Old Guys Simplex moto-peddle bike

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indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Thanks for the thoughtful words Rick. Yep, I've always told Jackie that 30 minutes out in the countryside on the bike is really all I need. It's just so enjoyable riding something that ya pretty much make from scratch. I'm not as creative as a lot of ya'll but have a nice vintage looking bike that has served the purpose. The Harley guys around here love it. I'm invited to a gathering of "Old" bikers and several years back decided to roll in on them. I stood back and watched the carrying on about my bike amidst 30-40 Harleys worth $?????? Great memories come with the motorbike stuff.

Dan
Dan H.O.G.'s do seem to love classic bikes, especially the old guys that grew up dreaming Schwinn' Whizzers during their pre teen years. The little Whizzer peanut tank and that stout 4 cycle motor, that sounds so cool all mounted in a classic cruiser frame was the ultimate that sadly most of us never owned. I've owned a lot of big bikes and never got the attention I receive when I roll up on a bicycle classic. Our moto-bicycles are a lot of bang for the buck!

Rick C.
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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I am glad I didn't have to help bale first crop hay this year. But times have changed. Quarter section farms a obsolete. The ones still in the game use imported workers so their kids can go to school and either go into management of the family business or seek other gainful endeavors.
Weather here in SE Wisconsin is getting back into riding weather, as opposed to blast furnace. But I am also side tracked because Mona came home from a 14 day hospital stay undergoing a Stem Cell Transplant. After the Massive Dose Chemo to destroy her existing bone marrow. That was July 6th. Next day she was infused with Stem Cells extracted previous to the chemo. Been twenty three days since the infusion and today her WBC was in the lower normal range.
That said, she has immunity to nothing. In order to survive Mona will over the course of the year starting in October will begin to get vaccinations from A to Z. I wish citizens in SE Wisconsin would respect their fellow citizens to reduce the spread of Covid-19. Mona and I are of the age that regardless of our over all health being good. We are susceptible
Tom glad to hear your wife came through the procedure well & weakened immune system is a part of chemo, that said, isolation is the best bet. Respect, sadly, is seldom encountered in many areas of our nation.

Most of the quarters are family inheritances & are operated as a hobby or for extra income in a good year around here. Sections of land are required to have any hope of making a decent life for a family here in wheat, hay and cattle country and even those have relied heavily on oil, gas and wind money to stay in operation. Big acres require big equipment and that's many $$. Big ag corp. will eventually control most of the land and all of the pricing, with the help of our State Department's policies regarding food for foreign aid.

Rick C.
 

Tom from Rubicon

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Apr 4, 2016
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Most of the quarters are family inheritances & are operated as a hobby or for extra income in a good year around here. Sections of land are required to have any hope of making a decent life for a family here in wheat, hay and cattle country and even those have relied heavily on oil, gas and wind money to stay in operation. Big acres require big equipment and that's many $$. Big ag corp. will eventually control most of the land and all of the pricing, with the help of our State Department's policies regarding food for foreign aid.
Yeah Rick, On occasion I wonder if Ma had not insisted that Dad sell the quarter section dairy farm in Huff Valley, Ontario, Wisconsin what my out come would be.
Tom
 

Tinsmith

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May 15, 2009
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Thanks for all the kind words, and good to hear Fasteddy! Always thought you needed to get your eyesight checked, but thanks for the compliment. Old SilverBear and I used to have some real fine rides through the countryside each year he came to visit. Hopefully Bike Camp will take place in 2021
Dan
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Tom the Dairy regions are the biggest buyers of the Washita River valley alfalfa hay. I'm certain you would have had a good life just different, circumstances only influence our lives, while attitude and drive mold them to our purposes.

Ralph I'm rather fond of that part of Missouri and it has some rugged landscape and great Ag resources as well. My Dad was a cattle trader and shipped many cattle into that region, mostly Angus black and red. Access to & through land has definitely changed here as well from the days of my youth and pretty much free access, with landowner permission of course as a courtesy to his rights and almost always granted. Not so today. As to rent for pasture my Dad leased thousands of acres of grass and Winter wheat pasture. The grass leases were primarily Indian land and school land. The wheat private property. He ran thousands of light weight cattle on these pastures in Winter and switched to grass for the reminder of the year, supplemented with hay and grain feed.

