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National Ferris Wheel Day is celebrated on February 14 every year! If you love fun and adventures and you are not scared of heights, we’re sure you have fond childhood memories of riding on a Ferris wheel. Ferris wheels come in many sizes, they are fun to ride on and give a beautiful, bird’s eye view. Did you know that the ‘High Roller’ is the largest Ferris wheel in the world? The massive wheel is 550 feet tall and is found in Las Vegas! Ferris, a civil engineer, born 1859, in Galesburg, Illinois, introduced the world to the concept of the Ferris wheel and designed the original Chicago Ferris Wheel. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 1881. Ferris constructed his prototype as a landmark for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, as the United States’ version of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Originally called “the Chicago Wheel,” it took Ferris two years to plan and construct. Costing about $700,000 in 1893 and containing over 100,000 parts, Ferris’ massive wheel stood at an enormous 264 feet high, towering about 26 stories above Chicago. It had 36 gondolas (cars housed within glass and locked doors) and accommodated up to 60 (40 seated, 20 standing) passengers. Over 1.4 million people paid 50 cents for a 20-minute ride on the wheel through the next 19 weeks of the World’s Columbian Exposition. After the exhibition, the Ferris wheel was moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and destroyed there on May 11, 1906, with dynamite for scrap metal. Some dismantled parts of Ferris’ original design were used to make the U.S.S. Illinois, a World War I battleship, and to construct a bridge over the Kankakee River, south of Chicago. Although Ferris lived a short life – dying at the age of 37 due to typhoid fever – his invention lives on, enjoyed by fun lovers around the world. Now, you could find Ferris wheels everywhere: in tourist parks, festivals, carnivals, and different kinds of celebrations.

I hate cleaning trash cans of garbage smells. Like cleaning fish would have to be the worst. We also get chicken on sale and marinate and grill it so you get the idea. We could easily dump the stuff in the field,but then the trash pandas come from the neighbors old barn. So we freeze it and on trash day....

I jumped the gun last night and presented her with a smoked Delmonico steak, broccoli, potatoes, and sautéed onions (and mushrooms (In a separate pan of course) @WHX??). Flowers in a pretty vase and some Reese’s peanut butter cups and I won the night.

Raw fish and chicken parts are frozen and saved for crab bait. All other bios (plant and animal) go in a plastic barrel for decomposing, then get tilled into the garden each spring.

I'll call this "what I expect to see when you're finished" picture!

Well, a little follow-up. We had a lot of snow over the last couple of days so I used the big tractor and it's 72" 2 stage blower to clear most of the snow yesterday. However, it leaves a couple of inches of rough snow so I got this wheel horse with the chains on the front wheels out for final cleanup this morning. I can report that this tractor has never handled so well. These chains should have been on years ago. Thanks everyone for the idea to do this. Here is what was plowed. Here is the snow removal having a rest and warming up.

Great news! I forgot flowers and a card for wifey, and with this revelation I’m off the hook. Now I just need to find my local Ferris wheel to take her for a brisk mid-February ride, instead. On second thought…

ONCE.

Sometimes ya gotta grab life by the ......

Chain saw bar lube Mower deck coating Trailer deck sealing (50/50 oil and diesel ) Brush and trash burning igniter

I do this same thing after cleaning fish. Throw all the unwanted parts in the freezer until garbage day.

Good but sad Tuna ...

