More work, more problems.

It turned out to be a pretty nice weekend.  Saturday was nice and warm, and I started off by changing the oil in the Cub.  It took me a little while to figure out how to get the stupid valve to open.  

Pretty much everything about the Cub is among the stupidest design I have ever seen.  Apart from the stupid valve, the filter is sideways over the frame guaranteeing the oil spills on the tractor, and the hood doesn't open far enough to use a funnel effectively.  It didn't help that the jug of oil also ran down the side 

I also swapped the blades over to the spare set.  The impact hammer I bought to fix the Craftsman worked very well for the task.  

Getting the deck back on was a major chore.  Despite there being only three things, it doesn't go on nearly as easily as the one on my Craftsman.  Even though in the end, most of what it took was to just get a bigger hammer and beat on the pins.  I am not sure how Dad used to do it so easily, I have seen him put the deck on in 5 minutes.  I needed one hand pulling the deck backwards, wrapping my leg behind the tractor so it didn't roll away while I was pulling on the deck, and take a hammer and beat on the pins.  After I took the tractor out and tried it.  I hit the PTO, and got absolutely nothing.  Then I was sad.

It started to drizzle a little in the afternoon.  I also realized that I didn't have an empty jug to put the used oil in so I had to reinflate an old milk jug.  

Sunday started off cloudy, so I decided to work on the south wall siding.  I got the first piece pulled out and disappointingly the T1-11 got wet despite being tarped all winter.  

I got it all marked out and then the sun decided to come out, and the clouds all disappeared so I walked around a bit.  I have been trying to avoid working with the T1-11 in direct sunlight because it curls really bad and really quickly.

I think I might dig up some of this fill that I put down last year.  It is the only part of the yard that is still mush.  The silt is straight up junk.

One of the biggest places I put it was to fill in the dip where I put in the drain pipe.  I might dig it out, since it seems to be causing the rain to run off instead of draining into the drain pipe, which will be a problem if I ever finish leveling the backyard.  

Then I lowered the deck on the Cub and pretty quickly identified what was wrong, and I should have noticed it when I put the belt on...  The spring for the idler is missing.

I also took the chains off the Kubota and sprayed them down with WD-40; I don't think that I will need to do any more snow clearing this year.

I also removed the old seized up coupler, and re-primed it.  I have the new kit ready to go after painting.  

After that the clouds returned so I returned to the siding.  I got the first piece cut but apparently when I built the wall extension we missed with one of the studs?

I got the second piece cut, but was unable to install it by myself.  I have become major wimp and couldn't get it lined up by myself.  Mostly because I couldn't stand where I needed to, I had to hold it from the side standing on the trailer frame and couldn't quite get it in underneath the lip at the top and still line up around the window.  I tried adding a board at the bottom to sit it on, but the siding has warped too much for that to work effectively.  I don't really want to remove the board at the top but might have to do that if I can't get a second set of hands.  

But the first piece at least is up and looks nice.  

Progress was made and the south wall siding is in progress, but nothing completed.  When I stopped at Home Depot to pick up paint for the trailer, I looked and they didn't have the plastic sheets I got last year in stock, though most of the acrylic section was reasonably well stocked.  I might go and remeasure, see if I can use smaller pieces since I don't have to do the top this time around unless I wanted to use the top pieces on the other side, which is an intriguing option.  

2021 Projects:

• Prepare summer equipment
• Carport repair
• Windows in shed
• Shed supports
• Table
• South wall siding
• Bridge over creek
• Review options for house (mobile home vs stick built vs modular)
• Trailer hub
• Rebuild smaller trailer
• Level back yard
• Level side yard
• Level front yard
• Clear trees to creek
• Remove dead/dying beech trees
• Retaining walls?
• Eliminate pile of crap in back
• Camper Electrical extension (portable AC power source and generator)
• Clean up/level area down by second parking spot
• Driveway round three