AZ ND Trip

[scubatech]

Yep, it's a young man's sport. I brine my collar bone almost two years ago in my Ducati Hypermotard. First time I've ever been down on pavement since I got my license when I was 15. Front end washed out on a 20 mph eady corner. Haven't ridden it much since, but can't bear to sell it.

Here's one of my boys on his KX250F. Unfortunately, he just cooked the motor. I don't think pistons should sit sideways. Time for a rebuild.

Ha, only in a boxer or a Wing. My last one was a WR 450. It was an amazing bike! Much more capable than I was a rider.
About 15 years ago a big yellow Lab hit the side of my front wheel and high sided my wife & I. We were in the middle of nowhere and he ran full speed into me. I never had a chance to try and maneuver or hit the brake. There was about 2 inches of his neck between the rim and tire! At 40 PSI that was some impact! That was a 100 foot flight, resulting in a bunch of broken body parts and and bones. Totaled my bike. That was a 2005 FJR. I found a left over 2007 still in a crate and bought it. My last street bike was a 2016 Super Tenere' anniversary edition., yellow & black. That was a wonderful adventure motorcycle. They will corner with most crotch rockets, plenty of power, lots of fun! Oh well, I had a lot of fun all those years!!

 

[ZR2NYC]

I've ridden smaller bikes and some of my friends went that route. But, it always turns into a race when you get a bunch of buddies riding. Fun though!

true!!

 

[AXE]

Ha, only in a boxer or a Wing. My last one was a WR 450. It was an amazing bike! Much more capable than I was a rider.
About 15 years ago a big yellow Lab hit the side of my front wheel and high sided my wife & I. We were in the middle of nowhere and he ran full speed into me. I never had a chance to try and maneuver or hit the brake. There was about 2 inches of his neck between the rim and tire! At 40 PSI that was some impact! That was a 100 foot flight, resulting in a bunch of broken body parts and and bones. Totaled my bike. That was a 2005 FJR. I found a left over 2007 still in a crate and bought it. My last street bike was a 2016 Super Tenere' anniversary edition., yellow & black. That was a wonderful adventure motorcycle. They will corner with most crotch rockets, plenty of power, lots of fun! Oh well, I had a lot of fun all those years!!

That's quite a wreck! You have good taste in bikes, the WR, FJR, and Tenre could be considered best in class by most metrics.

I had a WR450 for about 4 years. Sold it when my buddy moved and didn't have anyone to ride with. I damn near had a nasty get of in the far reaches of the desert and somehow saved it halfway if the back of the bike. Not sure they would have found me before the coyotes and vultures. I decided it was too much risk by myself. Wish I still had it.

 

[AXE]

Electrician got the power wire, soft start and switch installed. We dug about 1500 feet of trench to the other well, but have 1200 more to go. Might wait, cause the wire didn't arrive yet and I don't want the trench to collapse waiting till Monday.

Had the chain jump off track when we hit some rock. PIA to get back on. Had to pull and push the heavy bastard with the other Bobcat.

 

[scubatech]

That's quite a wreck! You have good taste in bikes, the WR, FJR, and Tenre could be considered best in class by most metrics.

I had a WR450 for about 4 years. Sold it when my buddy moved and didn't have anyone to ride with. I damn near had a nasty get of in the far reaches of the desert and somehow saved it halfway if the back of the bike. Not sure they would have found me before the coyotes and vultures. I decided it was too much risk by myself. Wish I still had it.

I used to sell motorcycles from 1998 - 2002. Back then Honda was considered the best there was. When Doug Henry first won the championship on that YZ 400 4 stroke, the world changed. Along came KTM, 4 strokes and the 4 strokes became the norm. From the mechanics that I knew and personal ownership I think Yamahas are damn hard to beat! The 3 cylinder turbo is now in experimental aircraft and kicking butt in STOHL competition. Something like 400 HP. I've never had trouble with a Yamaha & I like Honda's a lot. The KTM still has a little better suspension but the price difference is significant.

 

[AXE]

Kya got a little tore up today on back thigh, but didn't seem to slow her up. Not sure if it was fence or sticks in some heavy cover. Old fence right at the end of our hike.

$580 trip to the vet for some staples. Looks like a clean fix, vet was a really nice lady. Didn't even take 20 minutes. A little woozy from anesthesia medicine.

Probably ends the hunting trip.

