The 245's gremlins have ceased for now.

I bought a Volvo wagon, a 1983 light blue wagon with a big steering wheel. This was back in the summer of 2006. Found it off craigslist for $700 but it had (has) no rust. I got enough new parts with it and other volvo related items to estimate I paid roughly $200 for it when taking all the extras into account. It ran decent at the time of purchase other than a major exhaust leak the size of a dollar bill between the rear axle and muffler. Well I quickly found out why there was also new battery in the car too. The engine's wiring harness had its insulation falling to pieces and shorting out. The first thing the harness does in most cases is kill the battery due to shorting out on the way to the alternator. One can bypass the wire with a single new one but I decided to get an upgraded harness to rewire the engine.

I've got a long list of problems that have been sorted out over 3 years. A list that would have cost a villager at his local indie shop something up towards the $350O+ labor mark. But I've never taken it to anyone other than the exhaust dude with parts in hands. Its been an interesting experience taking each step slowly while learning from my mistakes or misdiagnosis. Its felt like I've accomplished 50 hours of college credit though the reading and hands on experience of experiments (diagnostics).

The parts have come to me well below the usual price found on auto parts web sites. Some I got through ebay and others from donor cars. Even then I had two 244's land in my way by a local mechanic who had a place to store them while he slowly parted them out to solely me. I usually got a 50% off deal in comparison to the local european yard staunch gaugers. In a months time those two cars are headed off to the scrap or junkyard.

That is unless I can get a place to put them. I've kind of got a place for one of them but only if I decide to keep it and swap my motor over to it from my 86 sedan, which suffered a sidelining injury from a recent high Unita's road. While returning from a yearly camping expedition I had one tire sort of go off the road and my crossmember stopped the car on a 3 inch rock planted firmly in the road. I have driven a volvo 244 up there every year for 9 years. This was the first real problem other than a little exhaust piping abuse. Even though the 86 244 came from San Diego near the early part of this decade, its floor boards are almost missing on the belly with mold infused with the rear passenger carpet. Smelled this past winter. I might just patch the car up and go for driving another couple years. But this could also be a good time to do a major transplant of nearly everything.

But it drove the 2 hours home even with the steering off kilter. I took the main line home down Parley's Canyon through Salt Lake Valley from the Canyon's Mother Hips rocking outdoor show, which I conveniently stopped in at while returning home from a nearby mountain range. To ready myself for the show I had to bath in a freezing cold creek coming out of a high altitude lake with a small snow patch still visible above. Changed cloths twice that day after getting dirty cleaning up my tent and new air matress (sale for $24.99 and worked great). The second change of cloths happened on a frontage road outside Park City along with another stop after passing through PC to brush my teeth with bottled water.

Anyways, I got the 86 sedan home and drove it hesitantly the next day around town. I jacked it up and found the front crossmember is in need of replacement. Its bent just shy of damaging my 2 year old rebuilt steering rack ($250). But put the rack off so its pulling at the steering wheel and causing it rub against the plastic column. The damage sustained was just enough to be a bad scenario but like someone recently said, "Life sometimes gets as bad as it can get but with things still working out. Like its the best possible outcome while things are going bad".

Oh well I had to drop the engine front crossmember anyway to replace the damaged oil pan it sustained going over a middle divide in downtown Salt Lake on 100 South near W. Temple. So my attention immediately went to the wagon in hopes of finally curing its poor running condition now on its third year strong. I went back through the small clips on the engine harness for the Air Mass Meter. I had bought some dental type picks to attempt the same thing a month ago and it seemed to temporarily work. But the cold start was unable to idle making for what seemed like major problems still to be discovered.

When I unplugged the AMM the car should idle normally. If I plug it in and I have problems then I know its the AMM. I couldn't tell what was going on because the bad idle was present at all times. It was still having problems at idle with the AMM unplugged. Meaning it was something else. Even with the air mass meter unhooked the car wouldn't idle until warmed up. Which meant it wasn't the Air Mass Meter fully being the problem but at least I could tell it was a good part of the problem when driving with a loss of power. (WARNING: do not unplug the AMM or plug it in with the key in the ignition. Have it off and maybe even disconnect the - battery cable (blue going to a bolt on the body).

