Tag Archives: nackawik

Friday 21st August 2015 – DOESN’T STRIDER LOOK SMART?

strider ford ranger 4x4 pickup centreville new brunswick canadaHe now has his number plates fitted.

And I would like to say that he is totally street legal, but I can’t quite say that until Monday.

In fact he is, but the insurance certificate is made out with his temporary number plate, and this needs to be changed to his permanent number. It’s not desperately important to do that but if I’m going over across to the Great Satan, I can imagine all kinds of complications. I can get into enough trouble over there without actually asking for it.

This morning we had this wheel to refit onto the golf cart, and seeing as how I took it off, I reckon that Amber should put it back on. A girl of 12 has to start somewhere, especially if there is someone there to supervise and give advice, and all in all she was quite good at it

The parts for Strider had come by the time we arrived at the tyre depot so we stuck him up on the lift. Changing the plugs was another task that wasn’t as easy as it might have been. The engine in Strider is a basic “Cologne” V6 of 2.5 litres bored out and enlarged to 4.0, and while those engines were really simple and easy to work on back in 1962, the addition of all kinds of emissions control mechanisms have covered everything up and makes it difficult to reach.

The nearside plugs are a nightmare to reach, but we had the brilliant idea of taking off the wheel. Doing that, the plugs were quite easily accessible. And we soon found the cause of the misfire. The most difficult plug to reach (but easy from through the wheel arch) was cracked. It looks as if someone has had a go at taking it out from up above, cracked the porcelain, and then given up.

After many interruptions, Strider was finished but the number plates STILL hadn’t come. And so I went round to where I bought him from and the boss was out but, sure enough, there were the plates and the registration document sitting on his desk. His mechanic fitted the plates for me and there we were.

The trouble is that now it’s 17:00 and the insurance offices are closed until Monday. Hence I’ll have to wait until then to change things around.

I went off up the Highway to the New Brunswick-Quebec border through a tremendous thunderstorm with the cruise control set at 120 kph all the way. ON the way back, just about to pull off at Grand Sault to pick up the supper (Rachel was Tupperware-ing at Nackawik) and Rhys rang up for a chat. As a result I was home later than intended.

But the good run seems to have cleared out Strider a little. He’s running a little freer than before and it looks (at first glance) if he’s doing better on fuel although I’m not counting my chickens before they have hatched.

Monday 19th September 2011 – WHAT A LOVELY DAY

river valley truss company fredericton new brunswick canadaI took the back road into Fredericton to go for a look around today, and I came across this company. I couldn’t resists the idea of going into them and seeing if they would make one for me to my own specifications.

I need one made with a couple of rows of beads, rather like an abacus. And when I was asked why, I replied that, having had the kind of life that I had, I can only count on my own support.

But there was nothing happening in the town so I head back northwards towards Centreville

I took the old road out of the city and a few miles after the turning to Mactaquac I encountered this beautiful suspension bridge.

I couldn’t see a date on the bridge so I couldn’t see whether it was built before the valley was flooded when the dam was built in the 1960s. But looking at the clearance underneath the bridge you would only just paddle your own canoe underneath it today.

saint john river kings landing new brunswick canadaThe day was really beautiful today and the views along the Saint John River were stunning. I took dozens of photos of the route and it’s really hard just to pick out one as an example.

I’m about 5kms from Kings Landing just here when I crested the brow of a hill and and this view presented to me. It looks absolutely magnificent in the sunshine but it does make you wonder what it must have been like before they flooded the valley.

giant paper mill nackawic new brunswick canadaThis is the largest employer in the area, the AV Nackawik mill. And that must be the biggest pile of sawdust the world has ever seen.

The mill was built in 1967 to provide employment for the people who had been displaced from the valley due to the building of the dam. But in 2004 the company that owned it closed the mill in circumstance that can only be described as “controversial”. It reopened under different ownership 18 months later.

Nackawik is home to the world’s largest axe – the Giant Axe of Nackawik – and so seeing that we were here, Strawberry Moose and I went for a look at it.

The handle is 15 metres long and the axe was built in 1991. It’s purely symbolic and is said to represent the importance of the forestry industry to the area. And that’s just as well that it’s symbolic as I wouldn’t have liked to have met the lumberjack who was able to wield that in a forest.

There’s a time capsule embedded in the stump, but I’ve no idea what might be in it.

saint john river woodstock new brunswick canadaHis Nibs and I had a quiet uneventful drive up the eastern bank of the Saint John River as far as Woodstock, which is over there on the far bank, swathed in the sunlight.

The bridge that you can see in the foreground is the old railway bridge. The station building remains but it’s lost in the trees to the right of the bridge. It’s a shame that there’s never going to be another locomotive running up and down that track

In Woodstock I went to the machinery place to see if he had and second-hand brushcutters but there was nothing doing. But what he did have was a selection of D-i-Y machines such as drills and the like powered by small petrol engines. I’ve never seen that before.

And back at Rachel’s, she didn’t feel like cooking so I made a mega-vegan-curry for everyone. And, surprisingly, everyone survived.