Me 2/Lawnmower 0

See the lawnmower sitting under the tree?  We bought it last year @ my cousins estate sale.  It's an old craftsman, lots of HP.  Well evidently it hadn't been used much and the blades were wacky (as in they fell off or twisted off more than once), after we got that problem solved it's worked like a top.  Till last week.  Oh the 3 mowers before that?  Ran out of oil for various reasons, mostly child centered.  Two John Deere's and a BRAND NEW Cub Cadet that was the biggest lemon I've ever seen,  couldn't keep belts on it (expensive and I bet we went through between 10 and 15) and then when we did get it to keep belts on it shook so bad that it came apart partly and the motor blew.  It was 4 years old.  No warranty, less than 150 hours on it, less than 125 I think.  Shaft driven kind just in case you are contemplating a new mower.  My daughter has the belt driven Cub from about the same year.  It runs like a top and she has 3 boys....
If I haven't lost you from pure boredom there is a point to this all.
You see my husband is like this genius mechanic for most motors.  NOT SMALL ONES.  And I will never be the fixit person my dad was but I manage.
Said craftsman lawnmower broke about a week ago, so I sit there with the hood open not moving because my husband was on the tractor and this is what wives do if there is any hope they won't have to get dirty.  So he stops and starts taking stuff off that I have NO idea WHY he is taking off.  It was to get to the spark plug which I believe you could reach without taking ALL that stuff off but that's beside the point.  It's getting spark.  Gas is like pouring out and it's flooding though.  We get it started again and it dies.  Husband says call Danny (that's what we call our mechanic for complicated things which means anything other than a diesel motor on a big truck, also Danny is his name)   So I do finally call Danny and he tells me the float in the carburetor is stuck and I need to take the bowl off the bottom and clean it out.  So I get the air breather off.  Locate the carburetor and the floppy things in it.  The bowl on the bottom of the carburetor?  It's metal, first strike against it, and it's got an electrical part of some sort under it with a wire going to it.  Looks like it could break easily.  So I mess around a bit with the floppy things in the carburetor, check the oil, try to start it and it starts and RUNS!!!!  I break my arm patting myself on the back too.
So I start mowing and mow off and on for a couple days.  Almost through mowing across the driveway on the part of the lawn that PROVES we are crazy (we mow like 5 acres, it's sort of a family thing, used to be mowed all along the highway for like a mile....) and I'm doing pattern mowing which  means the lawn is sort of zebra striped in the middle.  Lawnmower quits.  It's POURING gas out.  It's getting dark.  Mechanic is mowing the lawn @ his church so I can't talk to him.  He calls later and tells me that the metal thing with the electrical part IS the bowl for the carburetor and I CAN get it off.  Yeah right.  BTW husband is gone so he isn't fixing this.
So I google and I find this WONDERFUL article about craftsman lawnmowers....
The nut holding the bowl is on top of the electrical thing  and it does take a THIN 1/2 inch wrench to get it off.  BUT you have to have said wrench in the right position or it won't go on which means it has to be AGAINST the hood or the hood has to be OFF.  You have to unhook the electrical thing.  AND when they say float I pictured like a fishing bobber?  Nope it's more like the flapper on a toilet or @ least this one was, it's on a little shaft that goes up and down to the electrical thing.  (electrical thing is probably a solenoid like the article says)  The mower will run without said electrical thing but not for long and not happily.
My bowl had grit and brown waxy like stuff in it from old gas from a gas can and being stored both.  So I mowed part of the lawn by the house.....hopefully when I go back out it will start.

Moral of the story?  email me if you have lawnmower trouble.  AFTER you google for about a month and call your mechanic!

The Lawn Obsession

My branches I cut, the old brush pile, husband did the dead branches, my helpers....3 dogs... and the chainsaw and the dog.  Now the lawnmower broke....I fixed it once but now gas is pouring out, don't think it's going to start, maybe that hose I took off earlier in the week was important?  We need to cut the branches so we can mow with the tractor and the riding mower...

Osama Bin Laden Flies ONLY British Airways?

It seems that British Airways is advertising it's new boarding pass system.  Do you see anything wrong with this? BTW I got this from yahoo news, link here for complete story.

