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Equipment
I went to hook up my trailer but couldn't find the stupid trailer hitch
pin. I can't seem to keep track of the darned things. I'll
be out in the field working when I have to disconnect the trailer for
one reason or another. Like a moron, I'll leave the pin laying on
the hitch then go driving off. When I come back to get the
trailer, the pin is nowhere to be found. I originally had three
good trailer pins but have lost them all. I managed to scavenge
some old bolts and washers to make several more pins but I've lost all
of those too. I made an emergency run to the local hardware store
to buy another hitch pin just to discover that the 3/4" pin I bought
won't fit in the 3/8" hole. Another trip to a different store and
this time I got it right. I have three new pins that all
fit. Now all I have to do is permanently attach the pin to the
trailer hitch so I can't lose it.Once I got the trailer connected I could finally get to work. I worked for three hours straight before deciding it was time for a break. Three hours may not seem like much but after three hours I was sweaty, tired and filthy. I decided to mow since mowing consists of riding which is much easier than loading, hauling, unloading, pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying and dragging. 
The problem with the mower is that the stupid mower belt keeps jumping off the
pulleys. I have to twist and pull the belt back on then try again.
It sometimes takes a dozen tries or more before the belt finally stays in
place. Once started, everything usually works fine until I hit a large
rock, step on the brake or back up, all of which stop the mower which means I
get to play a couple more rounds of the belt-n-pulley game. Keeping the
mower running is a constant battle.I had just gotten the mower running again when I saw a strange mower driving through my field a few rows over. It was my neighbor. He had dropped by to show off his shiny new mower. I'm envious. After admiring his new mower, we spent another few minutes discussing local coffee gossip. I had missed the latest coffee farmer meeting so I had to get all the details from my neighbor. After my neighbor left I mowed for another couple hours before I had to stop because the mower was overheating. I had been awhile since the previous mowing so the mower was having to chop its way through a lot of tall weeds and I was in a hurry so I was pushing it as fast as it could go. Still, it's a 22HP diesel mower and can normally handle the load. I took the mower back to the house and decided to clean the air filter, hoping that would fix the problem. 
While waiting for the mower to cool down, I decided to cut up a large
branch that had fallen. I got out the chainsaw but the stupid
thing wouldn't start. No problem, I have two chainsaws. I
got out the second chainsaw but it wouldn't start either. Stupid
chainsaws. After a little head scratching, I decided to check the
sparkplug on the first chainsaw. Sure enough, it was filthy.
A quick cleaning and that chainsaw started right up. The second
chainsaw required a little more head scratching. It started fine
but was spewing thick black exhaust everywhere and wouldn't run for more
than a few seconds at a time. A friend just happened to stop by and
he thought the smoke smelled like diesel. I was pretty sure I hadn't
accidentally put diesel into my chainsaw. Then it occurred to me,
the chainsaw had been shipped to me with two-cycle oil already in the
tank. Out of habit I had added more 40:1 gas-oil mixture instead
of straight gasoline. That meant the chainsaw was trying to run
on 80:1 gas-oil mixture which totally explained the thick, greasy
smoke. I dumped out the tank and filled it with fresh 40:1
mixture. It took a few more tries but the chainsaw finally
cleared itself out and ran like a champ. Woohoo, two working
chainsaws again!It took nearly an hour of fiddling with the chainsaws for only 30 seconds of cutting. In the mean time, the mower had cooled down. I fired it up, played a couple rounds of the belt-and-pulley game, then managed to finish mowing the front field. Sure enough, after cleaning the air filter the mower ran nice and cool again. After mowing it was almost dinner time. I turned the electric fence back on, checked it's voltage, walked the fence line until I found and removed several of the neighbor's palm fronds that had fallen on the fence, checked the voltage again, walked the fence line some more until I found and fixed a loose wire then checked the voltage one final time. The meter showed 6000 volts, that's usually enough to keep the pigs out of the macadamia nut orchard. I had just enough time left to shower before dinner. During my shower, I noticed that the water pressure was low. Time to replace the water filters again. They sure do seem to get clogged faster than they should. I'll have to figure that one out some other time and changing the filters could wait until morning. I wanted to eat dinner, spend a little time on the computer then go to bed early. I didn't get very far on my To-Do list today. Hopefully tomorrow the equipment will cooperate better. |
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