Last Saturday was a really difficult day… This was Kahlua at the age of maybe 3 months. She was technically my son's dog, along with his wife and eventually their two lovely daughters, but in reality she adopted all of us, including my wife and daughter, and we all loved her as if she were our own. Lu came to us in 2014 from a local rescue organization, and lived with us for about a year or so while my son lived at home with us before he got married. She was an adorable, fun, energetic pup, who loved being with her people and getting as many belly rubs as she could possibly talk us into. We took her to dog parks, and along on numerous hikes, taught her the joys of laying in small flowing bodies of water, and generally let her explore life with the rest of us. She loved going with us to visit our place in Virginia, where for at least a few days at a time she could finally be rid of that dang leash that always seemed to be holding her back, and just run and wander and chase deer, seemingly forever. Lu loved to let her spirit run free, and sometimes had trouble understanding basic life principles, like "just because it's laying on the ground or the floor in front of you doesn't mean it's food". Or "you really shouldn't jump off high places very often". She played hard, and suffered some physical ailments because of it, and had some surgeries to correct those ailments, and so was doing pretty good in her middle years considering everything she'd put herself through. But then a couple of years ago, during a regular routine exam, her vets noticed some problems with her blood work. They did some more tests and found that she had some sort of blood cancer that I couldn't possibly explain to you all, and told us that even with chemo and medications she probably only had another year or so to live. We fully expected Christmas 2023 to be her last with us, and celebrated accordingly with lots of presents and attention. She didn't have a clue what was going on, and went on with her life as usual, and for most of 2024 only showed a moderate bit of deterioration in her energy levels and general physical condition. To our surprise we were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Christmas in 2024 with her as well. But then things started going bad pretty quickly. I'll spare you the details, but at some point my son and his wife decided they were out of options and it was time to let her go, and Saturday we said goodbye to Kahlua for the very last time. The day before that, I took a long walk by myself through one of my favorite places to take Lu for hikes, a local nature preserve with streams and woods and lots of wildlife and all their sounds and smells. It was a peaceful walk, with lots of memories, and by the end I had gone from being very sad to thinking I had it together and was finally ready to accept what was going to happen the next day. But that feeling ended as soon as my son and his family arrived Saturday to let us see Lu that last time, and I saw her walk down the ramp out of their car, with a good bit of difficulty, and then come running right over to me for the usual hugs and licks and belly rub. I just about lost it right then, and as I looked around at the rest of my family I realized they were having as much trouble as I was. We somehow all managed to keep it together while they were here at the house, said our final goodbyes and took care of our two granddaughters while their mom and dad took Lu to the vet for the last time. It went well, mom and dad returned a couple hours later without Lu, and suddenly their 4-year-old understood the reality of what they'd explained to her was going to happen, and she got real sad and quiet. I understand she's handling it well back at home, but she really loved her pup and I know she's going to miss her, and so will we all. Anybody who's read this far, I appreciate your hanging with me here. I didn't expect to write so much when I sat down to compose this post, but this one's going to hurt for a long time. Here's some photos of Lu in her adult years, enjoying some of her favorite activities and people… Rest in peace Luey, and thank you for ALL the memories.

There's a bench in the middle that’d likely hold eight or ten. For regular sightseeing they aim for a max of 28 but usually around 25 (curious, I asked one of the ushers), rightly assuming most people stand and move around to see out in all directions. You can see the pair of wrap-around bearings that secure each of the 32 pods to the wheel's structure. The wheel never stops--they have about 60 seconds to unload, do a security/cleaning sweep, and reload via the moving walkway at the doors that matches the curve and speed of the wheel. (Actually, during my last visit the wheel did stop for about 5 minutes with our pod in a prime viewing position--they announced a loading delay.)

Do you mean the trunnion???

We have our local Mennonite auto mechanic place that does all our vehicles maintenance and repair. He still takes waste oil 🛢

I have a few fuel oil burners I thought about playing with, but many people have a fairly simple drip/blower system that works well. I have a complete overhead radiant heat furnace setup. I thought I could hang that tube for about 20’ of the shop, and vent up to that. It’s all 4” heavy wall pipe. I’ll vent out the side wall through a thimble, to prevent any holes in my new steel roof.

What an appetizing topic! My cat sitter has instructions in case of death to bag the moggy and place it (lovingly) into the freezer until we return home to administer last rites. JK.

They probably wouldn't approve of this.

If you unscrew and remove this jet that the arrow is pointing at you will find it has several small holes in it. If any are plugged your machine will surge and run weird at part throttle. The one at the very bottom will usually be the culprit. I clean the holes with a torch tip cleaner.

Remove the hex plug on the right side and then remove the jet, then blast in there with a spray can of carburetor cleaner that has a straw. Remove the brass piece with the screwdriver slot and blast it and the hole with cleaner. Blast all other holes. There is an idle mixture screw on the muffler side, gently turn it in till it stops while counting the turns, then remove it and blast in there. Install the screw to the exact position it was in. Be very gentle with this screw, turn it too tight and the carburetor will be knackered. This should take care of issues maybe 90% of the time.

