More Tractor Repairs, Weed Mowing, Potatoes, Strawberries and Lettuce

Sunday April 24, 2016 Guerneville CA.

Staying home doing chores

The weather guys said it was going to be windy at Jenner today and I’m trying to stay out of the sun for awhile as much as possible for my burn.

So, I decided to stay home and do some chores.

Tractor gas problem

I started with the old Ford tractor. It seems not much gas was coming out of the gas tank, so that meant I had to drain the gas out of the tank and remove this filter bowl assembly and see what was plugged up.

I rigged this funnel catch system to drain the gas into the container as when the filter was unscrewed gas would flow out of the gas tank as there would be nothing to hold it back.

I set it up and waited for Tom to come home from the market as I didn’t want to get any gas on my burned and tender hands.

He unscrewed the filter and sure enough the filter was plugged up with dirt in the inlet where there was once a screen to keep the dirt out. The screen was gone so dirt just went down the drain and eventually plugged it up.

I thought I had it all cleaned out, but when I installed it, it did the same thing, but the problem would go away if we put more gas in the tank which was ok with my brother, but the right way to fix it would be to get a new filter unit and install it.

But since just keeping more gas in the tank was ok with my brother, I said ok, and continued putting the air cleaner back on the machine.

Tom drove the tractor away and that job was finished unless he gets a new filter.

Mowed some weeds

Next I needed to mow some of the weeds that are growing rather well this year. Now I don’t mind weeds when they are green, but when they dry they are a fire hazard so I need to mow them every year. I started in right here in front of the mower, where the weeds are higher than the  mower.

I mowed off and on during the day, trying to do it mostly when there was cloud cover and got most of it done, at least this part of the yard.

Harvested some potatoes

Since my blue berry patch is there which I mowed around, I was thinking some potatoes would be nice, so I harvested these as I have the urge for some French fries which I cooked tonight.

Headed for the strawberry patch

When my brother drove away with his tractor, he left one of his golf carts here, so I headed to his house with it. I saw him go out  his gate driving the tractor as I approached his house so I followed him over to one of his gardens as I was thinking a strawberry reward would be nice.

I found Tom checking his mouse traps, or in this case, vole traps as they can be a pest in the garden. I don’t think he caught any, but I’m not sure as I headed for the strawberries and ate my fill, so I wasn’t hungry when he invited me for dinner a little later.

I did hear Tom say the butter lettuce was real sweet and ready to go, so I picked two of those on the way out.

By now, it was almost dark so I went on in for the day and that was my day.