Since moving to the country we have become reliant on the lawn tractor. Last fall we had trouble with the tractor staying running. The last mow of the season ended up with only half of the backyard swept as the mower died and I just couldn’t get it going again. It appeared to be over heating, or at least after it does half of the backyard we need to give it a little rest.
So we went out to check on it today and after a few attempts we did get it running again and I put the thatching attachment on it and I went to work. I had a little adrenalin rush when the engine caught. Low and behold, I got half of the backyard done and it died again. I went out a few hours later and did a few more rounds and it died again, it didn’t last as long as it had the first time. And it was only 0 to 1 degree outside today. I took the gas cap off and then replaced it, thinking that it wasn’t getting air but that didn’t make a difference.
So here I am totally relying on this defective lawn tractor! I can’t run around the whole property with the thatching attachment attached to my back so we need to get it fixed or replaced. This was a second hand one that we got from my cousin who fixes small engines, he scouted it out and bought it for us. He fixed it right up and sold it to us and it lasted pretty much the whole summer with a few glitches, a loose wire that kept falling off one day, a plugged air vent in the gas cap one other time.
In the city we never had this problem. In fact we paved our back yard with pavers and the front yard was shared with our unattached neighbours and they usually mowed the whole thing with their push mower or our gas one. We hardly had to worry about the grass. Now the grass is something I worry about all summer long!!
I am just about ready to plant my second round of plants for the garden. My first round is doing well, except the cat came by and ate all of the cat grass. I put the trays in the window and they are also near a heat source and I put the lights on them once the sun goes down to give them some more hours of light.
I noticed that the bed where my garlic seeds are that I planted last year looks like it has a lot of freshly turned earth, hmmmm. I hope the squirrels haven’t run off with my garlic!! Maybe it just looks the same as when I planted it last fall and it is fine.
If the weather isn’t too bad tomorrow I’ll get GJ to take down my hanging baskets and I’ll remove all of the Christmas decorations from inside them to get them ready for flowers. I love spring!!! I think the tulips may come out after next week with our warm temperatures predicted.