Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Runs like a Deere...shot in the head

Ok, so Jim and I have recently purchased a new John Deere riding lawn tractor.  We were originally going to buy a Troybilt Bronco, but just before heading to the store, I checked reviews online and they were horrible for that model.  We ended up paying the extra money for a quality John Deere...or so we thought.  The first problem was that our brand new mower arrived with rusty blades as you've seen from Jim's post.  We managed to get the rusty blades off and exchange them (no charge) for new ones.  The weather was pretty rainy since then, so our mower sat in the garage waiting for a sunny day.  That day finally came, and we were eager to get started on mowing our lawn.  Unfortunately, the darn thing wouldn't start!  We thought it might be the battery, so we went to have it checked, but it was fine.  Jim's Dad was over on Monday, and the 2 of them tinkered with it in the garage.  They managed to get it to start, but it was after 8pm, too late to mow.  When Jim got home from work, we tried to start it up again, but it wouldn't start.  I went outside to call Jim to dinner, and noticed that one of the headlights was burnt out as well.  Well, we had had enough!  This was a brand new mower (a John Deere at that), and we shouldn't be having all these problems.  We called up Lowe's and demanded a new mower.  They first tried to convince us we should just bring it in for service, but we stuck to our guns and insisted on a swap.  They finally agreed.  They have our model in stock, but none of them are assembled yet.  The certified John Deere guy is supposedly supposed to come in this week to assemble them.  Lowe's will give us a call when he comes, and we can make the switch at that time.  In the meantime, our lawn keeps growing.  I'll make apology cards to our neighbors either tonight or tomorrow and explain the situation so they don't think we are just ignoring our lawn and call the city on us or something.  

Here is a pic of Jim reattaching the new-new blades.


In other news, I've been fighting a losing battle against the squirrels.  I've been trying to prevent them from eating the birdseed from the feeder.  I don't mind if they eat the fallen seed on the ground, but these squirrels are little piggies and can eat a full feeder in just one day.  They also prevent the birds from eating at the feeder.  Well, so far the score is Squirrels-3/Amanda-0.  They do make for great guest entertainment as I found out from Kristi's bridal shower that I hosted.  There is also one squirrel in-particular that I have a soft spot for.  He seems to be a hybrid black squirrel.  We've named him/her Shadow.  (I know original, right?)  Anyways, I've taken a few pics of Shadow for you guys to see.  He seems to be smarter than the other squirrels.

Shadow the semi-black squirrel

  
I think he was posing for the camera.


And last but not least, I wanted to post some pics of the lovely farm across the street from us.  The pictures don't really do it justice though.  I also tried to zoom in on their 3 horses.


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