Coffee's Ready, Come and Sit on the Porch

Country homesteader said:

I should have given her longer hug

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CrealCritter said:

I filled the gas and fired up the zero turn mower to pull it out of the barn this morning. No steering . I shut it off and looked at a big puddle of oil under the mower. I put a little steering fluid in the reservoir, it was bone dry. Then I managed to get it to the door.

This is what happens when a wood worker plugs a hole, that needs plugged.

Missing plug.
View attachment 25894

I whittled down a oversized poplar dowl with my pocket knife and beat it in with a hammer. It fixed the leak and the wood will do nothing but swell when the oil hits it and make the plug even tighter.
View attachment 25895

I filled the reservoir, still no leak and FB has been mowing with no issue so far .

I will order a plug from the manufacturer, but atleast the mower is up and operational.

If the ladies dont find you handsome, they should find you handy

Jesus is Lord and Christ

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CrealCritter said:

Finally got around to finding out what the part number is I need.

I called the manufacturer, they transferred me to the parts department, no one answered.

Looked on the manufacturer website, sent an email with attached pictures. Got a reply back in like 5 minutes. With the part number and a link to dealers to buy from.

I called the first dealer no answer.

Called the second dealer. They didn't have it in stock. Took my name and number said they would order from the manufacturer and call me when I could pick it up.

About 4 hours later the second dealer calls me tells me the manufacturer is out of stock. But he found another dealer, but by the time it would get to his shop it would be 10x the price. I said nah... I whittled a oversized poplar dowl with my pocket knife and beat it in with a hammer. It may last a lifetime or it may fall out next mow IDK... He bust out laughing and said he's seen some redneck stuff in his day but he ain't never seen anyone do that, you must be king redneck. We both were laughing pretty hard. I said I had to get that hole plugged, my wife needed to mow. He laughed some more, then he said listen if you have an ebay account search for that part number, I pretty sure you'll find it there.

So I ebay'ed the part number and have 2 seal plugs ordered. Like 10x cheaper than if I would have the second dealer get it for me. Plus it gets shipped right to my door

I'm telling you the truth.. I could have whittled many seal plugs with my pocket knife in the time I wasted trying to find that silly seal plug today .


Jesus is Lord and Christ

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harley.todd said:

Wow, I didn't know dealers make so much money off of us.

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CrealCritter said:

Not at all against people making money and he was kind enough to let me know the price increase. I will use this dealer for parts and repairs in the future simply because he was honest.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

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CrealCritter said:

...
We lost all but one of my wifes roses. I replaced them Sunday with dormant ones, they have already taken off. We also lost all 12 of our grapevines. New grapes are shipping the 22nd. Same thing happend to both roses and grapes. They budded, then two hard freezes and they turned brown or black and died.

I suppose rose and grape cold hardness is greatly reduced once budding occurs. Something for me to be aware of and provide protection against next spring. Roses should be easy to protect. But 100 ft of grapevines is not so easy. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

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flowerbug said:

grape vine varieties should be planted that will not bud out too early, but every year can be different. they usually have secondary buds that will come out later if the first round is damaged by a late frost.

i've only had a Concord grape vine here and it wasn't done in by frost but by the poor microclimate and it being very neglected when it was first planted (it was left as a pile on the ground and was also driven over). eventually when i could i built a trellis for it but it had a deeply split trunk and also kept getting black rot so eventually i took it out. i don't want to grow plants that aren't suited for our location - that's way too much babysitting for me.

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