Still Alive!
Good grief! How did it get to be the 22nd of July already?! The last week was total chaos, though there's certainly nothing new about that! All week long, I had been wanting to get the 9-Banger out of its storage-trailer and get it ready for the parade on Saturday, but I was so busy all week that it was Thursday evening before I was able to get to it. That's when the calendar-app beeped on my iPhone, reminding me that I had promised to help the Elks bar-tend at the Family Dance on Friday night! So much for working late on Friday to get the machine ready! We did as much as we could during the day on Friday (between customers) and put the finishing touches on things early Saturday morning before the parade.
This year is Shaunavon's Centennial, so the parade and town celebrations are (were) bigger than ever, with people coming from all across the country for a "Homecoming" celebration. The Family Dance was actually a pretty enjoyable event; I was sent to one of the bars at the rear of the venue along with a couple of the other Elks members, and the traffic back there was far more relaxed than the main bar at the front. There was a fairly steady stream of customers, but never a line-up like there was at the front.
I entered the 9-Banger in the parade again this year, this time towing a U-Haul trailer, and adorning the beast itself with banners from Iron Pony as well as Country-Clipper. I had two friends driving two of the Clippers alongside (and around) me as we drove down the parade route, and the entry got a lot of attention! Cameras were popping everywhere, and a TV news-crew got their camera right up in the workings of the machine as I drove along. I'll have to see if I can find the video somewhere. The problem with being an entry in the parade is that you don't really get to see the other entries, and that spoils a bit of the fun.
The nine engines on the 9-Banger are old; I think one of the newest ones is from 1983, and I know there are others from the 1970's. Unfortunately, I actually lost the #5 engine along the parade, but thankfully not until near the end, and well after we had passed through the main crowds. I had noticed a bit of oil speckling the air-cleaner, and then suddenly a lot more oil, and then the flex-hose on the exhaust started smoking badly. I pulled over quickly at that point, and shut down the engines. It looks like #5 blew a valve, and quite possibly the rings as well. The block itself appears to be intact, so I should be able to rebuild it. All of the engines really should be rebuilt, so that might be a good project for the winter if time permits.
Today (Monday) was just a dud at the shop. I didn't get in until 11am, since I was doing all the farm-chores myself this morning (Trixstir had to work, and The Kidling is at his grandmother's place.) While it was cooler today than the last few days, it was still hot and muggy, and I'm still aching all over from wrangling with the 9-Banger over the weekend. I have to get it back into its storage-trailer until I get the time to work on it again, as it takes up a huge amount of space in the shop! To that end, I've replaced the winch-cable on the trailer; the original was only a 1/8" cable, and only reached about half-way down the trailer! The new cable is more than twice as thick (rated for 4000 pounds) and at 25' long, easily reaches all the way out of the trailer so I can hook onto the machine and winch it in. Unfortunately, by the time I got that taken care of (once again, between customers) it was too late to get the machine into the trailer today. My friend Jason is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help me get that taken care of. Once that's done, I can get back to fixing peoples' machines and making money again!
Putting the Country Clippers in the parade definitely helped, as I've had a couple of inquiries about them today. Hopefully there will be more, and I can get the last two machine sold. If I can sell more, so much the merrier, as I can always bring more in if someone wants one.
For now though, time to head back to the farm and do battle with the bloodthirsty mosquitos as I try to take care of the horses for the night!