A Half a World Away

After a month being home on leave and having fun goofing off - the best man in my wedding, my co-worker, and best friend is leaving for Japan tomorrow.  Not all of you know Connor because he was at boot camp when I started this blog so he has been gone in the Marines for practically the last year.  If I had started this blog sooner Connor would probably have been brought up as much as Allyssia!!  Connor and I started hanging out more when I started working for A. Maurais and Son, which is his father's company.  The two of us have done countless jobs together as the Maurais-Timberlake team. We also hung out outside of work doing just about anything from Connor helping me get tractors, to hiking.

All through high school Connor and I hung out at work and out of work and we even let Allyssia come with us once and a while.  Naturally when Allyssia and I got married Connor was the best man. 

Then Connor joined the United States Marine Corps.  The Marines is something he has been passionate about for years. After 3 months of basic training, a few more months at MCT, and his favorite schooling at Pensacola and Aglin military bases - Connor came home on leave for thirty days. 

Now in thirty days one can only do so much but Connor and I got to hang out quite a bit.  Tomorrow Connor heads back to Florida and then from there heads to his duty station for the next two years in Japan.  We are definitely going to miss Connor being around here for the next two years.  The good news is that even with the time change he can stay caught up to date with what we are doing here as he is one of my most loyal readers!  So stay tuned and check beck often.  And Connor I told you that you would get your own blog post. 

Where does it come from?

My addiction for collecting all things old started when I was quite young.  I used to travel to engine shows all over with Grampa.  I can't recall how many shows we went to but we spent many a fond day at antique hit and miss engine shows.  Now, I don't have many hit and miss engines of my own and I have strayed into more antique tractors, but I have always been welcome to bring any of Grampa's engines to the shows.  Anyone that has been following lately has probably seen a few pictures of this little gem!

Yes it is in my living room, and yes Allyssia approved of it being there.  This is a model hit and miss engine that was built by an acquaintance of Grampa's.  He bought it and he also has had it sitting in his living room for a good many years, as long as I can recall it has been in the living room.  I took it to a few shows this summer and could not get it to really run.  I held onto it for quite a while and finally discovered that it had an air leak in the fuel line.  Amazingly I changed the fuel line and started that little engine up and it ran just like the day it was built.
                                                           Headless Witte running
Now this engine is a 1/2 hp model headless Witte.  you could buy the kit for them and you would have to machine out and finish a lot of the parts in order to put it together.  This was expertly made and as I said runs flawlessly.  In the video the tank with the wooden block in it is empty.  usually that tank or hopper would be full of water to keep the cylinder cool.  When running for very short periods it is alright to run without water in the hopper but at shows when it stays running for an extended period I fill the hopper with water.

It even makes my little work van look big!  Anyways that is just a little bit about hit and miss engines and part of the reason that I have the broad array of old equipment.  Hope you all enjoyed it and stay tuned for next time!!

Can it be saved

The news on the Bongo truck radiator is - there was one small leak found and patched and the radiator is back in the truck.  With a gallon of anti freeze and a bottle of Bars stop leak I had it fired back up and running.
                                                Bars radiator repair and stop leak
I am not sure that the stop leak was needed but the guy that fixed the radiator recommended I put some in because the radiator is plastic and that makes it hard to fix unlike the old ones.  I followed the instructions given and have been parking it over a mat to check for anti-freeze leaks but luckily have had none.

What I have had is a bad alternator in my big truck.  Saturday after going to the dump I was watching the voltage gauge dropping and not coming back up.  I left the truck running at each stop until I got to Motor Supply and they tested the alternator and told me what I didn't want to hear.  An hour and $130 poorer later I had the new alternator in and we are back running like new.  As always we are busy around the farm so stay tuned until next time and leave a comment to let me know what you think. 

The Bongo Adventures

The Bongo truck is involved in almost every project around the farm in some way, shape or form.  So that being said there isn't hardly a day that goes by that the Bongo truck isn't used. 

