Lawn Mowing Classics

Got a cool looking mower this weekend. From it's speckled red shifting ball to is classy orange color and futuristic Battlestar Galactica styling it is one hip machine. The most appealing part, I got it cheap.

Next I got it home. It works amazingly well, probably better than any craftsman I have had, and that is even with it's 6 hp engine. Yeah, 6 HP! and me at 200lbs. It does only cut a 26" swath but it is pretty fast in the shorter grass in 6th speed. Yeah, it has 6 forward speeds and reverse! The slowest speed is a real creeper, but I could probably skid logs with it. I found out they did have a 40" snow blade accessory for it on the Ariens Parts Radar page.

I got it home and the spark plug was gunked and oiled like crazy, it would huff but not really catch. I was lucky that I had an exact replacement new plug on hand, and once it started, I mowed the whole lawn. It was actually pretty fun to drive, especially after pushing a broken self propelled toro over a 2 acre lawn. The self propelled part was broken, not the mowing part!



Unfortunatly the engine is blowing smoke, I don't know how long it will last but I plan on running it until it dies. And since it runs so good, design wise, I am thinking that it would actually be worth it to get a new motor. Some research turned up that the V60 motor it has is considered by some to be one the best engines that Tecumseh ever made, thus it is discontinued. Also it is old enough that parts are scarce. Maybee an electric conversion would be the way to go. Ahh, I can dream.

Sawmill and Earth Tones

I got to run a sawmill today. Actually I only ran it after Kyle squared the log but I got to do maybee a dozen boards and battens.

Kyle had made the open offer to the goat 4h that he had a sawmill and if they needed lumber to make their goat shed he had some spruce logs left from his projects that he would cut if they came up and helped for the cost of gas and blades. Kyle owns a Native Plant Nursery in Woodbury that is very cool called Earth Tones.

They have a good selection of natives. We bought some American Ginger, Witch Hazel, and Wild Bergamont today. One of the really neat features is they have a small pool set up and on it's margins there are Pitcher Plants, and Sundew, both carnivorous.

Broken Xbox

This is the warning on the bottom of my Xbox game console, to be a true disclosure they need to add "Taking apart your Xbox may result in you fixing it better than Microsoft was going to"



I bought a "working" xbox this weekend and it was broken. Admittedly I got a decent deal on it regardless.

Basically it would shut off at random after turning the unit on. I decided to take a look inside to see if anything was obviously amiss. First go I didn't see any problems but I suspected the power supply board.

I did a google search on the premise that since it was a microsoft product, a huge number of people have had this specific problem already without any satisfactory resolution, except for solving it themselves. (I don't consider sending it to be repaired for a exorbitant fee by microsoft to be a satisfactory resolution, considering it is really a flaw on their part.)

(I fully admit my bias against Microsoft. Yes I still use their products, that is why I am biased against them. Years of poor customer satisfaction will do that.)

I got a hit on the search "xbox shuts off" and find out this problem was responsible for a recall of power cords, a replacement being supplied that had a built in circuit breaker. Not really a good "fix" for the problem. Of course I am jumping to the conclusion that microsoft would supply a fix that doesn't really fix the true issue, the solder connection going bad from heat and lack of robustness.

I resoldered the connection and it is working fine so far.

Lightning vs. Tree

Went on a good hike this morning. Started at about 4:45am and made it back home at 7:30am. I was hoping to sneak up on some deer and turkey but didn't see anything but tracks. Did see a very neat lightning struck hemlock. Actually the best I have seen. Pieces were strewn in a 60 foot circle and individual "splinter" looked to be about 6-8ft long, 5"deep and maybee 1.5"wide. One of the neatest things was that in addition to the splinters being blown off, the bark was also, there was a piece where the small twigs coming out of the trunk were completely stripped of bark, these were probably about 1/8" diameter twigs over 1' long, free of bark still connected to a piece of the trunk that had been blasted away.

Digging up roots

I spent hours hacking away with a double bladed axe and tugging up roots in the walkway. It was a big annoyance, and possibly a last act of revenge (hopefully last) of a big tree we had to cut down right next to our house. I felt kinda bad about abusing the axe but I never used it as an axe and it works great as a root cutter.

Spoof Reel Mower Info

Old reel mower, add 3 cans of spray paint, and it is like new again. Yeah, it is dumb, I know already!