I had a little surprise today - I was using the now 21 yr old Lawn Boy 10684 with Tecumseh 195 and it suddenly started acting like it was running out of gas. I had just finished yesterday washing it, changing oil, changing blade and air filter and cleaning/greasing the rear drive. I used it for an hour before it started sputtering, and there was gas in it. So, I did the old float bowl orifice bolt cleaning but it was perfectly clean - no carbon, no discoloration, just a beautiful brass bolt that looked new. I went to my special/small tools drawer and found the wire tie that had been in there for many years and rodded out the tiny orifice even though it seemed to be clean. I put it back together and sure enough, it immediately started and ran great. I've been running Premium gas with Startron in it for years but perhaps a tiny piece of something managed to get into the small orifice. BTW, when you go to do this orifice cleaning, stand the mower up on its wheels just like you're going to dump the oil. Fuel in the float bowl runs back to the tank. Typically when you remove the bolt, the float bowl stays put - just watch out for the washer under the orifice bolt head.

Gwynne, Thanks. I'm sorry too. :( I feel bad that I just couldn't keep up with things and try to keep my sanity so I backed off and that's what happened. My husband says I act like I have to save every Monarch in the world. I do try to save all of them that I can, but then it just gets to be too much. I am convinced now more than ever of the parasite problems that Monarchs face. I think probably almost every one of the caterpillars and pupas that didn't make it had strings hanging down from them. I saw the fly pupa on the bottom of the containers. I'm just now coming to an end of having those problems because I'm strictly bringing in eggs and that's absolutely it. I figure if I see a caterpillar, chances are one of its enemies probably spotted it before I did and already laid eggs on it, so I don't even bother bringing any in. I'm finding less eggs these days than I had been. My biggest day I had this summer was 93 found eggs, but now when I got out it's more like 10-20. So I can tell the season is kind of winding down. I supposed I'll be releasing butterflies a month from now yet or probably even into October (only a few). My biggest release day was 29 butterflies on August 18 (a week ago today). Mostly all of those eclosed in my butterfly cage. I didn't keep track of how many dead caterpillars and pupas I had from when I brought them in as caterpillars when I was getting back into raising them, but I'd guess that it was 30 or so that didn't make it. Of the ones that I collected outside as caterpillars, far more died than what lived. Probably the ones that lived were the founds I found as tiny caterpillars before anything had a chance to find them. The ones in the butterfly cage were collected as eggs. We put 109 caterpillars in the cage; only two didn't make it. So I think that says a lot about how much better their chances are when they're collected as eggs and raised inside. Last year I didn't collect eggs at all. I was a novice and only collected the caterpillars. It's a wonder many of them made it, but I successfully raised 70 Monarch cats. I think I only had about 8 that didn't make it last year. So I think their parasites are a lot worse this year. Yes, I agree with you about the tachinid flies being disgusting. Sorry about your problems that you had before. I guess we probably all go through those things unfortunately, but at least now we know how bad the problem really is. I don't get rid or normal-looking larva, but if I see a pupa that looks funny, I do dispose of it because I know that either it will result in flies or else the butterfly will be deformed when it ecloses. Thanks for all the information. It was really interesting and now I've learned even more. Sherry, I absolutely agree with you about not bringing in caterpillars. If I ever take a break again, like back off from collecting eggs for a week or two each year. I found out from collecting caterpillars outside that very few of them make it. I've been taking my pain pills lately and it's not quite so hard on my back collecting the eggs, but it's still not pain-free. Oh, how I wish I had gotten into this when I was younger, but then again, I had kids, so that took up my time and I wouldn't have had the time to spare. Ha, even now I wonder how I'd do it if I'd get more eggs than I've already been getting. It's time-consuming, no doubt about it. I've been trying to put a bunch in small storage containers thinking maybe that would save time. I'm not sure if it saves that much. There's just no real easy way to do this without putting most of my waking hours into it. I spend more time with the caterpillars than I do my family. Yes, those Tachinid flies are definitely disgusting. If I see any outside when I'm out there, I'll whoop their hairy little butts. :) Btw, I enjoyed reading about them in your blog just as I've loved reading everything else you have on there. You have really good information! How many years have you been raising Monarchs now? Like you, I watch the pupae closely and if any start having a strange look, they get isolated. I have one right now that I'm wondering about. It's not that it doesn't look healthy. It has a nice plump look, but its stripes don't have the usual look. There's a criss-cross type pattern on part of it. I took a few pictures of it and will post them when my daughter gets them off of her camera and onto the computer. I bet that about had your blood boiling to let the Tachinid Fly hatch. ;-) Cathy

Right, gail, the self clean does not use chemicals but some people and birds can be senstive to the chemical burnoff. Still, it is much better than sticking my head in the oven to wipe off the "Easy Off" which is a misnomer. Success! The burnt over pie filling came out clean, and I only had to wipe out a little bit of ash. I cooked dinner using the cooktop and oven, so no problems. The steam clean feature is nice for when there is only a little dirt on the walls or oven bottom. It uses ~1 cup water and only runs for 20-30 min. Then once it cools you have to wipe out the excess water.

I am so loving all the dog and cat stories. It is apparent that our animals enrich our lives in many ways. Here is another story about another Granddog. My younger daughter had 2 Beagles. While visiting at her house for a weekend some years ago, I stayed with the Beagles while Daughter went to a Doctors appointment. The dogs normal supper time is 4:00 she had told me, but Molly the oldest would try to tell me at about 3:30 that it is time to eat. Don't fall for her lies and just ignore her till it is 4 o'clock, she said. Sure enough about 3:30 Molly appeared in front of me as I was reading in a comfy chair. She did a little wiggle dance and then went to her empty bowl. I continued to read without looking up. Then Molly came back and did the wiggle dance and added 2 fast spinning circles for emphasis and then back to her empty bowl again. I continued reading. Molly then came back, repeated all the other moves and next grabbed my pant leg and shook my leg briskly. Now I burst out laughing. I couldn't ignore her any longer