Lawn mower - solenoid?

Well I think I have to break down and buy a new lawn mower.

This time it offers a single click when I go to start  it.
Today we buy a new one. We need to be able to reliably mow the lawn.  We will fix and tune up the butcher and sell it.

Cleaning out my gutters

Probably the stinkiest job ever. 

Wet rotten leaves and blossoms smells like a septic tank pump truck. 

Sure the rainy season is almost over.  Yes there were a few small trees that were starting to grow, and I had to end their life.  But the the gutter pass water normally again.

Out with the impala frame, in with the wagon

The impala frame has been stripped completely. And partially washed.  We will pressure was it then take it to be steam cleaned and powder coated.
In the mean time we have this fun nova wagon to play with.

Choke collar on great dane puppy

Yesterday we went to the petsmart to pick up another fleece dog bed (she sleeps so well in that bed,  without whining) and we were about to pick up a choke collar when we realized we have all of the smaller sizes from when roxy was little.  At home we found the right size and slipped it on.

She wore it around all day and we did not use a leash.  However this morning when we went on our walk.  She pulled much less, and unlike the last collar,  it made her uncomfortable but did not hurt or scare her.

She would pull a little when she really wanted to find that perfect poop spot and when I stopped she seemed much more patient as she waited for me to lead the way.

Puppy's first swim

Today we opened the pool and we put  beatrix on the top step with just her paws in the water.  She dint have a problem and decided to walk closer to grandma and syd who were coaxing her.  Unfortunately she didn't understand she was on a step and went head first into the water.  We quickly had her up and walking around in the pool in syd's arms with minimal shaking.   When she got out of the pool she walked around shivering and wouldn't get close to the pool for about fifteen minutes.  Now though she has an increasing interest and has been sniffing the edge of the pool and watching roxy swim, chasing her around as she shakes off.  We will see what she thinks for the next oportunity.

Great dane puppy snorting and groaning

Since the day we got beatrix, if we moved her while she was sleeping (on our lap or in her crate) she would groan a very disapproving groan and shift her body a little.  Supposedly she will grow out of this, perhaps because she will become too big for us to move when she is sleeping.  Also, often times in the morning after eating,  when she is just running around the yard playing with leaves and occasionally drinking water, she also grunts.  Other questions I have read on the Internet are answered that it will go away as she gets older,  but occasionally the snoring and labored breathing make me think that breathing is difficult and there is likely a bigger issue.

Mower steering reassembly

I ordered several parts for the steering rework including a new bushing a new gear, a steering plate ( which attaches to the steering rods to the wheels) and a new bushing.  After I found that I did needed two bushings I ordered one more and waited.  It took less than an hour to put it all back together and when it was all bolted back together the steering fit together TIGHT.  I was excited it would work so well since it had worked well even when it was loose. 

If I were to do the project again I would have saved time and money by only repacking the bushing and maybe the gear as that would have tightened it up well enough and would have required considerably less reassembly.

Great dane puppy - fireworks scare

My 9 week old great dane puppy and I heard the neighbors set off a mortar next door and she didn't freak out, but she got pretty nervous, pacing and sniffing.  So I got out her leash and walked her back  to the neighbors graduation party to do more socializing and possibly experience the scary boom of some firework while snuggled in love.  As we were walking over, just as we turned the corner to see czc the group of people,  someone lit a bright fiery fountain which shot about 20 feet into air.  Poor beatrix squealed and howled and ran scared pulling on her leash wimpering and immediately urinated.   I quickly picked her 15 pounds up and snuggled her to calm her.  She shook for quite a while but became curious again soon. She did not get the hiccups this time like she often does when she is play fighting with our rottweiler and get scared.
She did great meeting new people and the neighbors dog but often she was too excitable and sniffing the new smells to stop and get to know them.  At time the rough play with the giant lab would scare her and she would come running back to a lap.

