Just when I thought it was over...

We have had a ton of snow this year. However, during the last week or so we have had temperatures in the 50's and most of the snow has melted. It was very nice to see the snow go and have that "spring" feeling in the air. Just like the nature of March, having the snow melt was not the end of winter. A couple days ago we got a wet four to five inches of muck, which started as rain, then the rain froze, then we got sleet, then snow. With this latest snow fall, we are now ranking the 5th snowiest winter on record with 84.7 inches! After having to shovel/snow blow this latest mess, I officially declared I am done with winter! Bring on spring! Here are a couple shots of the front and back yard to see the melting/accumulation progress:

03/17/11

03/24/11

Out to Pasture...

Shannon and I had some decisions to make about what to do with the Suburban. As I mentioned in a previous post, it would cost about $1000 to fix the Suburban. This would have normally been the choice I would have taken, but the Suburban didn't really offer many other redeeming qualities. It had 200,000 miles on the original drive train, the body was getting destroyed by rust, the 10 mpg and 44 gallon gas tank isn't exactly economical, and, well, it is 11 years old! My big fear was that we would spend the $1000 and get the transfer case replaced and three months later the transmission, engine, or rear axle would go out and then what would we do?!

So, we made the decision to replace the Suburban. I figured we would just get another Suburban (or Yukon XL), just find something newer with much less miles. Well, even with gas prices at $3.50 a gallon, the Suburbans on the used car market were still demanding a premium. I wasn't about to pay $10 - $15k for a 10 year old Suburban with 100,000 miles on it! I also did some thinking and realized as nice as it is having a Suburban sized vehicle, I really only used all the "size" for about ten days out of the year and the other 355, I drove around a huge vehicle for no reason! With that realization, we started looking at Tahoes and Yukons. It didn't take long to eliminate these as options either for the same reasons as the Suburbans! They are just too popular right now and the prices are not dropping on the used car market! We looked at a 2007 Tahoe with 150,000 miles on it and they were asking $25k for it!!! No thanks!

So, we went down one more size and started looking at the Chevrolet Trailblazers and GMC Envoys. We both really liked this option. These offered a nice sized SUV that would fit our family perfectly, got decent gas mileage, was easy to drive, and had better value on the used car market. After looking at a few, we decided a 2006 or newer, GMC Envoy is what we wanted. I wanted it to have as low as mileage as possible and not be white in color, other than that, I didn't have many demands. I did a few hours of internet searching and ended up finding one at a Walser dealership in Roseville and one at another Walser dealership here in Bloomington. The one I found in Bloomington had just been taken in on a trade and was not ready, but they said they could get the one from Roseville brought down to Bloomington for us to look at! Sounded good to me, since I didn't really want to drive to Roseville! When it arrived Shannon, Maeve, and I took it for a drive and loved it. Walser gave us what I wanted for the 'burban on a trade and we had a deal!

So, we are now the proud owner's of a 2006 GMC Enovy SLE! It has a 4.2L Inline 6 cylinder motor (291 hp!), four speed automatic transmission, four wheel drive, air conditioning, power window, power locks, keyless entry, cruise control, tilt steering, rear window wiper/washer/defogger, AM/FM Stereo/Cassette/CD Player, automatic headlights, fog lights, full gauges, power sunroof, leather seats, dual power front seats, roof rack, alloy wheels, and a towing package!

It has just over 70,000 miles on it. It was originally a rental car in Hawaii then was shipped back over to the mainland and sold to a lady in Amery, WI. The vehicle is very clean and well taken care of! It handles like a dream and performs very well. It is quick! This is the newest and lowest mileage vehicle I have ever had! It is nice having a nicer car!

All of the staff at Walser commented on what good shape the Suburban was in. Which made me wonder if they were just trying to make me feel good, or they get some really crappy cars on trade! Either way, they said the 'burban would go right to auction and who knows where from there! It might even end up in Mexico like my old truck! I had the Suburban for almost exactly four years and put 32,200 miles on it, which ends up being a little over 8,000 miles a year! I hope it has a little life left in future!

SNOW!!!

This post is actually current time now, so I am 100% caught up with my journal! I am REALLY going to try and stick with my "once a week" posting for the rest of the year! I'm not holding my breath however...

Anyway, I really picked a bad time to take a vacation from my blog. This winter we have had a TON of snow. I don't know where we are but we are within a few inches of being the snowiest winters on record. We have had three significant (over ten inch) snowfalls since November. I had to get the snowmobile out and run it in the backyard because Bear could not make it through the snow! We also had a week of temperatures in the 50's that actually exposed some grass! It would have been real cool to show weekly updates on how high the snow was, but maybe next time. I do have a couple front and back yard shots to share and hopefully more to come!

02/14/11

03/09/11

We were supposed to get about two to six inches of snow today, which ended up being about a wet inch or so and it has all since melted. I know they have another "event" forecasted for this weekend, but it sounds like it is going to be a wintry mix and mainly rain and sleet. I am happy with the snow fall this year, but I am about done dealing with it at work and not having four wheel drive in the Suburban makes it a little more of an annoyance than normal!

That Old 'burban...

My Suburban has been getting close to this milestone for a while now, but since I only put about 6,000 miles on it a year it has taken a little longer than expected.

I was pretty proud of the ol' girl for making it this long. This is actually the second vehicle I have driven to the 200,000 mile mark. My old pickup was the first and I was actually only a couple thousand miles away from hitting 300,000 with that one!

However, turning 200,000 miles isn't all a celebration for the Suburban. The last year or so has been REALLY hard on the body. The right rear quarter panel and bottoms of both door have significant holes caused by rust damage. It needs new tires and front brakes. Also, during one of the major snowstorms we have had this year, the four wheel drive stopped working and I literally got stuck in the street in front of my house. Not having four wheel drive is a significant issue with this vehicle, so Dad and I did some testing and research. The four wheel drive would work just fine when it wasn't under a load (on jack stands), but when it was on the ground it wouldn't work. Long story short, sometime all of the fluid in the transfer case has leaked out and it was running dry. I am partially to blame for not checking it when I changed the oil. The reason I never checked it, because I could never find the fill plug (which looked different than every other I had seen and was wedged behind a transmission cross member). Anyway, the transfer case uses "wet" clutch disc which need fluid to work. The entire transfer case smelled like a burnt out clutch or transmission. I finally found the special GM transfer case fluid and topped off the two quart capacity transfer case with two quarts of transfer case fluid!

I was holding my breath that putting this fluid in, would magically make the four wheel drive work again, and that I didn't destroy the transfer case, but sure enough, no four wheel drive. After doing a little research, it turns out that this specific transfer case has a design flaw that causes it to loose it's fluid. I'm guessing mine fell victim to this design flaw also. I did a little checking and a used transfer case is about $750, a remanufactured one is about $950 and both of those prices are with me removing and installing the replacement unit.

I still don't know what we will end up doing, either fixing or replacing the Suburban, but either way, 200,000 miles is pretty impressive!