Gator brake cable

The brake cable broke on the Gator a couple of weeks ago.  To replace it I needed to take off the front tool rack, hood, seats and passenger compartment cover.  The gator needed a good pressure washing and cleanup anyway, lots of hay had worked its way down in between the various parts.  So it was a good time to do that.

Also while threading the brake cable in, I also threaded some wires back to the battery to install a power point for running an herbicide pump.  More on that later.

The cable needed to be threaded through the square access hole in the front shown below.

Broken cable

Making Hay

2018-09-18, Tuesday, cut grass for hay in the east bahia field.  Cut most of west bahia field, then finished cutting it on Wednesday.  Watching weather, it may be problematic.  Wednesday forecast 20% chance for next several days.

2018-09-20, Thursday, Jeffrey came home from work early.  I raked and he baled in the east bahia field.  We obtained 21 bales and got them loaded into the hay barn.  I reversed the hay rake, which caused it to just fluff and turn over the hay.  Hay was so thick in the west bahia field so that bottom layers near the ground were not drying.  Flipped it all over to help it dry.

2018-09-21, Friday, started raking and baling mid morning as soon as the dew dried.  About halfway through, we got a drenching thunderstorm.  

But still, the hay we rolled up before it started pouring was good.  Just over 20 bales.  We lined them up in the alleyway just south of the east bahia field and plan to use them first as we start feeding hay.

Jason and Mary Rehearsal Dinner

Jason and Mary's wedding rehearsal dinner, Friday evening on 14 September, was held at Scuzzi's Italian Grill.  Earlier in the day we had lunch with Mary's family at Eggspectation.  These are photos from the dinner, first one I grabbed from Mary's facebook page.

Mary and Jason


Jason, Mary and friends.


Dora, Gilbert and family.


Jeffrey, Jackie, Joy with Bev behind Joy.


Bev and Joy.

Car Rental to San Antonio

To go to San Antonio for Jason and Mary's wedding we rented this 2018 Suburban from Avis is Slidell.  Very nice.  Leaving at 10:00 AM on Thursday, 13 September, we arrived at our hotel close to 10:00 PM that evening.  Traffic delays across the Atchafalaya basin and through Houston cost us.  Plus we made a few stops:  Atchafalaya Visitor Center, Buc-ee's east of Houston, and Buc-ee's in Luling, Texas where we got a southwest veggie wrap for dinner.

This was a 2018 vehicle that was about to be taken off from rental service and sold.  As I understand it, Avis cycles their cars, especially the larger more expensive ones, fairly rapidly so they do not loose much of their resale value.  If one wanted to buy one, go to buycertifiedvehicles.com to see what is available from avis and budget.  Some of the Avis rental spots allow one to test drive a vehicle, or one can rent it for several days and if one likes it, can then buy it without paying the rental charge.  Usually on these large, upscale vehicles, they come loaded with options.

Liatris

This clump of Liatris in the Pinelands field is quite attractive to the swallowtail butterflies.   There are several black ones on these clumps of flowers.

South West Pinelands

We are working on clearing the south west pinelands field so that it is easily mowable.  Jeffrey used the batwing mower to cut down most of the brush.  I used the Fiat with tree cutter to get the small pine trees too big for the mower.  With new, sharp blades it was working really well.  I  tried making a few more passes with the John Deere and mower,  but got stuck.   Fiat could not pull it out.

The International was down, getting the cooling system rebuilt.   This morning after Jeffrey's return from San Antonio and Jason's bachelor party,  we got the International back together.   Pulling in two different directions,  John Deere remained stuck.   Switching to a third direction, almost downhill and further into the brush, the John Deere with mower on the back broke free and we were able to tow and drive it out.  Quite a relief,  taking the mower off would have been a substantial job and pain.

Sunset

Sunset over the oak tree field.