34 Pound Laptop

Two days after my laptop computer crashed for what appears to be the last time, I inherited this 1950 Remington Rand "Super-Riter" manual typewriter.  It is awesome in every way.  It doesn't use electricity.  It doesn't have a hard drive to crash.  There is no internet with possible security risks.  And it's also real loud. I now have a tool that can compete with the 3 kids neverending noise.

 My typing speed has suffered tremendously.  On the computer keyboard, I can maintain 60 to 70 words per minute pretty easily, and with few errors.  However, on this beast, I am perhaps half that speed.  I found that I have no strength to peck out letters with my pinky fingers, so I have resorted to stabbing with my index fingers.  I know where all the keys are, of course.  It just takes a different muscle and skill set to use a manual typewriter.  It's a blast.

Lately, Kid #1 has been dictating stories and I have been typing them out.  It's beneficial both ways - I get to type and hear her create, and she gets to hear the "ding" at the end of the line, and pull the "return button" to the right.  I'm not sure what you call it, so it's the "return button".

This typewriter weighs 34 pounds, and came with a little roll around stand that squeeks horrendously when rolled around.  All the better.

Sundaes on Monday

The Boy and I went out for an impromptu hot fudge sundae today. 

It was just him and I, so it was a special time. 

He reeeeeaaaaalllllly likes hot fudge sundaes.

Goodbye Swisher

I sold the Swisher today.

 It was my pull-behind lawnmower that more than doubled my swath of cut.  With this unit pulled behind my lawn mower offset to the side, I could mow a 100 inch swath of grass in one pass.  It worked really well, but I found it just wasn't a good fit for my 2.5 acres of grass.  I was turning too much on my "end rows", and not mowing enough.

Yes, it sped up my time mowing, but in the end it was just another machine to maintain.  With my new JD420 lawn mower with its new engine, the Swisher won't be used much. 

So, I sold it today.  Three years ago, I bought it near Huntington off of a super awesome Craigslist ad.  Today, I sold it and doubled my money.  I'm happy - - a little more space in the barn, a little less machinery to maintain, and alot of financial profit.

New Engine

A month ago, I bought a new engine for the 420 John Deere lawn mower.  I bought this lawnmower last summer, and it's a beast.  It is perfect in every way, except the engine uses alot of oil, and drips alot of oil.  I knew I would drop in a new engine some day.  That day came sooner than later when the wife said, "Well, we might as well have our money sitting in a new engine than in the bank".  I said "OK".

The new engine is a Briggs and Stratton Vanguard commercial engine.  A sticker on it shows it was made by Daihatsu in Japan.  Wow!  The new workhorse is rated at 23hp, and was a relatively easy drop in fit.

Drive shaft side

PTO side

I had to fabricate a few parts for it, but that was easily done.  Finally, after a few weeks, the engine was mounted in its final position. 

A few finishing touches, and I went out for a test "mow".  I was quite pleased with the smooth new power offered.  I think the old Onan was not turning as fast as it should have been, so the grass was just getting whipped down.  The new engine spins at the properly rated speed, so blade speed is awesome. 

I mowed the entire yard in 1 hour and 50 minutes the other night.  No hiccups or engine problems.  I'm a happy customer.

Easter Pictures

We had a good Easter yesterday.  This was the first time to be at our home church for Easter, and we really enjoyed it.

Kids had an egg hunt outside with the nice weather.  It was a perfect sunny day.

A Quick Pic

Bedtime yet?

Garden Tilling

Last weekend, I answered a Craiglist "wanted" ad from a guy that wanted his garden tilled.  He hired me and "Big Red" to do the job.  Big Red is my 30 year old Troy-Bilt tiller.  That dude ended up paying me $60 for about an hours worth of work.

That got me to thinking this could be kind of lucrative.

I put an ad in Craigslist to perform garden tilling services.  So far, I've only had one reply that I have accepted.  Saturday morning, I drove out to her garden with Big Red anticipating a somewhat easy job.  She said her garden was "slightly overgrown, but not a jungle".  Well, upon seeing her garden, I was really intrigued to know what she defines as a jungle.  This garden was absurd!

It had saplings taller than me, and it was huge.  It was about 1500 square feet.  I told her I could not do this job with my original estimate over the phone, so we settled on the price.  We settled on the price of $150.  (If I'm gonna sweat, I'm going to make it worth my while).

Big Red did a wonderful job. After multiple passes, and pulling about 1000 saplings, the garden tilled up quite nicely.

Notice the big weeds and trees in the center of the picture - that's the kind of junk Big Red battled through.  Quite an impressive machine, after all! 

So, this is around 1500 square feet of tilled garden for $150 and about 150 minutes of tilling time.  The math works out pretty nicely.

I'm still waiting on that next tiller job to come down the pipe.