I took two pick ends this time and applied more pressure to the half dozen hard to reach metal clips inside the larger connecting plastic plug. I unhooked the battery for 10 minutes too and reset the computer while unplugging the AMM. I learned recently the true capabilities of the main ECU having a strange personality by causing a bad idle when messing with the AMM. By switching out the 83 wagon's Air Mass Meter with a rebuild off Ebay that I had been saving, while the battery was unhooked resetting itself, I fixed the cold start bad idling probem that would cause the car to die the first few minutes. My niece's 244 did the same thing a couple weeks before when I was just about to sell it. They where going to pick it up that day and then it just started idling strange after switching out an AMM from a junk yard to fix a high idle on a her 1990 244. Her bad idle problem was also fixed by unhooking the "ground" to the battery (- blue). The AMM I had in the 83 wagon was a rebuilt AMM from a local parts car that seemed to work fine at first. I really need a dwell meter to correctly adjust the meters. The combination of things worked and the car has the power like my 86 sedan.

I still have some items of need on the wagon but the engine is now running well. After replacing the engine harness, distributor, intake gasket, cleaned throttle body, replaced AMM and FPR and the Idle Control Valve, along with the rims with tires and back to the original hubcaps from my long gone 83 tan sedan of a few years back. Disconnected the leaking pre-oiler and racing filter along with removing the oil cooler and restoring it back to the screw on run of the mill oil filter screwed right to the engine.

Got the wiring to the tailgate replaced and the wiper motor running. I found a page of notes from the past owner trying to figure out the stock switch position for the windshield wipers. I've taken it from the front wipers being a 2 speed to a stock 3 speed with the replacement of the wiper motor. The rear wiper motor still needs one bolt installed. Maybe the reason the wiring to the fuse box from it was unhooked. Although the rear wiper relay had to be replaced on account it was still behind a foot holder to the side of the clutch pedal. Behind the removable piece of metal secure with 3 small screws are the stock position for the two wiper relays. I rerouted them under the dash above the steering column area as to not get wet and be fried in rust.

Anyways its been a much longer adventure with this car than I thought possible. It just felt right to buy it and the temporary owner before me was getting married. He had no hope of restoring it. Its made me want to restore it fully one day. Paint and everything. But I'm sure I've got another 5 to 10 years before that would happen. Now onto the overdrive not engaging and that u-joint or more bushings along with the immediate need to install those boge struts and ball joints up front.

I'm feeling confident that the rear springs off the 89 donor I got for $50 this week seem strong and in great shape. I think they are aftermarket heavy duties, the same I was just about to order new for $85 a pair. Unless I do a full transplant to the 89 from the now in need of structural and floor board surgery, 1986 maroon sedan. Changing out engines, tires, seats, headlights, taillights, brakes, fuel pumps, gas tank, exhaust, trim, hood hinge, instrument cluster, relays, seat belt, and other things that I've taken off it in the past.

But it has no apparent rust although I don't remember for certain if it has been damaged by a forklift like the 84 I bought along side with it for parts. I don't think it did since I had taken the CAT off it so they didn't have reason to lift it lazily. Anyways....

mother hips @ desert rocks May 09 - In the flash flood hills near Moab, UT

Unedited straight to jpg from NEF/Raw files in order. Its showings up too dark on blogger but this is just a low res sample. Photos after Hips leads into "guitarles in charge" with rotating members of different bands from the festival doing covers while fire dancers dance towards 3 AM.

Play this other video at the same time if you can to have some music with the photographs.

Sonic Youth

It was around the time when my family finally got MTV for the first time or maybe a couple years after (90-91). I was staying up late to watch 120 minutes since most of everything else on MTV at that time sucked like it does now. This video hit a chord with me and my ideals at the time. It resembled the shows I'd been to at that point in my life. Had that cool local feel with a good song. I recorded a number of different songs by bands but this video was the best one by far. I'd replay the VHS over and over to get that vibe being instilled like the shows by my favorite local at the time, the Gladbirds.

This week I finally got to see Sonic Youth play live. I didn't know what to expect. I heard a new album of theirs about 5 years ago but didn't really get into it at the time. But I went to the free show in downtown SLC out of feeling nostalgic. The show went beyond my open expectations. They played with a cooler vibe and well, I just can't go on without trying to describe a better than expected show. Really a great moment. They played two encores and that really didn't seem like enough. Can't believe I've put off prior opportunities to see them play live.

The merch guy is probably the funniest thing about the video. The photos above are a couple from the 200 I shot. Most of them though aren't anything great. I didn't have the best spot.

castle trip #6 July 2nd 09/ July 8th photos

woodpecker took the opportunity after the damage.




