We arrived Wednesday. I had to replace an ABS sensor on the truck so we got a late start. After lunch I got the extension set and we blew the leaves out of the gutters. We took a ride around the farm and sized up our jobs for this week. The shed had some groundhog holes in it so we released another smoke bomb in there.
Thursday started early with spraying all the weeds around the lake and buildings. Diquat really works fast. The grass in the road that I sprayed with Glyphosate was only slightly yellowing by the time we left, but the Diquat sprayed grass was already dead. The suggested Diquat dilution is 7.5 oz per 10 gallon. The suggested dilution rate for Ranger Pro is 2 oz per gallon or 20 oz per 10 gallon. I got started on the big tractor and David relieved me after an hour due to the heat. I rested a bit then fired up the zero turn to get some cutting done that would be hard for the tractor. We tried to take the blades off but couldn't without a pneumatic air wrench.
I had an idea that if I could get the mower working on the 284, I could help David by getting the close work under the trees with the shorter tractor. I asked Preston if someone would possible have a used brush hog small enough to use on the small tractor. In his opinion, finding a small brush hog that wasn't used up was unlikely. Bev remembered Sonya had a small one and she agreed to let us borrow it. I drove the 284 up to her house to pick it up. Once there, we could see that it had rested in one place for a very long time. The tail wheel had been taken off to use on another brush hog. David and I hooked it up and carried it back down to the house. Immediately we saw that the drive shaft was completely seized. I had to put Gibbs on it and drift it off with a hammer. Once we had it off, some scrubbing with Gibbs and WD-40 removed the layer rust. A coat of grease and it was slipping easily. It took another minute to grease all the zerks. Then we connected it to the PTO. David found the PTO lever and it was running. Knowing it was working, we took a trip up to Tractor Supply to get another tail wheel. It became clear that taking off the blades to sharpen was going to be trouble. After some research on You Tube, I saw that we could cut a hole to allow a socket wrench access to the bolts. That will be a project for another day.
With David on the 55-66, I got on the 284 and started on the field above the lake. He soon had the back field finished and he took over the field I was in and I headed down to the old house. We got all those fields mowed before supper time. If I can keep that little brush hog going, I can help him a lot.
As usual we refilled the gas cans and filled the small cans and tanks for Maw Maw. She can't lift the 5 gallon cans.