Well, It sure has been a while since doing much on the Horses. until the other night with my GT2500 Briggs 10HP. Previous geniouses decided to "work on" the governor & the had it all torn apart n couldnt finger out how to put it back together again.... I got it but there are thread inserts on the carb body so it will Not idle to save a life due to vaccuum leaks..... gonnaa bust out the drills n taps but time is short now with Impending Snowmagedon on the horizon here & it is bone chilling cold to make it even better oh yeah.... What was supposed to be a simple fix along with several other issues I have found puts this 1 in the back of the Line Now. Gonna drag Ol' Cyclops ( my C 145) into the garage & put the fuel pump, new ignition parts & fuel lines on it, Mount the Blade & use that Beast. I am also moving during this time so everything is really disorganized but still manageable. Anywho in looking through a Box todsay I found some really cool stuff. A few Years ago I bought this box full plus a pile (nearly as big as the box of small engine parts & service manuals. There's lots of Lawnboy but also several Briggs & Tecumseh Dealer Parts n service manuals, Kohler, 1 Wheel Horse brochure, a Walbro Carburator Manual.... just a ton of stuff I actually forgot I had So Now I really do have a Library to go with All my other Briggs, Tecumseh, Wisconsin, Honda, All kinds of Valuable gold treasures (to Moo-Wah anyway) as these written publications cant be beaten when we often find ourselves eyebrows deep in condensed by someone who doesn't Know there is a huge difference between what the interrnet says & what I have in my hands.... a very frustrating place to be at times. I found these posters of Briggs & Kohler Specs in with all that stuff today. Thought Maybe You guys might enjoy not just seeing it but feel free to Use it. I Love having all that info in 1 easy to navigate spot. For now it will just tbe the Kohler & Briggs Charts as these need to be flattened & sorta ironed out a bit better. Maybe I am puting this in the wrong place but from what I see, most of the Engine Forum Threads are very old So I figure I would put this here as it is a pretty lively topic & it does apply to what I am doing tonight with my C-145 14HP Kohler. Enjoy

Hey @Mickwhitt, how's the Conservative Party's homeless initiative coming along? Their self-imposed deadline is coming up this year.

The high roller in Las Vegas is also slow and steady. My wife has a fear of heights and was very apprehensive about going on it but once she was there she loved it.

Quite agree, that same office was full of degenerates like me who enjoyed a poke at the high ups in the rank structure and those attempting to climb the slippery pole. One such department employed a consultancy firm to come up with a slogan- "Brevity and resonance equals clarity" Wha? Clarity, you wouldn't know clarity if it bit you. So we came up with our own slogan, "Naivety and imprudence equals gullibility " didn't go down too well on the PowerPoint of theirs we doctored. In a similar vein the management moved us to a state of the art building, huge open plan office with each training department having its own set of desks with a corporate printed sign hanging over each space to say who worked there. That's was to stop our office team getting up to any more tricks. Our department was called operational police training or OPT., which had been printed on our official overhead banner sign. After identifying the exact type face and shade of blue of the sign I made a new version which I sneakily fixed over the original late at night. It simply said OPTICIANS. It took two weeks before anyone noticed and raised a query about it. This led to a series of Colditz like goon baiting from our team, with ever more inventive ways of getting one over on the senior officers. The sign caper was repeated a few times, on office doors, gaffers name plates and the like. One memorable triumph was the ALERT STATUS signs posted on every landing to tell everyone the current threat level to the building. The levels went from LOW (no attack likely) through MODERATE, SUBSTANTIAL, SEVERE and CRITICAL (an attack is highly likely) We replaced every sign on four floors, including the Major crime investigation team, with an identically printed plate saying MILDLY CONCERNED. That only took a few days to spot. Our favourite method of subterfuge was to ring through to reception with a message for someone to attend a given location or call an extension. The reception clerk (not an ex-cop or streetwise person) would use a building wide Tannoy system to put out the call. Rather like Bart Simpson we would get pages sent out for such folk as:- DC 10, could DC 10 attend the conference room Could PC World please contact extension 4351 (PC World is a computer shop in the uk and extension 4351 was for our IT department) Detective Inspector Dration please call the bar, that's DI Dration to call the police bar. DS Janus to contact the MIT unit, that's DS Hugh Janus to contact MIT And my favourite, Could PC Kiddick call his wife as a matter of urgency, that's PC Don Kiddick to call home. These calls were rapidly followed by muffled laughter from everywhere but the senior officers who tried unsuccessfully to locate the origins of each call and finally gave up, we got bored and the game lapsed.

That's why I say with those chains it's like the tractor is on rails. 🚂

If you are using the trunnion / chain, you can get by using a longer length of chain for plowing. The trunnion adjustment is used to set the cutting deck "up" position. Plowing is better done using the long solid link that allows you to exert downforce pressure.....

Back in the day (Napa ) if you sold oil, you were required to accept used oil. Guy brings in about 30 qt. bottles of used oil! I sell him one of those oil change container drain thingies. Next time he comes in with that full and about 20 bottles of used oil! All of my customers who installed the waste oil burners that hung from the ceiling always had a ladder sitting there. Some even attached it to the framework holding up the burner. Prolly for hitting the reset! One shop I worked in had these crappy burners that were installed on the floor. The dealer owner was a ski fanatic but he spent more time in the lounge than on the slopes. He comes in one day 3 sheets to the wind. One of the burners was "over firing. " He was wearing this fuzzy ski sweater and decided to check this thing out. He opened the door to it and FOOP!!!!!!

