So a couple weeks ago I told you about some problems (I created) with our lawn mower. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse.

Well, I guess it didn't have far to go from "potentially dead" to "dead", so it's not too surprising.

My father-in-law was able to get the mower running last week after I broke it, so I was hopeful that I might get another year or two out of it. That hope was killed quickly when I started the mower up yesterday morning.

I started the mower, and a ton of smoke poured out - that was expected. What wasn't expected was the really bad knocking. I decided to try it out anyway and made about half a trip around the house when it suddenly stopped with a "klunk".

"Okay, I hit something," I thought. Pushed it back to the garage (the starter is was still being a pain) and took the starter of to shim it better, and "Oh - that's not fixable." I saw a nice crack in the block.

It wasn't leaking oil very badly, so my Dad and I pushed it into the shed to deal with it later while I push-mowed the yard. Came back to drain the oil and found that most had already drained out of a supposed crack in the bottom of the block.

So, the mower is definitely shot (despite my Dad suggesting that I could get it welded - I think I've had it with this mower for now).

I'm looking for a replacement, but I'm not sure what type of replacement. I wasn't really sold on getting a riding mower to begin with since I'm used to push-mowing about a half-acre and can do our 1/3-acre lot in a little over an hour -- the riding mower wasn't a very big time saver. I'm considering a larger and self-powered push-mower; does anyone have any experience with the newer models and how well they do? The biggest reason we got the riding mower was to make mowing easier for Tiff to do, so it would have to accomplish that (ie, it wouldn't be able to make her keep up with it if it were a self-propelled). Thoughts?

Tiff and I bought a riding mower last summer. We both knew it was going to drastically reduce the amount of work we had to do to keep the lawn looking decent (it's not possible to make our lawn look nice).

Three weeks ago I was mowing the lawn and the mower shut off on me. This didn't surprise me too much at the time; we had just replaced the battery a couple weeks before that and I was kind-of suspecting that the alternator was bad. I assumed the battery had died and there wasn't any spark left. After a fun time pushing it to the shed, I put it on the charger and finished mowing with the push-mower.

The next week I tried to start it - no go. I took the cover off the starter and noticed the gear was fully engaged. I didn't have time to work on it then so I push-mowed the lawn again.

Last week my Dad came by and pulled the starter off. He cleaned it up, it seemed to work fine, but it still wouldn't crank the mower. He took it into town to have a guy look at it.

Got the starter back today (there weren't any problems with it) and put it on, and the mower still wouldn't turn. Hmm. Wouldn't turn. As in, the starter can't turn the flywheel.

I check the oil, and there's just a tad bit at the bottom.

So, the current assumption is that the engine is seized. That pretty much means that its shot. Not a great feeling.

Of course, everyone knows to check the oil. My only excuses (which don't help me feel much better) are:

1. I've had a super-cheap push-mower for 4 years and have never had to add any oil to it (yes, I actually check it).
2. This mower didn't give me any indication it was burning oil or that it was low on oil.
3. I've never owned a riding mower before.
4. I'm not the only one who uses it.

Like I said, not very good excuses.

So, I hear Briggs & Stratton engines are kinda tough...

Other than my Dad's 60th birthday, I spent this weekend cutting holes in my walls and running wires in my basement drop-ceiling.

I started Saturday morning around 07:30 and stopped around 10:30 (3 hours). Most of the time was spent figuring out where my one interior wall was, and the rest of the time was cutting a couple holes and running a single pull-wire.

Sunday my Dad came over (on his birthday!) and we got to work around 09:30, finishing up around 14:30 (another 5 hours). We were able to finish up all the "hard" parts - drilling holes in exterior walls (pulling out insulation where necessary), running conduit to the "master" wall plate, and pulling wires between all the outlets.

All together, I added 5 new wall plates - 3x 4-port Leviton plates with 2x binding posts with 16ga speaker wire back to the master panel, a single 2-port Leviton plate with RG-6 run to it and back to the master panel, and a single 12-port Leviton plate with 3x binding post sets, 2x CAT5 jacks, and a single F-type jack.

I still need to pick up some F-type Leviton connectors as well as a half dozen white blanks for the panels, but the project is mostly finished. I'll be able to remove the speak from my banister (rear center channel) and remove a ton of wire that was stuffed under my trim. The network wire alone was probably 30 feet long since it had to snake most of the way around the room - the speaker wires were pretty close to that length as well.

The last "big" home project I have for the summer now is to get my rack in order, and my patch panels for that just arrived today. Guess I better get started.