Anyway, i hope to socialize her to fireworks soon

Lateral meniscal cyst

I went to the orthopedic surgeon today and he told me more about my meniscus issue.
- if I can bear the pain there is not much need to get surgery on my meniscus tear.  The damage has been done.  Get it fixed if I want to do more sports and will irritate it by using it a ton.
- the hard bump forming to the side of my knee is a cyst that has been forming for a while.  Most likely before I injured my knee real bad on April 1, I had smaller tears in my meniscus which have been leaking  into the cyst.  Typically cysts this size do not form so quickly.
- the doc would often go ahead and do surgery without an mri in a torn mri situation.  However with the cyst,  they would like to get a better overall look through an mri.
-  I mentioned that I am price concious and the doc recommended treasure valley hospital as the best place to get an mri for price.  However I had already called around and it cost about 1200 at treasure valley when I pay cash. However it only cost 600 cash through imaging center of idaho. I mentioned that it is much cheaper through ICI and he said that would be fine. The interesting this here is that I had to fill out paperwork before the appointment which said that I acknowledge that many of the providers have ownership in treasure valley hospital and that I acknowledge that I have other options as weeks.  So that means that (even though they are trying to be careful about not recommending the hospital they own) some how he still felt justified in recommending TV as a cheaper alternative even though it was not.
- the limited range and tightness I notice is from the cyst and swelling. (I was worried that the limited range was damage to something inside which wasn't healing)
- the brace I was wearing for the first couple of weeks was only partially important.  I told him that I knew my knee was solid and it wasn't going to hyper extend but when I wore the brace it gave me confidence that it would not.  He said that was normal and due to "propreoception"  which is the feeling that you have about how your muscles are reacting.  And with my knee being injured the nerves were not sensitive enough, the pressure from the brace increase my nerve ' ability to report back to my brain where my knee position was.

Pinch collar - first try

Today,  I put the pinch collar on our 8 week old great dane. 

She has been being a puppy and pulling on the leash and jumping and fighting against the leash.  It has not been very productive to try and train her or even walk her because she only pays attention to the leash "when she wants to" .
So I slip the mean looking pinch collar on.  Before I even get it in on the kids are objecting to the scary collar.  Then after it goes on the puppy freaks out and pulls and runs away VERY hard.  She was scared and didn't have any idea how to stop it.  The kids were mad at me too and the situation couldn't have been good for puppy's psyche.  Once I called the family down and held the leash softly so an accidental move by the puppy  would only make a pinch but not a sharp pain.  Immediately the puppy started being very responsive to the leash.  She turned when I turned. We walked outside and she barely ever pulled.   Occasionally she would forget and make a running jump and quickly turn around and come back.  When I came back in from out side and she was better at navigating and responding to some gentle pressure we walked around and watched dinner being made and the kids bouncing around.  There was lots of stimuli and it was kind of tough being soft enough on the leash to let her play and move as quickly and impulsively as a puppy should

I took off the pinch collar and put on a standard collar. 
My thought is that we should only us the pinch collar for training.

Great dane puppy got car sick - I coulda been better prepared

Today we finally got home from the long seattle (arligton) trip where we got our mantle great dane. 
She seems almost house broke already.  On the trip home she pooped multiple times and peed almost every hour but not evert stop.  In the first 30 minutes she threw up probably from car motion. 

I have heard that this can happen but I could ha e Ben better prepared.

I had the dog on my lap, holding her in a towel. It appeared to be the most comforting thing for her since she was already shaky and nervous because I had just snatched her from her family.  I was petting her and loving her and she gave me occasional kisses but I could tell from the occasional off balance over reactions  that her equilibrium was messing with her.  When I felt the slightest heave I knew what was coming and caught her throw up in a towel and rolled it up.

Sounds perfect, I thoug by I did good but here is what I could have done better.  I could have had another towel just for that so I would have still had two towels for snuggling her.  I should have had a towel or puppy pad that does not leak,  the towel started to get damp on the outside after a few minutes and I didn't have a good place to put it.  (I could have also had a plastic bag our something to put it in) 
I should have asked the breeder to feed her several hours before I showed up,  the food was not digested and there was a lot of it.  Perhaps the puppy would have been more settled with less food ready to come back up.

Anyway,  with all that we still got to where we were going in pretty quick order and puppy is happy

Avis car rentals in boise -BOI to SEA to BOI for less than $200

For a weekend trip to Seattle from boise we found what seemed to be a great last minute way to save money getting there.

To fly for three people it was over one thousand + a rental car once we were there so that was out immediately plus we enjoy our time in the car.  We probably have more quality conversations on a road trip weekend than any others.  So we decided to drive.

To drive the grand cherokee or aviator we would have gotten 15 to 17 mpg for 1200 miles for 75 gallons of gas. At 3$ each it is 225$.  plus wear and tear on our personal car.    We needed a suv to be comfortable in and  bring back our puppy. When we call avis the cost is between 60 to 90$ a day for an suv with about 25 mpg.  2 days would be $150 plus 45  gallons of gas (135$) so it would be 285$.  Or 60$ in order to avoid the wear and tear on the car. The drive would have required new brakes on the aviator  and the jeep grand cherokee gets a bit worse gas mileage so 60$ seems almost like a wash.

