small engine week (more like a month) or... atv bs ;-)

jambaloney here!

been a while but i was away and blah blah blah...

so k keeps asking why we bought the damn atv as it seems to crap out all the time - well - i did keep it under a tarp for years which i learned wasn't good - i cleaned the carb (read about it here) and that helped but needed a new carb and then that didn't work either... i stored the atv over at our friend e's place for the winter and her atv nut son h informed me that the latest problem was bad gas... when we siphoned it out lotsa crud came with it...he told me i would have to clean the gas tank - that was, uh , feb... ANYWAY... here we go!!!!

atv on pallets on tarp to keep moisture from seeping up when covered... this is a temporary spot..

the problem is gas so the first thing i need is a place to put bad gas... i have these two old kerosene buckets.. perfect!

used this, but did so without a routine...

pioneer p and w - this is for you vermin haters .. wanna know how  retarded red squirrels are?

yep!! they chewed off the air valve clean off the gas can!!!

so before anything, i lined up all the gas cans i have, yes, i know yellow is for diesel, but the  day i bought my first round of gas in 2010, the place was outta red ones.. i don't have anything diesel anyway so no foul...

my old friend... used plastic siding...
 

so what am i doing here???

well, i need to address the issue once and for all, so i am making tags..

which i zip-tie to the cans...  the ones that say "gas" have room to write the date i bought last, then scratch it out.. every 6 months, i will take whatever is left to the gas station, put it in the truck and then top up and refill with high-octane... our friend swears by the stuff for small engines..

here is the outboard gas being  disposed of - i am using the crap can as well (squirrels ate my air valve).. it is 2 years old and yes, smells swwet/sickly...

offending crap from atv..

look carefully - that crud in red is coming out of the gas tank - not good!

now to get the tank off..

sockets...

manual and thing to put screws and fasteners in

big bin 4 all things atv...

gas tank is out!!! 

looks like atv got submerged in a bog one day... the things you don't know when buying used ;-))

ready to clean!!!

next day... all set up - i did some research and apparently kerosene is a great cleaner - and to looosen crud, put some chain in the tank and swish all around - i did this several times...

the black crud in the bottom came out several times...

next, i took the petcock assembly off - looks dirty...

oh yes it is... #1 is where the fuel goes in, #2 is the goop i repeatedly got out of it. #3 is the fuel line - no wonder i had probs running the thing... no gas was getting to the carb!!

i cleaned the filter in a mix of gas and fuell stabilizer  ...

and ran some old cat 5 through the actual fuel line - never throw anything out - LOL!!! but if you have a bad cat 5, cut the end immediately so you don't try using it on a computer again!

okay, break time for some AM dew covered spiderwebs...

i LOVE it when they are visible like this - sooooo amazing!!

all different kinds....

and shapes...

EVERYWHERE!!

the engineering is something else!!!

the same afternoon we were at the river in k's last post... booomers started to form...

but blew by so i headed out again... i needed a special spark plug socket which i picked up friday..

hmm - this might help too, no??????

and a bit of this stuff which will go in all small engines form now on - a little apparently goes a long way...

some of the plastic rivets broke - no matter - found 100 on e-bay for 15 bucks!  i can wait..

i had to use a zip tie...

to replace the broken arm that holds the air intake chamber in place...

all back together and yes - running better than i ever remember - moral of the story - keep on your fuel supply!!!

added bonus?? trailer hitch!!

i have a number of other things to work on, but it is now running and running well so it can be used. this stuff is new to me, but with enough research and preparation... anyone can do something new... you do have to be patient and do things one at a time though...

cheers all!

a surprisingly beautiful river day!

poor jambaloney was up at 5am this morning to take the truck in to our nearest big town of Port Hawkesbury. Port Hawkesbury is the first town you hit when you cross the Canso Causeway, which is the causeway that connects Cape Breton Island to the mainland of Nova Scotia. when cape bretoners are returning home from wherever they might be returning from, they always stop their cars on the causeway and "kiss the causeway". it's a real tradition here. we don't kiss the causeway because we love it, in fact, cape bretoners hate it. it has only been there since 1967 and we cape bretoners have always hated being attached to the mainland. we kiss it because we know we are now home.

just a little meandering history to introduce this post. i might be a little sunstroked. jambaloney definitely is. and he's wore out. he took the truck in to our dealership where we have an extended warranty and the people treat us really good. the back plate on the rear axel was leaking oil and needed to be fixed. the guys at the dealership took it in, drove jambaloney to the nearest grocery store so that he could pick up some preps and then they picked him back up when he was done shopping and the truck was ready. normally, we pay a deductible and labour. they charged him nothing. but that is how they roll in cape breton...something that always amazes jambaloney. someone once noted on another's blog that they had heard that the people here in cape breton were "backwards and clannish". mind you, this came from a person who has travelled very little, never been to canada and certainly never been to cape breton island. i suppose if you came from an aristocratic, rich european line of monarchs - you might consider the people of cape breton somewhat "backwards and clannish". however, if you spent most of your life living in the hicks, then you should probably keep those opinions to yourself.

jambaloney is amazed at how well he is treated here. no matter which shop or store he goes into, the people will try their best to help. we are an island of one city, a few smallish towns and a bunch of villages. he goes away every year, 1,600km away for several days, and i am never afraid. the people here are good people. and they are always willing to help. we get better services here than we ever did in ontario.

anyway, big long intro into a surprise day. by 9am the day was looking like this.