I made it up to the castle finally after a couple months. I was stunned to see how beautiful the trees had filled in with leafs since the last visit. The south stairs and floor where covered with thick green foliage that made a nice room type place. Sad destruction to report since the last visit to one particular little tree that borders the south side of the rock floor. The tree had three limbs of equal size about 3 inches in diameter. I had a metal wire holding them together in an attempt to guide it upwards and then out. But now two of those branches have been twisted off in some ass's attempt to make a fire, I guess. A couple other branches littered the area around the castle that I believe came off the large tree. The main tree had a 5 inch spot hacked at its base with maybe a hatchet. Damn kids is what I'm thinking. This is going to lead to more frequent visits at sunset in hopes of catching the guilty party. I'm also thinking of getting a metal sign to put high on the telephone pole on the way to the castle with rules of conduct.

Rules
#1 No Glass
#2 Bring your own damn wood
#3 pack out what you pack in
#4 don't move the rocks

Anyways I worked a couple hours including picking up all the large glass pieces I could find in the castle. I also deconstructed part of the stone floor and made some real progress in it construction near where the large boulder use to stand. I arranged some rocks near the fire pit on the top of the front wall and rolled a large rock into the castle in preparations for its use somewhere. I did some more surveying on the idea of incorporating the trees to the south east with more stone floor and stairs. Time to get my camera up there after the next effort at its new developments.

castle trip today #'s 4 & 5

I need to take my camera to the castle but either way I still go without it when the opportunity presents. Today I got some time to head up to do some more work. I went last thursday too and did a fair amount of work on the front wall. Had some visitors again, this time with a couple guitars and purple fragrance. About time for some sage incense making.

Today I got a lot done with the front wall now built nearly straight up from the large base rocks that use to sit out from the castle wall with nothing on top. The front wall will have a circular feel to it extending out a couple feet from where the fire pit is. Hoping to make room for a couple more people to sit comfortably around the fire. I also took a nice chunk of time to dig out the fire pit and use the ash for fill between the rocks on the rock floor. I had so much fill that I just started to throw in into the new front wall that has a couple more feet to go. I got the outer part of the front wall built strong and started to disassemble the wall directly behind the fire pit to move it back a couple feet.

I was able to find quite a few rocks in front of the castle to help build the wall up. I rolled a few more big ones down to the back wall too. The main entrance had some rearrangements and a couple new big rocks added. I spaced the rocks around the tree near the main entrance to allow it space to grow. I also added charcoal and ash to its base along with most of the other trees.

I contemplated extending the castle rear wall out about 4 feet allowing the two big boulders to have the ability to free stand with a few large rocks as stairs. I'd like to incorporate a line of trees on the southeast side of the castle but would need to prune and make a wall that included them in. That would pretty much double the size of the inside area of the castle. Make it more of a garden around the south and east sides while preserving the front wall.

The front wall is taking shape. The fire pit will be surrounded by what appears to be a circle within the larger circle that the castle makes. The two circles connect behind the fire on the front wall. Thinking of maybe having access to the fire from all sides. That would be accomplished by having large flat stones arranged as large steps on the inside of the front wall leading down to the pit. The steps would make the seating into a circle rather than a half circle. I realized that the fire is prone to break the rocks that surround it. Kind of like the idiots who built a fire in the past week right in front of the large sitting rocks causing one to break a layer off.

After seeing the damage to the valuable sitting rocks I found a perfect staff for digging out the fire pit. A paper plate and cup where the first items used to remove the wet ash but they gave way to a powerade plastic bottle. I had to use my finger nail clippers to puncture a hole for my car key to get in and be used in a sawing motion until I got the top off. I filled that thing for an hour or more. The rock floor looks more flat and even now with the filled in cracks. Once the wall behind the old pit is removed I'll have more ash to clean out. I think the pit will need to be dug down a foot below the ground level.

It seemed like after working for 4 hours today that I hadn't done anything. It kind of feels the same even though its different. I got a nice sunburn on my arms and face. Caught a tic on my arm too today which kind of worries me since my mom once had a bite from a deer tic put her in the hospital with a staff infection.

castle trip today #3

I got done working in Provo on some drywall patches around 7:30pm. Enough time these days to head up the mountain a bit and view the sunset. I surveyed the work I did on my last visit making use of the softening light to aid viewing the castle from all directions. I spent 45 minutes moving some rock around. I made the sitting area to the north of the fire pit much more suitable for sitting. I found and used on that part one of the two good sized light weight rocks Wade T. and I hauled from Rock Canyon's riverbed some 16 years ago. I remember the German hitch hiker we picked up in Price on the way home from Moab with Anne C., Christian from Hamburg, was with us that day.