Here is where we get creative with avis.  We have rented from avis in other cities with an Avis preferred (free) account.  And when you get to the city they allow you to change the car at the last minute to any car in the "preferred lot" IF you rented a full sized car or above.   Since they almost always have a car that works we generally will book a full size car for the best rate and take our chances with getting a good car in that lot. (Worst case scenario is we have to upgrade when we get there and if the attendant sees the price we are upgrading from they are normally sensitive to price and find the best rates)

Anyway boise doesn't do any of that, they don't have a a "preferred lot" but I don't know that, so I call and check online for the best price.   As I say above calling is about 75 a day for the suv, 60 for the full size car.  Online the full size car is the same price as when I call 60 to 80 IF i pick it up within 2 hours.  However if i wait 6 hours or more to pick it up it is only 14$ a day!  

So with taxes I buy it for 37$ and expect to pay for an upgrade when I get to airport.  When I get there I talk friendly with the attendant and ask if they have upgrades to suv. He says sure what do you want,  Captiva,cherokee, grand cherokee, explorer, expedition?   I ask well what do they cost and he says oh. I can do that for the same price.  I say the cherokee, he gives me paperwork and I walk out with the keys.  What a great deal,  no wear on our car, cheaper gas, comfy car for the price of dinner. 

Total price for the 1200 mile round trip.  37$ rental + 145$ gas = 185$. 

The moral is, if you are willing to have a minimal amount of risk, book no larger than a full size car on avis preferred using the cheapest online price, and don't wait til the last minute.  (the account is free)

Mower rebuild part 2

The first set of spindles we got were wrong.  So after ordering and receiving the correct ones we installed them and Sam mowed half the lawn before hearing and awful grinding sound and we figured we should grease the spindles.  The zeros were easy to reach when we drove the mower on to car ramps. I should've some it when the deck was off.

So round two was the steering started slipping and looking underneath I found that one of the teeth was broken.

To replace it I removed dozen s of bolts and cleaned the mower pretty well.   I ordered all the parts for about 65$ and found out yesterday when my order arrived that it only order ed one bushing when I needed two.  The other parts are a gear and a steering bushing. If they show up tomorrow I might be able to install them before the weekend when sam can mow.

Impala frame stripped

Finally sam and I have completely stripped the impala frame of all components.   The rear axle was about one weekend day and the front suspension took two weekday nights.

The most difficult part of the disassembly was the front springs.   After carefully removing all bolts and nuts - the liar and upper control am were still locked.   After some sledging and a surprise pop the sputtering shot the lower control arm into the concrete garage floor.   The left side was not as easy. We removed all bolts and sledge and sledged.  But no luck.  We googled it and realized we should be compressing the springs to release the pressure.  Oreilly provided us the tool for 54 buck (free if returned in 48 hours) and even though the didn't fit well we were still able to release a little pressure.   It didn't help though and we ended up using some straps wrapped around the lower and cinched tight to take some pressure of.   Then we hammered the single large bolt out.  I must of said " there has got to be a better way" about 30 times.

Anyway, the next steps are to get the frame steam cleaned, blasted and painted and we are able to start buying parts and start building.

Great dane puppy

After weeks of research, phone calls and a weekend trip to Washington and oregon. We have pretty much decided on getting a great dane puppy from arlington Washington.
So after a quick comparison of the cost of flying (1000+) to renting a car and driving (- 350)  we will be getting up at 5am saturday anddriving an Avis rental car to the seattle area to pick up our puppy.  The puppy will cost 2000$ on a co-owned deal where the breeder gets to pick the sire and one on the puppies when we breed.
We have been reading about the somewhat finicky food we have to feed them (not too much protein before 18 months, raised feeding to avoid bloat, etc) it seems like the dog will be a little higher maintenance but we are ready for it.

Rant: I need an MRI on my torn meniscus in my knee, no one will do it

I need a MRI on my torn right meniscus ,   but all of the imaging places wont do it with out an order from a physician.  However I already went to a physician before and they did a McMurray test and confirmed I have a torn meniscus,  so I have spent the last 4 weeks attempting to rehab it.

But it has not rehab-ed and I am going to need some sort of surgery,  but I (and my physician) wont know what kind of surgery until I get an MRI.  So I need to get that MRI,  but on principle I dont want to have to go to the Dr so they can tell me something I already know.   Anyway,  why wont the imaging place give me the image,  when it is my health?   I am going to write a letter with a formal request and find out if I can convince the imaging place to give me the MRI.   I will post an update sometime