Mowing slowly, wet on the way

So after work the first thing I did was go out in the back yard to see if I could find the dead baby bird to bury it.  I tossed it right outside the fence line so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

Well my neighbor apparently did some more mowing yesterday, including the strip of ground outside the fence line.  I saw pieces of paper towel and a few feathers scattered around.  I felt badly that I didn’t even get to bury the poor thing.  Instead it was more or less cremated by a John Deere.

Last night I tackled putting the rest of the mower deck together.  I was happy to see the replacement spindle I was sent had both dust caps installed and turned freely.

After getting all the parts back in place I reinstalled the deck onto the mower, started it up and cautiously pulled the PTO knob, ready to turn it off immediately if I heard something weird.

There was no smoke, no horrible noises, the blades started turning as they should have.  I figured I might as well start mowing, that is the real test.  Since Bonnie is going to drench the property it was a good thing to get the grass mowed anyway.

I was able to get the back yard mowed although the longer I went I saw a couple things that still aren’t right.  I need to level the mower deck, it wasn’t cutting evenly which meant I was going over some spots more than once.

More annoying and potentially more troublesome is the new drive belt I installed appears to be too loose.  By the end of the mowing session I was crawling up any incline.  When I ordered the belt there were two sizes available based on serial number.  I ordered the model that was BEFORE the cutoff, figuring the mower was 7 years old, certainly it was before that cut off. Now I’m not sure.

My short term plan is to see if I can somehow increase the tension applied by idler pulley.  If that is not workable then I would have to see if I actually need to get a different, shorter belt.  I am hoping to avoid that option as it would mean another aggravating, engine unbolting affair.

Tropical storm Bonnie is supposed to be passing over South Florida today.  The wind shouldn’t be any worse than what we see in thunderstorms but I am sure we will get dumped on with a bunch of rain.  I expect to come home to a house surrounded by a moat tonight.

This weekend hopefully won’t be quite so work filled.  I would like to get out to see Toy Story 3 in 3d before it leaves the theaters.