Saving the Universe in Fairview, Mt Pleasant, and Fountain Green

If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend taking the US-6 exit in Spanish Fork off I-15, then go south at the US-89 junction until you hit Mt. Pleasant, go west on SR-116 then at Moroni head NW on SR-139 through Fountain Green and back to I-15.
Total travel time: 1.5 - 2 hrs.
[These pictures were taken in the last 3 weeks. They are not sequential but they are more or less in the order you would see them if you were to make the drive.]















An odd looking morning as I begin my drive.

New windmills going up at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. They may look small...

But as you can see they're ginormous.

...and pretty in the right sunlight.















The landslide at Thistle Creek.
The backed up water had a bit of an impact...















Here's a victim. This house is on the opposite side of the hill to the left of the landslide.















I've seen better locations for sheds. There's actually a lot of destruction from the landslide and the ensuing flooding that's still visible. Abandoned homes, dead trees and the like.















Breathtakingly beautiful countryside.











































But watch for falling rocks.





























Found 18 miles east of Fairview.















Carbon footprint.





















































































...aaaaand we're done. Now wasn't that a lovely little drive?

Nicest Day of the Year So Far

So why not spend some time on the golf course?

Saving the World in American Fork

Today my work took me to the Main St. exit in American Fork.

Kamas

Ain't nothing wrong with spending a Sunday with some friends in Kamas, UT.

How to Live with an 89 Jeep Cherokee, Part 1: Replacing the Windshield Wiper Motor

A few days ago I got into my 89 Jeep Cherokee to leave work. It was raining so I turned my wipers on. They made it about halfway up the windshield and stopped. That was a fun drive home. They would go home if I pushed them down while they were turned on but they would never complete a full cycle.

After doing a little online research I determined that I needed to replace my windshield wiper motor. Here's how I did it.

Job: Replace windshield wiper motor.
Time it took me: about 2 hours.
Time it could've taken me: 45 minutes.
Total cost: about 100 bucks.

First thing's first. Here are the tools you're going to need:A phillips head screwdriver.

A 7/16" socket.

A T27 hex wrench.

A 10mm crescent wrench.

The wiper motor looks like this:

You can find it here:















The first step is to take the wipers off. This was kind of a pain in the butt for me but it's really quite simple. There's a tab at the pivot point of the wipers. Lift the wiper arm up and slide the tab out. It won't pull all the way out, it stops itself. Now, just pull the wiper off. A good idea at autozone.com is to put something in the space created when you pull the wiper arm out so that it's easier to put back on. I got stuck on this part for a loooong time because my wiper arms were so stubborn at the pivot. I eventually had to throw a washcloth over the base of the arm and pull it off with vice grip pliers.















There are about 8 or 9 screws that you'll have to take out with your phillip's head to take the cowl off.














All that's really under the cowl is the wiper motor so everything you see under it is relevant. As you can see, the washer fluid hoses are still attached so give those a pull and they'll come right off. The motor is held in place by a few bars, the linkage. The linkage is attached to the body of the jeep. You'll need the hex wrench to detach it from the jeep. What you'll end up pulling out looks like this:














It's no picnic getting this thing out either. It's crammed in there and I'm pretty sure there's only one possible way of maneuvering it so that it comes out.

Now all you have to do is unscrew the motor from the linkage, put the new motor on, and put it all back together again. When I pulled my motor out I realized I may not have had to even replace the motor altogether. Here's what I found:














The triangle of holes is where the screws attach the motor to the linkage. One of my screws had come out about a half an inch. This prevented the motor from completing a full turn. All I really had to do was screw that in and I'm almost 100% positive that that would've fixed my problem. I could've tried it and if it worked I could've gotten my money back for the new motor, but oh well.

And I think that's it. I'll put a few more pictures up.















The box for my new wiper motor!














The back side of the motor attached to the linkage.