Tractor work

Got lots of work done in the yard today.  We made the grape arbor out of the cattle panel.  It looks great and since it's next to the grape "fence" that separates the lawn from the walkway I was able to string some of the grapes right onto the new arbor.  Girl said that was cheating and that I should plant more grapes.  I will plant them in the spring.  For now, we will use what's already growing.  I'd like to plant some concord grapes as they make good juice grapes and the two types we grow now are good for eating out of hand and making raisins. 


We rehung the tire swing.  We were given a couple of old tractor tires and added them  to the tire obstacle course.  The kids had a great time racing through the tires and then trying to hop from one tractor tire to the other.  Even I tried.  Fell flat on my face.   


I also mowed the lawn, I mean weeds.  The front looks nice.  Then boy and I mowed up front by the road.  He sat on my lap and steered and I pushed the pedals.  It took a while for him to start looking at the tires.  He'd turn the steering wheel too much or not enough.  I kept telling him to look at the tires.  They'll show him how much he's turned the wheel.  After mowing the weeds down he pushed the brush piles into better looking piles. 


We started mowing the back "lawn" too since everything greened up with the inch of rain we got last month.  He got bored and wanted to go do something else.  Sure, I'll finish. 


Being that it was such a nice day out I wasn't done with the tractor work.  I went to the garden area where there's a spot about 50 x 75 that was just a brush pile.  I decided to mow that down.  It was a little harder to mow so I knocked it down with the bucket first.  It worked wonders. 


Then I got stupid.  Hey, I'm out here so I may as well spread some of the rocks.  Except I forgot to take the mower deck off the tractor.  Bad idea.  Very bad.  Somehow I knocked the front bar that holds the mower deck on to the tractor out of place.  This meant that the only thing holding it on was the PTO hookup.  The front bar got dug into the ground.  I raised the tractor up off the front wheels using the front bucket.  No, that bar is dug in so I'll have to get a shovel and do a little digging.  I could try to take off the mower deck but it's in the pile of rocks.  It's a real pain to take off when I'm on the cement, in the rocks it will be impossible.  (When the JD dealer showed me it seemed like a piece of cake!) So I have to get the front bar pulled out of the dirt and hooked back up to I can reattach the mower deck.  I did a walk around to see just what a mess I made and saw the back tire was flat!  I sure hope I didn't run over a nail and that a rock somehow made it lose it's seal on the rim.  Ah, we had a party to go to this afternoon.  Sorry tractor.  You are staying outside for the night.  I'll get back to you tomorrow. 


It's probably going to take me a couple of hours to fix my stupidity.  Making mistakes like this is just a waste of time and I'd prefer to spend my time in a different way.  There are three good things about this though.  First, I did it and not one of the kids or grand kids.  Then I'd be really angry with them for treating someone else's (my) tool disrespectfully.  I'd rather just be ticked off at myself.  Second, not that I have time for this but I'm glad I did this now with the good weather rather than in pouring rain.  Lastly if TSHTF my tractor would be out of commission because I have very few spare parts, if I need to buy items to fix this.