A Project for After the Riding Season...

When I was just a little boy, back about 45 years ago, my father and his brother, Harry, bought a tractor. They used this little tractor to drag a trailer into the woods with all the gear they'd need for a week of Deer hunting at the shack. The "shack" was on 40 acres that they owned. It was near the Totagatic River Wildlife Area north of Hayward, WI. About a mile and a half off of the closest gravel road, through the woods, along what would later become a snowmobile trail. The shack was built in the early 1900's as a homestead. I can't imagine trying to live in it year round. The Black Flies and Deer Flies must have ate poor Knute Peterson, the homesteader, alive! Folks must have been a whole lot tougher back then!!
I found a few old pictures of the shack. The first one shows the shack and the wood pile at the end of the building. The wood pile was many rows deep and ran the width of it. The rifles hung in the cases outside. If you brought them in to the warm shack after being out in the cold all day, they'd be covered with condensation.

The second shows the plumbing facilities, the little white building on the right... an out house. That was a cold run in the winter! What you can't see is the "ice box", a small wooden box that hung outside on the wall and was used to keep refrigerated things cold.

In about 1975, my father had a heavy duty 4'x8' trailer made. It replaced the old green utility trailer that was made from a model A axle. The guy that built the new trailer for my father, used to build U-haul trailers. It's built like a tank. I still have it! That's my father on the left, me in the trailer, and my uncle Harry on the right.

Here's a picture of my father driving the little Allis-Chalmers model B through the woods, on the way to the shack.

My father's family has owned the same home in the city of Hayward since the early 1900's. My father grew up there, his brother and sister lived there even after their parents passed away. They continued to live there until they passed. When my father passed away in 1991, the family home became my mothers property. The tractor remained at the home until my mother started talking about selling the home.
I've keep the tractor with me since the early 1990's It has followed me through 6 different homes and a 13 year marriage.

A few days ago, I rented a car hauler trailer and went down to pick it up from a friends place in Minnesota. He stored it for me so I didn't have to worry about moving it up here last winter.
The tractor is a 1950, Allis-Chalmers, model B, with a PTO, a belt pulley, a hydraulic pump, lights, electric start and a distributor ignition. I know my father had talked about cleaning it up and giving it a fresh coat of A-C Persian Orange paint. He never lived long enough to see that project through. I guess that's been handed down to me to do.

The tractor is now finally back in the north woods of Wisconsin... It's home..

ZX-14 Spark Plugs and Air Filter.

Today was a bright and sunny day, so what did I do? I spent most of the day in the garage working on my ZX-14, getting ready for the trip to Oregon.
The first project was to take off the plastic body panels around the engine. With a nearly naked bike it was time to pull the spark plugs. It wasn't a real difficult job, but I was wishing I had a very small handed helper. The in-line 4 cylinder engine used a stick coil instead of regular spark plug boots and wires. It was a tight squeeze trying to reach between the top of the engine and the frame. There is JUST enough room to pull the coils out of the holes and get the Kawasaki tool kit spark plug wrench in the holes.

Panels off...

Three spark plugs come out from the right side of the engine. It's tight!

One comes out from the left side.

Here are 3 of the 4 stick coils.

The color of the plugs that came out was pretty good. The gap had widened a bit though.

After torquing the plugs, a little dielectric grease around the sealing area of the stick coils to ensure easy removal in another 30,000 miles and help seal out and dirt or moisture.

While I had everything apart, I replaced the air filter too. I had it out a week ago and knocked the bugs and grasshopper parts off of it, but I had to wait for the replacement to get here. I was looking inside the dirty side of the air box. I could see all kinds of bugs and stuff in there. I put a clean bag in the little Oreck vacuum and slipped on the small hose. It took a while but I got all the crap out. I cut open the bag to see just how much stuff was in there!!!

All the air enters through the hole in the front center of the fairing, and runs down 2 plastic tubes into the air box...

All that's left to do before I head out for Oregon is clean and lube the chain, check the air pressure and change the oil.

A Nice Day for a Ride and a Little Excitement!!!

I wanted to get a little ride in today before the weekend comes and the road is full of tourists. I plotted out a 175 mile loop north up to Lake Superior.

I left home and headed west on County Road (CR) M. I gassed up in Cable and turned north on hwy 63. Just south of Drummond, I caught Forest road (FR) 35, north bound. FR 35 is a great twisty road. It's too bad it's posted 45 MPH, but I've been startled by Deer crossing the road a couple of times on it, so I guess it's best to hold it down a bit!

At the north end of FR 35 I turned onto CR H, and followed that to CR E. I took CR E north to US 2. Along E, there were big fields of Alfalfa. The air smelled like sweet summer perfume!

When I crossed over US 2, CR E became Ino(eye-know) Road, or FR 236. It's another awesome road through the north woods. It also is posted 45MPH, but it's do-able faster.

At CR C, I turned north towards Cornucopia. In Corny, I stopped for a quick bottle of apple juice, and I was back on my way. I pulled into the wayside on the east edge of town. The little park looks out onto Lake Superior.

Out of Cornucopia, I went east on hwy 13. I followed that to Bayfield. Bayfield is a small tourist town that has ferry boat service out to Madeline Island. The area is also a big destination for sea kayakers.

Hwy 13 runs through Washburn and Ashland. The Chequamegon Bay was all red from recent storms and rain.

I took 13 out of Ashland down to Mellen, and CR GG towards Clam Lake. GG is yet another north woods gem! From Clam Lake I turned onto CR M and headed for home. I did stop at the dam at the start of the Namekagon River. It's possible to canoe or kayak all the way to the Gulf of Mexico from here. The Namekagon flows into the St. Croix, which flows into the Mississippi.

Headed towards the Gulf.....

So, where was the excitement? I walked into the house to find Nancy mopping up a huge flood. The washing machine that we bought in January after we moved in, decided to overfill and spill all over the floor. I helped her get the water up and dry the floor. I thought everything was good until I went downstairs! There was water in about a quarter of the basement!!!

The Whirlpool repair people will be here next Friday!
It's got to be better tonight!

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A Picture or Four for George.

Here you go George, it's the mystery cat, Orangie... He's usually NEVER seen by strangers. You got lucky when you caught even a glimpse of him. He doesn't like his picture taken and is giving me the Evil Eye! He was a true feral cat that started hanging around our home when we lived in Prescott, WI. It took years for him to trust us enough to let us pet him. It's only been the last 2 years that I've even dared to pick him up without the fear of loosing a finger. I'm still trying to get him to be OK with me rubbing his belly... he's getting there, but only for a minute or so.
He had super bad frost bite on his ears about 3 years ago and that's when he started to live inside full time. Now, I don't think he'd go out if I left the door open. He sees wildlife in the back yard, growls at it and backs away from the patio door. He's turned into a real cuddler at night, and will spend hours in my lap if I sit there and let him.

Here he his with frost bite!!!! FYI, he's all better now as you can see in the above pictures. And here's one Nancy took... Me on the left and George on the right.

So Long, George!

After staying up way too late last night and talking about all things motorcycle, everyone was up by 6:30 this morning. Nancy fixed a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, melon, oranges, and toast. She made coffee, but we were so busy gabbing, that no one drank any!
Too soon it was time and George way on his way west. Just before he left, a Fox walked into the back yard looking for food. George went out to his bike and got his camera. I'm sure he'll post a picture later tonight, but here's a couple from the other day.
I got a picture of his new rear tire. I've seen snow tires with less tread! These things are chunky.
George packed his camera and was ready to leave. He rolled out of the garage, we said our good byes and he was off! So long George, ride safe!