Fix up the old 4 wheeler

We have had a 4 wheeler at the cabin since I started coming up, but we only really used it for pulling out the dock.  Maddie went to a friends cabin and rode around on her 4 wheelers and had fun, so we thought it would be fun to get a little more use out of ours.

But it isn't much fun to go by yourself, so we wanted to fix the older one that Joanne had in her garage at home.  It was in pretty bad shape, but the Nick cleaned it up, then tried to clean up the carb.  But it would only run with starter fluid, so we ordered a new carb and he put it in and it has been running pretty well since.

 

Chris the Chimney Sweep

 I am not sure the last time I swept the chimney so I did it this morning while watching some football.  Pretty glad I did since there was quite a bit of build up.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture while it was piled in the fireplace, but here is a (reused) gallon ziplock that I fill up.

Redo the Pontoon

The carpet and the sliding on the pontoon was looking pretty tired, so we decided to freshen it up.  We had to take off the rails and edge trim, put on the new carpet then put the rails back on.  You can see the old white and red fence (we called her the speckled queen).

We put new vinyl on the pedestal as well.  I have been working on the new blue fence over the summer, the girls aren't thrilled with the results, but I think it looks pretty good.  I was trying to use the old holes in the rails, so there are a couple wavy spots.

I was able to complete the simple fences over the summer, but the fence that curves up I need something to cut it with easier.  

Old Purchases from Northern Tool

 I was looking back at my Northern Tool account to see when I bought the sprayer, and it must have dropped off my account history, so I thought I would add what is on there, so I have some record of it.

• 20211130, Garage Heater 50k BTU Model F260550 - 419.99 - 50 gift card.
• 20220513, Cement Mixer 6 Cubic Ft Drum Model 600DD - 599

I thought I would be renting out the cement mixer, but I haven't been able to do that.  We don't use the garage heater too often...

The sprayer pump stopped working this year, which is what caused this trip down memory lane.  I was able to find a replacement on amazon that didn't quite fit in, but was able to work.

It hooked up fine, but the screw holes didn't line up correctly.  I was going to use some self taping screws, but the drain on the pressure seemed to secure it well enough so I used it like that and didn't see any issue.

New Car...

My 9 year old, 80k mile chevy sonic decided to start billowing white smoke from the exhaust this week.  I need to get to work so we started looking for a new car.  We have been happy with our Toyota so we started there.  I looked at Prius or rav4 PHEV, but landed on a corolla hybrid because it was in stock, and reasonably priced (all in 30k, more then the 15k for zippy, but hopefully this one will last...).  I financed at 5.99%, which is OK...  I might try to pay it off early we will see what the world does.

I went to pick up Maddie with zippy/smoky from school and we had to wait till everyone had left before we could start it up again.

Nick is going to try to change the head gasket on zippy and see if that fixes helps.  The dealership told me I needed a whole new engine for 12k, which didn't make any sense.

 

First trip up North

 We had some hot weather so came up to open up the cabin.  We worked on taking the rails off the pontoon and I worked on fixing the motor.  I am going to need to retap the threads on the drain plug.  Brainerd marine didn't seem too interested in helping with that project, so I will try DIY... 

I did get the thread chaser and was able to clean it out and get the plug back in.  We also, got the new carpet on the pontoon and started replacing the fence.

Gutters in front

I have been planning to redo the garage apron for 2 summers now.  The project is a bit daunting so I have been putting it off.  In the interest of getting something started on it, and to send enough last year at Home Depot to get a reward, I put gutters up over my garage stall.  Not too hard a task, but I did need some help holding them up there while I attached them to the facia.

I think to note, you need to seal the pre-fabed corner pieces otherwise they leak.

I made the little jog in the downspout, because that was as far as I could get with the length of gutter I purchased after cutting for the corner.  I could see regretting that if ice builds up in there.  Also, I put it up a week ago, it rained once and there were a bunch of leaves in it already.  Hence I added the gutter guard stuff.