I take special care of this truck by regularly washing it off, changing the oil, checking the fluids, adding anti freeze and greasing it.  So after four wheeling and losing the front bumper I just had to pressure wash it and clean all the mud off to get the bumper re-installed.  When pressure washing I looked under the truck and got sprayed with a tiny stream of anti freeze - assuming that there was a hole in the radiator, I started the process of removing it to get it fixed because I simply can not be without my Bongo truck!

It was hard to get a good picture of what was going on but to get at anything in the front of the motor you have to access it from under the seats.  I ratchet strapped the seat bottoms in the up position and removed the center console of the truck to gain better access.  With the center console out I was able to remove the four bolts holding the radiator in and the two clamps holding the inlet and outlet houses on and drain the anti freeze without any mess.

After the radiator was drained it slid right out of the engine bay with very little resistance.  The radiator is an extremely small single layer radiator but it is a pricey little part.  Before I buy a new radiator I brought it to a radiator repair shop in Canton to see if they can fix it. 






My foot is just a reference but the radiator is small and light.  I was able to turn the radiator sideways with one hand and hold all the hoses out of the way for removal. 

At this point I am waiting on the repair shop to let me know what they find with the radiator - whether it is fixable or not.  If it is fixable, it should only take me about an hour and a gallon of antifreeze for me to be back on the road.  Hopefully the radiator is fixable and I don't have to buy a new one as that could take up to 3 weeks to import and I don't know if I would last that long without my Bongo truck!

A Camping Expedition

Last week between having Monday off and having Thursday and Friday for Vacation days I hardly worked, at work.  At home I spent all day Monday mowing, working on projects and Grampa and Gramie stopped in and visited for a while.  All my hard work was leading up to getting ready for camping this weekend.  That's also why I took Thursday off from work to run errands.  I went to the DMV and got a new license,  went to visited my mother and went to get shavings for the horses before going home.  We then packed the trailer full of our camping gear in anticipation of Friday.  Come Friday morning we got chores taken care of finished the last minute packing and off we went headed straight for Eustis. 

This is Allyssia's favorite campground and I had never been so it was a first time for me and I really enjoyed it.  This past weekend was quite cold but it was still an enjoyable trip  We also brought the Bongo truck and the three wheeler so that we could go riding while up north.  Now the riding up north is not nearly as kind and easy as we have it around home, within the first hour we got the Bongo truck mired in mud. 

It was arguably the smallest piece of equipment that I have ever gotten stuck but it was also the worst.  Getting stuck took only thirty seconds but getting unstuck took over two hours.  I have no pictures of getting unstuck because I was knee and elbow deep in the mud.  With the use of leverage and and many rocks I finally pried it out with only the bumper missing.  The bumper has no permanent damage because it is plastic, it didn't bend or break but I will need to use bigger washers to hold it on. While on the new trail we ran into a few spots in the trail that were to say the least interesting.
                                                        Off roading level Bongo Truck

After getting unstuck and down the few big hills we ran into yet another problem.  

Luckily the Bongo truck has a jack and I brought the spare tire because on the rocks we sliced a sidewall.  That was the quick fix since I brought my impact drill and sockets so within a few minutes we were headed back to camp to call it quits on the four wheeling and just to relax at camp. 

 

After changing the flat Allyssia decided to ride the three wheeler back and I drove the bongo truck.  Allyssia had her idea of relaxing and sat in her hammock reading I on the other hand have different plans to relax.

My idea of relaxing is playing with my old and new camp stoves.  I have quite a collection of camp stoves and lanterns that I enjoy fixing and using.  The three here are a mix of old and new.  The left one is a newer stove that can run gas and Coleman fuel.  The middle one is my fathers old camp stove he had when he was a kid.  The last is a stove my friend Connor gave to Allyssia and I for hiking.

That night I cooked us steaks on the grill and corn on the cob in the fire coals.  After an amazing dinner we headed to shower and bed in our camper/horse trailer.  With an air mattress on the goose-neck and all of our cooking supplies in the back it is the perfect camper except it has no heat and it was cold this weekend.  Other than the cold it was an amazing weekend at Cathedral and I cant wait to go back.  I am going to wait to tell the bad news that I have until another day so until then stay tuned and check back for more.