we thought jam would be in town most of the day but the guys at the shop fixed the truck toute-suite and jam turned and burned. he made it home by 12:45pm and he had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves - chores be damned. we put away the produce and dairy, put on our river shoes and were off! here's a beautiful field of fireweed on our way down to the river.

just the other day jam cleared us a path to the river - it was getting pretty overgrown.

here's some wild and natually-occurring st' john's wort which i will be collecting to dry for teas and salves. if you don't know the medicinal benefits of st' john's wort, you can go here, or just do a search. many survival blogs talk about stocking up on food, weapons, growing gardens, etc. - but i feel strongly about knowing what grows in your local area that you can use as medicine.

here's part of the road to the river....many of the older trees are dying off but look at all of the baby trees that have started growing. a forest knows exactly how to maintain itself.

this is halfway down the road to the river....look at the beautiful sky and the puffy cotton ball clouds.

agh. the river.

 looking down at the river.

the water is exceptionally warm for this time of year - about 20C/70F. we had several dips and lots of laying in the bright sun to dry off.

if you look close at the pic above you will see the top of my knee in the bottom left hand corner. i was laying down taking a pic of the clear sky and bright sun.

sometimes i nap in the sun but sometimes i am too wiggly and jiggly looking around at different things and taking pics. here's jam laying in the sun.

we spent a wonderful afternoon, did very few chores so tomorrow we will have double chores. no worries. when you get a treat day you have to "treat" it as a treat day. and we did. here are the pretty clouds above my gorgeous greenhouse when we got home.

we ate bean salad, cherries and grapes at the river. when we got home, we scarfed back 8 slices of baguette smeared with goat cheese, pate and jam had some kielbassa. it's been a fabulous day. back to work tomorrow - teehee.

we've been busy since jambaloney got home....uh-huh....3 weeks ago! (hanging our heads in shame for not answering emails or updating posts here. yep, shame!)

it has been 3 weeks since we updated and we are hanging our heads in shame. we have received emails from several friends asking if we are ok and thinking to ourselves - "tomorrow we will answer those emails" - but it just hasn't happened! we have had several days that are muggy and humid...very unusual for around here. but we have been having very beautiful and sunny days too! and lots of dips in the river.

for those of you interested - jambaloney made it home safe and sound from ottawa. i lay on him for a few days and wouldn't even let him move to go for a pee or eat. yes, PP, i am a definite femi-nazi - bahahahahaha!

lotsa' food pics coming so just scroll right by if you aren't interested! our fave macaroni. with fresh chives, fresh garlic, tomatoes and parmesan:

how about our first full meal out of the garden? that's our own kale and peas, fresh out of the garden, sauteed in butter and some fresh radish from the garden as our breakfast:

 a nice way to start the day, no?

some delicious panini-style sandwiches on greek pita with tomatoe, onion and garlic oil as the sauce, goat cheese brie and a ton of home-grown herbs? to die for i say:

more fresh peas and kale out of the garden, sauteed i butter, with a local and beautiful sausage (spicy but not too spicy? know what i mean?). and jambaloney's beautiful almond rice made in the rice cooker and some carrot and turnip kimchi....

our absolute favourite pasta. any kind of noodles, tons of garlic, tons of olive oil, sea salt and fresh-cracked black peppercorns, parmesan, fresh pea pods from the garden and our own home-made dill pickles - yummeh!

here's our first pea harvest being rounded up and ready to eat during the winter. we have been eating peas for every day (snap, shelling and snow) for weeks now. but now we are in the glut of them, including eating them at least with one meal a day (not to mention the ones we snack on every day!) - but these 8 servings are vaccuum-sealed and in the freezer for the winter months.

and the peas just keep on producing - wooho!

here's a delicious pea, radish and mint salad all from our garden. with feta - oh yummeh! and some french onion soup - now that's a dinner!

how about fresh peas in a stirfry with carrot slices and jamby's delicious rice?

how about curried potatoe, peas from the garden, carrot slices and jamby's delicious rice? with carrot and turnip kimchi as well as yoghurt with borage flowers?

borage flowers are one of the few, very unique plants on the planet that are truly blue. do a google search to find out more.

how about pea, potatoe, chickpea and carrot curry? served over rice with delicous, local apple and your own radish?

food fit for a king i would say.

and then there's personal pizzettes. this one is mine. a greek pita, slathered in garlic olive oil, bits of goat brie cheese spread around it, some greek feta, a little bit of parmesan, a layer of tomatoe, a ton of green and black olives, mozzarella and a bit more parmesan. deevine, i say. deevine!

our first full-grown zuchhini - woohoo! we have many more coming and we are thankful!

we decided to celebrate our first zuchhini. by sauteeing it with our home-grown peas in a bit of butter and some bean salad with peppers on the side. jambaloney thought we should have one of his awesomely-crazy caesar's to help wash it down! i concurred! it felt decadent!

some of you already know that we have been extremely busy in the garden, and in the community, since jambaloney returned from ottawa. he had a wonderful time and spent a good deal of time with his mom and step-dad and it meant the world to him. since he's back - we have been run off of our feet with community events, dances, suppers, breakfast, etc. so if you are wondering why we haven't posted lately - it's a case of - "we'll do it tomorrow" and tomorrow just kept turning into another tomorrow. but today. we realized that we really needed to do an update. hope you all have enjoyed the last few weeks. our garden is now upon us and as we want to preserve as much of our bounty as we can - we will be busy with it. but not too busy to answer comments or to leave comments.

we hope that all is well with all of you.