Welcome Chuck to the program

 I made another purchase for the business, a 2011 LVSR (Logistics Vehicle System Replacement).  The vehicle is a beast!!  It is a 10 wheel drive, surplus Marine Corp heavy tactical vehicle capable of transporting a #45,000 lb payload!  I was able to purchase the vehicle on the GovPlanet auction site back in November.  It was a bit of a process getting the vehicle as I had to fill out a EUC (End Use Certificate) so the government could determine weather or not I was a villain living in a hollowed out volcano!  There were some delays as I posted our home address and a quick search by the powers that be saw it was a neighborhood with a homeowners association.  Apparently the reviewer did not believe I would be able to keep the vehicle at the house.  I explained that the truck would eventually live at the property, and not scare the neighbors.  All was right after that.  

It is amazing what you can buy on the internet!  I saw this pop up in my Instagram feed for GovPlanet and it peaked my interest.  The auction was that night . . . and after a couple of glasses of wine, I was the highest bidder.  That night I had a bit of buyers remorse, and sure enough, the next morning I got a message in my inbox that I was now the proud owner of this beast!  Now to transport it to Alaska . . . and more importantly . . . tell Renee!

The truck will be used for a variety of purposes for Delta Backhaul Company.  When I research remote logistics . . . no one does it better than the US Military.  The LVSR is the Marine Corps. answer to moving heavy things in extreme environments.  This truck is the Swiss Army knife of logistics vehicles.  With the powerful hook in the back able to take a variety of loads.  The truck is capable both on and off road, with top speeds of 65 mph.  Don't ask about gas mileage as this fits the old adage, "If you got to ask how much it costs to fuel this beast, you cant afford it".  Somethings are better just not worried about.  

I already have a flat bed for the truck and have a dump body on order.  The truck will also pick up loaded 20' Conex's and most importantly, a car crushing baler that I plan to purchase in the next few weeks.  This beast will be able to move a variety of loads on and off landing crafts, over soft surfaces and travel the paved roads to interior community projects.  I think that this truck will become just as important to the program as our beloved Red Dragon!

The truck had to be trucked from Yermo California to Seattle, where it was loaded on a barge and transported to Whittier.  From there it was loaded on a train, driven through the Whittier tunnel (2.5 miles) and delivered to the port of Anchorage.  

There was a delay in the rail lines to Anchorage as we had A LOT of snow earlier in the week (10+ inches) followed by extreme cold (-4)!!  I was running errands down by the port in Anchorage on Wednesday and asked if the truck was in.  It had just gotten in and was in the process of being unloaded.  They said to come back tomorrow to take delivery.

I enlisted the help of my friend Rocky (who can do it all!) and we drove down to the port around 10:30am.  I initially wanted to get the truck out of the port and drive it to my house for a few days.  It was a balmy -4 when Rocky and I got to the truck.  I cleared off some snow and he tried to fire up the beast!  Unfortuanly, the beast did not want to be awoken and sat cold in protest.

Rocky tested the batteries and found them to be dead.  We pulled the batteries to take to the battery shop to slow charge and hopefully bring back to life.  Because it was so cold, and predicted to be even colder, I had Rocky test the anti-freeze.  The meter read back that the coolant was only good to +25 degrees!!  This was not good and I started to panic!

The batteries I was not worried about, but the coolant I was.  I started calling everyone I thought might have a garage big enough to get the beast into.  It had to be close, because I hadn't gone through the vehicle and the Government is famous for picking parts and not fixing things on surplus vehicles.  I finally got ahold of Patrick, a person I had met a few times and talked with about the Humvee.  Patrice has a love of military vehicles, a big shop AND a mechanic that knows how to work on this type of equipment.  We were in the right place at the right time.  Within an hour, Patric and Nick the mechanic were on the scene ready to help.   

