Finally!!! I got the old loboy home!
Yesterday morning my friend Jim calls and tells me he just got a car hauler, and asks if I still needed to move a tractor. No hesitation there on an answer, LETS GO! We get to my folks, and its raining like mad the whole way out. All I could think of was the fun of loading this big thing in the rain, but as we got closer, the clouds parted, the sun poked out, and then came that lovely Ohio humidity. I'd rather have had the rain, but we were there.
We walk to the barn where the tractor was, and she's dead as a doornail. We had to push it out of the barn, and down the hill with the %$#! mowing deck down. (wont move since its hydraulic and we cant get it started) We pulled the deck off, hooked it up to a battery charger, primed the carb, and still nothing. After about 8-10 tries, we gave up and ended up PUSHING that beast onto a trailer. We carried the belly mower and snowplow to the trailer, and left for home.
We got it to our place, and pushed it off the trailer and down in front of the garage. After about an hour of tinkering and playing, I found the problems. One-the fuel fliter and glass bowl were clogged and full of sludge, cleaned that out and she started right up. It ran for a few minutes, then started chugging and stalled. Again, more sludge. I cleaned it out again, she fires right up......again. Still a bit of chugging, so I noticed the fuel line is copper and has 2 small kinks in it. As it was running, I gave the line a few taps with the handy old channel locks, right at the kinks, and she ran like a charm. Sometime soon, I'll tear off the gas tank and clean it, remove that in-tank filter, and replace the copper line with tubing, then install an inline filter...should be much more reliable.
I put the belly mower back on, and took it out to mow. Wow...just a bit of a wider cut than the john deere lol.It should cut the mowing time in half. I decided to try the snowblade, and it had no problem pushing a few high spots of gravel......impressive. Today I went to visit for fathers day, and grabbed the spare parts dad had laying in the shed. Some of them are the belt covers and body panels he took off and never replaced, but I'll get those later this week.
Other goodies this week too! Today I got Lisa an old tredle sewing machine from someone off freecycle. It seems to operate fine, I just have to replace the drive belt. The origional on is made from a thin leather strip, so I imagine I can make on of those from some scrap leather I have laying around. Earlier this week, my friend Jim gave me a reel mower and the little brother to the crosscut saw he gave me last week. The mower just needed cleaned and oiled, and it works great. The saw needed cleaned, oiled, and the handle replaced. Luckily I have a big backstock of misc piecy-parts,so I had a new handle for it. I stopped at the folks on the way home Monday, and mom gave me an old push-type cultivator that needed a lot of TLC. It got totally disassembled, sanded, rapainted, new redwood homemade handles, and put back together. My collection of future homestaed gear is growing every week, and I'm a happy camper with all these new toys.
Right now, the garden is doing GREAT. The potatos are standing close to 2 feet tall, peppers and tomatos look really good, and the corn is close to a foot. Greens and onions have been being eaten for a few weeks already, so no problems there at all. The strawberries are getting a good picking every day, and this morning I took about 2 qts to my dad in a tupperware container. He made me laugh as he ate 3 or 4, then just HAD to save the rest to eat in his cereal tomorrow morning. It might be a bit late, but I want to put out some celery and a few other greens. I love celery in my tuna, and I want to start taking a salad to work with me every day. (when I remember of course lol)
I decided to take on yet another project soon, and make a solar dehydrator. We tend to dehydrate a lot for storage, and I have read of a lot of people using one. I'll keep 1 or 2 of those old windows set aside for them, and set it up along the same fenceline as the cold frame and composter. I still have to collect more blocks and stone to make the fire pit/grill/smoker/outdoor canner that I have all designed, but I have all summer for that one. The rabbit hutch material gathering is going slow, but since money is tight, I'm not worried since I really cant spare the cash to buy the rabbits and supplies. Same as the others, I have all summer.
enough for now, gonna go finish a few things before I run out of daylight......