Since we went to Mass Saturday night for Timothy's First Holy Communion, we got to sleep in today. Nevertheless around 9 o'clock we head over to DFE for donuts, breakfast sandwiches, and drinks. The plan was to focus on lawn work shortly after we got back.
Two weeks ago when I mowed the lawn for the first time of the season, I'd noticed that the lawn tractor was occasionally sputtering as though it were running out of fuel. I bought a new fuel filter, but when it came time to pull the tractor out today, I had new issues. The tractor wouldn't start. I mean that the starter wouldn't even click over. Two weeks ago I'd put in a new battery so I doubted the battery could be running on dry.
When I looked more closely I noticed that the battery terminal wasn't as tight as it could be. I got my wrenches, gave it a few more twists and then the starter easily turned over the motor. Since I had the new fuel filter, I put it in place too. Between the two adjustments the motor gave me no more issues and ran smoothly.
The bigger problem I had was the lawn. As I've written, this past week was consistently cloudy, cool, and rainy. It had been two weeks since the last mowing. The grass was tall. But worse yet, because there was no sun today, it wouldn't dry out. I tried to mow with the baggers attached but I had to give up after the first three laps. I couldn't go one lap without the grass shoots clogging up with grass.
So for the first time in a long time, I put on the mulcher cover. I also raised the blade from setting 5 to setting 6, it's highest setting. I told Michelle I had no choice but to go with this approach. When you mulch with that much cut, it never turns out even. In those cases I have to do what I call a "finishing pass". That is, I have to do a faster second pass over the lawn in a different pattern to cut what gets missed the first go around.
Did it take a long time? Heck yeah! My only consolation is that I didn't have to stop to empty the bags. But when we were done mowing I spent a good deal of time cleaning under the cutting decks of the lawn tractor and the walk behind mower. There was a lot of fresh dirt and mud packed on their inner walls.
Thus we wrapped up around 4 o'clock. I was surprised that Michelle still wanted to make hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill. After dinner we watched this weekend's new Doctor Who episode, The Rebel Flesh. Man! What a creepy episode! And at the end we discover it's another two-part storyline. Oh noo!
Lastly we took the kids McDonalds for some frozen goodness. Abby wanted to try their new strawberry lemonade frozen drink. Michelle got a frozen mocha frappe. The rest of us got McFlurry's.
I got the boys to bed and Abby was eager to see the latest Disney hyped movie, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure. While I have nothing against Ashley Tisdale, I was in no mood to watch a movie about her Sharpay character. So I called it a night and got some rest. It's a full week ahead, but at least there's a holiday weekend coming up.