 

[ZR2BIZON]

Electrician got the power wire, soft start and switch installed. We dug about 1500 feet of trench to the other well, but have 1200 more to go. Might wait, cause the wire didn't arrive yet and I don't want the trench to collapse waiting till Monday.

Had the chain jump off track when we hit some rock. PIA to get back on. Had to pull and push the heavy bastard with the other Bobcat.

Sheesh. How deep do you have to trench for the electrical?

 

[AXE]

We're probably 24-28 inches. This field will be farmed, so deep enough that the tillage equipment won't get into it.

 

[ZR2BIZON]

Ah ok

 

[AXE]

Had to do some plinking with my new FNX 45 Tactical. She shoots well supressed around 90-93 dB without hearing protection. This JK Armament suppressor is modular, so I can use 3-8 baffles. I like the feel with 4, but a tad quieter with 5.

This thing is fairly accurate with iron sights However, the Vortex Venom red dot it came with doesn't mount perfectly square, so it seems to be off with the optic.

 

[joeznyc]

Standing on a corner east of Winslow, Arizona. Desolate landscape. 3 hours in and dog needed a break! Dogs traveling better than I thought!

How’d u keep it so clean in the dust and across country?

 

[AXE]

How’d u keep it so clean in the dust and across country?

It was pretty dirty after big rain last week. I washed it and made it 3 days, now it rained again today. Right before the rain hit we had a big wind gust. Inside is full of dust. The shine is officially off inside and out.

In Arizona it's easy to keep them clean. Dusty but not much mud and bugs.

 

[AXE]

Laid and buried 2 separate electrical lines today that were 2700 feet. We fabbed up this little line guide tool to pick up the heavy wire and lay it in the trench easily without disturbing the trench. Worked slick with the only lifting to get the wire in the guide.

Yesterday I was picking up rocks from the spoil pile and got too close to the trench and cave a few feet in. Had to get it the shovel and how. The ol man said he'd run me off if I did it again.......lol.

 

[TexOffroader]

Laid and buried 2 separate electrical lines today that were 2700 feet. We fabbed up this little line guide tool to pick up the heavy wire and lay it in the trench easily without disturbing the trench. Worked slick with the only lifting to get the wire in the guide.

Yesterday I was picking up rocks from the spoil pile and got too close to the trench and cave a few feet in. Had to get it the shovel and how. The ol man said he'd run me off if I did it again.......lol.

Nice solution on the guide. I don’t want to know how much that wire cost, but I know it’s a lot when Home Depot starts locking up 25’ bundles.

 

[AXE]

Nice solution on the guide. I don’t want to know how much that wire cost, but I know it’s a lot when Home Depot starts locking up 25’ bundles.

Each spool was about 3500lbs, so lots of aluminum. I didn't want to know either, but when the electrician said it needed to be doubled to handle the load. I knew it would be painful. It's to power a 75 HP submersible motor for well pump 190 feet in the ground. Has start up amps about 107A and runs at 94A. So wire had to be able to handle 400A due to resistance at that distance. It cost about $40k and my Dad and I did all the trenching and pulling. It was kinda fun. I think that trenching would have cost $5-7k., maybe more.

 

[TexOffroader]

Wow, with a 75 HP pump, how many GPM will the well produce?

 

[AXE]

It'll do about 1200 gpm, we have three wells that do that and two that do about 500 gpm. We don't run them all at once, but when we're running a frack job, we'll do about 2500 gpm and run for 24/7 for 30 to 45 days straight. That's 2 million barrels or 84 million gallons. 250k+ barrels per well fracked.

This was the last pad we fracked.

 

[AXE]

Took these pictures in a harvested durum field at sunset. Pictures didn't turn out as good as far as color. I guess the auto function wasn't the right one.

 

[AXE]

Besides agriculture, energy is a big industry in ND with lignite coal, oil, gas, and wind all playing a big part. In NW North Dokata oil was discovered about 8 miles from my hometown. I know lots of people in the industry and it has grown a lot in last 13 years. It has been my life for nearly years, since one of my first non farm jobs was cleaning paraffin from oilfield drill pipe..... nasty dirty work, but I liked the paycheck when I was 16.

Here's the ZR2 posing with some of the energy resources in my hood.

 

[AXE]

Had to pay my respects to loved ones before I departed. Very nice country church and cemetery. Lots of family, friends, and neighbors laid to rest here. Many people were the original homesteaders in the area.