Bruce's Journal

[thistlebloom]

Hope you get the belt soon. My husband would try duct tape.

I heard that in a pinch you could substitute pantyhose for a broken fan belt.

That makes so many funny images pop up in my head that I'm trying not to laugh out loud. Too hard to explain to dh who already suspects I'm half a bubble off level.

 

[Bruce]

Well y'all, we have to stop teasing @Senile_Texas_Aggie about coming to our houses and causing chaos with our machinery. Maybe he'll stop if we are nice to him

The belt came today. I went out to put it on the deck. Had to remove the plastic shields from the outer pulleys but didn't have to take the deck off to do that. Went to thread the belt around the pulleys and .... the idler pulley was blown apart. I don't know if the pulley blowing destroyed the belt or the belt blowing destroyed the pulley but no mowing is going to happen until the pulley shows up (in a couple of weeks) from one vendor and the nut that holds it onto the bolt from another.

Of course I had to pull the deck to get access to that area. That nut did NOT want to come off, not even with a cheater bar. So I had to remove the entire bracket and put it in the vice so I could NOT remove the nut but rounded off the thing instead. I had to use the angle grinder (cheap Harbor Freight purchase last year that so far has been more than worth the small amount it cost) to cut the nut on two sides making a nice flat surface on each side. Came right off with a crescent wrench.

 

[thistlebloom]

Throw some wildflower seeds in your lawn and call it a meadow.

 

[Bruce]

Actually there is a section of the field just north of the barn I would like to turn into a bee/butterfly/hummingbird garden. It has some large rocks and ledge and a lot of slope down to the west. Not easy to mow.

 

[Baymule]

Your luck seems to run to the bad luck side a lot lately. Weeks for delivery...….

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Well y'all, we have to stop teasing @Senile_Texas_Aggie about coming to our houses and causing chaos with our machinery. Maybe he'll stop if we are nice to him

The belt came today. I went out to put it on the deck. Had to remove the plastic shields from the outer pulleys but didn't have to take the deck off to do that. Went to thread the belt around the pulleys and .... the idler pulley was blown apart. I don't know if the pulley blowing destroyed the belt or the belt blowing destroyed the pulley but no mowing is going to happen until the pulley shows up (in a couple of weeks) from one vendor and the nut that holds it onto the bolt from another.

Of course I had to pull the deck to get access to that area. That nut did NOT want to come off, not even with a cheater bar. So I had to remove the entire bracket and put it in the vice so I could NOT remove the nut but rounded off the thing instead. I had to use the angle grinder (cheap Harbor Freight purchase last year that so far has been more than worth the small amount it cost) to cut the nut on two sides making a nice flat surface on each side. Came right off with a crescent wrench.

That's OK, Mr. @Bruce, about the teasing. I got a real chuckle about all the different stories on Mr. @Mike CHS's journal about how I had visited several different places to bring a bit of fun.

Wow about the idler pulley! If it's not one thing, it's another, it seems. I hope you can get it fixed with no problems.

 

[Baymule]

@Bruce, I have another lamb hack, not as bad as converting leg of lamb into chicken fried steak, but still a redneck hack. On my cutting instructions I wrote, Forget about lamb chops. Just lift out the backstrap like a deer and cut in 3/4" slices.

I cooked some tonight and they were delicious. No bone, no connective tissue, just little medallions of yummy.

 

[Mike CHS]

I had to use the angle grinder (cheap Harbor Freight purchase last year that so far has been more than worth the small amount it cost) to cut the nut on two sides making a nice flat surface on each side. Came right off with a crescent wrench.

One of those Harbor Freight angle grinders is my go to tool for fast work on the sheep hooves.

 

[Bruce]

No bone, no connective tissue, just little medallions of yummy.

Which you then Chicken Fry!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Hey, Mr. @Bruce, sir!

I have been catching up on my YouTube videos after getting behind when I had all the fun with the water line. I watched this and immediately thought of you. Did you know about these kinds of tools for removing stuck/rusted out/rounded off bolts and nuts?