Those two rocks have fragments through out the walls since they broke up easily. I set a large tan rock that I rolled last week from around the back of the castle. It has a nice flat seat to it and was set perfectly next to the large whitish rock on the south side of the fire pit. I moved the rocks I'd placed between the front wall and rock floor, they had been placed there to get an idea of what an expansion of the rock floor would look like leading over to the front wall. This time I made the attempt to see what a dirt trail would look like sloping as it already does down between the large tree and split rock.

I also moved some smaller rocks around a small tree on the edge of the rock floor to allow for it to successfully grow a wider trunk. The wire hanger is still holding its three main branches together in hopes of it growing up rather than outward. I've now realized the the walls need to made taller than they have been in the past at the same time being safe to walk on. The image in my brain of my first summer time visit to the castle is reoccurring with a longing for that tall bowl feel. I thought the two large boulders on the back wall where better off being the tallest part of the back wall. But maybe having a foot above them along the very back would add some interesting feel.

I've also been envisioning a gathering of 30 souls for a concert of sorts. I think the rock floor makes for a good stage and the rest of the castle could easily seat a gathering. Thats part of my reasoning for the walls to be taller, to try and hold in the sound. The front wall is being envisioned more as a cresent moon with nice large stairs/seating on the southern third. Having the front wall taller above the fire might make for a walking path along the middle of the west side of the wall a needed asset. That way the rocks would stay put above the fire and used as a railing of sorts. I always hated to see someone right above the fire when they didn't know better.

It would be nice to have a castle building day once a year. Employing a handful of people with the legendary but as of yet unconstructed boulder carrier would be nice. The area to the north west of the castle has plenty of large rocks that could be used to raise the height of the walls. The lower rock castle to the north of main castle is in ruins at the moment thanks to a boulder rolling though it in '05. I think its time to build it up a little in an attempt to leave the floor open but then decide which rocks could be sacrificed for the Rock Castle.

I noticed some new signs of falling rock while I was heading up there. It appears that there was another large boulder that made a crater on the shoreline trail near where the castle's trail starts. It wasn't there last week. I've figured out that if a rock fall is observed above the castle then one should run south towards the red rock slides, that is if the rock fall is grey rock. Looking over the land it appears that is the safest direction to run out of the range of rolling grey rock. If an earth quake is felt at the same time then one is pretty much screwed. I haven't figured out any safe place to hide in such an occasion.

While I was there the thought of how nicely hidden the castle is came to mind. Then before I was to leave two guys in their late 20's came strolling up. One wanted to talk too much and the other had a backpack with no words other than to shut his dog up. For some reason the dog was freaking out a bit over me being there. I had to wonder by the way the one was talking whether or not they where cops in plain clothes. He kind of had that look to me. But the other was looking like he just wanted a beer out of his backpack. The one talker claimed to have never known about the place and said well maybe the other guy had known about it. Kind of sketching on me or something. Kind of bugged me and made me laugh at the same time. About that time the last of the after glow was going and it was getting dark. I bailed the other way and didn't see where they went. Always someone showing up.

I also took a stick to the fire pit and found a lot of smaller rocks in with the ash and charcoal. Can't wait to get that thing cleaned out and reshaped. I took the end of the stick dirtied by stirring the ask and traced over the etching in the boulder. It made it less pronounced but still showed clearly thanks to the modeling of the sunset's light.
Good times.

rock and roll

I've made two trips to the Rockcastle in the past month. Its been over 5 years since I've had any desire to work on it, maybe in part since I've been occupied with manual labor instead of school. I was hoping some younger stranger would surprise me with something new. I've instead have found it to be torn apart and half rebuilt. Which is where I found it a few weeks ago on a warmish day that inspired me to move a few rocks. I had no preconceived idea that I would actually work on the place but a medium sized rock sitting out on the middle of the floor needed to be moved.

The back (east) wall was mostly gone inside the castle with large stones I'd set in place years ago still hanging on with nothing to help support from below. I enjoyed the way they could remain in place without the stones below but felt a little unhappy that people have to destroy more than they build up. That has been the story since the time I began taking on what once was to what it might become. I have labored before for 5 hours most of one day and by the next there would be havoc wrecked on the work done the day before. I suspected young high schoolers needing to play out their drinking rage. One time in 93 nearly half the wall on top where toppled down filling in the bowl that the castle resembled then. Full destruction prevailed in part thanks to a large wooden staff that I had been using to build with and left out in the open.