Fortunately I have very good friends.  Long story short, we (I) purchased new batteries.  We got the beast started.  Nick was able to limp (more to come on that) the truck over to their shop . . . and we developed a plan to fix some of the bugs in the machine.  It was a very successful day.  The truck ran . . . and while there were a ton of warning lights on the dash, the brakes were caged, the hydraulics, lights, didn't work and the truck would only drive in "limp" mode, it was way better than it could have been.  That night Patrick was able to pull the truck into his shop and let the snow melt off of it.  This was a really good thing as the temperatures over the next three days was predicted to be around -18!!  

The next day I visited the truck in the shop and it looked WAY better!  There is a punch list of things wrong with the truck for sure.  Some I think were attributed to the extreme cold weather and others were related to a hydraulic leak.  The truck is in good hands at the shop and we have a plan to get the truck up and running and back home soon!  More to come and many more adventures ahead.

Oh, and the name . . . Chuck.  I have named this beast after the great Chuck Norris.  Chuck Norris embodies everything tough, manly and right with the world.  This truck is one of the biggest I have seen and seems to fit the Chuck namesake perfectly.  

The truck doesn't't have to move . . . It just stays in place and rotates the world to its desired destination.  Welcome to the program Chuck!

Flying to the Chignik's

 Going to be a long day.  Still sleepy and need coffee!.  Headed to the Chignik's for a short assessment in each village.  Darin is going with and I wish that the boys were too!  School started for Sam last week and Zach starts Wednesday in AZ.  Should be a good year for them both.  The backhaul season still has a bit of steam left, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  Been a crazy season, but we have done some good work and helped villages with a variety of solid waste projects.  Todays project will help finalize our plan to backhaul a bunch of material out of the Chignik's.

Mr. Alyeska!

 I have been friends with Chris for a few years.  He is a super interesting person and has a lot of history in Alaska.  Chris has a book out now chronicling his life.  His lovely with Brigetta wrote the book and it turned out great.  The book has been out for about six months now and I have been trying to meet up with him to buy the book and have Chris sign it!  I saw a post on Friday that Chris was going to be at Barns and Nobel on Saturday starting at 1 am, so I made a point to go and see him there.  

Chris was there with two of his sons and was happy to see me.  I said hey and he asked if if I was there to buy his book.  I said yes, of course.  He went to grab a soft back, and then asked if I wanted the hard back. I said yes, I wanted the hard back and he said Wunderbar!!  I re-introduced myself to CJ and told him about the time we hung out on my buddy Peters boat in PWS a few years ago. He sort of remembered that trip and then asked if I had been to his Dad's place in Kussen, which I had.  Chris then told the story of hanging out drinking Pear Schnapps in his basement in Kussen and then an Oktoberfest story, where we tried to pay for an Uber for him and Birgetta and then ended up taking it ourselves and getting lost in the process.  We had a good laugh and then I asked for this photo.  It turned out great!!  I am glad that I took the time to head down for the book and autograph.  

Huff and Puff and 75mph winds in town!?!

 Another January and another round of warm winter wind.  The wind threatened to knock down our storage tents at the property for the truck and boat, but also made the roads around town an icy mess!!  

The Red Dragon ended up sliding towards the street in the driveway.  I tried to move it back by reversing the truck, but no luck.  I ended up putting the stinger down on the driveway to kind of lock it in place!  The next day Sam helped me to chop the ice and I was able to get enough traction to move it back closer to the house and not have it block the driveway.  

The tents faired ok with the winds.  Sam and I went over to the property late and tightened all of poles and strapped the structure down for a big blow.  We ended up rolling up both ends to let the wind blow through.  The boat tent, with no ends, seemed to be fairing better than the tent Red Dragon tent with the ends installed.  The wind was really ripping, and it was no fun standing on top of the ladder trying to push the zipper up!  Sam and I managed and he was a big help.  I tried standing on a few of the 55-gallon drums at one point and fell off and hit the ground hard.  No biggie, but it was a shock to the ol' body.  

