05/12/13

I had plans to get a lot done today, but things didn't quite work out as I hoped. I spent the morning installing new blades on the mower. That wasn't a difficult task, but was time consuming because I had a lot of trouble getting the bolts out that held the blades in place. Replacing the blades gave me an opportunity to try out the new set of ramps I had bought. They worked great for the mower, and made working under it much easier than trying to lift it with a chain, which is what I had done in the past.

Once the new blades were installed I hooked to the mower and mowed the front yard. I had thought that the sound I was hearing before was caused by the blades being loose, but it is still happening, so it must be something different. The noise wasn't too bad at first, but by the time I finished it had gotten much worse than before. I also experienced a new problem, with the blades not engaging when I first put the lever into the engaged position. The very last time I tried engaging them, they would not engage at all. I'm thinking that the problem is that the belt is slipping, which could be caused by a bad bearing, that might also explain the noise. I need to do some research into that possibility.

Even with the problems I did manage to mow the front yard, along the driveway, and a section across the road. When mowing along the driveway I positioned the mower so it was offset to the right, which worked very well. I used it in the same position across the road, and it also worked well there. I am considering switching to using offset for all mowing, since it seems to work so much better.

I was considering getting the tractor out, after I finished mowing, and trying to rake the clippings across the road. Just before finishing with my mowing, however, I started to feel sick. I ended up going into the house, and napping. I didn't feel much better when I woke up, so just went back out for long enough to put away the mower and tools, check on the garden, and help Andrea cover the strawberries with sheets, due to the frost warning in tonight's weather forecast.

Andrea spent several hours working on her herb garden today. She has almost completed the border along the front edge of it, which makes it look much better than before. We still have a lot of work to do on the stepping stones, but I'm hopeful that we can get it finished before time to get everything planted. If we don't manage to finish, at least the front edge will be done.