Good morning.... :-) Beautiful here this morning! Thanks to the house fan, luscious summer air is streaming through the windows. It is on the cool side, but no matter, I am enjoying it. The honeysuckle hasn't got as much punch but still enough to identify June, which is speeding by. Yesterday we all had a good day. We had enough sunshine for DD to mow the lawn. DH is moving from one firm to another and it has been stressful, but things started to fall into place on Friday and yesterday was the first day he has started to shed some of the stress, despite the long day and DD and I spent the whole day together. We probably haven't done that in almost a year. What could be better. :-) I find myself thinking of all of you lately. Worrying about you Marian and hope you start to see improvement soon. Wondering where all the missing are and if they are having fun. Looking at the calendar, IU6 will be here soon. DD told me all about the wedding she attended last weekend. So V's wedding came up and I showed her the wedding pics. We hit the link to the wedding photo and we both were raving over how spectacular that photo of the bride and groom is!! Honestly thought that was one of the best wedding photographs we have ever seen. Handsome couple! Loved the bubbles. The photographer is very talented. While we were on the thread, she had a good laugh at baby Ivy's grouchy face and the 'bad haircut' photos. She has been disappointed with her windowbox. I was sick the weekend she and roommate planted it with plants I sent over. It is looking pretty pathetic. [g] The weather doesn't help. So we will have to fix it up a little. Deanne's containers amazed her. :-) Kathy, that is an apt description of what happens to me every year....lol. I always have a TCLC moment. This year it is WAWPMA....weeds are way past my ankles. Chelone, your brother is amazing! Julie, so glad that you weren't mired in mud yesterday trying to move that shed. Exciting that by next week, you can get started on the new garden. Hope you are taking lots of photos. Michelle, I forgot to include the description of that photo....here it is.... A starry night gleams above Owachomo Bridge in Utah's Natural Bridges National Monumentnamed the first Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). "Here you see something forgotten," says ranger Scott Ryan, "and reconnect with the sky." Anita, hope your weekend is a sunny one. I'll have to go check my astilbes today. We're starting the day early today, so time to put a move on.....have a great Sunday! pm2

I think the LA series are very well built and if they aren't abused and are maintained will provide many years of service. They are not like the deeres of old but what is made like the days of old these days? not too many things. I took a LA165 home and used the 30 day promise to trade up to a x320 and am glad I did only due to having 3.5 acres of hills and inclines and I didn't think the LA series was enough tractor. I pull a 850lb yard roller and it's effortless and I weigh 240lbs with 90lbs of ballast in the tires. I think the john deere quality shows in all of their series but you can't compare them to the deeres of the past it's not a fair comparison. I spoke to several of the techs from several dealerships that said they have not seen a x320 in for tranny service in forever if that helps.

5 years ago, I bought a new JD L110 with a 17.5 hp Kohler engine and a 42" mulching deck for about $1750 from a JD Dealer to cut my 1.5 acre up hill bumpy lawn with a septic field up top. I got it because Consumer Reports had said that it was the best all-around for the dollar. It worked great with a beautiful cut until the septic field and a contractors fertilizing made the grass so tough, the engine bogged down as if it was gonna stall, especially over the septic field, and really bad if I missed a week due to rain. By the way I threw away the $200 double bag grass catcher because I got tired of getting off the tractor and dumping them every 7.5 minutes. I went to a Kubota dealer to find out what a real tractor was and how I couldnÂt afford one, but some farmer had traded in his JD G110 w/ a 25 hp Kohler engine and a 54" mowing deck I bought it used, with no warranty for $2000, and at first was happier the way it had no problems with the thickness of the lawn. It also carried my over 300 lb. body uphill and cut much faster in that it turned my 1 hour and fifteen minute weekly task into about 50 minutes. The blue smoke the used G110 was blowing when I test drove it was to mean later that I had to put about 3 to 4 hundred dollars into it for repair, and apparently, I was lucky, because it could have been much worse! It seemed the farmer, believe it or not, didn't change the oil much. But the main problem was that with the 54" deck it had did not cut the grass as nice as the smaller 42" deck with the rounded mulching platform. It made "Wind Rows" that did not seem to go away even after going back over it again, because my grass grew so fast or something. A salesman told me I may have to cut it twice a week (NO WAY). So, bottom line, it was taking longer to get the grass cut with a 54" deck than with the earlier 42" deck; almost twice as long and it STILL didnÂt look as nice as before! I added a mulching kit to it, installed by the dealer, even after their warning that I may get clumping. I did get clumping, and my wife never lets me hear the end of itÂ..The tension spring on the belt/pulley system broke 2 weeks ago and I went to the dealerÂs parts dept. and bought another one for $6 because their Spring back-log for repairs was over 2 weeks wait. I spent about 3 hours getting it on the deck. This new spring worked for two mowings and broke. Now, with rain, I have monster grass and no way to mow it. My wife almost bought a $2000 Cub Cadet at a box store out of desperation yesterday just to get the grass cut. So now, 5 years into this monster lawn, and two JDÂs later, we are looking at our 3rd one, an X300 or X304, to solve my weekly woes on this lumpy lawn. Oh yeah, by the way, when it was graded, the man did not do a very smooth job and my back and I wish my tractor had shock absorbers, but we can not afford the Kubota, or a real John Deere. I will probably trade in the G110 for a X304 next weekend, and peeve that I am trading down from a 25 hp Kohler w/ 54" deck to a 22 hp Kohler w/ a 48" deck, albeit in the new "stronger" X Series, but my wife wonÂt mind, because there will be no more "Wind Rows" and clumping (HOPEFULLY!). She doesnÂt have to do itÂ.she naps on the couch while I mow! I guess sheÂll nap a little longer, because I will be out there a little longer now. I hope the clumping and rows go away then, and I really hope to have less annoying repairs. I imagine, though, that they all use the same spring. Wish me luck if you have no good advice I can use.

Well, I thought this problem had solved itself. The thing started well most of last year and until this week. I thought it had a stuck ring or valve, or a little bit of varnish from the modern gasoline. Anyway, I installed two champion CJ8 s, gapped to .025. And it started right off. Changing from NGK BMR4As Lot's of good comments on this thread. It's a little over my head. I'm assuming that if the composite camshaft gear breaks, it's definitely not going to run, correct? And further regarding this thing, is this gear failure always a fairly benign thing? That is nothing else gets bent or damaged when this thing goes? I had the case cover off to repair the inner gasket to prevent water from leaking into the crankcase, actually I don't think it ever went into the crankcase, but it eventually would not hold water even to mow the yard once. I then, wasn't aware of this issue with the composite gear and I'm not totally sure if it has the composite or not. I seem to remember looking at a brown fiber gear-looking thing. But I'm not sure. Thanks for all the comments, and I think it's just the spark plugs causing this problem. Although I'm not sure why long cranking worked to get it to start. Anyway...Cheers!