Bricked

We finally got some cool weather this summer, which was quite convenient as I spent most of the weekend laying brick. This is what my brother and I managed to complete in a day and a half:
UPDATE - Click on the picture for the full width, the blog formatting is cropping the majority of the photo

We put down probably around 500+ bricks plus the retaining wall. We will have to continue it on the left side a bit until it hits the deck on that side, which will require a bit more work to level the ground. This also is a interesting panoramic of 3 pictures stitched together by my brother's camera. I wish I had a before photo, but failed to plan that far ahead.

I also got out Friday evening and added some more curves on the motorcycle. It was bittersweet however as a fork seal failed on me and is added to the list of things to fix. Hopefully I'll get some pics up soon. Amid all of this there is good news, I finally got the piston back out of the engine and replaced the rings. The oil pan is even back on and I just need to bolt the head back on (well, not exactly the easiest task) and get everything hooked back up properly. I Plan on having it on the road by the end of the month!

Lost my head again.

The head is finally off once again. Progress was halted once again, this time by a broken finger(Don't run next to a pool kids!). As you can see things are looking empty in the engine bay again:


The head sitting on a table.


Here's a shot straight down on the pistons. You can see something's different about #2. This is with only about 250 miles on the engine:


One of these things is not like the other:


A good set of valves:


Something's wrong here:


Hopefully it's just the rings on that piston and a simple replace (I've got spares) will do the trick.

The landscaping finally started to bloom. Here are a few macros: