about the dirt roads connecting the 2 places. Since we had the Tacoma on this trip(which is pretty rare for us) we decided to make the time to go to these sites. It was a longer detour than expected. The dirt road was definitely accessible by a car. We still don't know if the road between Little Wildhorse Canyon and the Swasey cabin are accessible by car but we assume in good weather it could be done. We stopped at the cabin and 2 pictograph sites. We didn't go up to the arch but we could see it from the interstate and also the dirt roads we were on. It was a pretty quick stop and it was getting windy and cold. We headed to Manti and arrived at 6:30 PM, so later than what we had planned for.
Friday Manti
We pulled into Manti and called my parents for directions on the house they were staying at. They said they were eating at Miller's. We stopped by and had a chicken wrap which were very very good. After dinner we headed to the house they had reserved. It was a very nice pioneer house that had been fixed up. It had tons of beds and slept probably 2x the size of our family.
Saturday
Saturday my brother went to the temple for his first time in preparation for his mission. For lunch we went to Millers again and I had a bacon burger(#2 I think). This was just an okay burger and not as amazing as the wrap I had the night before. We left Manti and headed back home. We drove through Nephi and were homeward bound. There was one accident right before we got home. It looked like just the one car and it's rear end was up on the barricade and caused the Left lane to be closed. We got home and I immediately started work again. Because we had to be checked out of the motel at 11 AM Friday I didn't have time to upload my work photos at that time. So now that I was back to internet I sent off photos from my Friday morning work. My wife unloaded the items we needed and we relaxed on the couch and watched an episode of Bones and Covert Affairs on Hulu.
What a CRAZY week! It was fun, crazy, and ever-changing but we made it work and enjoyed being able live in Moab for a week.
Heading Out
So Monday Nov 26 I headed down to Moab for work. I had been told about the possibility of working on the Wed previous. Plans were not confirmed til mid day Monday so I threw my things in the truck and headed out. We headed down as a family. We managed to squeeze all my work tools and supplies along with our personals and the bikes into my Tacoma bed. It all fit but it took some thinking to make it all work.
Loaded and ready to head out.
Price
We stopped in Price for work. It was an easy job and just involved installing caps on some valves and drains; and also installing outlet covers. We needed a few more outlet covers so we stopped at a local hardware store called Do-It Center. If you are ever in price and need something home and garden this is the place. They had great prices(comparable to my local Home Depot) and home town service. We ran back by that house and completed the finishing touches and headed to our motel in Moab.
447 Price
Moab
We arrived at our motel around 8 PM. I uploaded my work photos and we headed to the hot tub before going to bed. BTW it's hard getting used to living in 1 room when you have a baby... She did not like going to sleep when we were up and doing things or had lights on. So usually at night we turned off all the lights and tv or computer for about 30 min so we could put our daughter to bed.
Outdoor pool with cover on it.
Tuesday morning I woke up and unloaded the bikes so I could use my bed for work. I headed out to my first house in Moab to meet with Andy. I have never met Andy and he was a great guy to work with. We cleaned out 1191 and took 4 truck loads to Bob's Sanitation. We completed the big task of debris removal and an over allowable grass cut at 1191. Then as it was getting dusk I headed to 261 to install a new numbered lock box to replace the lettered lock box. I headed home and uploaded photos along with spend some time with my family.
1191 Before Grass Cut
1191 After Grass Cut
261
Our daughter struggled sleeping most nights and was also sick most of this trip with a horrible cough. Wednesday night I woke up to help my wife out and allow her to get a little sleep. After getting both my daughter and wife back to sleep I was wide awake. I tried to go to sleep but to no avail. So i got back to my paperwork and worked from 3:30 - 4:30 AM. I tried to go back to sleep but I was still too alert. I got ready for the day and headed to Continental breakfast at 6 AM right as they opened. Tuesday Andy and I had made arrangements for me to pick him up at 8:30 AM and head out to our Blanding house in order to hopefully complete it in one day. After completing a full day out at 275 Blanding we headed back to Moab. I got back to the motel and uploaded my photos that day and spent some time with my family.
275 Blanding prior to Grass Cut
after Grass Cut
On this day my mom came to visit while I was away at work.
