Thanksgiving 2020

 Well,today is Thanksgiving here in the US.I'm thankful to still be breathing and vertical , healthy and not alone, and most of all riding and building a shed. These past few weeks have been good for me. On nice days I walk out my back door and over to my job at my neighbors house along the edge of the cornfield that is behind our neighborhood  . It's a killer commute !

Her son who just graduated from college is helping me so it's a nice way to spend a few hours a day outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine .This isn't being run like a regular job it's more like a communal project and there is no pressure to get it done and move on to the next thing.It's nice being retired. I'm using my tools and skills while staying safe  from the Covid away from the world for the most part.We are finished with the framing and ready to move on to the next phase now after a nice three day break. 

Spent yesterday raking leaves and then cleaned off the roof and rain gutters of another neighbors house . Today we cook and hang out enjoying and tomorrow I RIDE ! Yup, I ride tomorrow on the bike I've owned the longest out of all the motorcycles in my collection , my 1969 Yamaha DS6C

I've owned this motorcycle for 48 years now ! It was orange when it was new .When I restored it in 1990 I was able to get all original painted and chrome parts from dealerships from around the US and it became green,the other color it was offered in.This one stays with me until I leave this Earth .So.I have much to be thankful for today.I have good people in my life,lots of old motorcycles and old cars , my camp in the Adirondacks ,and my art. I've been neglecting my art .I did do one painting while up north at my camp this past summer but there are still some unfinished paintings that I need to get back to like this one I started FIVE years ago !

So,it looks like my winter being locked down due to Covid will be a busy one and that is something I am very thankful for indeed.Happy Thanksgiving to all you invisible people out there in the void of this never never land of the internet.

Building A Shed

Being retired I find myself looking for things to do.I'd love to be doing all sorts of things for myself but that costs money so I try to find things to do for people around me using their money.It works for me . Keeps me busy and lets me keep my skills sharp  by using my tools and brain.So ,I took on a project building a shed for my neighbor .  Today after the rain stops I'm going to lay it out on the ground so her 22 year old son can dig the holes for the posts the deck will be sitting on. My digging days are over for the most part.I save that for my own projects like the outhouse I am still building up at my camp. I still have to break thru that layer of hard pan so I never finished the inside in order to have access to the hole.The last time I worked on it was 2017 ! Yeah ,I hate digging .Well,perhaps in the summer of 2021 I'll finish it so the place is saleable  .But, back to the shed job.It should be a fun project. You see,when I do it for someone else I have to finish it once I start it so the next few weeks I'll be working outside and having fun using my tools. First I have to solve the mystery of why I am getting gasoline fumes in the cab of my old 1971 Chevy C20 pick up. Need her to do this shed so yesterday I picked up a new tank sender gasket kit.I replaced the gas tank in 2015 with a new replacement tank so I know the tank is good. It's either the gasket on the sender unit or the joint at the delivery line at the bottom where I joined the two pieces of metal line with rubber fuel line. Got some new fuel line for that  as well so with any luck this should be fixed later on today after this rain stops .Made some new  8 foot long ramps so I can get the 7000 watt generator off the truck. Gotta clean out a space in the shop for it to reside and also find a place to put the table saw Pete gave me from his parents house.It's on the truck with the generator . This is retirement !  There is always stuff to do and I'm glad for that . Gotta keep going full steam or you turn to crap real fast. But I'd rather be RIDING !

Last Trip Up To Camp

 After riding home with a messed up back I got my wife's car all ready and six days after my return we were heading north again.It was nice to have my wife along for a change.The trip up was smooth and easy with two drivers and we arrived mid day .Got the place all set up and relaxed.Spent most of the trip just wandering about checking out the changing leaves.It was beautiful ! 

When we weren't out and about I was cutting firewood.Took down a couple large cherry trees that were dying or already dead. We needed firewood,it was cold and we needed to keep the woodstove going for heat. Managed to keep the place warn and get around a face cord of good wood stacked and sheltered for next season.There are still a couple trees I need to cut that are a threat to my buildings .I hate to take them but they are too close and can really hurt the buildings if bad weather brings them down .A couple maples,and a couple cherry so fire wood won't be a problem for a while.These are live healthy trees so they will need a year before I can start working off them. I'm at a crossroad again with my camp.I need to decide if I am going to go forward and finish the interior or just sell the place.I'm leaning towards finishing it because it's "Plan B " for retirement.If I can't get enough money together to buy a house out in Arizona I'll need to live up here for at least half the year . I could do that easily but my wife is a whole other story ! Boy,I sure do love Northern New York ,It's a really good "Plan B"

