Sunday, January 27, 2013

Maintenance and so

Finally I was able to start the maintenance work at SilberWolf or better said, the R1150GS ;)

First of all, the back frame which I gave to local welding company started to rust heavily. There is a difference in painting and I thought that I could do it good enough. Well, think again Wolfi.
So, I took the frame off and realized that there was some water in - not very nice. Obviously the welder did not do a too good job since I realized a small hole at one of the welding seam. OK, I gave it to Ari and he took it to a colleague who was so nice to fix it quickly. Now the frame is waiting for proper paining.

Just before Pystämettä 2012, I realized that the main bearing in the rear wheel drive was broken and no way to drive 600+km. Since I did not have the tools to change the bearing, yet I had already bought the future rear wheel drive (from a R850GS) I just swapped them. Next day I was able to enjoy the ride.

In any case, this rear wheel drive has already 90+tkm according to the seller. As a pre-caution and a learning I decided to go ahead and change the bearing in there. At the same time, I noticed strange noises (sub-harmonics in certain RPMs) and realized that the 6th gear is now too short. Therefore I wanted to take the gearbox out to be send for maintenance and exchange to the long 6th gear.

This is the result:
Bike with a too tight diet :D

Next step is to change the clutch ... well, that should be a walk in the park now and then the normal maintenance. All the rest are small things to change like lights, batterie, 12V plug and so on.

Next is Ilta's bike.

~ Wolfi

Monday, January 21, 2013

What do our dogs eat..?

It's a beautiful winters day here and I have good time to sit down, enjoy the sunshine and write a bit while waiting for the raw chocolate to melt... (recipe coming soon :))

Not many people understand/realize when I say our whole family is vegan that it includes the dogs as well! I've always tried to be conscious about what I feed to my dogs (and whatever animals I had). Food can't be tested on animals (like many of the commercial food is!), no artificial or toxic ingredients and preferably only organic ingredients. I'm also totally against all animal cruelty that's why I can't kill or pay someone to kill an animal to feed my animals! That is the main reason why my dogs get vegan food and of course it's also good for their health. I'm not going to get to the details why dogs can easily be vegans and are not obligate carnivores, internet is full of info about that! I do also know very well what happens in the nature and also know how common pet dogs are already far away from their ancestors! So no need for those comments either, thanks :)  I'd just like to share the favourite recipe of my little girls and give tips to people who are interested...

Usually in the mornings girls get this porridge/stew and in the evenings dry food (kibble) from Ami or Benevo. I've been very satisfied with those brands and they are also easiest to get here in Finland. Girls are feeling and looking great, full of energy and their poop is perfect :D As treats/snacks they get sticks which are based on corn starch and my self made healthy cookies. Occasionally they get our food, when there is leftovers and I haven't used too much spices (salt I use anyway very little!).


Mummy's best stew
  • 400 g carrots
  • 300 g rutabaga
  • 4 dl whole oat grains
  • 2 dl whole buckwheat
  • 2.5-3 l water
  • 8 dl cooked chickpeas
  • 1 dl nutritional yeast or Vege Yeast
  • 0.5 dl flax seed oil + water

Peel and grate the carrots and rutabaga. Rinse the oats and buckwheat and put to a large pot with the grated vegetables. Add the water and let simmer 20-30 min., until the grains are soft. Put the chickpeas, yeast powder and oil into a blender and mix until smooth paste. Add water if needed. Mix with the stew.

The stew vanishes in few seconds! SOOO GOOOD! :)
To get some variations use different kind of veggies, gluten free grains and peas/beans/lentils. Veggies don't have to be grated, small pieces are also fine. My girls just tend to eat way too fast so I that's why I try to put everything to very small, so that the food melts fine in the stomach. For the same reason I blend the beans, girls are too excited and don't chew properly and beans would come out looking exactly the same!

For my girls this makes about 10 breakfast portions. To each portion I also add little bit of Vegedog or Islamer powder to make the food even more nutritional. Store in fridge or freeze to ready portions and take out to melt when needed.

Here's another good and delicious recipe, even I liked it! :)

Happy winter for you all!

~ Ilta


P.S. Yesterday Wolfi got almost all of his model railway stuff sold and also got agreed the selling of his old sidecar. So we are very relieved right now! House will be taken care by the real estate agent and the car goes most likely eventually to some used cars dealer. Little things are still in sale in the flea market and in internet, but if they don't go we don't mind much 'cos the most important/biggest stuff are sold! Stress level is heavily getting lower! In the end we are also very happy to donate stuff for example to some animal shelters... :)

Now we're in the half way of our vaccinations and other health stuff... Next step is taking care of girls vaccinations, teeth etc. All sort of preventive health care going on :)
 

Saturday, January 5, 2013

New Year & New Life

...starting very soon! We're anxiously counting the days by now and heavily going in our minds already... This vernal weather hasn't helped either! Last few days has been plus degrees and all the big roads totally melted from snow and ice, so could basically go motorbiking...

Well luckily (really?) we still have plenty of things to do, so the temptation of leaving won't get unbearable yet... On the Holidays we did some rough planning for the Europe. We checked the dog immigration policies of all the countries and excluded the difficult ones from our route. Difficult meaning mostly about the rabies-rules. This site turned out to be very helpful: http://www.pettravel.com/
Last evening we did more precise route plan. We try to avoid to make too much planning, but there are some must do's in Europe, so that's why have to plan a bit... The sidecar still needs some fixing before it's fit to go properly offroad so we have to head first towards north Germany. Then we want to explore some eastern parts of Europe and in the end of August Wolfi wants to participate some sidecar-rally in Germany. After those we have no stress what so ever! So we will peacefully enjoy some west European countryside before heading to Africa... :)

Rough plan for Europe

The big winter sales are now going on, so yesterday we did some shopping as well and got bit more equipped for the trip. We bought proper travelling towels, which should dry quickly and won't take too much space. Wolfi had previously Sea to Summit-towel, but it dries extremely slowly and doesn't even go to so small space, so can't recommend that brand! I also got me lovely new pillow by Cocoon and we will both get also Cocoon memory foam pillows and travel sheets, but those we have to order from Germany. I've been very happy about that brand, they do very good and durable stuff! Finally I got also a new hand mixer, which is one of the most important kitchen things for me! Our mornings usually start with a healthy smoothie so a good mixer is needed and this hand version is very useful in the making of other foods as well. You will see! :) The previous one got smashed here and the other we had somehow just fell apart...

Selling our stuff in flea market and internet goes rather well, but we still have way toooo much stuff here! So please spread the word if you know someone who would need something :) On Monday our house will go to sale by a real estate agent, so let's hope everything will go fine (and fast!) with that...

I wish a happy and better new year for everyone!

~ Ilta

The Kiddo finally got her new dining set :D
Wolfi relies on his Kuksa.