Sentimental Sunday

My last post was 20 days ago.  Seems I have found other things to keep me busy.  Oh well!

I spent the morning working on my lawn tractor.  I pulled the engine out of it and replaced the piston and rings and did a valve job on it.  It was burning way too much oil last year and I was fed up with it.  So I did all that but when I put it back together again I had something wired wrong and it took a few hours this morning to track it down.  Copying wiring diagrams off the internet all morning

.  I figured it out.  Took the snow blowing chains off the tires and hauled the mower deck out of hibernation.  Hooked it all up and started mowing.  Worked pretty good I was slightly impressed.  Being the pessimist that I am I kept waiting for it to go boom!  well instead it went snap.  Three passes into my mowing and the belt broke.  Go figure.  get the engine running good and something else breaks.  So I put the tractor back in the garage because I sure as heck aint gonna get a belt on Sunday.  Back to the shed and revived the 22 inch push mower.  One acre, one 22" pusher = 1.5 hours and a modest amount of sweat.  Looks nice.  First cut of the year really gets you in the mood for summer.  Then I reincarnated the fertilizer spreader that hasn't been used in 6 years and fertilized the entire lawn.  2 big bags covering 30,000 sq ft.  When that was done I played with my new chainsaw project.  I was up until 10pm last night putting it back together.  I took a Stihl 044 and put a big bore kit in it (new piston and rings and cylinder) which basically turns it into a Stihl 046.  6.5 horsepower and 78 cubic centimeters of displacement.  (CC) This saw purchased new is worth almost $1000.  I have less than $400 into it.  She screams and I giggle!

Now that the 2 main projects are done I can turn my attention towards other things.  My garden, my nonexistent flower beds and landscaping and finishing my painting in the house.
I was looking at the yard today trying to figure where I was going to start and I got to thinking about how my pops and I used to always do yard work together.  Raking the yard and I would follow him around with the shovel and wheelbarrow and he would rake the debris onto my shovel and I would wheel it away.  Hours and hours on end we would do this.  He showed me many things that I now just do automatically without even thinking.  I sure miss him being around.  I could let him haul the wheelbarrow now!
I suppose I'm about to hit my midlife crisis.  Kids are either in college/working or high school/sports.  Neither have time for parents right now and Momma doesn't much care for physical labor and what I consider "quality" time in the outdoors so it's just me and the dogs.  Gunner is great at picking up sticks but when he is done there are a hundred sticks from one.  Kinda defeats the purpose.  Remmi loves chainsaws.  They taste just like chicken he says.  Every time I try to start one he either tries to bite me or the saw.  One time I turned away from him to start it so he wouldn't bite it and he bit me in the ass.  Kinda defeats the purpose.
I'm having a real hard time letting go of the not having a child of my own thing.  Now I'm counting how many years until the kids have kids and I have grand kids.  Life's a bitch you know.

I have been busy cleaning up the yard and last weekend I had a bonfire to burn up all the splitter debris from my wood gathering adventures.  It was a pretty good fire.  I also cleaned out some more of the back fence row.  I have a plan for that but it will take some time.

Momma and I went out and bought her a new car this weekend as well.  New/used one that is.

A 2009 Malibu.  A very nice car.  great fuel mileage and a comfortable ride.  Her car was a 2000 and being 12 years old was dying rapidly.  No pics sorry.  I do have this one though!

This is how I haul wood.  

I have the A to Z challenge coming up in a few days so I suppose you'll see more of me now.  I almost cancelled it but in the end I could probably use it.  

Stay tuned!