No hunting allowed when cattle were on the land except with small shot quail or dove loads. Fishing year round, but you had to walk no vehicles allowed on the property. Serious fishermen didn't mind , drunks etc. found someplace else to bob a cork.

Rick C.
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Thanks for all the kind words, and good to hear Fasteddy! Always thought you needed to get your eyesight checked, but thanks for the compliment. Old SilverBear and I used to have some real fine rides through the countryside each year he came to visit. Hopefully Bike Camp will take place in 2021
Dan
Dan you three guys influenced me to park in this forum, there were others, yet you 3 stood out and the dynamics between you three fellows has been and is a good example of how a community, small or large, should behave and interact. Actions build positive bonds.

My thanks to all three of you and to those who've emulated your forum presence.

To those not familiar with the threads of these guys you need to read up...better than anything on the tube.

Rick C,
 

fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Hi Tinsmith,
Your far too modest. Your skill set was second to none. Bike Camp will happen next year if the Virus allows the border to open and the players are able. It will be seven years since the last one if it is possible. Never would have thought in 2014 that it would be the last one for that long.

Bone infection doesn't fool around but they saved my leg and the ensuing years are recovery. Would have gone this year if the border wasn't closed. Heard from Silverbear today and he is converting one of the garages into a work shop so he can get ready to resume motorbike building and canoe polishing.

Steve.
 

fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Hi Rick,
Thank You. Glad to hear that I was something more than my usual bad influence.

Well into the Epic Electric build but its a long weekend here {Canada Day weekend} and I think it's only fair to give my long suffering neighbours the weekend free of noise.

Went out last Tuesday for the first time in 4 months to get supplies but the usual places like Home Depot were empty of what I needed. Looks like a metal shop run next week.

On to finishing the tri car section next week I hope.

Steve
 
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fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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Hi Rick,
I can think of a few people that are on here that I'm glad I didn't live in the same town with. The town couldn't have survived the tom foolery we would had been into. How every we would have know every nook and cranny of the surrounding countryside and just where the best fishing and hunting was.

Best wild berry patch and fruit trees and just when they were ripe. A good round of the Green Apple Two Step teaches egar young fellas to wait until they are ripe. Most of the kids today can't get away from their computers and if they could their parents wouldn't let them roam because it isn't safe.

How many kids today have grand parents who live in the country or have a farm they can visit for the summer. We saw the last of that in our generation.

Steve.
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Persimmons were the hardest for our gang to lay off of till they were really ripe. Alum is a bad motor scooter in a kids mouth expecting delicious sweetness. We grazed like a pack of Howler monkeys on whatever grew cultivated or wild. Mulberries which are filled with white nematodes (worms) were among our favorites especially after finding they were wormy. That brings us to grasshoppers, grub worms and song birds. Fair game for the gang and roasted over a pecan or apple wood fire in a little butter and salted they were mostly delicious, except for some birds. Our favorite birds were the Meadow Lard and the Robin. The grubs were the best of the insect, actually quite delicious. I've eaten a lot worse in South America and French restaurants, though I do like the frog legs and snails.

If you are what you eat I suppose I'm road kill, but I can can survive on what's available during any season!


Rick C.
 

Ralph hop

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Nov 14, 2019
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The cattle here are mostly red and black Angus and some half Brahma called brahngus. There were many local dairy operations but they have dried up in the last few decades. I volunteered to milk a herd of a hundred or so milking 8 at a time. I think it filled a 500 gallon tank for a local truck to pick up. That's about as big of a small dairy left here. I would encourage travelers and vacationers to come visit the OK, KS, MO, AR regions here, there is so much history ancient and new, so much diversity and culture and good food because of it! It's a very majestic place in the heartland and I've never had any deliverance movie kinda vibes!
 

fasteddy

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Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Persimmons were something you only heard about in my part of the world. When I moved to Florida I finally got a chance to try them thanks to a next door neighbour. Thousands of opossums can't be wrong and they weren't. Fantastic.

Grass hoppers and grub worms were for fish bait. We never thought of them as food. No Meadow Larks in the North that I ever heard of and shooting Robins would have you receiving a wood shed tune up of epic proportions. How ever Pheasants in the fall along with various ducks on local ponds while they "may" have required a licence to hunt were fair game as you were if the game warden was about.

