Does your Kahlenberg start up easily?

A National Historic Event (Almost) that only happens once a year.
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Last week we camped at my friend Bruce's place on the N Shore of Lake Superior on our way up to the the N Shore hiking trails (200+ very rugged miles thru the Sawtooth Mountains). He has a 6,000 pound 9'long x 7' high Kahlenberg - A National Historic Diesel Engine.
It is from the well known 66' Lake Superior fishing vessel the 1938 Hiawatha, owned by pioneer fisherman Howard Sivertson (Google = 3500 articles) who is now famous as a painter, author, and storyteller.

 


Can you guess the horsepower?
Bruce bought the engine in pieces and crates full of parts and rebuilt it in his machine shop. We were there for the annual running of the Diesel which draws a small crowd from afar.
Starting it requires about 45 minutes of extensive preparation and is somewhat dramatic and noisy. It takes a fair amount of time and effort before it runs smoothly on all 3 cylinders. The ground trembles like a earthquake while it's running and it's quite noisy.

(Video below) Starting is quite a procedure. Keep in mind that this engine was located down in the cramped quarters of the wooden boat.  It has no reverse... you stop the engine, then start it running the opposite direction.

^ Video ^
While you are reading this, the engine is being moved to it's new permanent home in Albany Minnesota just in time for a huge event, the 32nd Annual Albany Pioneer Days Threshing show , September 14,15,& 16, 2007 with over a thousand huge steam tractors, antique gas tractors, engines, farm equipment , and a flea market, etc (I bought some marvelous junk at the flea market) 
 http://www.albanymnchamber.com/pioneer.htm
After we left Bruce's we went to Grand Marais MN on the North Shore near Canada for another event (snowmobiling on the lake- Next blog). http://bertthemensachicken.multiply.com/journal/item/19/Trolling_for_fish_with_your_Snowmobile.

= = = = = = From the book of Very Bad Poetry, James McIntyre.
We have seen thee, queen of cheese,
Lying quietly at your ease,
Gently fanned by evening breeze,
Thy fair form no flies dare seize.

Rent verses Buy

You can choose to live in either of these houses (Picture above missing). This still applies if you're renting an apartment instead.
Think of it this way. A landlord buys a property. He calculates his monthly expense (Mortgage amt with minimum down, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy%, etc) of owning the property and adds in a little bit of profit to guarantee a positive monthly cash flow and THAT's the number which he will charge for RENT in order to make it worthwhile. That means that the renter is paying ALL of the mortgage Principal plus ALL of the expenses (PITI) (Interest, Taxes, Insurance, maintenance, etc) so that it costs the landlord NOTHING (except a minimum down payment) to own the building.
Eventually the building is paid for and guess who paid for every penny of it but doesn't own it. The Renter paid off the landlords mortgage, but gets NO cash when it's sold. The landlord gets it all including annual depreciation and tax deductions, PLUS the landlord gets ALL of the appreciation which may be 2 or 3 times what he paid for the property (maybe hundreds of thousands in cash). Such a deal for the landlord. The landlord doesn't even need a positive monthly cash flow. With deductions and appreciation, he will still profit when the property sells.
So WHY buy and pay for a house/apartment that you don't own? As a Renter, you ARE already paying for a house/apartment, but you get NONE of the benefits of ownership, the landlord gets ALL the benefits and becomes wealthy, you walk away with nothing.