Sad Tractor News...

When I knew I was going to be moving up to northern Wisconsin, I asked a friend of mine if he could store my 1950 Allis-Chalmers "B" tractor in his garage. He said that he had lots of room and it would be no problem.

This spring, when I went to pick it up, I found that it had been sitting outside, and by the looks of it, probably all last winter. When I got it home, I noticed that the oil was over full, and the anti-freeze was low. That's not a good combination.

Today, the weather was nice and the garage was warm, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to look at the tractor. The first thing I did was remove the spark plugs. 3 of them looked normal, 1 was rusty. I put the hand crank on and tried to give the engine a turn. I couldn't budge it. The engine wouldn't turn over. I got out my little Mityvac and hooked up a long plastic tube and the 4 oz. brake bleeding catch can. I put the tube into the #2 cylinder, the one with the rusty spark plug, and pumped. I pumped out 8 oz. of rusty brown water. Not good!

The antique tractor forums are full of suggestions on how to free it up, but most people agree that you have to pull the head to see how bad it is! I really didn't want to tear into it. It was a nice running tractor before this happened. I hadn't had it running in years, but I always kept it inside. It sat outside with no cap on the exhaust and water probably filled the cylinder through an open exhaust valve.

I guess I have to decide what I want to do with it... sell it as an un-running tractor, or tear into it and maybe have to buy an engine rebuild kit? The engine is designed with removable/replaceable cylinder sleeves. They just press out, but it involves a complete tear down. It's possible that the head my have cracked, or the water in the cylinder may have cracked the cylinder if it froze over the winter.

If it hadn't been my father's tractor, and if he hadn't talked about wanting to fix it up and get it painted, I wouldn't feel bad about selling it and replacing it with another Allis-Chalmers B or even a Farmall A, B or Cub. There's a lot of sentimental value in this tractor! I restored the trailer, I guess I could make this live again too.

Snow Removal Equpment

All this talk about snow, and Richard posting a link to a BMW R-motor powered snow blower got me thinking....

And lastly.... This might keep the plow drivers from filling the driveway back up with snow...

None of the images are mine. They were all found with a Google image search...

SNOW!!!!

I woke up this morning to 20°F and it didn't get much better the rest of the day.

It was a light snow, but it snowed most of the day!

It's a good thing I snagged some more dry Oak out of the woods the other day.

About 6 seconds into the video above, one of the cats says hello...

A Cold Fall Ride...

I've been spending so much time cutting and splitting wood that I've neglected the motorcycles lately. Today, I took the FJR out for a spin. I left Cable and headed north. I drove up to Ashland to see Lake Superior. When I left home it was a nice 41°F (5°C). I drove the 40 miles up US-63 and by the time I got to Ashland it was 35°F (2°C).

I drove through the lot of Ashland Toyota. I spotted the kind of car that Nancy might someday buy to replace her aging Scion xA. We've seen the new Scion IQ, but only in white. I wanted to see one in the "Hot Lava" color. The picture I took makes the paint look kind of reddish, but it's orange, bright orange.. It's simiar in size to the Smart car, maybe a bit bigger.

I drove down to the marina. All the boats except one were out of the water.

A few more of Lake Superior...
The old Soo-Line ore docks, being demolished.

The ore docks, the power plant, and straight out is the Ashland breakwater lighthouse. You have to click on the picture to see it.

It was a nice day for a 95 mile road trip

I Really Need to go for a Ride!

I need a break. I spent all day prepping for Winter. I walked through the woods today and cut up 8' sections of downed Oak trees. I shouldered them out of the woods and went back for more. I felt like the Ant from Aesop's Fables, "The Ant and the Grasshopper". Tomorrow I'm going to be the Grasshopper. The high is supposed to be in the mid 40's and I'm going riding!
I made a Sawbuck out of two pallets and two short pieces of chain. It worked pretty slick. I cut 6, 16" lengths from each 8' section. It went pretty fast.

Then I had to split it..

The beauty of the day was not lost in work. I managed to finish dinner just in time to see this..

Tomorrow, I'll move the wood out of the driveway and go for a ride!

A day in the Garage... Part II

I finished cleaning up the garage today. The floor is swept and everything is put away. I put the floor in trailer after giving it a quick coat of sealer. I have to move the 2 bicycles down to the basement. There's still plenty of room for my truck.

A Day in the Garage.

After yesterday's day in the woods, I spent today in the garage. I'm trying to make room for everything in the garage. I should be done tomorrow.

I filled the wood piles in the garage and added a little pile between them. I now have 2.25 face cords of nice, dry Oak ready to go. I have more piles outside.

We finished off some left overs and made a little treat tonight.
In keeping with Trobairitz' and Bob's posts of apple dumplings made with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. We used Pillsbury Cescent Rolls and Hillshire Farm Beef Lit'l Smokies.
Cut each Crescent Roll dough triangle into 3 long skinny triangles, wrap a Lit'l Smokie and place them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Nancy likes a little Parsley on hers. Makes 24 little 2 bite snacks.

This got me reminiscing about my years in Elementary School. My very favorite lunch when I was at Washburn Elementary School in Bloomington, MN was their Pizzaburgers. I still have the old recipe book from a school fund raiser. We made pizzaburgers a while ago and they tasted exactly like I remembered. We don't make them often, they're just a special treat. Comfort Food !!!

The book.

The recipe. It makes 36 pizzaburgers. The recipe could be halved. Luncheon Ham is Spam.

The finished product... mmmmmmm Tasty!!!

Another Day in the Woods.

It was quite cool this morning. A little too cool to take any of the bikes for a ride. So I did the next best thing.

I spent most of the day...

I got to play with these...

While a couple of the cats got a few minutes outside.

When it was all over, I had this...

While I was working outside, Nancy was busy inside....
Brad, Brandy, do you recognize this?

She also made a big pot of vegetable beef soup...

After dinner, I plan to spend some time in front of this...

And maybe some time in here...

After 2 of these..

Where did all the color go?

It's looking like the bright colors of Fall have been replaced by the dead, drab colors of impending Winter. I know that nothing lasts forever, but It would have been nice to have the bright colors last a little longer.

This morning, Martha posted a picture of the woods behind her house. I thought I'd show the difference between today, and just 26 days ago on 9/30/2012...

The woods behind my house... today.

And at the peak of color.

The side of the house by the garage..... today.

The wood piles are growing!

Again, at the peak......

It looks like I'll have to take advantage of any day I can ride between now and Winter.

My Utility Trailer Rebuild Part 2...

Work progresses on the trailer. It's been sandblasted, primed and now painted. Today I finished wiring up the lights. They work like they should and follow the correct wire color usage.
I have yet to find a source for true 2"x2" Oak lumber for the side stakes. I plan to use either plywood or Cedar 1x6 decking for the sides. I may have found a deal on tires.

I present the almost finished project....

This is a much heavier trailer than most 3000# utility trailers on the market. The side and front "C" channels are 5.5 inches tall and the 4 cross beams are 3.75 inches tall. The trailer uses Jeep CJ springs, Rambler hubs and 15" wheels with light truck tires. I think the tires would rub on the fenders before it was structurally stressed! A 3/4 inch 4'x8' piece of plywood slips right in between the frame rail for the bed.
Most of the trailers I've looked at lately have light wight mesh floors and a single light weight square tube that bolts to the trailer for a tongue.

Now, it's almost too nice to park outside!!