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Another week of doing the routine stuff that must be done to keep the farm. It is a losing proposition. It races ahead of any effort one can manage. Keeping stuff working is a full time job. We got the screen door screening replaced. I replaced the tines on the TroyBilt tiller. I also got some mowing done.

I arrived Monday afternoon and managed to get the grass mowed around the old house. I used the finish mower with the old thicker belt I need to go back and sharpen the blades but after a little warm up, it mowed the whole yard. I had planned to bush hog around the old barn but rain came in Tuesday morning and continued until almost 3pm. So Wednesday I was able to do a lot of little items.  I got the brakes sorted. Again. I also took care of 2 groundhogs David let me know we got the big one this evening. Maybe it will make a dent. 

 The reduced power problem has continued. Yesterday and today, I could barely get the work done. I finally gave up and went to see Preston. While we were looking around, I pulled the distributor cap off and he saw that the points weren't opening up. He said he didn't see how it would even run like that. He opened them with a screw driver and immediately the little tractor could start easily and pulled the little bush hog with ease. I got the Chestnut Orchard finished and mowed the field above the pond.  I did some mowing with the finish mower but I think the belts are near breakage and began to slip a little. I'll need to check the tightness before using them again.

  After my recovery period for Covid, I went to Cullman on Monday the 8th and started catching up on the mowing and farm stuff. Pretty much everything needed mowing. The big tractor made short work on the main north fields and David helped me with the field across from the pond.  The grass had grown quite long and with the two week absence, I simply started and mowed all of them. There is always some mowing to do. At least no trees had fallen. There were some indoor projects pending. A couple of shower fixtures had to be replaced. The screen door latch didn't hold and had to be improved. The old JD mower needed a bit of tuning so it would climb better and the mowing deck replaced. And the garden needed to be disked and more corn and okra planted.  David should have had a shot on the groundhog at the old house but forgot to check his ammo. The hammer fell on an empty chamber. I got the conibear traps out and caught one of the groundhogs that lived by the spring. David had ...

 We came back to Cullman to assist with what appears to be a small stroke which caused Mawmaw to have some weakness and numbness and ended up going to Grandview for a complex pacemaker insertion. While this was happening, I came down with a bad case of Covid 19. I continue to shed virus here on day 5. While I've been laid up, Beverly has stepped in to help her Mom with recovery. I'm not sure what garden stuff may have been fixed but Bev repotted with peach sprouts. I am hoping we get more but right now there are four living. When I get better, I've got a lot of work to do.

The next step of many steps. Today I examined the peach seeds for growth and found two that have made an appearance. There are several more than I think will show up soon but tune will tell. It was a week to handle small projects. It is always like that. I did more work to try to fine tune the finish mower. I changed the belt setup to try and get even cuts and may have made some progress.  The compressed air line had deteriorated so I got a replacement for it and installed it with some effort. Afterward I found two other lines that Pawpaw had purchased and never used.  I mowed the upper, side, and pond fields with the 55-66 and it performed great. I also did a little work on the drive system of the old JD mower. I didn't get it great but it was workable. The tiller had an issue of engagement but it was easily fixed. I guess I shouldn't have bragged on it.  

 After getting the finish mower operational, I found the 284 didn't have the expected level of power. The little tractor must have developed a problem while in winter storage. After the work we did disking the garden, I knew I would have to address this problem. Two weeks ago I had cleaned and reinstalled the spark plugs but this apparently didn't help. I was afraid this might be a problem with the carburetor. So this morning I began a 3 point approach to diagnose the problem. First I would verify the firing sequence and checked to see that the spark plug cables were correctly installed, then replace the spark plugs with new ones and check the old ones for resistance, and finally, if those measures failed, remove the hood and pull the carburetor for cleaning. While in the process of checking the firing sequence, I found that one spark plug wire had a cut in it. I produced a replacement and still went ahead with the spark plug replacement. I also saw that the fuel line had some ...