When I last mowed the grass/growth in the main chicken paddock, I left the center unmowed because the clover was in bloom and pollinators were busy. So on Tuesday I fired up the lawn tractor (see prior posts on various repairs including welding of deck) and as I did the first outer loop happened to notice a clutch of eggs in a hollow at the base of a pine tree.
Three hens participated and since no one was on patrol I assume convenience and the summer heat contributed to the decision – why sit in a hot coop with no view when you can enjoy an occasional breeze in a natural setting? I decided the eggs were not usable and buried them in a hole close to my Giant Korean pear, the most prized of my fruit trees.
The next setback was to recklessly steer the lawn tractor into some high grass, reckless because I had vowed after each repair that I would nurture the tractor and not risk abuse. There was a large rock in the grass and the tractor came to a jarring stop. It started ok but made a high pitched noise when I engaged the mowing action and after I parked it in the basement I noticed that the blades had chewed up the outdoor entrance mat.
I removed the mower deck and noticed that the blade was bent.
But the damage was not confined to a bent blade. The blade is mounted on a jackshaft which is seated in a mandrel which is bolted to the mower deck. The jackshaft was bent.
I had no illusions that I could straighten a bent shaft. I rummaged through my workshop and found, as I vaguely recollected would be there, a new jackshaft and new mandrel which I had purchased some years ago. I installed the new jackshaft in the new mandrell and then realized that the pulley, which is seated on the jackshaft at one end (the mower blade is at the other end) required a spacer. Easy I thought, I will re-use the spacer on the old jackshaft. But I could not remove the old jackshaft from the old mandrell, despite some hefty blows with a heavy hammer. So, with a reciprocating saw I had to cut off the end of the jackshaft to release the spacer.
And then it was just a matter of putting it all together again, a familiar task. And a quick drive and mow indicated all was in order.
So what else could go wrong on a Tuesday afternoon. I happened to notice that the recently replaced attic fan was not sounding and I visited the coop and the fan was broken – the motor was dead and the propeller had detached from the shaft. Now what caused that?
I was tired and went for a quick fix – I relocated a house fan to the coop and secured it with a wire round the roof rafter.
The fan’s plug has 3 prongs and most timers only accommodate a 2 prong plug. But I have a 3 prong timer which I use with my seed heating pad and germination lights, so it was also commissioned. The house fan is remarkably quiet which I am sure the roosting chickens appreciate, but it has a lower rotation speed and will have to do for now.
So that was a busy Tuesday afternoon. And as luck would have it on Wednesday night a violent storm hit the area and a semi-tornado uprooted 2 of my oak trees which fell across the road and brought down the power line and caused a 3 hour neighborhood blackout. It also leveled most of my corn and did other damage, but that may be a post for another day. On the upside, I will have fire wood for winter.