Handy april
When we moved to this acreage we bought it from my uncle Gary. Yes, Uncle G has an Uncle G.
After we moved in he said “If you’re not a mechanic yet you will be soon. There’s just no other way out here in the country.” With so many machines on the farm it would be too expensive to have a “mechanic” come out and repair everything that could possibly go wrong.
To a great extent he was right and I’ve become much more competent in diagnosing and fixing minor to medium mechanic issues. But I also believe “handy” is something you’re born with or it takes a LONG time to learn. I wasn’t born with it and apparently 8 years isn’t long enough to learn it all.
BUT
I’m pleased to show you what I did last week that was pretty handy, for me.
We have an old Toro lawn mower. This thing is awesome. It’s not just a “lawn mower” it’s “professional!”
Diesel engine, 6 foot mower deck, 3 blades, hydrostatic drivetrain, it’s the schiznit.
The winter of 2022 I worked with a local mechanic to shore up the mower deck and I’ve been trying to do the basic maintenance every year.
Last week was time to change the oil, the oil filter, the fuel filter, and the air filter. I was pretty sure I’d done them, maybe not last year, but the year before. I guess I was mistaken.
This is the picture of the air filter cap. Low and behold, there’s a pretty big hole in it. That hole kind of defeats the purpose of the air filter so I had to plug it.
It felt like Uncle Gary was channeling Ben Kenobi telling me (a much older Luke Skywalker) to “be a mechanic”.
So I looked around, found some sheet metal (I think it’s steel maybe?) and some 30 year old JB Weld.
Here are my handy results!
Not bad for a fella who isn’t handy if I say so myself, which I probably do.
So the Toro’s oil, fuel, and air filters are all changed.
It’s been too cold to bother starting her up but maybe by May it will be warm here in Iowa. 🎉
In the meantime I have 8 million other projects around here that need a hand.
Practice makes handy!
P.s. anyone know what this filter’s for?
