We had another easy trip to the cabin with our usual load. 4 totes, 4 duffle bags, snowmobile gear, guns, propane, gas, 2 coolers, a bale of hay (for the deer) bird seed, and an extra special cargo this year, a 40 pound bag of cats. (Plus kitty litter and cat food). We inherted 2 big cats from our sons friend last October. He got a new job and couldn't take them with him. They seemed to handle the trip ok. The snow cat is so loud we couldn't hear them howling even if they were. They like it at the cabin though. Lots of things to see out the windows. Dozens of deer and a flock of wild turkeys. Dublin (fuzzy butt) is on the beam and Woody is looking out the window. They are good cats but neither is the brightest bulb of the litter. They wouldn't last 5 minutes in the wild.
It was in the 20's when we got here on Thursday, with about 10 inches at our place. Then Friday night it warmed up to 35 and poured rain on Saturday. Much of the road is bare. What wasn't bare was sloppy slush and white water rapids. Typical Washington winter. Now it's back in the 20's and everything is covered in ice. Yuck. So much for snowmobiling this trip.
The cat ran great as usual. The new ice studs seem to help although it did skate around a little on the icy parts. Not as bad as before. Studs on every grouser would probably be better. The back up camera works well when backing up to the porch. Since the clutch fix I can make it most of the way up the hill in 3rd gear, shifting down to 2nd for the steep parts. The trip up is about 25 minutes, and down about 20 minutes in 3rd. 4th gear down hill is a little too fast for me.
I did a 2.5 mile measured run down the hill and back starting with a full tank. (5 miles round trip). It used 1.25 gallons. So 4 miles per gallon. That's better than the 2.5 mpg I thought it was. Yay.
Now I need to update the brochure.
Tonight we are going up the hill to our friends for the annual Table Mountain New Year's Party and Fireworks. So Happy New Year to all of you.