[wolfen1086]

Well the $500 lawn mower I bought last summer with the 15.5 hp Briggs started yesterday, I mowed the front with last years gas, all I did was turn off the valve inline and run it till it was all out of the engine
the only reason I use regular instead of non ethanol is its $5 a gallon at duck thru and I can rebuild a carb on a Briggs easy enough

But it started, the 30 year old Heckenger tiller is next

 

[MPR]

I haven't used my tillers in two years due to the drought. They've been sitting outside with just a splash of Sta-Bil in the tanks. A couple weeks ago we got a break in the cold so I though I'd try to start them. They both started up in two pulls. My spare riding lawnmower and push mower also started right up *they were run last summer). I'm sold on that stuff. I need to drain the tanks and put new oil and gas in the tillers this summer though.

 

[wolfen1086]

Mine hasn't been used in three years cause of the gas prices, I tried the " no plow " thing some of the farmers around here do in their huge fields, I reused the same rows, this year though I have to till
the tiller started right up with a shot of starting fluid to get it going, ( choke cable has been broke since I got it), I'm too lazy to replace the cable LOL

 

[MPR]

I tried the " no plow " thing
I'm too lazy to replace the cable

Everyone out here has gone no till. It makes for good job stability for someone who gets a commercial pesticide applicator certification though, as instead of burning and tilling to control pests and weeds like we used to they now have to spray.

Mine rear-tine tiller's engine doesn't choke either, which is something I need to get around to fixing. I just take the air cleaner cover off and choke it with the palm of my hand to get it started. That's worked for the last five years. It's funny how someone can bring something over and I'll fix it properly for them right away but I'll put fixing my own stuff off as long as it works "well enough."

 

[wolfen1086]

LOL fortunately' for me I can use roundup from Wal mart so no license needed, but I don't even do that, since my registered tech license expired a few years ago LOL, all I do it till, rake rake and rake till all the weeds are gone, then I make my rows far enough I can weedeat between them

 

[MPR]

till, rake rake and rake till all the weeds are gone

I was watching some videos about weed killing machines that use AI to recognize and zap weeds with lasers. Just think, a quarter million dollars and I'd have the best garden in the county. That is, if I had another quarter million to spend on water.

 

[wolfen1086]

I was watching some videos about weed killing machines that use AI to recognize and zap weeds with lasers. Just think, a quarter million dollars and I'd have the best garden in the county. That is, if I had another quarter million to spend on water.

Quarter Million dollasr I'd but the 25 acres behind me and all of it withing 10 feet of the house all the way up to the road would be crops. I mean yea you can eat the weeds too, but they taste about as good as you think they do.

 

[MPR]

I mean yea you can eat the weeds too, but they taste about as good as you think they do.

My grandma cooked what she called "greens," which were pretty much just weeds (dandelion, pokeweed, lamb's quarters, pigweed, etc.). She would boil them with some bacon grease. I never much liked them but always ate some to be polite.

When Dad was growing up during the Depression, however, "greens" were the only way most of the kids got any vitamins. During WWII, the US Army found that most of its conscripts were malnourished and underweight, which is why we now have a school lunch program.

I tried growing lettuce one year but it was too weedy for my taste. I don't think we have the climate here for lettuce though -- it's too hot in the summers.

 

[wolfen1086]

I can grow lettice, but Peter Rabbit comes when I'm asleep and eats it all along with Bambi

 

[MPR]

I can grow lettice, but Peter Rabbit comes when I'm asleep and eats it all along with Bambi

I can't recall ever seeing a deer in town here except for the fawn that the range manager was raising once because its mother had been run over. The deer close to town are muleys. I've seen them on the grasslands just outside of town but they never come in. The rabbits fluctuate. When it used to rain I might seen a half-dozen in the yard every morning. Lately, I can find maybe one if I look for awhile. They are all cottontails. As with the mule deer, you never see a jackrabbit in town. Mostly, the rabbits just eat grass in the yard. They can be a real pain though in a snowy winter when you've just set out fruit trees as they will eat all the bark off them if you don't wrap the trunks well.