Pete:
Thanks for your reply. One thing I didn't mention is that I had at the time, the carburetor in for overhaul. The new carb now does cause it to run substantially better without the "chuffing," noise. However, that doesn't fix the compression. Since it is close to Winter snow, I will let it be for the season and take the head off in the Spring and then do what is necessary from what I find there.
One friend recommended this in case, by milling the head, I do increase compression then I may have another problem created by that with the lower parts of the engine caused by new stress from the increased compression. Good advice, I think, so I'll use it for snow removal and get the rest of it fixed later.
Thank you again.
Burt