Snow removing job for the first time this season

Cold air comes down to Hakuba, it has been snowing here for a couple of days now. Finally I needed to play with my snowblower for the first time this season.
I did it at our parking, then our garden. A big noise of dropping snow on the roof..... needed some hours to remove it. It told me I needed to do that tough work this season as well.
(^^;;;

Now Hakuba Goryu ski slopes are available all over, night skiing is also available. Why don't you come to enjoy it? Drive safe on the snow.....

Hayaokidori website

Getting a bunch of snow!

For the first time this season, covered all over with snow. Ski slopes will be available all over ( not partially any more! ) soon.
Stay tumed!

Hayaokidori website

33 men came back from underground!

Great news,probably the happiest one at the moment. Hope this kind of accident won't happen in the future.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8063794/Chile-mine-rescue-shaft-sealed-as-all-miners-freed.html
Hayaokidori website

Euro2012 qualification

It's always busy in schedule when I watch football games. I thought the Wcup 2010 South Africa ended the other day, but the Euro 2012 qualification already started!
At this moment, Portugal seems to have hard time ( 0 win, 1 draw (against Cyprus), 1 lost ( against Norway). Italy seems to go alright though they lost the Wcup 2010 at the Group League.
In Europe, Wcup and Euro come every 2 year ( Wcup: 2006,2010,2014.... Euro:2008,2012...) but in Asia, it goes different. Both are scheduled very close. Must be tight and hard for players.

Hayaokidori website

Cyclon vacuum cleaner

Cyclon vacuum cleaners have been getting popular maybe since last year. I am not clever enough about mechanic but like new stuff, so I bought 2 cyclon vacuum cleaners as an old vacuum cleaners did not work good.
　They said cyclon vacuum cleaners swallow better than old ones, so I expected how they worked. But they need me to clean inside almost every after I use them. This is kinda tiresome!!!! (^^;;;　
　They are powerful enough to swallow dust as I always clean the inside. It's like I always use a new dust pack for an old vacuum cleaner.
I wonder if anyone could tell me how I can make it easier to clean the inside of cyclon vacuum cleaners.

Actually one of old vacuum cleaners which I bought more than 20 years ago when I began this innkeeping work still works for us! Its ability to swallow dust seems a lot less than newer ones but I feel it as powerful as newer ones. Also, I feel products made in 1980's are steady enough to use for long. Is it only I who feels products nowadays are not steady enough to use?

Hayaokidori website

Ooito line Kiha52 DMU final running March 2010

Took some pictures and movie clips of Kiha52 DMU at Minami-Otari station somewhen in this previous March 2010.


　When I checked an wep page to find which one came then, it said the red color one did. But the former JNR (Japan National Railways ) original 2 colors one did!!!
Box seats, rustic but steady handles in the control room and description that tells which factory built the car and when, its weight etc - everything tells this DMU was built in former JNR days.
　
　When I was young, there were many local lines which were not electified yet. The main railroad cars there to bring passengers were DMUs that had 1 or 2 DMH 17 series engines which this Kiha52 also had. I found this noise and step at the doorways of those DMUs wherever I went. Once when I got in the DMUs, the atomosphere there was pretty different from the 101 series electric cars I always got in at my hometown. I enjoyed the difference very much.

　As well as other railroad cars, this Kiha52 met the time to retire. I went to the station as I would have liked to take some pics and noise of this DMH17 series engine, Hopefully I would have made it to ride, but no luck because of my work.
I was just able to see the arrival and departure, I hope you also enjoyed the DMH17 noise!

Hayaokidori website

Pumpkin pudding

It seems that some pumpkins are now growing in our tiny farm, I thought it's just one or two, so I asked my mom to harvest them. But...actually it seems there are more... :o

I am not ready to eat only boiled pumpkins, so I cooked some pumpkin puddings. We have some mint as well, so many of the ingredients are from our own :)

Hayaokidori website

Making a layout #45 -- maintainance : lake

My HO gauge model train layout has a tiny lake in it. I used some "Realistic water" ( by Kato ) to represent water. It's anyway a kind of varnish, so it seems that it gets thinner and thinner by the time going.
So, I tried to fill some realistic water into the lake again to make it look fresh.

Tried to take kayaks in the lake, but it was as if they were glued to the lake! I was very careful to take them but see, the surface of the lake water was taken away :(





A vacuum cleaner was at work!






Painted some broken part to fill some realistic water. You have to fill the water slowly little by little.





Making it flat by a piece of wood.





Fresh water!!





Have to cover the lake all over not to get it dusty. It needs probably around 24 hours to make it dry. It's not like we need to wait for 3 minutes to get something to eat nowadays :o

I will take the cover away tomorrow.

Hayaokidori website

Things that are not sold in big cities

After moving into Hakuba, sometimes I find something that are not sold in big cities.
　A set of net that protects agricultural products from deers. If it's in big cities, maybe you can find some nets for bugs, birds. But I have never seen ones for deers in big cities maybe because deers are not there! I tried to find ones for monkeys , bears but not available.

Hayaokidori website

Twitter

Joined twitter.
　← This is our twitter.
Tried to put a twitter button in the template of this blog but I guess probably I did something incorrect. The button itslef showed up but when I clicked the button, another window showed up to say something like "a blank page".
I think I had better go to bed tonight, an old man should not invest some more hours to solve this kind of stuff by himself :)

(^^;;;

Hayaokidori website

Paraguay 0(PK5) vs 0(PK3) Japan : World cup soccer

Japan missed to go ahead to the quarter final, scoreless 120 minutes with Paraguay.

PK: Paraguay 5 - 3 Japan

Japan's 3rd kicker Komano kicked a ball slightly a bit higher to hit it at the bar, Komano held his head with both of his hands.
He cried and cried a lot after the last kicker of Paraguay successed the kick to throw Japan away.
I am sure Komano can never forget this event entire of his life in the future, but would like him to remember that we all got brave feelings to go ahead in our daily life.

Hayaokidori website

Delfinium 2010

Finally delfinium flowers are getting in bloom this year, too.
　Seldom find blue flowers for flowerbed. Our house is painted in red, so red flowers are not good combination with it. That's why delfinium flowers get our attention.

　As delfinium get tall, we have to have some pillars for support them. This is a little bit tough sometimes, but the flowers are very gorgeous in color and shape, no other flowers can not look like that.

When you grow delfinium, we don't recommend you to seed some if you were not patient enough because it needs around 3 weeks to germinate, not good germination(maybe around 50% or less ) and it takes more than 1 year to see the first flowers!

If it's in Hakuba, you need to seed some around the Golden week when cherry blossoms are in bloom here, then you will see the first flower at this time of the year ( rainy season ) next year. They survive under the snow.

Even when you get some pots, you need to put 4 pillars per one if it grows good. You tie the 4 pillars round and round by string to support the tall flowers. This is a bit hard work sometimes, so maybe you should not grow many pots for the first time.




Each and every pot shows slight different color. If you could have flower beds big enough to have many delfinium flowers, probably you can enjoy the difference.　



Hayaokidori website

Rental layout stamp rally 2010

We approve of Model train rental layout stamp rally 2010 which is held all over Japan from July 17th through August 31st 2010

When you visit rental layout shops/stores to rent layouts there, you get a stamp seat to collect stamps. You'll get some prizes - sometimes for everyone, sometimes for someone by lottery.

Model train hobby may be a hot one this summer.


Hayaokidori website

Internazionale Milano, the winner of CL '09-'10

Internazionale Milano won against Bayern Munich at the final of Europe Champions League '09-'10. That was the third time for Inter Milano to be a champion after 45 seasons' interval. It was a couple of seasons ago when a club in Italy got the champion - AC Milan if I remember right - , they say that Serie A is losing power comparing with England premier league and Lega Espanola while Bundesleaga has been
chasing Serie A.
But this time Inter Milano showed that Serie A clubs still have power to be a champion at the CL stage.
On the other hand, it's ironic that Wesley Snijder and Alijen Robben who got notifications to get out of the club at the begining of this season from Real Madrid met to play the final there in Sanchago Pernabeu which is the home ground of Real Madrid.

Hayaokidori website

Echium blue bedder

I got 3 packs of echium blue bedder seeds today and seeded 1+1/2 packs.
A couple days ago, I happened to find this flower on browsing web with a keyword "Delfinium". I think blue flowers look cool in summer, so I ordered 3 packs of seeds at a web shop. They say Echium blue bedder is very popular flower in the U.K, I think it looks like a blue bed if I can grow it good.


