Harvesting Rocks...

We've been busy with household chores the last couple of weeks. Nancy's been tending to her flower beds and I've been working on our garden. I've had vegetable gardens in the past and they've been very productive. But since retiring and moving north in 2010, this will be my first year with a garden in 16 or 17 years. Funny, but I don't remember it being so much work!

In the 1990's, when I put in my last garden, the soil in my backyard was heavy, with more clay, but there were a lot fewer rocks. I guess the soil of northern Wisconsin is a lot different than it is 150 miles away in the Minneapolis suburbs. I would have liked to buy a new 48" tiller for the back of my tractor, but it made more since to just find an older, walk behind tiller like I had before. I watched Craigslist for a while and found a Simplicity 1005 tiller that was not too far away and at a reasonable price. It's 40 years old but the 5 HP Briggs and Stratton still runs great!.

Tilling the garden has been a lot of hard work. Getting the big rocks out has been the hard part! I till a few feet and dig up a rock, till a few feet, another rock...
I filled the tractor bucket quite a few times and broke a shovel handle trying to get out a really big one. I think I'm just about done harvesting rocks.

Just about ready... 24' x 24' with room to expand. I'll get 3 or 4 yards of compost and get it tilled in by the weekend.

I thought that I was done with my trailer the last time I posted, but I found a few more things to fix. I remember seeing pictures of trailer suspensions that people had forgotten to service. Well, my trailer is 40+ years old, so I thought I should take a closer look at the spring shackles. I'm glad I did. I found a lot of wear in the shackle holes and the bolts that attach them. The holes should be 1/2", they've grown over the years. My riding buddy, John, made me a new set, one inch longer for a bit higher ride. Thanks John!!

Old shackles and bolts...

New...

I added a retaining pin to keep the tail gate from popping out.

I hasn't been all work though. On Sunday, we went for our first kayak ride of the season. We checked the conditions of the Namekagon River on the National Parks Service web site, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) web site. Both showed low water levels, so we decided to put in further down stream than normal, with hopes of finding deeper water. We started at the Spring brook Landing...

...and got out 4.9 miles down steam at the Big Bend Landing...

It was a fun trip, even with a strong head wind. We saw lots of wildlife and heard Chickadees and Pileated Woodpeckers. There were many spots where Turtles were sunning themselves. Often singly, or groups of 2 or 3. We saw one group of about 9 to 12 very large Turtles at one point. But they ducked into the water before either of us could get their picture.

There were several trees that had been chewed on Beavers...

More pictures...

Some of Nancy's...

Spring is here. The grass is green, the trees have buds but only a few have any leaves yet and there are dandelions in the yard.

It's hard to believe but two years ago, on this same weekend, the Fishing Opener, all the lakes in northern Wisconsin were still frozen over...

First Real Ride of the Season.

Yesterday, the sun was shining but it was still kind of cool. I decided to take the Zx14 out for the first real ride of the season. I rode a little over 80 miles. While on my ride the odometer turned over 49,000 miles.

I headed north from Cable and west on Co Hwy N from Drummond. At Hwy 27 I turned to go north. I wanted to get some pictures of a local "shoe tree".

There were also a couple of old cars (model "T"s maybe?) parked in a near by woods. I find weird things like that interesting...

The rest of the trip was just down Hwy 27 to Hayward and back up 63 to home. It felt good to get on a bike and ride!


This Spring, I've kept busy mostly by working on projects in the garage while Nancy worked in the yard. I finally finished my trailer rebuild. I stained and sealed the last of the side boards. A few weeks ago I had new trailer tires mounted on the wheels...

The tailgate is not in the picture but it's finished too.

I've also made a few modifications to the new tractor. I bypassed the RIO (Reverse Implement Option), it's a switch that kills the tractor dead if you are using the PTO (Power Take Off) and try to reverse the tractor without first lifting up on the PTO switch while cutting grass, using the snow blower, tilling.... Taking one hand off the rest of the controls.... I don't see why Deere couldn't just have the RIO system disengage the PTO and not kill the whole tractor. Lawyers I suspect.... It's right up there with labels on hand held hair driers warning you not to use them in the shower!

I disabled a very sensitive seat switch. I couldn't tilt my butt when looking backwards without killing the tractor...

...added a couple of grab hooks to the top of the bucket...

...almost finished my ballast box. I just need to cut up a rubber mat to cover the sand. I don't want the cats to think I gave them a new "bathroom"...

This winter, I found a large 3'x4' map of the U.S. and colored in as many of the roads from my motorcycle trips as I could remember. Unfortunately the level detail on the map is pretty low or there would be a whole lot more ink around the Black Hills in SD, Eureka Springs, AR and Estes Park, CO.

Happy Birthday Ninja!!

The next ride will be to get pictures of yet another local, but much less decorated, "shoe tree"... Maybe some Cranberry bog shots too.

I Don't want to Jinx Myself....

....but it was exactly a year ago that I posted these pictures of the snow in the yard....

Today, one year later, the view is much different...

I know that by posting these pictures, I risk Mother Nature's revenge and face the potential for a huge dumping of snow. I'll take that risk.

