Bussy day

10/12/07 Friday
It’s been a busy day. Yesterday didn’t end too hot as I got all pissy about Cherie not coming to pick me up when she had dinner with Janie. It’s frustrating to not have the truck running and be stuck here at home. I got over it today but sure gave Cherie a hard time about it. I can be an ass when things don’t go my way. Feel bad about it later but it’s too late by then. So enough about that. I don’t just sugar coat things and try to be as honest as I can with this journal, so I tell the bad with the good.

I worked on the tiller a lot yesterday and got right on it this morning. Even with the schematic I found again and downloaded it’s like putting a jig saw puzzle together. Unfortunately I have two snap rings left over and can’t even see in the schematic where they went. There were several times I had to take the tiller partway apart because things had to be put together in a particular order. I finally got it done as far as I can tell and commenced to trying to get it started. The clutch doesn’t work so I did something wrong there. It’s totally engaged so the machine is usable but that makes it a bear to try and start.

Pulling the starter rope is hard because it must turn the gears and tiller blades. That also makes it a little unsafe when it starts cause it’s going right away. It took quite a number of pulls before it finally kicked. Wore me out and I had to take a few breaks. I was about to give up, thinking it was a dead machine when it finally coughed to life. I had to play with the carburetor settings to get it to run right but it ran pretty solid after that. I tilled a small area and that sucker is a handful to handle. Unfortunately it was blowing a lot of oil through the oil filler cap. I tried putting it on tighter but that didn’t stop it. That’s a sure sign the rings aren’t in good shape and there is lots of blow by pressurizing the crankcase. I suppose that’s to be expected in a late 1950’s engine. I’ll pick up an O ring to reduce the oil flow and suppose I’ll just have to keep putting oil in it. I’m gonna study the schematics to see what I can do about the clutch. I’d hate to take the tiller apart again but as always I’ll do what I gotta do. Perhaps unhooking the reverse mechanism would help. When I Googled it looking for the schematic I saw there had been lots of lawsuits due to injuries related to the reverse so I don’t intend to use it anyway.

Today the Farm Bureau had their annual steak dinner and business meeting. Being a member and wanting to meet folks I went. Cherie wasn’t feeling well so stayed home. It was a good idea to attend. I met a rancher who also is involved with the farmer’s markets in this part of Texas. He knows the folks who own the apple orchard in Lubbock. The Easter freeze and snow pretty much wiped out their crop this year. I told him and a few others about my plan to make the farm a pick your own orchard and everyone was positive and even enthusiastic in a couple of cases about the whole idea. That is encouraging. At the board meeting they discussed a resolution concerning land owner rights regarding oil leases. Seems that oil companies can just march in and drill when and where ever they want whether you like it or not. Sometimes destroying valuable farm land. We need to go to the courthouse and pull the oil lease on our property. I’ll have Steve look at it as he’s what they call a “Land man” or something and is real familiar with this stuff. I’m pretty clueless.

So that’s it so far. It’s getting dark so there’s not much more I can do on the tiller. Tomorrow looks like it will be a busy day.