 British Airways flies Osama Bin Laden,  British Petroleum is poisoning our coast slowly but surely, the revolutionary war is over and remember ever since say 2003 the British have been our very bestest buddies.  Is the love affair over?  (seriously tongue in cheek)

British Airways theorize this was the work of a former employee with several axes to grind evidently (and a knife and bayonet too evidently, BTW NOT FUNNEEE)?  Now we are all going to be wondering WHY Osama still has a frequent flier number and what will happen on Oct. 26?

Facebook, DSL, Picasa, and a good picture

I've spent Way too much time today trying to get pictures to upload to facebook.  If you know me half way well like you've commented more than once and I've commented on your blog email me if ya think about it @ tcscarlet at yahoo dot com and I will tell you who I am on facebook, that is if you want to be my friend.  Judy?  Rae?  AL??  Cindy?  Kathryn?  ......the list goes on.....
Anyway I CAN get pictures to upload to blogger, just not to facebook, the picture below is my daughter and son in law many moons ago.   This is funny though in that this is pretty well how they spent most of their marriage.  She's PG with the first baby and they are @ her Sisters graduation.  They also don't look like this anymore and that's all I'm saying about that.
Back to the internet deal I was working on a website, we are doing a store and website with wordpress and I was trying to edit the pictures so they actually had words with them telling what they were and I couldn't do that either.  Then I couldn't upload pictures to facebook?  I updated Java, made sure it worked, updated IE8, downloaded chrome, nothing.  Got bloom and am trying picasa now which is how I found this picture (I think I'm in LOVE with picasa.  Still can't upload photos to facebook.  Woe is me.  I should have worked on something that didn't require the internet but I'm a bit obsessive ya see.
I have dsl relayed through a wireless router but I could upload pictures one after another last night?  But it's probably something to do with the internet.

More Snow Pictures

This was yesterday.   BEFORE it started snowing AGAIN.  Notice my large fountain in the middle of the round garden?  See the sticky up pole in front of tree? that's one corner of one entry, fountain is in middle, fountain got knocked down with the lawnmower, it's fine just needs picked up.  I'll get some green pictures on here tomorrow, maybe.  Pole is from my dads bird feeder, I never took it down, Mugsey the Golden Lab ate the bird feeder I had in the tree.  I'm not kidding.

The photo below was in 2004 the day before Thanksgiving.   One of the last big snows we had before this winter.  Husband made me terribly mad that day.  I carried the air conditioner from our bedroom to the basement by MYSELF while he was yakking on the phone and SAW me.  He was NOT blameless. Surprise surprise, he was peeling potatoes for dinner the next day and told me to go out and take these pictures.  I'm glad I took them.  Glad he peeled the potatoes too.   Do I hold a grudge?  nope he peeled potatoes.  Suck up no grudge, that's how that works isn't it?  Don't worry I talk this way to him too. 

Husband and Son In Law bought blades to blade the driveways in 2004.  It effectively quit snowing then.  OK it really didn't quit snowing but we didn't have very much.  They are exonerated  this year.   Tractor blade for big tractor $1000, see why they were in trouble?

It can quit snowing now.  We've used the blades, forgot where our snow shovel is. I'm considering buying actual boots if it keeps piling up.  Hey Mother Nature.... Truce, we won't wish for snow like we used to have any more, OK?

Simple Things For Haiti

I got this from Kacklin with KaLynn's blog, she got it from Enchanted Oak, for every list of  the joy of simple things or prose posted this weekend Enchanted Oak will donate $2 to Heartline Ministries to go to Hait for a medical clinic and other programs to aid Haiti.  Simple.  Feel Free to participate.  Go to Enchanted Oak for complete details and go see KaLynn while you are @ it!

Simple things that bring me joy.

Husband
Children
Grandchildren
Good Friends
Good Books
Dogs, Cats...animals...
Good Health for all
The view from the window especially since my laptop works in the living room where it is WARM with a view of the snowy landscape.
Everything good the computer brings, friends, information, blogs......amazon and Ebay
Plenty of nutritious food if I would just eat it and not the breakfast bars....