The original Rockcastle as I saw it, in what must of been around 1992, (first heard about in 1990 from my brother) was somewhat different than what it has become to be now. My favorite tree has been destroyed in part by man and nature. The south wall is now a rock floor patio accompanied with stairs and seating for those hot summer days under the largest and oldest scrub oak treee on the mountain. My main memory of the walls where that of loose rock piled high with larger flat rocks placed on top the front wall making for great places to sit and look out over the valley.

The Castle today has a front wall made by some local kids who I met just before leaving the other day, earth day. Its been constructed tall and thin for keeping the fire hidden as they described the reason to me. One said, "we didn't know anyone else really knew about the place". I told them a brief account of my brother and his friends and my friends a few years later. They had heard about us. I didn't inquire much and left pretty quickly as to allow the two guys and their girlfriends ample time to enjoy the sunset. Plus I stunk like I'd been moving rock for a few hours.

The first visit this year sparked something within me when I arrived to find the place in a dismal display. The first rock I moved was sitting on the dirt floor of the castle. It didn't appear to be too big to lift onto the back wall. I attempted to lift it without respect for its condensed matter and instantly felt a pull in my lower back. It hurt but I kept on for another hour and half rebuilding the wall. I made sure each time my back was straight and I was using my legs or used the other method of just rolling it up the wall. I find rolling the rocks an enjoyable activity. It amazes me mid movement of rocks that I can control it relatively easy as I control roll up and down walls. I rolled a new rock that I found behind the castle, a piece that must of broke off the 10 foot boulder that skipped through the castle in '05.

My back ached for a couple days until I got an ibuprofen 800 from a friend and stood next to a fire the following friday night. Saturday it felt like new and I was happy until around 7pm when I was checking over my camera gear before leaving for a show in Salt Lake. I bent over while sitting on my desk chair, holding my camera in my lap with knees together an all at once my lower back froze on me and sent pain through out my back and legs. I couldn't unbend my back while I made it to the floor next to my bed. After a couple minutes I somehow struggled to lay on the bed sideways. It took me 20 minutes before I felt safe to get up and even then it was tricky. I missed the show, the Hold Steady, but the last thing I was going have was that same thing happen with a couple hundred people watching an hours drive from home.


The memories of building on the castle are always stirred up by familiar rocks that I have moved a number of times. I'm sure I've moved each stone at the castle at least once if not a half dozen times. Some are like old friends that come alive as I find them under other rocks since the half strewed rebuilding. I can even recall certain moments with others who actually put some work into moving or laying the floor. Steve M. put the big red rock at the start of the floor and it took three of us less time to roll the largest elongated boulder in front of the fire pit for seating than it took for me to persuade them to help roll it. Paul G. and Ryan B. can be credited for that move one summer day.

I hope to add a little extra space around the fire pit by moving the west wall a couple feet out. The base already stretches out in a useless fashion on the bottom outer side. I feel like the wall could be reconstructed to allow safe climbing on all sides. Something I've noticed with people's activity at the castle is that they really want to be able to just move over all of it. So I'll attempt to make it safe from all directions of travel. That takes away from its height in some ways but keeps rocks from being knocked loose and falling on others.

I envisioning there to be stairs made of sitting rocks leading a top the split boulder near the tree. Thinking about opening up the inside of the castle south of the fire pit with these "stairs" that can serve also as a small bowl of its own. I've began to envision a circle of stairs and stone floor around the large tree. Still contemplating a possible archway making use of the split boulder but that is still just a thought.

The fire pit needs to be dug out with its pile of ashes rising up 3 feet above the somewhat buried charcoal covered floor between the sitting rocks and the pit. Which is great stuff for filling in the rock floor which has lost its flatness to erosion between rocks. I've started to work on the front wall in an effort to make it walkable again. The visitors who appeared the other day instantly made use of the part I'd rebuilt. It was good to see someone standing on the wall and looking out over the valley. The fire pit will be elongated to allow more patrons to enjoy. I think it will have the wall directly above it rise higher than the rest of the wall in a roller coaster fashion. Hopefully that will shield fire light from the city and give some wind protection to the fire. Give it some curve appeal too.

Who knows where it will end up. This could be my one last go at it or just one more phase of its constant change. Here are some shots of what it looked like on earth day before I did much to it. Who say's a recession is a bad thing, not when it gives way for working on the castle. I've also contemplated ways to obscure the etching of "the rockcastle" by dirtying it up over time by rubbing dirt and bark in the grooves. Hoping to aid its aging and hide a major regret of it ever existing. The direction I hope to make with aesthetics combines a mix of raw dry stacked rock influence by natural rock fall with the mingling of squared crafted usable compositions in form or stairs and seating.