Fixed the mower

Last week, the push mower broke. I've already been reduced from a lawn-tractor user to a push-mower user because the lawn tractors are out of commission (won't go there in a blog post). But when the push mower gave up the ghost, I peeled back my lip in a snarl, and then let the anger go. What's a push mower? It's a tiny engine that any fool and the Internet can fix, as long as you are willing. Briggs and Stratton made their engines with people like me in mind. They go and go and go, and when they quit, anyone who can reason from A to B should be able to fix it, if it's fixable. It doesn't take balls to fix a standard push mower.

Turns out I didn't need the Internet. The mower and I had a pow-wow this afternoon and we came to an amicable understanding. It was clear gas wasn't getting to the engine. It would work for six seconds when I primed it, and then it sputtered out. I'm thinking: clogged filter, or clogged line. Or, worst case, a broken line.

So I unscrewed everything I saw that could be unscrewed, and cleaned with gasoline everything that could be cleaned. Then I checked the lines, and realized the gas tank was quite loose and therefore the gasket connecting the tank to the engine gas line was pulling back, leaving a gap. I poked around and realized a bolt was missing holding the tank to the engine (engine? motor? engine? motor? I always get the terms mixed up). I poked around in the barn and actually found a bolt that fit. I put her all back together, and she roared to life.

Bear-the-cat watched all of this from the second floor of the working barn (different from the cat facility barn), and then trotted down the vertical ladder like it was stairs of a house, to say hi. He certainly has made himself at home around here.

Pardon me. It's time to go mow some lawn.