The wind was forecast to last only until 10am the next day, but lasted quite a bit longer.  That was the joke at the house as the hours ticked away.  The wind finally stopped blowing around 3pm. I had Zach stop by after school and check the tents again.  They seemed to do ok, and the wind was not bad there, so I had him pull the zippers down.  He was not really happy about climbing the ladder (no one likes climbing high on the ladder), but he was successful in the end.

The very next day we go about 4 inches of snow, making the roads even slicker!!  I snow blew the driveway again and even used WALL-MT to help clear the berm by the road.  All in all, just another fun winter of wild weather.

Clearing snow with the mini tractor

The Red Dragon does not like the snow!!

I absolutely love the sunsets this time of year!!

See Him Coming From A Mile Away

 Sam is able to walk 4 short blocks to Goldenview Middle School from our house.  It IS Alaska, so it is cold and dark when he is walking.  Sam was wearing a dark colored coat and I didn't like that cars would have a hard time seeing him when he was crossing the street.  I had him start wearing his hi-vis coat from the summer projects and low and behold, he liked the idea!  Sam got a few stares his first day wearing the coat, and I think that his teacher asked if he was in construction, but two weeks later he is still wearing it and I am able to see him walking from two blocks away! 

Moving Conex's in the winter . . . A tale of caution

 Knew I was in trouble when I saw snow in the forecast.  A few months back I agreed to help a buddy out and store a couple of Conex containers at our property on O'Malley.  Just a couple of weeks he said.  Well . . I don't mind helping out, but this was early October and this is now mid-January.  Not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but . . . Anyway, Nate said that whatever he had set-up before was not going to work out and that he was going to sell the Conex's.  No biggie.  I figured I would be there to help.  He initially asked if I wanted to move them, but I declined.  I don't like driving the Red Dragon in the snow.  Anywho, fast forward to this morning.  I was to meet the guy buying the Conex's and the tow truck driver at 8:00am.  Ok, I can get up early.  Of course it is snowing gangbusters and it has snowed on and off since Saturday.  Zach and I actually shoveled on Friday and knocked down the snow a bit.  Anyway, the guy buying the Conex's shows up a little after 8.  I had started shoveling the driveway a bit by hand and got a spot cleared in front of both Conex's by the time he arrived.  He asked if he could help, I said no and I continued shoveling.  It was coming down pretty good at this point and I was making minimal progress, so I decided to bust out WALL-MT.  He does a great job of clearing a lot of snow quickly.  So I am Zooming around for about 10 minutes and the tow truck shows up.  I see the lights and the end of the driveway and think myself "he is not going to try to back in . . . is he", sure enough, he backs in and . . . gets stuck.  At first I didn't think it was going to be too bad, he was just off the driveway a bit.  But the more he tried to un-stick, the more he got stuck.  So this went on for 10 minutes and the guy buying the Conex's says "I thought I would be half way to Hope by now.  I didn't realize he was taking these containers to Hope to use at his cabin. Now I am thinking I dodged that bullet and was super glad I didn't agree to move these things!!  The tow truck driver is getting frustrated and says something about "would have been nice if the drive had been shoveled".  He wasn't being too big a dick, and I think he was just frustrated that he got stuck in the first place.  We tried to pull his truck with WALL-MT at first, but that tractor is too light.  I told him that I had a tow truck too and we may be able to use that to pull his truck out.  He said yes, get your truck, so I did.  He was pretty impressed when I pulled back the cover on the storage tent.  I am not sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't that.  He immediately said that his boss was looking for another truck and that he was sure that he would want to buy this one.  I politely told him that it was not for sale.  He laughed.  We got the truck out and warmed up (which is kind of a pain to be honest) and I positioned it to pull his truck out.  Well, with the two wheel drive, it just kind of spun.  So, we hooked his winch to my bumper and I put the truck in park.  His truck then tried to winch off of mine, and it literally pulled my truck closer to his truck.  So, we decided to back my truck up . . . anchor it to a tree . . .  and then use my truck as an anchor to pull out his truck.  In the end, this set-up worked.  He was able to get unstuck and get back on the driveway.  At this point it had been an hour and a half.  So we manouever the trucks around the driveway and he backs up to the first Conex.  Now, I must preface this by saying I didn't really think the truck had a chance of moving the Conex.  Rocky and I moved the Conex back in October, but that was when everything was warm . . . and not frozen!  We even had a few freeze thaw cycles that melted snow and then turned to ice under the Conex.  So when the tow truck driver went to pull with his winch . . . nothing happened.  This went on for several minutes in the gently falling snow.  All this trouble and time wasted and nothing to show. We all agreed that these Conex's were going nowhere until spring, so we wrapped it up and they left.  