So,now I'm back in lala land .Went out riding on traffic choked roads yesterday on my Moto Guzzi. I'm fooling around with my 2 strokes some.Got the R5 and the DS6C up and running well but the 1966 YM1 and the 1965 YDS3 are fighting me every step of the way .As for the BMW K100, well , that needs money so I'm not even thinking about it for a while.The fuel pump circuit is still a problem and a new pump and temp coolant sensor  will set me back over 300 bucks so it sits until some money falls out of the sky and lands on me. I'm grateful I have other bikes to ride for sure !

Wow It's Been A Long Time

 I don't even remember the last posting I did here. The Covid really distracted me from this blog.Sort of just ran away and hid in the woods for most of the summer.Actualy it was kind of nice just spending lots of time un in the least populated place in New York State.I'll start with my first trip up back in June.

 Upon my arrival I found a few trees had fallen over the winter.They didn't damage anything but one was hung up in a standing tree and was kind of tricky to cut down. I went up just to open up the place,get my generator and chain saw up and stock the place so when I rode up on my Moto Guzzi in July I'd have everything I needed in place.I did manage to do this but spent most of my time cutting trees.

It was a big mess but I was lucky that nothing landed on the building. The June trip was a week long and I got the mess straightened out. Had good weather and did get out and about some.I joined the Food Coop in Potsdam and started work on an oil painting .

The news about all the fires burning out west brought this to my canvas .

The July trip was on the bike. As usual the trip started with a ferry trip across the Long Island Sound at 6 AM .

As you can see,the boat was pretty empty.What I found was that travel was much easier since the Covid struck.Way less traffic and no problem getting on any ferry I wanted .The down side was that there were fewer ferries running and the last boat was now 8PM rather than 11PM so coming back I have to get out really early to get there .It's an 8 hour ride from my camp to the ferry in Bridgeport CT .

Did lots of riding on this trip.The weather was really nice with only two rainy days so I was all over the North Country exploring for over a week.Bike ran great and I had a great time riding and painting when it rained. 

The August trip up was made in my little 1965 Valiant station wagon . I wanted to get into the back country in my kayak so I serviced the wagon,strapped the kayak to the roof and up I went. It was a good trip.I went up the Santa Clara Flow section of the St Regis River 

This was a great day out in this wilderness area.There were no other people for miles and it was incredibly peaceful .Beached the kayak and hiked around a bit .I found this old abandoned campsite up on a high spot overlooking the river that hasn't been used in many years.It's only accessed by  kayak or canoe.Someday I plan on spending the night here.

Went kayaking on another river this trip to,Actually it's the same river but a different branch miles away to the east. I like this section of river and have kayaked here a few times over the past few years.Again,like the Flow it's deserted and very nice for just relaxing and viewing nature.

This was a good trip right up to the next to the last day , that's when my generator stopped making electricity !Couldn't fix it in the field,I tried but I couldn't get enough of a splice soldered on the broken wire from the armature so the trip was over and I brought it home to fix in my shop.No sooner got home when we had this violent storm and knocked out the power here for almost 10 days ! I have a good generator here at home and it got pressed into service.I also had to keep my neighbors generator going for them because he was ill and his 88 year old wife couldn't do it.I had my hands full keeping all their frozen food and our own from thawing .Two hours on, 3 hours off from 5 AM until 11 PM or so.The operation was a success and it all ended well.Fixed the small broken wire but decided to leave that generator here at home and take the good 3500 watt one upstate to the camp.You see, my friend Pete needed help clearing out his late mothers house to sell it and there was a 7500 watt generator with my name on it there.So,now I have two good units and the repaired one as a back up here at home with the 7500 watt one .Next project is to fix this little 1200 watt one I have as a back up for the 3500 watt upstate at camp so if something goes wrong up there I don't have to end my trip.I need these to pump water to shower and do the dishes there.I rely on stream water that I pump  with an electric pump for those chores . After finishing up at Pete's mothers house I packed up the Moto Guzzi and headed back up north to my camp for the fourth trip this season.As usual I got the 6 AM ferry and got up there around 3PM. It was a good ride .The weather was warm when I got there but the next morning it had turned cold and wet.Rode into Potsdam to buy food in a cold drizzle that required me to put on my rain gear.The rest of the trip was cool like this but dry and mostly sunny .I got lots of riding in. I did close to 2500 miles on this two week trip. Had the wood stove going every day , saw lots of wildlife , and met a few nice people. It was a good trip but I pulled my back out so I had to ride home 400 miles with a bad back.I'm paying the price now a week later as I am getting ready to go up again with my wife in her car.I can barely move sometimes after I have been sitting but it seems to be improving some as I am taking hot baths with epsom salts and taking lots of Wobenzyme to kill the inflamation in the muscles. It's always something ! Here are some photos from the fourth trip. I got down some good back roads and had a great time exploring as the leaves were starting to change.I also finished the painting I started back in July.