As they are imported from the U.K, everything is described in English. It seems that it needs 7-28 days for them to germinate. 7 and 28 are very different and sounds very approximate :) lol
I ordered 3 packs of it and just seeded 1+1/2 packs today. It's first time for me to try seeding this flower, I will seed the rest a bit later so that I can avoid having them all dead.


Hayaokidori website

Cherry blossoms still in bloom.

Sometimes I still find some cherry blossoms in bloom even at this time of the year while I drive somewhere in Hakuba. This one is what I took a couple of days ago. It's outstanding because there's no other cherry blossoms around. As the sunlight got in the camera, it looks a bit vague though.
Maybe I should walk around sometimes instead of driving a car to find something more.

Hayaokidori website

Yellow tulips '10

Tulips are in bloom this year, too. They are covered with snow during winter but they survive with it. What if it was somewhere cold but dry without enough snow?

Hayaokidori website

Model train workship

Model train geeks get together! The subject this time is "replacing engines". If you collect some model trains and would like to talk about this and that about replacing engines, time for you to join us!

Details

Looking forward to meeting you.

Hayaokidori website

Seeding some

When you have some flowers, sometimes it costs too much more than expected if you keep purchasing flower pots. So, it helps if you try to seed something.

Short cosmoses. I expect they won't get down by wind.






Delfiniums. Funnels don't work good to give water to them because if you use a funnel for it, some delifinium seeds dropped deeper and deeper in the sand there. I've found sprayers work good for it.







Like this! You need to keep the surface of the sand wet until the gelminating. Seeds are covered with peat moss which keeps water around but if once it gets dried, it's almost impossible to get it wet again. The three factors for seeds to gelminate are #1-water, #2-oxgen, #3-suitable temperture, so you need to keep it wet 'til they gelminate.

Got a proxon mini router.

Got a proxon mini router to cut shafts of canned motor. It's a bit tough job for a pair of far sighted eyes because it's really a tiny thing. I would do the work when my eyes work better than usual.

Hayaokidori website

Battle with snow

We have tons of snow this season.
　As you see, snow is a lot taller than my pajero even though I threw some there.
(^^;;; Of course, I am not visible from the opposite side.

This is not the only story!
Most snow drops off the roof but we have a roof which is not steep enough, so I have to climb there to shovel snow. Have to put a tall ladder to reach there.Mo View from the top. The ladder is approxiately 3 meters tall but expandable. I expand it a bit to reach the roof. Have to climb slowly and carefully as it's sometimes windy all of sudden. The flat roof is roughly 6 tatami mats big ( 10 square meters ), so if I shovel the snow there often, it's not a hard work.　





But this time we got a lot more snow than expected, totally more than 1 meter tall on the roof. This made it harder to shovel even if it was just a 6 tatami mats big :o
The shovel in the picture is roughly 150cms tall, so you can guess how much snow was on the roof. I devide the snow into smaller pieces by the shovel to throw down.






As I throw snow on the ground, the warehouse entrance looks like this! Have to shovel there, too to get in and out.(^^;;;






Time for our snowblower to show up when I complete to drop all the snow off. Our snowblower since autumn 2002. 4 sylinder engine of 18 horse power. Our previous antique snowblowerhad a 2 sylinder engine of 16 horse power, it consumed much less gasoline. Our present snowblower exactly consumes much more gasoline but it can throw snow a lot farther, which makes it easier to remove snow. All the operation for example having the auger up and down, shooter left to right etc are controlled by oil pressure, so if anything goes wrong with it, the present snowblower never works :( The antique snowblower needed me to operate everything by hand, so it was exactly tough but less trouble.

Snow removing job is not easy, it's a danger work. Always have to be careful and need to stay safe. When we have tons of snow, we need to do this kind of job often to survive.

Hayaokidori website

Replacing motors of model train.

Lately I feel I have to do something for my model train after a long interval. Anyway I have a layout, so what about replacing motors if some locomotives or motorcars don't run good?
This below is what we call "can motor".
They say if you replace an old vertical motor into this one, your locomotives/motorcars can go very slowly as well as fast running. Also, it consumes less electricity which works better when your layout is a DCC one.
But the problem is the long shaft - the right side thin pole. It's a bit to get in a worm gear, so I have to cut it a bit. I don't have a special stuff for it, seems I have to find a good rooter ( spelling?? ) for it.
Some bloggers of same hobbies adviced me to find a proxon one, so I have been browsing web sites to learn how it works.

Hayaokidori web site