My lot is 1.5 acres with about only 3/4 of that or so being grass. The back yard has few obsticals in it,and I do use a push mower to do the edges,and around some of the obstacles. There are no hils,and all I plan to do with this tractor is mow the lawn. I have a dedicated walk behind snow thrower for snow removal,and I have no need to be towing anything beyond maybe my small utility trailer that has a dump bed. The engine in my current mower is a Tecumseh 12hp. Sorry I didn't mention that before. The valve cover leaks pretty good for about the first couple of minutes,but then the gasket swelss enough to stop the leak. The mower has run low on oil in the past,but like I said it does spin free,and I don't think it is internally damaged,but I don't know for a fact. I removed the flywheel,and the key was not damaged. Do you guys think it is still a valve adjustment,and or the engine is building too much compression? I have cleaned up all the connections,and even going direct to the body of the starter with jumper cables from a deep cycle camper battery yields the same results.

Thanks for all the info and ideas. What I still don't understand is how the lavender did SO well, grew so fast, then started to die. No great change in water, unless it's a decrease, since we turned our sprinkler off. Yes, the scarecrow goes in the general direction, but I don't think it really contributes a large amount, just a startles worth. The roses are pink streaks, like a "Batik" iris if only pink not purple, if you're familiar with those. I don't see the spots pictured in the disease examples (bothythis? something like that). I think we may bury a drain pipe in the upper part of our yard, above the retaining wall, before we continue planting. That will cut off some of the neighbors water. We're also sealing the cracks in the gutterway along the road that allow water to seep in. Anyway, again thanks. And any ideas about the great growth followed by sudden death?

2. I live in Houston and have to water everything except my most water-averse plants (i.e. sage) daily. Water-averse plants get watered every other day (and daily once it hits 100). This assumes the plants are in big containers. Small container plants need 2x daily. Disclaimer: I don't grow any succulants, so no direct experience. 3. I am concerned about your grapefruit tree. When you want to grow citrus outside of S. Texas, you generally need to graft the plant onto cold-hardy rootstock. S. Texas grapefruits otherwise won't survive a hard freeze. Even on grafted stock, it is hard to keep them alive in Houston. My in-laws are avid gardeners in N. Texas, and the way they've kept their citrus (meyer lemons) alive is by keeping it in very large containers that sit on a cart with wheels, so they can wheel it into the house in the winter. The TAMU link below suggests the same approach with other citrus. But I don't know if it would work on something as large as a grapefruit tree. Here is a link that might be useful: patio citrus care (they talk about satsumas, but generally useful)

From what I've experienced, the main functional difference between open and sealed (at similar BTU) is that the sealed ones throw a bit more heat to the outside of the pan, heating it inefficiently. A good sealed burner gas stove should be just as responsive and maintain just as consistent of a flame over time. Slow response of the gas stove to changes in the knob or variations in power output without changing the knob are not a problem I've ever experienced with sealed burners. You may have either a problem with the stove (or just a poor quality stove), or maybe, a draft that crosses the burners interfering with a consistent burn? We will be getting an open burner range to replace our sealed burner, but not because the sealed burner was slow to respond nor because it varied in BTU without changing the nob. It was and is a rock solid performer (and has a new owner waiting excitedly for it).