Quad Problems, Arrowheads, a Cool Ride and Some Bull

Monday December 14, 2020 Guerneville CA.

I went out and fed the chickens and checked on them first thing when I got up.

Quad won’t start

Then I wanted to ride my quad runner up into the hills and see how all the forest fire rehab I did was working out as yesterday it rained pretty hard a few times so I wanted to see if all was well with erosion control.

I put  my shovel on the quad and tried to start it, but it was having a hard time getting going. It would start and then stop. I tried to get it going until the battery was getting a bit low but still working.

Maybe a lack of maintenance

So thinking about this machine I bought it in 1985 when the quads first came out and in truth I have never changed the oil or cleaned the air filter. I did clean out the carb a few years ago.

So, since the machine seemed to have some kind of gas problem I decided I better check the air filter to see if it was dirty and plugged up.

What air filter

So I took the stuff off to check the filter out. Well that filter was still clean,….But.

It had rotted and was all in pieces so I thought maybe some of the pieces might be plugging up the carb, but there was a screen to prevent that. I cleaned out all the foam pieces and tried starting it again and was finally able to keep it going long enough to get it warmed up a bit.

I guess I need to do some maintenance on it. It could be the spark plug needs it’s gap adjusted and I likely need to pull the carb and clean it all out, but not today as since I was able to get it warmed up I headed up the hill to check things out.

Cold out

It was cold out around 40 degrees F. but also damp from yesterday’s rains so the cold was penetrating. I should have had some warmer pants and another heavy shirt on.

With all that work getting the quad going I took off without my camera which I realized as I as riding up into the hills.

Rehab looks good

The ride was cold. I checked some of the rehab areas as I went and they looked pretty good with very little erosion.

Old arrowhead

One of the reasons I wanted to go up into the hills was to drop off some silver arrowheads I’d made from a rather nice flint one I found  in the desert.  I’d sold  some silver ones to a friend of my cousins. My cousin lives up on top of the hill where the sun was shinning nicely.

Visiting

I’d only meant to drop off the arrowheads and head back down the hill but the sun was so nice up there I stayed around for an hour or so and shot the bull with my cousin and her husband.

I left there and headed back down the hill going straight home and it was cold until I got into my  house.

I did put the battery charger on the quad’s battery as I’d run it down so much.

Chickens don’t like the cold

I checked on the chickens to gather the eggs but apparently they didn’t like the cold either as there were no eggs in the nest boxes.

I was cold all the way through after riding the quad under dressed so it was in the house for me for a nap and warming up.

At dark I shut the chickens up for the day and still no eggs.

Nice day chatting at my cousin’s place, but not so nice at my house.