Two Problems Solved

I’ve been able to get a couple of problems solved in the last few days, which is always a good thing.

I bought my Mustang new in November of 2018, and it’s a garage queen that I seldom drive. So seldom that it’s kind of ridiculous to have it. In fact, it’s only got 1668 miles on it. That’s not a typo. Less than 400 miles a year. I should sell it,but I really like the car. Does that make any sense? I guess I’ll keep it in almost new condition, and then when I die, one of my grandkids will run the wheels off. 😊

Because it doesn’t get driven much, the battery has been dead for quite a while. Last week I put a charger on it and after three days of what I thought was steady charging, it was still dead as a doornail. But after using the same charger to try to get Terry’s van started last week and it not taking a charge, yet started right up when I jumped it with the Ram, I realized there was a good chance the charger itself was bad. That didn’t really surprise me since I’ve had it over 20 years.

I ordered a Schumacher automatic battery charger, with a 100-amp engine starter feature, along with regular and trickle charger modes, from Amazon. It was delivered on Friday and I hooked it to the Mustang’s battery and let it charge overnight. Yesterday morning the car fired right up. I’ll keep the trickle charger on it in the future. Or maybe even drive the darned thing.

Moving on to tractors, one of the most difficult things for many tractor owners is connecting implements like a bush hog or tiller to the PTO shaft that powers it when in use. The splines on the tractor and the splines on the implement’s PTO shaft must line up perfectly, and there is not much room to work in, especially with a compact tractor like my Kubota 2680. Add my stiff arthritic fingers into the mix and it’s almost impossible.

A while back I ordered a PTO Link System, which uses a coupler on the tractor and another on the implement’s shaft to make connecting them quick and easy. I had not had an opportunity to use it yet but wanted to yesterday. Attaching the couplers to the tractor and my bush hog’s PTO shaft was quick and easy, however when I tried to connect the bush hog to my three-point hitch, I couldn’t get that to line up. I could get two of the three connection points to work, but not all three. After fussing with it for a couple of hours I got frustrated and gave up.

As I have mentioned before, Terry’s dad was a flight line chief on B-52 bombers during his Air Force career, and after retiring from that he had a second career in the swimming pool business. He is obviously a mechanically inclined man who has forgotten more than I will ever know.

He offered to take a look at the tractor and it took him about two minutes to determine that the top link on my three-point hitch needed adjusted to level things out. We did that and everything came together perfectly. I pulled the tractor out of the barn and made a couple of passes through some of the high weeds on the back side of the pasture and the bush hog worked like a champ. Thanks for your help, Pete!

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake Burning, the sixth book in my Big Lake mystery series. When mysterious fires begin plaguing the little mountain town of Big Lake, Arizona, it doesn’t take Sheriff Jim Weber long to realize that a serial arsonist is on the loose and has to be stopped before somebody dies or the entire forest goes up in flames. With the help of C.C. Callahan, a beautiful Deputy Fire Marshal, the sheriff begins the hunt while dealing with an upstart newspaper publisher hell-bent on smearing his good name and ruining his reputation. As the fires continue, fingers of blame are pointed and everybody in Big Lake wonders whose home or business will be the next to burn.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed. After 90 days, unclaimed prizes revert back to the drawing pool for a future contest.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – The divorce rate among my socks is astonishing.