Good morning all. Doing the morning scramble to get out the door and home at a respectable time. Have a great day youins!

 

Morning all,
Hi Ho, Hi Ho it's off to Pigeon Forge I go. Just doing a little bit of house cleaning, laundry etc and I'll head out in a bit. Just going to Nashville tonight.
Got my F150 back yesterday. New transmission will get a good check ride on the trip.
Nothing much more to report.
Take care, stay safe and most of all enjoy yourselves.

 

BJ, have a good time at Pigeon Forge.

 

BJ,

Have a ball at PF, but stay off of I-64 past Mount Vernon...

 

Good evening folks, worked 5, then ran a ton of in Bolivar town errands. Hair cut, Wally World, FB MP runs for the wife. Working 5 tomorrow then heading to Carthage for the other grand daughters HS graduation.

 

We bought some Scott's Turf Builder (weed-n-feed) recently but directions said "don't spread if weatherpersons predict rain in the next 24 hours." Yesterday was the first day that:

• the forecast didn't include rain, and
• we were actually home

Got it spread so now we wait to see if it actually kills any weeds. We have a fine crop of clover and dandelions. We're hoping to get rid of them. Personally I'm skeptical. We shall see.

It also said don't mow for 24 hours. This afternoon would have been 24 hours but I'm not going to mow until tomorrow evening at the earliest; probably Friday. I don't want to do anything that might lessen the weedkiller effectiveness. Note: I'll be away from home tomorrow all day until evening.

30 years ago the ex and I had more income than I do now and we lived in the snooty section of Columbia. We had one of those lawn companies come out 5 times every summer and treat the lawn for weeds and diseases, as well as fertilize. The yard looked like a golfcourse. Eventually we had them do the front one year and the back the next. We were mowing 3 times a week in the springtime and couldn't keep up. Now we can't afford that so we just do the best we can. This is the first time I've ever applied weed-n-feed. Hope it works.



We bought a used J-D LX289 this spring. I've mowed with it twice and knew that the blades needed to be sharpened. I brought it into my shop and jacked the front up enough to put 9" tall blocks under the front wheels.

• The leftmost blade came off with an 18mm wrench just fine. It had nicks but overall wasn't in terribly bad shape.
• The center (of three) blades wouldn't budge with the 10" (+/-) long wrench. I have some BIG Crescent wrenches but didn't want to round off the bolt head so didn't use any of them. I thought about it though. One of them is over 2' long. I got out an 18mm socket and a 24" long breaker bar. Even with that it was a bear getting that bolt out. That blade looked like it had never been touched with a grinder wheel or stone. The "cutting" edge on it had about a 3/16" radius on it. It looked like the leading edge of an airplane wing. It took a LOT of grinding to get it reasonably sharp.
• I just used the breaker bar on the right blade since I already had it out and nearby. It wasn't hard with the long bar but would have been somewhat difficult using only the 18mm wrench. It looked like it had been a long time since its last sharpening also.

Fortunately I knew right where my blade balancer is stored so all three blades are now sharp, in balance, and reinstalled.



Tomorrow is lunch in Rhineland with my geezer car buds. "The Corner" in Rhineland had a bad fire a few years ago and has been closed since. It used to have an old part and a new addition. They actually tore down the old part. Someone bought it and has somewhat refurbished the new part into a usable restaurant. They just reopened a couple of weeks ago so none of us have been there in its new configuration. Tomorrow's menu apparently is "cheeseburgers and other miscellaneous items." I guess it will be what it will be. Folks come from Troy, Union, Jefferson City, Columbia, Mexico, and many points in between. Rhineland is about as close to the center of that sphere as we can get. After we eat we're convoying to the ranch of one of the geezers. We went there some years ago to see his collection. At the storage building adjacent to their farmhouse they have about 20 old cars. Nearly all are nicely restored. We probably won't go to his other storage buildings which are 15 or so miles away. As I recall there are probably 30 restored cars in those buildings. Farming has been good to him and his wife.

'til later...

 

Morning gents, so its Thursday and my last day of work for this week. Going to be a long day with a 450 kid graduation to attend this evening. Everyone stay safe and outa trouble. BJ check in with us when ya can and you have extra safe travels on the highways out there.

 

Good morning youins! Mike, I thought I was the only person who used a blade balancer.

 

Some people don't?

 

Several people don't use them, I was surprised.

 

Afternoon all,
Nashville was a bust. Stayed at a la Quinta there but it was:
1. Right on the take off zone of the Airport
2. Running tours outta the place.
Took the Dog out a little before 4AM and they were loading up a bus even then. Doors opening and closing all night. I'm zapped.
Drive from Nashville to Pigeon Forge was un eventful.
I've gotta figure out how to do a panaramic photo with my camera. Tried but that little black box out smarted me.
Dave2 is here somewhere but I haven't run across him yet. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.



I started having flash backs at New Baden, IL, where we installed the new points. My Apple Maps had me keep on 57 until I hit 24, south of Carbondale, Il so the I managed to allude the I 64 "Strike Zone".

 

Hi all:
had an uneventful drive into pigeon forge. Snuck through early enough that the were no construction road delays. Pigeon forge is like branson x10. Staying at the hampton and hope to walk everywhere. If i dont get run over! Pics tomorro!

 

Hey Dave and or BJ tell me you guys have each other's phone numbers, so you can link up.

 

Nope we're on our own! Just joking. We talk back and forth ever so often via text. We'll probably catch up tomorrow morning sometime. Dave offered to drive but he's heading off biking after this and I'm not sure I'd make it back hitch hiking. Besides, I couldn't find a dog sitter so I've got Ginger to contend with. She's not much trouble; an occasional potty break, a little food and water and she's good. We just got in from a long walk it's 60° here. Perfect weather for a FORD Truck show. Think it got up to 67° so it wasn't too hot even though the show is mostly on asphalt. The big dollar trucks are inside the convention center.

 

Yeah I figured you guys were telephone wise linked up. I just wanted to make sure strength in numbers, so you can keep each other out of trouble.