Feeling Handy

I like the fact that I'm willing to take a crack at minor repairs, a good thing considering we are home owners.

I've patched a hole in the wall, replaced a light fixture, and replaced all manner of belts on our vacuum cleaner. My latest accomplishment was replacing the blades on our lawn tractor. According to out mower repair guy the mowing deck was not off kilter (when I mowed the left side of the swatch would be significantly lower than the right), instead the right blade was bent. He would have been happy to do the job, but he didn't stock the mulching blades in the right size on his truck and he couldn't come back until next week. He asked if I was up to the job and I was. Part description in hand I ordered the new blades from the dealer and picked them up on Wednesday.

Nigh on 9 years ago I had converted the tractor into a mulching mower, so I knew I was up to the task. The hardest part would be wrestling the mower deck around because it is a fairly heavy chunk of steel. The only catch was I needed to find the service manual. After a bit of digging I found it and then I was ready to go.

The whole process went surprisingly smoothly. A successfully avoided dropping anything heavy on my appendages and I didn't break anything on the mower. It did, however, take a fair amount of effort to loosen the bolts holding the blades in place. In the end I had to kick the handle of my socket wrench to get the bolts undone. Then it was full steam ahead.

Once the blades were on I had to wrestle the mowing deck back in place. Things weren't as smooth at first. It was hard lining up everything and on the first go around I skipped an important step. Luckily it was no big deal to try again.

So now I have a properly equipped mower and it even works. Not a bad day's work.