It's been a while since I typed at ya but the old WingNut hasn't been idle. Most of the time has been taken by the new little one. Another portion has been taken by finally finishing her cradle boat; A Viking Long Ship, and my first try at wood bending.

After that, Ive been getting to all the project that need gatting at around the house, land and barn. Here's a few shots of the boat and new one...

Born New Years Eve, 2012

A shot of a the new toy I bought...

And a fews shots of goings on around the farm...


Putting up a roof under the deck. Eventually, this will be the MargarittaVille patio...

New Zealand... What a beautifle and wonderful place. The locals simply call it "Enn Zed." I first got addicted to the place on our second honeymoon, of sorts, back in 2008. A few years ago my wife's uncle passed on and left her with a tree farm inheritance. So we flew down there last April to attend the AGM and inspect the trees. If you don't already know NZ is where the Lord of The Rings trillogy was filmed and let me tell you, this place is more enchanting than it looks on the beg screen. We just toured the North Island this time and April is right in the middle of their Fall season down there.

Rotorua hot springs... Basically, it's a town right in the middle of the north islan that sits on a caldera valcanic lake. We were renting a camper van and stayed at campground that advertised hot sand beaches. You can walk on the beach in the cold fall morning and have your bare feet warmed by hot steam bubbling up through the sand on the beach. Rotorua is freaky in this way. You can be walking down the street in town and right there on someone's front grassy lawn is a volcanic steam vent hissing away! There's also a ton of trout fishing in NZ. I just did some shore casting and didn't catch anything but still... It's fishing in NZ!

Didn't do the mud baths this time but I did go out and find a kart track for a day. I had to get my speed fix in!

Napier Valley... This is on the southeastern tip of the north island. It's know for its red wines and we sampled more than a few. Mission Valley Winery was the first place to make wine in NZ and we brought home a few bottles. We're saving them for the house warming this fall. Below is a phot of my attempt to build an Inuksuk stone man on a beach in Napier. The statue thing came along from our first honeymoon whe I and Mrs. Wingnut toured Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick provinces. We were hiking up river valley in Charlevoix National Forrest when we came accross this open stony area along a river and it was populated with hundreds of these stone-man statues. I was told they are called Inuksuk.

The beach was all made of pebbles that feel really good to walk on.

So I got to thinking about another trip to NZ in April since that month is the begining a deer season. I was wondering if anyone else would be interested in doing some research with me and organizing a group hunting expedition (deer, pigs, ducks). Can we get a group discount on airfare and such?

Oh, and I couldn't close out this blog before mentioning that yes, I did see a few GM trucks down there. Mostly classic but I did see one lowered NBS. We were driving so I didn't get a photo.

Well, last weekend at Summit Point was OK for me.

ON THE TRACK:
I didn't get my check ride to move up to HPDE-3 but I was immediately signed off for solo in HPDE-2. I felt I drove pretty well but the old BMW could be doing better. I've got a pesky oil loss out of the top of that M50 engine somewhere and I can't find it. So far, I've eliminated the valve cover gasket, the vanos control line, the oil filter cover, front main seal, and oil pan gasket. That leaves the timing chain cover and the oil filter housing itself. On Saturday morning in the group just before mine (HPDE-3 ironically) a guy driving a Vette hit a deer coming down the front straight going into turn-1. He hit it just as he was going into the brakinging zone so he had to be going somewhere close to 100mph.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8FBxS-00xU
You can google "Some Guy Hit a Deer" and it will come up. It's been going pretty viral and the gut says his Vette is close to totalled. And lucky it was a Vette. Had it been a higher profile car, things could've turned out much worse. End result was that he's ok (the important thing), the car is not, the deer is toast, and my group was delayed about 30 minutes whilst the track crew cleaned up the bambi meat.

TOWING:
The 1500 2wd 5.3L is doing fine though the hill country into WV. At 90,000+ miles the drive train is rock solid however, I've got some weird behaviour coming out of my climate system. When it's hot out, the AC is running, and the engine is under load (towing up hill) I get fog coming out of the driver side vents only. And on at least two occasions so far hot air came blasting out while the passenger side was ice cold. WTF? Could this be the climate control valve or a leak in the heat exchanger? I know there's a conditional recall on this truck's climate system but it's for the fan speed switch I believe. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

HYPERFEST:
This weekend's activities at Summit Point was called Hyperfet 2012. You can google some funny videos for it, especially "Hyperfest fights." It's a weekend of all kinds of gear heads NASAProRacing has their HPDEs and race groups such as the Stinger Bahn and Thunder groups that run on the main circuit. And on the other side of the track was the "24 Hours of Lemons" race. And then there are the "Drifters." Seriously, I don't get these guys. I know it takes a lot of talent to drift a car but why the hell would you dump all kinds of money into a car and then not go around the track as fast as you possibly could? Ahhhh... What the hell do I know?

Last years "Helmets Off To Heroes" was a great success and Drive-Lab is considering doing it again. Last year's event was run on Veterans Day at Summit Point.

What is it? A FREE one-day high performance driving and car control clinic event for active military, vererans, and Wounded Warriors. It includes cone drills, road courses, and a wet skid pad. One-to-one instructor ratio. Bring your own car/truck.

Where is it? Last year we ran the Jefferson circuit at Summit Point Motorsports Park, WV. Approximately 1 1/2 hours NW of Washington D.C.

I'll post more if the next H.O.T.H. is a go. In addition, an event for the Marines at Henderson Hall barracks on Ft. Meyer (Arlington, VA) is being planned for August. Below is WingNut's toy taking the turn onto the front straight of Jefferson.

Well, fishing is just one of the things I'll be doing.

Maybe I'll manage to recruit some Kiwi membership. Hmmmmm....

I'll be back next week and catch up on updates to the WingRide. Need to post some work I did to the battery tray and the fix on the vehicle shudder. Yes, I fixed it!!!

Hei kon?!!!