Fuel delivery issues can well cause low power under load. Yes you need to do a leak down test. Your engine is 51 years old if original and if it has never been apart it's probably time for new rings and valves at a minimum. A leak down test will tell you the condition of them. Your best bet is to attend the Wheel Horse Collector's Club Big Show at the South Mountain Fairgrounds in June https://wheelhorseclub.com/ and pick up another engine. You can probably find a 12 or 14 HP engine fairly reasonable in decent shape that would bolt right in.

Those front chains make a huge difference!

I bought one of the Lotos branded ones off Amazon a few years ago. I don't recall the cost, but it was way less than I expected. That thing has been a revelation. I can't imagine not having one now. My first project with it was making a custom flat top griddle for my Weber gas grill. I was thinking about buying a Blackstone, but didn't like the cost or adding another apparatus to the "grill patio". So instead, I spent the money on a plasma cutter and made this out of 1/4" plate I picked up from the scrap yard

@Achto that video was... my eyes... my ears... wow... you need some curds man... fast...

I'll be firmly planted on the ground. Thanks.

Transfer Station in town takes it. Just need to put your phone # on the jug. And of course you need to be a resident. I donate quite a bit of it.

I had a similar 'surge' problem with my 520-H with the Onan engine. Turns out, wasn't the carb at all....the intake manifold was leaking on the rear cylinder. Replaced the gasket...problem solved. No more surge.

On the mark... Best offices are the ones that can laugh at themselves... sadly fewer and far between... great humor is now demonized and penalized...

At the end of a visit to London, a spin on the Eye can tie it all together.

It can be, just find a screwdriver that fits into the hole and properly fits the slots on top of the jet so you don't damage it. I have a flat screwdriver with fairly straight sides that fits very well, hopefully you do as well.

I tried that in hopes of the easy way out but no dice. My next plan of attack But wasn't sure if that could be removed or not. Thanks Cleat I do have a spare carb off a 220 with bad jugs that I could do that with Plunge. Was hoping to get by until the off season then pull every thing to check the valve lash and de-carbon the top end. I do run just hi test gas in these. I have a can of Sea Foam spray on hand. Manual says that idle screw 1 1/4 out.

I agree it's not the best time of year to get into it but after all the projects I have seen over the years you and Dan do this is a cake walk for you. Plus your retired, plenty of time on your hands. I keep a spare carb on hand ready for the occasion . If you have to pull the carb I use never seize on the new manifold gaskets on each side, makes them come right off without scraping them off. Of course lightly sand the mating surfaces first. When I worked in Chemical plants we had hot oil pumps that we had to pull and bring to the shop to work on for maintenance . We used Mobil therm 603 heat transfer oil to heat the jackets on reactors . Then on the re install we coated the mating surfaces on the pump and housing with the never seize for future removal. Good luck Jimbo

I used JB Weld.

My neighbor does that... I tell her the coons love her frozen deli meat selections better than my stinky rotten offerings... they are more health conscious these days and want the little ones to eat a better, healthier selection of trash... But seriously, in the summer It is a good idea, we just don't have freezer space... so, double plastic grocery bag with the dog poop and clean the cans each week...

Some years ago I made up my own back door set, knob inside, lever outside. When it had a lever on the inside, our dog learned to open it and run off. These days I only have to deal with the Grand-Dogs.

Oh noooo

Penny is out French bulldog. She is addicted to my rc trucks. I have two dedicated to her. She wakes me in the morning and goes and lays by it. Steve

Fri , Sat after Father's Day June 20th and 21st

This is all the world really needs...

Like others, the shop that maintains my cars takes it upon my promise that it is strictly dino or synthetic motor oil. Legally in NY, any licensed auto repair shop must take used motor oil, but they can refuse any they believe has been adulterated.

Again when I was in the police, we had a health and safety inspection in our second floor office. The report highlighted several areas of concern for the Inspector; objects stored on top of lockers which could fall an injure someone, things stored under desks which could trip someone etc. The Inspector gave us a week to address the issues before he reinspected the office. So being mature, intelligent police officers we decided to put up some warning signs to assist our colleagues in navigating our office safely. I remember a few good ones, which resulted in us being put on the carpet for a good talking to. "DO NOT EAT THE CUTLERY! " "THIS WINDOW IS NOT AN EXIT!" "CAUTION, FLOOR UNDERFOOT!" "THIS WALL IS UNLIKELY TO MOVE!" We thought it was funny, but our gaffers were a bit more serious about the whole thing lol.