So,there you have it,the blog is up to date and with any luck I'll be back up at my camp this Thursday afternoon for the 5th and final visit of this year.

The Charging System

So , as I posted in the last two posts I have been fixing the charging system in my Moto Guzzi 850-T .The job went well as I expected it would and I took the bike out for two long(100mi+) test rides.She's fixed !.I also bought a new battery but haven't installed it yet.I want to be sure the charging system is totally fixed before the battery install. The weather here in NY isn't the greatest.We're having a cold wet spring .That plus the Covid shit makes it really depressing but on those nice sunny days I forget about all that crap and ride.Today is another wet one , third day in a row. I turned 71 on this past Wednesday . Celia , my wife , took off from work and we went for a nice hike in the woods between the rain showers.Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the 60's F so I ride ! Not too much else going on . Gonna finish cleaning my studio area today so I can work on painting. Maybe do some research into some brake upgrades for the Moto Guzzi on the computer .It's a real challenge living in this void created by this fucking disease

Today I Ride (an update)

Went out into the garage yesterday and did the headlight bulb swap. After I put it back together I tested it in the garage and at 3000 rpm she's making 13.5 volts so she's charging ok. Today the sun is shinning and we are going to have temps in the mid to upper 50's F  so I'll take her out and put 100 miles on to see just what is happening.If the battery is staying charged and she's still making good voltage when I return I'll call it fixed and buy her a brand new battery. She keeps getting closer and closer to be ready to travel on ! It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in New York today and I'm happy that I'm moving forward.

Back To Motorcycles

Like the title says I'm back to motorcycles .Yesterday I took out the  Moto Guzzi for a ride. I had her out a few days ago and noticed that the battery wasn't charging . I thought it was losing voltage while sitting overnight so I have been disconnecting it . I haven't been able to trace it to any specific wire or fuse . It's been bothering me so I decided to remove the halogen headlight I have in the bike and put back the conventional 7 inch round automotive Hi Low bulb that the bike was designed with. I think the halogen is drawing too much current and messing up my charging system . I once had a similar problem on my Yamaha R5 when I tried a halogen. It cooked my alternator . I replaced the rotor and put in the stock bulb and the problem went away never to return. That was 17 years ago ! So with this in mind I'm going to change out the bulb today on this rainy day so I can test it tomorrow and see what happens. I want to put in a new battery but not until I overcome this problem. You see, even though we are locked down due to the corona shit I'm still getting ready to hit the road (just in case ) . I sort of doubt I'll be able to go out west like planned but I will be heading up to my camp in the Adirondacks on this bike at least once this summer.

So, I have the kerosene heater going making my workspace nice and warm , I have a brand new headlight bulb , the battery is getting a full slow charge , and I'm going to get to work so tomorrow I can ride this bike all day long and see if the charging system is doing it's job . I bought this small jumper pack to carry on my two bikes with starter motors so I can jump them if ever needed . These days you  can't depend on anyone to help you. Last year I had a dead battery in my old 1976 Dodge and no one would give me a jump even though I had cables. America has really become a mean spirited place. I was lucky though, there was a Harbor Freight store near buy and I was able to buy a jump pack so I did it myself. Lesson learned and I now carry the big one in the car and the small one on the bikes.

It's always better to be self sufficient anyway. I still stop and help people and I know there are still lots of others out there that also do but here in the waste land known as the suburbs of NYC they would walk past you if you were lying on the sidewalk dying. It's good to be out in my garage again and working on bikes. Wish I had someone to do it with like in the old days when my friend Juan was around but this is the new reality and until the virus wanders off I'm stuck here alone. Think I might start working on this oil painting I started a while back after I get the headlight in. This thing has been sitting on my easel for way too long. I've been wanting to get back to painting for weeks now . Did clean my little studio so I can work in it last week and I have these two unfinished paintings to complete so I can start moving forward again.