Bob's Eyes

Thursday 19, 2025 Guerneville CA.

Change to the blade

I wanted to test my blade out today to see why it’s not working properly as I’m trying to get John Deere to fix it under warranty. I gave it to them to test about six  months ago and they couldn’t find anything wrong with it so wouldn’t fix it. I did tell them it was intermittent.

I installed a volt meter onto the machine switch so I could watch the meter to see if the switch voltage would change during the switching when the problem occurred.

I got the blade hooked up and took off to meet Tom at my neighbor’s place.

Trail clearing

I pushed stuff out of the way to clear a trail through the woods.

Tom used his chainsaw to help clear out the dead trees across where we wanted to go.

Then he would scout ahead to show me where to make the trail.

There was a lot of this thick scotch broom that was hard to clear out of the way as it would mostly just bend over.

We finished up here and we headed back where we started from.

Testing the blade results and what I learned testing it

The volt meter on the machine switch remained the same so there was no problem with the machine which showed the problem was in the blade.

And with the blade in the air, I could not get the blade to fail.

I learned that it only failed when the blade was in the dirt and that’s why the John Deere people could not get the blade to fail and didn’t fix it.

The blade had to be in the dirt to fail which would put some pressure on the blade, and that’s why the John Deere guys couldn’t get the blade to fail as they  only tested it in the air.

So now I can report to  them what’s happening and get them to replace the defective electric spring  loaded valve on it that changes the blades switch function.

Nice day.

Wednesday June 18, 2025 Guerneville CA.

Chicks

Well, not yet. I went over to  my neighbor’s that has chickens with a rooster. I have chickens but no rooster. I wanted some eggs to put under a hen to get some chicks. There are four of my hens in the nesting boxes trying to hatch the non-fertile eggs.

I put the seven eggs under Red in the upper left so she could hatch them.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,But.

Later in the day, the older black hen in the bottom right had kicked her out and was on the eggs. Ok, whatever.

Road work

Then I rode on up into the hills to finish working on my neighbor’s hair-pin turn improvement. It didn’t take long and I was done.

I went on home from there to get some tools and things to put a voltage meter on Skiddy to test out a failing blade control that is under warranty that the dealer won’t won’t repair as the problem is intermittent so they can’t verify the problem. I want to make sure the problem is in the blade and  not the machine as I don’t want to pay the shipping fees to transport the machine to the dealer so they can find the problem. I be using the blade all day soon and can watch the volt gauge when the problem shows up. If the voltage is stable, it’s the blade and not the machine that has the problem.

Volt meter

I mounted the gauge here so I can watch it when the problem occurs.

I should be able to see this while operating the machine to make sure the voltage is stable when the blade starts acting up.

Drink

I headed for home after getting that to work, stopping at this spring for a drink of water as I was thirsty.

Then I went over to this overlook and sat in a chair just enjoying the day.

Little pond

After that, I went over to the little pond and sat for a bit, then went on home for a nap as that is what was needed.

Nice day.