Someones older brother who came from a long line of machinists would modify your Daisy Red Rider BB gun into a very potent weapon if his brother asked him to. It was considered a great honour to be chosen and took you into a very secret society of a very few. That took it past the, "You'll put someone's eye out if your not careful." Some corn sprinkled along the side of a freshly harvested corn field was a natural pheasant lure when they were scavenging it for dropped corn. The benefit of no report from a shotgun lessened any interaction with the Game Warden.

Horned Chub and Mud Pouts or Brown Bullheads along with Suckers from clear streams where the spring fish followed by Trout and Pickerel, Canada or Walleyes, U.S. along with Muskellunge and Pike not to mention the always welcome catfish were the Summer and Fall fish.

Blue berries in the summer if you were lucky enough to live where they were available and didn't mind keeping an keen eye for black bears who claimed the patch as their own and gooseberries and black or red currents and grapes that were in the back garden.

Apples of all varieties, pears, plums strawberries and raspberries and for a lucky bunch peaches. Peach tree owners had a tendency to guard them rather well and were often armed with a shotgun full of rock salt with a low powder charge in the shell so the rock salt didn't turn into a fine powder when turned loose. From what I was told sitting in school with your nether regions full of rock salt that was slowly dissolving was a most unpleasant experience.

Mulberries are food from the Gods and a friends grand parents had a massive tree in their front yard. In later years I learned of the delights of granddad's finely aged mulberry wine. It did, as he often claimed, make the path home much lighter.

Years later new owners had the tree cut down because of the mess from the fruit falling. They were less than popular after that sacrilege.

Steve.
 
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Tinsmith

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May 15, 2009
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Maryland
Wow, I think we are all related!! I was 4th generation livestock operator until an accident changed things. Still eat my share of mulberries on the farm park property on the outskirts of town. There are usually a good crop of blackberries in the fence rows, but, of course guarded by poison ivy. Even though I was never bothered much by ivy I stay on the edges and get a handful every time I pass by. Every year someone wades right in and cleans them out. Don't leave any for the rest of us. Oh well, life's memories are good and you folks are certainly stirin' them up

Thanks,
Dan
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Wow! Thanks fellows for sharing. In my view we're all brothers from different mothers, regardless of our roots or leanings. It's nice to hear you guys stories and that they all fit together so well despite our growing up in various parts of the map. I raised my kids in Houston but spent a lot of time in the coastal regions and the Hill Country with them on friends properties and on my farms outside Victoria, Tx. so they got a bunch of country and small town life from this and from visiting my folks here in Indian Territory. We owned horses & they learned to ride pretty well. They also went to school and Church and were friends with many kids whose families had big ranching operations in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana so they were able to vacation and holiday with their buddies and hang out with real Wranglers and Vaqueros...which is where they picked up some colorful language in Spanish & English and other bad habits I'm sure. The results however were that they grew up well & now live decent lives with their children. So I'm blessed!

Riding these roads that I grew up on has triggered a lot of good memories as well. Your stories are really re-enforcing these recollections & opening pages of my life that have been too long closed, Thanks again friends!

Rick C.
 

Tom from Rubicon

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Apr 4, 2016
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You guys have just brought my youth flooding back. WoW!
A thought comes to me, here on Rick's (Party line) that the Silent and Boomers share so much in common except the time at which we reached adulthood. The life we shared with Grandparents, some immigrants of the 19teenth century . Imparted in us the time before the industrial revolution. The Yeoman Jeffersonian ideal.
Pardon me if I exceed the bounds of this thread.
Tom
 

indian22

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Dec 31, 2014
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Your looking at history & our stories seems quite reasonable to me Tom & I'm sure Steve would agree any thread on this forum that's as long as this one is contains enormous content that exceeds any thought of boundaries. Old fools such as myself tend to the eccentric & asymmetrical elements and with a variety of eclectic topics mixed in and tossed about in open discussions. I consider all while understanding that the core element we come to this forum for is to discuss motorized bikes and a bit of off topic tends to help reset and humanize posts. I find people much more interesting than bikes so you guys daily lives and thoughts on a variety of subject matter...matters!

Bring it on, those who ride single track in their reading and thinking aren't forced to read my ramblings and I take no offense if they don't. Sharing our common experiences and thoughts should strengthen us all.

Ride more often and build when you feel like it! Post often and show photos along the way.

Rick C.