Busted, again

Our 'new' lawnmower had a catastrophic failure a couple days ago. It started by throwing a belt. I replaced the belt and couldn't see anything wrong, but when Dave took it for a test run it started making horrible noises, so I took another look and found the bearing had blown apart on the big double pulley that runs the deck.

That assortment of bearings, snap rings, and spacers on the floor is what used to be the bearing assembly. The pulley itself got pretty chewed up too, so I ended up buying a new pulley as well. A bit of shopping around on the net brought the price from about $175 down to $120. I just have to figure out how it all goes together when the new parts arrive.

Just one more thing to keep me from working on the pony...

_

Read more »

What to do with those giant brush piles I made

The backyard was full of giant prickly brush piles after all my work last week clearing blackberry vines. Now we need to get rid of them. We don't like burn piles, so we prefer to haul them away, but to do that, we have to move them around front. First, get a tarp, and tie it to the tractor. Oh, and a husband is handy to have around too!

After letting the piles dry a few days, they are fairly easy to move. Kind of like velcro - they all stick together. If you're lucky you can just about roll the whole mess onto the tarp.

Away we go! I follow behind and grab the back corner to steer it a bit if necessary, or use my pitchfork to push stray branches back onto the tarp.

All the way around the house and shop...

Line it up with the pile on the driveway, and lift up the tarp to throw the new load on. 

And off he goes for the next pile. I think we moved 5 or 6 piles of brush this way, and now there is a very big pile on the driveway. A friend offered to let us use their farm truck to haul it away, so that's the next step.

It's sure nice to have the back yard all cleaned up and mow-able again!

_

Read more »