Homestead mailing list

[Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

There may not be much of a garden this year.  We are building a house 
and that it taking a lot of time plus the on again off again spring is 
making it difficult to plan.  A freeze is predicted for the end of the 
week, the first of May.  I have managed to dig two beds and was hoping 
to rototill the part not in beds today.  Instead I finished clearing out 
the garage of junk headed to the VFD garage sale, hauled a pile to the 
burn pile, then mowed the area where I was looking for the sewer 
washout.  We want to hook the travel trailer there while we build.

Things are breaking this spring.  The mower keeps throwing belts, it 
needs a new belt and possibly a new idler bearing.  The cheapest place 
is on Amazon so they will be getting an order.  The tiller would not 
start so after fighting with it I decided that rust and dirt were making 
a bad electrical connection so I ran a heavy wire to the block mounting 
bolt and that solved the problem.  The string trimmer will not take the 
throttle which I think is crud in the carburetor.  It is soaking in Sea 
Foam at the moment.  I have three others, one will not start, one has a 
bad head, and the other is a brush cutter.

This afternoon we had the place appraised and tomorrow someone comes to 
look at the trailer.  If all comes together we will be pouring concrete 
in three weeks and setting wood in four.  So a garden may be late.

--
Don Bowen           AD0BR
"A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In 
solitude alone can he know true freedom."
-Michel De Montaigne 1588
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html