asa wrote:

Zzz wrote:Ian, I'm fascinated by the ice harvesting. How long into summer will that supply last?

I too am intrigued. Not something I’m familiar with. What’s the deal? Why? I’m very curious about the whole shindig.

I live in the house my dad grew up in and they shared an ice house with the house next door (still there) . Before my time, but my parents told me it would last at least through the summer in a typical year. Packed tight like in the photos and insulated with sawdust. No power back in the day (our house didn’t have power until the 40’s. It was built around the turn of the century) so they had an ice box to keep stuff fresh. They would use ice from the icehouse to keep the ice box cold.

Did I mention net before? Well it seems that has been my winter theme so far. This is the last two days. Oh and a quick snowshoe with the Mrs and the Cattle dog.

Pete

Normally we do Ice in December or early January when the ice isn't so thick and hard to work with. the secret is to cut the ice as square as possible to limit the air space in between, if there is airspace we pack it with snow. there is about a foot to 18" of sawdust around the edges and a large pile on top. the building is not insulated and open on both ends to allow airflow (as counter intuitive as it sounds) this past spring we emptied out the remaining ice out of one of the camps that was 3 winters old... yes you read that correctly. Having Ice where we are is a must as it is weight we don't need to fly up in the summer. I didn't realize that it was that uncommon as we have always done it, I'll try and do a better job of documenting next time we put up ice.

we use a some ice for food and adult beverages in the summer but the majority of it gets used to cool the minnows in the summer when bringing them out to sell or supply the lodges. we can use live bait in our part of the province and it is big business. in the winter we have large pens that we sink into the ice to keep the minnows until they go to the client.

My MTD snow blower with a 10hp Tecumseh engine. It's 27 years old and starts on the first pull. I love blowing snow.


Snow cat skiers. Section Three Lake near the Tieton air strip


Paulina Peak, Lapine Oregon


The Big Obsidian Flow from Paulina Peak

Go to fishing and Sportsman’s shows to get pumped up for fishing!

Gotta feed the family.

Your SnoBear.....before I got on their site, I guessed that it had holes inside to fish thru, (being from Michigan, I get it) and I was right. I don't care what it cost, it is worth every penny!

After an agonizing 8 week wait after ordering (this appears to be their busy season, go figure) my SEND-E snowbike is due in Monday. https://www.ruffiansnowbikes.com/produc ... e-electric . It will be parked in the hangar next to the ski plane and be ridden on days too windy and/or foggy to fly. The ski plane, (keeping the hangar dug out is all part of it) the ski area above my place for boarding, and now the snowbike will give me something to do no matter the weather, or how "bad" the winter is.

New Years Day went flying and biking a week later with ice on CRP grass. While I don't care about hunting, friends that do said I have about 75 deer hanging out in my CRP

Oh ya! Love that Snowbear! Nice Walleye. What lake?

Give us a good PIREP on that E-Bike, looks cool.

tcj wrote:
Here's some trivia about the elk in Washington State. In Eastern Washington we have Rocky Mountain Elk...

There is a herd of about 100 to 200 elk called the Umtanum herd that ranges outside the elk fence in southern kittitas County. In heavy snow years they will migrate down into the farm lands, feed in hay fields, and raid hay stacks. The game department compensates the owners with permits to kill elk. They can shoot cows only. They can use the permits their selves, sell them, or give them away.
...

There’s an elk herd out on the Hanford reservation. I had never seen them before, but I drove from Richland up to Vernita Bridge this week and saw at least a couple hundred.

We fish all winter on our home lake, fish remotes lakes and ride up to the cabin to fish some more.

Typical Fall/Winter day in Hawaii. I was practicing SFAR 73 with the doors off and gathered these videos…

R44 (MLH rental) — Camera: Sony A3 @ Location: Himalayas (25’) and Waimea Bay (18’)

I hit a new personal best in my skiplane glisadding the other day. I need to think of a new term for it, I have yet to talk to another ski pilot who purposely lands upslope, turns around, and then with the engine at idle lets the slope provide the motivation, whoever can keep it on the snow while glisadding longest without getting airbone, wins. This is the view out of my shop, and most times when I return from wherever, before landing I like to land at the highest point of the open area shown, a bit right of center, to the left of the cell towers. That's 800' vertical to the shop, and for the first time I was able to keep glisadding clear down between and past those two trees at about 1:00, the speed had built to where flying took over from glisadding. Like flying deadstick, this activity may prove useful sometimes if the engine quits for real.

Rudder of course is used to maintain directional control, and using Google Earth I see that glisadde was 2800' in distance The local ski area is just out of view to the left, and right now they are several cars and pickups parked at the end of the road near my driveway. At the end of the day the "out of bounders", those who at the end of the day will leave the area and traverse about 1/2 mile and then descend some 3,000' to their parked cars. This pic shows the fresh powder is totally untracked since last night's 6" of snow, that will change by the late afternoon, anytime I can get FIRST tracks with the plane, before the out of bounders hit it, is a major plus, first come first serve is the rule here. That peak shown is 9271', when I say it's "in my backyard", I'm only exaggerating a little. This is some of the area I will be riding the electric snowbike on, by tomorrow hopefully.

First trip to Yellowstone, between Christmas and New Years in 1974. I had a brand new 1975 Jeep. With an American motors 304 V8 and 427:1 gears in the axles it would cruise at 70 mph towing the snowmobile trailer. We were the only ones in the motel in West Yellowstone and headed into the park early the first morning before the entrance gate was staffed so didn't have to pay. The only other people we saw was a park ranger on a snowmobile and a snow coach with skiers.


The morning after an all night blizzard the park groomer had groomed the road to Madison Junction where we caught up with him. We took the road that goes north towards Canyon Village and started breaking trail. In a couple miles the snow started getting deep enough that I couldn't see where the road was so figured we better turn around.


I bought this 1970 399 Olympique from a Ski Doo dealer in Portland OR in 1974. I was looking for a 399 engine to put in my Elan. He had this new old stock Olympique upstairs in a warehouse and sold it to me for the same price as just a new engine. About $450 if I remember correctly.


Snow Coach. These things had 318 Mopar small block V8 engines in them and went like stink through the park.


On the way To Two Top Mountain


Bison


30 degrees below zero

There's one those old school Ski Doos for sale locally here. Looks like it's been restored to a very nice condition. Kinda neat.

We're in a cold snap here. From this morning:



Makes for a crisp trip to the firewood piles to reload.

Yesterday I went for a short ski on the lake and posed for a photo while hip-deep in wind deposit:

Love winter flying!

Love those old Ski-Doo’s! They were everywhere when I was a kid growing up in the late 60’s early 70’s in Fairbanks.

Kurt

john54724 wrote:Love winter flying!

Very nice John!

Kurt

Water Skipping in Blankenship Meadow 1972, before it was the William O Douglass Wilderness https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/okawen/ ... ecid=79426


Over nighter on Divide Ridge. Sleeping bags are in the plastic bags.


Calispell Peak, Colville National Forest 1976. Ski Doo Elans. These early ones had 12 hp single cylinder Rotax. I put an 18 hp single out of a 335 Olympique in my Wife's sled. It would climb like a billy goat.


The top of Calispell Peak. This cabin is a radio shack that houses the Forest Service repeaters.

Great pics! I once posted a pic of a winter camp I made, a Holiday Inn.