So after they leave, I clear the drive way for about an hour and beat back the snow once again.  At this point the snow is coming down pretty good and I am ready to be home.  The Red Dragon is out and warm and it is kind of a pain to back into the tent on my own.  I decide to load up the second WALL-MT and take home to thaw. I had never had BOTH of them on the truck before, so I was kind of curious on how that was going to work.  Plus the second WALL-MT's key was frozen and wouldn't turn on, so I wasn't sure how I was going to get it off once it was at the house?!  We'll long story short, I was able to get the second machine on the truck.  I got everything tied down, put the F-150 in the big tent and locked everything up.  Then I slowly drove home in the blizzard like conditions.  I made it home and only partially took out a snowbird by the bridge.  I parked in the street and then with Renee's help, backed in the driveway.  I was able to get the ramp on the Red Dragon down, got machine #1 off and had to take a heat gun to the key on machine #2.  It only took a couple of minutes and then that machine too was running and off of the trailer.  

Both machines are now thawing out in the garage and will be greased once they are fully dry.  Today was a bit of a wasted day, but at the same time a productive one.  I really needed to bring both machines home to dry out.  I probably could have picked a less snowy day, but hey, turn lemons into lemonade right!?  After the fact I thought it was funny that in my haste to get home and get the scary drive out of the way, I ended up leaving my wallet, grey phone and the $12K that the guy gave me to give to Nate for the 2 Conex's.  So in the end, I had to go back over to the property with Zach and get that stuff before we could officially call it a day.  It is always something!!  

Braces are a thing of the past!?!

 Straightening teeth sure has gotten a lot easier and more high tech since I had braces . . . 35+ years ago!!  Sam just got his new Invisalign system today.  It is pretty cool.  Just a series of trays, or what I would call retainers to help straighten his teeth.  The process will take around two years, roughly the same timeline as braces, but you don't have to worry about wires and brackets and weekly checkups!  Sam will have to wear his Invisalign about 22 hours a day.  Only taking out for eating (and maybe playing clarinet).  There are little tabs on his teeth that assist the retainer in moving everything around.  His appointments are spread out further and no longer need to go in weekly, or even monthly.  There is an app for the phone and a device to take photos of the progress (see photo) that gets sent into the orthodontist to check the progress.  It takes a bit more work from the wearer (Sam), but in the end I think it will be worth it.  I think Sam can do it.  Although, he didn't start out so good with forgetting to download the app on his phone prior to the appointment.  Kind of annoying and there were some embarrassing moments while he is sitting in the chair at the orthodontist trying to download the app.  Of course it didn't go smoothly, but . . . in the end it all worked out.  Hopefully the rest of the experience will go smoother than that rough beginning.  Will keep you up to date on Sam's new and improving smile!!

* side note, I didn't know that when I made the appointment that this Monday was MLK day.  I thought that I could make an early appointment and get him to school without missing too much class time.  Of course this was a holiday and the early appointment time meant we couldn't sleep in!  In fact we had to come home a day early from Girdwood due to the appointment.  So much for our three day weekend!