In the past few weeks we've had some unseasonably warm temperatures. It's has cooled off the last few days, so much so that we're back to fires in the fireplace. This may not have been the snowiest winter, but it certainly has been a cold one.

The motorcycles are still sleeping in the garage but I've been hearing some grumbling from them. So it wont be long until they wake up and get out for their first spring ride.

I've started to work on a few garage projects. I added an elbow to the exhaust on my John Deere tractor. The factory exhaust aims forward, and blows onto the back of the snow blower. The warm exhaust warms the steel on the left side of the blower and a lot of the snow sticks to the inside. A short piece of 1.5" diameter chrome plated brass drain pipe will cure that problem.

I cut a few short slits in the new pipe and forced it over a 1 1/16" impact socket to expand it just enough to slip over the tip of the exhaust. I secured it with a hose clamp. I'll try it this way, but it might have to be modified slightly in case it catches in the weeds or comes to close to the loader frame.

This winter I added a SpeeCo Quick Hitch to the three point hitch of the tractor. This makes the job of attaching implements much easier.

I've been working on a ballast box for the tractor. I got a good deal on some 70 pound bags of sand (dirt cheap) and picked up some PVC pipe to put in the box so I can carry a chain saw, a few yard tools and some logging chains with me. I need some warmer weather so I can finish some painting and then add 500 pounds of sand. The ballast box is primarily used with the front end loader, but it will also add some extra traction in the rear when used with the snow blower.

I moved the tail light/flashers to the inside of the roll bar. The fixtures are plastic and I figured the first time I cut the grass I'd get too close to a tree branch and knock one of them off.

Over the winter, my buddy, John, has provided me with 3 large pallets and lots of extra lumber. The pallets are 110 inches long and will be perfect for stacking more firewood!

One project I managed to get done before winter came was making covers for the 2 huge basement window wells. A few treated 2x4s and some clear corrugated polycarbonate, and no more snow in the wells and plenty of light. The temps in the window well were often warm enough to open the windows and give the cats a treat of semi-outdoor warm sunshine.

No matter what the weather does in the next few weeks, spring is not far away. The sap is flowing in the maple trees. There was a "sap-sicle" hanging off this maple yesterday, but only a "sap-cube" remains today... Look close..

Frustrated....

Even as the bikes are sleeping in the garage for the winter, life goes on. Today, it was time to change the oil in my truck. I hate that job.... Why? It's not hard, but the oil change on my truck is just unnatural...

I've been wrenching on cars, trucks, lawnmowers, heavy equipment and motorcycles since my high school days, and I graduated in 1978... so I've done a few things. I took Auto Shop my junior year and have been doing all my own brake jobs, wheel bearings, tire rotations, transmission fluid/filter changes, engine oil changes, grease jobs, tune ups, water pumps, belts, hoses and exhaust work since then. I serviced my parents' and sister's cars.
Back when cars had points and a distributor, I changed points, set ignition timing and dwell, changed countless spark plugs and air filters, adjusted choke coils, replaced carburetors and intake manifolds.
I've swapped a few engines, replaced the main bearings and oil pump in a 3.8 L Buick V6, replaced a clutch in a Ford Ranger pick up truck, swapped a few GM TH-400 automatic transmissions, changed the turbo charger on a 1980 Pontiac 301c.i.d. Trans-Am...

I mount and balance my own motorcycle tires, replace my own sprockets and chains, change engine oil, brake fluid, air filters...

30 years ago, I worked in the shop of a excavation and demolition company and I bought Snap-on tools off the truck that would come around each Friday afternoon.

I consider myself at least semi mechanically inclined.

But I absolutely hate changing the oil in my truck. It didn't help that it's -5 deg F outside, and the garage was just above freezing. Just warm enough to have the ice/snow built up under the truck melt and drip on me as I'm rolling around under it.

The oil filter on GM's 5.3 liter is mounted vertically and recessed a ways up toward the engine block. I have to use a cup style oil filter wrench on a 12" extension. Because of the vertical orientation of the filter and the fact that the truck is up on ramps, oil runs down the sides of the filter as it's being loosened. It drips onto the side of the oil pan, onto the frame and skid pans... It drips down onto my hands, runs up my arms...

Then, the drain plug is positioned horizontally... So when I remove it, 6 quarts of warm oil shoot out almost 2 feet... It's a huge pain to try and catch it in a drain pan. After a few seconds the flow slows down and the oil falls almost vertically... Better keep an eye on things or the oil will be falling on the floor and not in the pan(that's happened more than once)...

On 2 of my motorcycles the oil filter is horizontal and the drain plugs are vertical. When I loosen the oil filters, oil drips out in a single, easy to catch, stream. The oil drains from the sump straight down.... No messes, no spills, no surprises. Oh, if everything in life were that easy!

To top it all off, I spilled a bunch of the drain oil as I was pouring it into my 7 gallon waste oil container! The last time I brought my drain oil into town to recycle it, the place I took it to wouldn't take all my oil. Their tank was full. I had to bring home nearly half my old oil. I knew it would be close, but I over filled the container and made a mess on the garage floor. I had to find a milk jug to pour the last of the oil into. I'll be taking the oil in this week... I hope they have room for it all this time.

Sorry for whining, but I feel better now... or for at least the next 3000 miles...