An American Dream - White Picket Fences and Marijuana in the So Cal Sun

I put the tire chains on the smaller machine after I shot the goo in left the hand tire. That wheel is rusted to the shaft and even Christ himself would have a hard time dislodging it. It'll be a new tube if it continues to leak and next summer when the sun is hot enough to soften that ancient tire.

Snow is in the air and higher up has already gotten a fair bit.

Ordered a 10 pack of shear pins and new skids for the big machine and I'll bring the baby grease gun next trip and shoot some into that gearbox. With 2 of the 3 shaft seals missing I figure 90wt gear lube is going to leak out about as fast as I pour it in. I might add a touch to thin the grease a bit and help insure that top shaft gets lubed.

I scraped blue waterproof marine boat trailer wheel bearing grease out of it when I disassembled it so I'll likely use that again.

We are headed to the mid point tomorrow for the "Santa on Fire Truck" night. He is scheduled to pass that house Wednesday night so we'll have a fire in the front yard and cook wieners and smoke Hash with the next door neighbors while we wait.

Saturday night the 10th is the Boat Parade at the Harbor so we'll head on down on Thursday for that fun and games. This event brings down a ton of boat owners not seen since the 4th of July fireworks display.

BNW

 

LOL I've been soaking it with PB Blaster every time we are here for the last few months. The right side came free in about 2 weeks.

Ya I'm thinking the tracked one will do far better then the wheeled on my long uphill dirt drive or I wouldn't be spending the time and effort on such a clapped out machine.

I've been offered a 3rd blower but it is an older tracked Honda. Perfect shape from a quick glance but the tracks are missing.

He never fussed with it as Honda wanted stupid money for the rubber tracks. Said he nabbed it as a free matching parts machine for his but has yet to need anything off of it in the ten years it has sat there.

Might be some cheap china knockoff tracks for it at a fraction of the dealer cost so I may investigate that one a bit more. Take down the model number next time we visit so I have something to work from hunting parts.

BNW

 

Down two with two rooted.



BNW

 

BNW

 

Merry Christmas.



Vegging clones are kicking it.



I tossed a tablespoon of Ammonium Sulfate under each plant and figure the coming rain will rinse it in.



The two plants on this side of the fence are Seedlings. Now if I can just remember who they are.

BNW

 

I remember thinking when I dropped them ( need labels )
Tashakor !!!! LMAO I had to poke around a few pages back on the blade I got them from.

BNW

 

We flipped back to the Cabin as we are predicted to get rain and possible snow. I squirted some grease into that snow blower gearbox in case I need to try and use the 8hp unit.

BNW

 

Woke up to find it snowing.


BNW

 

I fill the smaller machine only to have gasoline leaking everywhere. Carburetor, Primer button. Gakkk recover what I can and pour it into the 8 hp blower. Fires and the auger spins but no drive?? WTH it was working.

Back to the 6hp pull the carb shroud and drop the bowl and fiddle with the needle and seat. Reassemble, Add gas, no leak. Fires and runs well enough.




First pass it is doing more plowing then blowing and not low enough and I'm constantly messing with the carb main jet screw to keep it running. I get to the top of the hill and turn around and now the drive is out. $#@%^&*. Shut it off and roll it back down the drive. It freewheels easy enough so all but the last 50 feet was downhill.

Pull the belt cover. Everything looks kosher in here. Pull the belly pan and a bolt and nut fall out. Hmm I'll bet this belongs somewhere important.

Start spinning this and that and hold on this gear should spin when this shaft does. Ahhh empty hole bolt sized. Damn thing is to short and I can only get 2 threads on the nut. Scrounge a longer bolt and done deal.

Start to clean out the snow blocked auger only to find one of the shear pins has already popped and one feed side isn't spinning. Deal with that and raise the skids to lower the cut. No wonder it was only half assed blowing snow. Add more gas and make another pass and it is running better the longer it runs. I've stopped having to fiddle with the carburetor to keep it running strong.



Now it's actually throwing snow off the road and doing both blowing and plowing. we'll see tomorrow if the car will climb out. Might still need some hand shoveling in spots up on the top end where it gets steepest.



All in all despite the minor issues it did get the job done well enough. I can tell it would have been a shit show without the tire chains. I might lower it a bit more and see how it does.

BNW

 

BNW

 

A bit of hand shoveling and we are out.



Back in town and a shot of the Grow



Clones have most showing some roots.



Like so.

BNW

 

Thanks Tim. The 6 hp did all the work you see and for only being 3-4 inches of snow it was working hard.

Now I'll have to dig into the 8 hp and see why the drive worked when it was dry and didn't when there was snow. LMAO I motored the engine / drive tracks half of the machine around a bit while I had the front off dealing with the broken impeller shaft and it seemed to be working well.

Both machines need new friction wheels in the drive as they are beat and missing chunks of rubber. I was surprised the 6hp drive worked as well as it did pulling the grade and blowing // plowing snow.

BNW