Thursday
Wednesday Andy and I had made plans to start our 261 trash-out first thing Thursday. I wanted to try to complete as many of the items on work orders as I could while I was in that part of the state so Andy could complete the easy items after I had left. Well my boss had a different outlook. He wanted to completely finish every work order and then move on to the next. So the plans for Thursday drastically changed. I received a text at 6:30 AM informing me that we would have a 3-way call at 7 AM to discuss the plans for that day. So I headed to grab breakfast before the 7 AM call. We had a 3-way call from 7:00 - 8:00 AM. Plans after the call were that I would be heading back to Blanding to do some repairs to the 275 house. So I headed to the Moab True Value which was pretty decent sized and had an attached lumber yard. I grabbed the needed supplies and materials and headed back to the motel room to pick up my wife and daughter who had been getting ready while I was at True Value. I headed to Blanding and let my family tag along for the drive. We stopped briefly at a beautiful overlook on the way. Once arriving to Blanding they mostly waited in the truck for me to finish work. Blanding ended up taking about another 3/4 of a day. We headed back to Moab and spent a little time at 1191 doing some finishing touches after Andy worked there all day.
Friday Work
The original plans for the Moab work trip were to work Mon-Wed and then I would use Thursday as a play day. But with the additional work I decided to play Friday, plus I had to be left Friday regardless to be in Manti. I woke up Friday and checked my work email. I had another house in Moab; a winterization. I knew all along our last day was going to be interesting because checkout was at 11 AM. I headed to 737 for a winterization. In the craziness I forgot my winterization paperwork and stickers. So I wintereized what I could and headed back to the motel for my paperwork. I decided to take my daughter to work with me to allow my wife to pack without that distraction. I don't normally take my family with me to work because houses can really range in cleanliness. Because 737 was a house I felt comfortable taking my family to I took my daughter. I also knew I wouldn't be there too long before I finished. I also asked Natalee if there was any additional paperwork that I needed to fill out while in Moab. She said that we needed CC photos for 1191. This worked out pretty well. I needed a place to park my work supplies for the dirt bike ride we were hoping on going on that day. So I headed over to 1191 with my daughter and took the CC photos and unloaded my work supplies into the house(the only place I had access to in town to store the excess items I had in my bed).
Moon in the early morning.
737 Winterization
I headed back to the motel and loaded up the bikes in my now empty bed. We loaded our personals in the bed between the bikes and checked out of the motel. We headed to the slickrock bike trial for a family ride. We unloaded the bikes and I put my daughter in my carrier on my chest while my wife carried the backpack with our supplies. We headed out on the trial that was less than 3 miles long (just the practice loop). It was a great ride for our family. My wife who is very new on a dirt bike came across some challenging sections and I had some areas that were somewhat challenging with my handicap of having my daughter on my chest. Overall it was an enjoyable ride with a few sections I rode my wife's bike up the obstacles. And 1 section that I took off my daughter in order to safely make it up. We were on the trail for about 2 hrs. We wish we had more time to hit up other trails(possibly fins and things). But due to the amount of time I had to work that week we were unable to. My wife said she was glad because she was physically soar and exhausted. We had plans to meet my family in Manti at 5 PM and we still had some other things we wanted to see that day. We drove to 1191 and loaded up my work supplies along with my bikes and our luggage. And we were ready to say goodbye to Moab.
We fueled up the truck and headed towards Manti. Earlier this year I rode dirt bikes with my old boss on a trail called the Devils Racetrack. It heads south and loops under the I-70 bridges and goes past a cabin and some pictographs. I have told my wife about these and wanted to take her to them. We were tempted to go to them when we went on our Little Wildhorse Canyon hike. But we were in our Echo and worried about the dirt roads connecting the 2 places. Since we had the Tacoma on this trip(which is pretty rare for us) we decided to make the time to go to these sites. It was a longer detour than expected. The dirt road was definitely accessible by a car. We still don't know if the road between Little Wildhorse Canyon and the Swasey cabin are accessible by car but we assume in good weather it could be done. We stopped at the cabin and 2 pictograph sites. We didn't go up to the arch but we could see it from the interstate and also the dirt roads we were on. It was a pretty quick stop and it was getting windy and cold. We headed to Manti and arrived at 6:30 PM, so later than what we had planned for.
Friday Manti
We pulled into Manti and called my parents for directions on the house they were staying at. They said they were eating at Miller's. We stopped by and had a chicken wrap which were very very good. After dinner we headed to the house they had reserved. It was a very nice pioneer house that had been fixed up. It had tons of beds and slept probably 2x the size of our family.
Saturday
Saturday my brother went to the temple for his first time in preparation for his mission. For lunch we went to Millers again and I had a bacon burger(#2 I think). This was just an okay burger and not as amazing as the wrap I had the night before. We left Manti and headed back home. We drove through Nephi and were homeward bound. There was one accident right before we got home. It looked like just the one car and it's rear end was up on the barricade and caused the Left lane to be closed. We got home and I immediately started work again. Because we had to be checked out of the motel at 11 AM Friday I didn't have time to upload my work photos at that time. So now that I was back to internet I sent off photos from my Friday morning work. My wife unloaded the items we needed and we relaxed on the couch and watched an episode of Bones and Covert Affairs on Hulu.
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