Michelle Obama, Childrens Weight Problems, And What I Think

Obesity in children has tripled over the last 30 years.  This is no big surprise with our white flour saturated fat diet.  I'm not immune, I like a big slice of cake and ice cream (preferably with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, might as well live if you're going to sin) as much as anyone else and even when I'm being VERY very good I usually can't resist a bit of cake.  But that's not the whole problem, our food is cheap.  Don't get me wrong it costs enough.  But seriously if you cut out everything expensive on your grocery bill and just bought sale items would you have enough to buy another car or a better house?  Maybe but probably not.  So therefore food is cheap so we can actually eat to our little piggy hearts content unlike our forefathers could @ times.  While food is cheap, healthy eating with lowered fat and sugar free products as well as fresh produce is EXPENSIVE.  (take it from one who spends more on groceries for two now than I did to feed 6 a few years ago).  We all know part of the problem with our weight and health is our sedentary life style, we don't have to walk miles and so the kids don't either.  The vast majority of us who do preform some sort of manual labor as part of our jobs are probably not breaking a sweat because of it.  Thus we are fat and our children are fat because of our dream lifestyle that our ancestors could only imagine.  (be careful of what you wish for)

Actually getting to the subject of this the first lady was criticized for sharing "too much" when talking about how she found out her girls were getting chubby and subsequently put them on a diet.  Supposedly Sasha and Malia are immediately going into a tailspin of bulimia and anorexia.  (perhaps I exaggerate a bit?)  I know I'll probably go down in flames for this (I liked Laura Bush too and loved the book American Wife too, I even reviewed it here) but give Michelle a break.  She's a mother and I don't think she's talking about the health issues for political gain anymore than Ladybird was trying to beautify America for political gain.  (dating myself there)  Also I had my girls on a diet when they were young.  Why?  Because my family is big, most are tall but everyone except some of  the men for generations have had weight issues.  Maybe not big issues but they were there, if I could prevent my children from having weight issues it seemed like a no brainer to try.  Some relatives weighed close to 300 lb or over.  Now scientists have found that obesity can be caused by an addiction to food supposedly.  All of that is neither here nor there.  I didn't give my girls sugar except on weekends for years!  Why?  Because I was mean and cruel?  No, I read a book about the benefits of fresh vegetables and no sugar and I took it to heart.  I think the authors name started with an R but it's an old book from the 70s.  The girls didn't have cavities till they graduated high school I don't think, they will also eat almost any vegetable to this day too.  And I weighed like 105 lb and thought I was fat so I know what a distorted body image is but I wasn't anorexic, I like to eat too much for that. 

My point is I was diagnosed as malnourished when I was a child.  Like really malnourished, they had better put some pounds on me or I was not going to  grow malnourished!  Why?  All I remember is I was not particularly fond of eating until I was like 11.  I've always had a fairly high metabolism despite my family history so that probably contributed.  I wasn't from a poor family, we were middle classed farmers in our area and my mother was a teacher.  My parents were busy and their first  and only other child had been almost 20 years earlier.  I really don't think they neglected me in that way, there was always food available.  I just didn't want to eat it unless it was chocolate milk or strawberry pop tarts.  They tried to feed me steak and green beans and potatoes, no thank you very much.

My mother freely shared my malnourished diagnosis, I think she actually used it as an illustration of how bull headed I could be.  So do I think my mother talking about this hurt me later in life?  Nope.  I may have had many differences with my mother but this wasn't one.  (Her sneaking my kids out to the garage and feeding them ice cream when they didn't clean their plates was an issue with me though)  This almost sounds like something you should be ashamed of, malnourished, looked like an Ethiopian, but I'm not ashamed @ all.  I did it, it was my fault, I grew out of it obviously.  I may have had a bad body image but I was probably healthier then than I am now.  For that matter I can blame having to sit @ a desk job for putting on this 30 lb that I've only managed to lose once but I ate the chocolates, I ate the big baked potato, I ate 5 slices of pizza, my fault. (now being in the truck me not losing weight is my husbands fault because he won't walk with me! ;-))  But why should people put down Michelle Obama and say she shouldn't talk about her kids diets?  We aren't talking sex life here or fetishes, we are talking food which the last time I looked it was OK to talk about with anyone including ministers and small children?

So what do you think, should Michelle have shared?  Your experiences?  Have you had weight problems one way or another and did talking about it influence them?