a long Monday

I was glad to be able to go back to bed for a while after Lars went to work. A couple hours later I had breakfast with Sharon and then spent some time preparing a new official sketch (to submit to Ice Alaska) from the clay model. I also drew side and front block layout diagrams so that we will know where to start cutting Tuesday morning. Later in the day I made the smallest two sucker bits and tested and tuned the entire set. The two largest bits were considerably out of alignment, so they chattered a great deal, causing terrible destruction to the ice. I was able to straighten out their shafts with a hand file, and this improved their performance greatly.

Lars returned to Belfair in the afternoon. We disassembled Sleipnir and the lathe, loaded up the trailer, and headed to ice park. Just past UAF, a neighborly driver informed us that the trailer had a flat tire! Since were were only a mile from Ice Park, Lars decided to drive on slowly. Thankfully it turned out that the tire did not suffer any additional damage; Lars was able to re-inflate it for the short trip from the parking lot to our site later in the evening.

Registration was quick and easy, and we found out that, since we are now five year veterans, we are eligible for Ice Alaska jackets! My ears perked up when I heard this as I really could use a new coat right now. Alas, it turns out that it is likely to be a while (like years) before we receive them.

We went to our site and found that it was already set up with power, lights, sawhorses, a bucket, and a working webcam. Nice! Jasper expertly tweaked our block for us with a zoom boom so that the smaller face is turned toward the road, and we were off to the warming hut for dinner and the safety meeting.

After dinner Lars moved the trailer while I carried scaffolding parts to our site. Then we set up Sleipner and the lathe and a few other things. Our site happens to be at the end of a row, so we had plenty of room to set up the trailer and the big equipment, though it will probably out of view of the webcam.

Now Lars and I are sitting in his classroom. I'm blogging while he finishes lesson plans for his sub. We'll be in bed at Belfair before long (I hope).