for most people its valve adjust but for a select few its the engine design itself. the piston gets lubed by the engine splashing oil. if you dont change the oil yearly and are not using the correct weight oil, the top side of the piston and occasionally the head also will create tollerances so tight even the compression release wont be enough for the starter to push thru. usually i sugesst pulling the engine apart and cleaning the piston, valves, rings, and valve head. get then super clean abd put it back together. keep up on the maintence and it should run fine. also check the seloniod, they do go bad and it takes all that CCA to get these engines spinning

Hi guys thanks for all your help- I am not going to repost in the other forum at this time b/c I think I got some very good information here. I went to walmart today and they were out of cactus mix. Sigh. They did have a bag of perlite tho- but I wanted to check with you guys first if this is the correct thing to buy, and if so- what do I do with it. I have a bag of miracle grow potting soil- I am assuming I need to mix these two together. I also have some small gravel- about bean sized. I plan to put him in a terra cotta pot since plastic holds the water and doesn't breath. I could use some instructions on the dirt mix tho- and as an aside- I purchased a succulent that needs to be repotted- do I use the same type of soil for him? I also have two lemon trees I grew from seed that I wanted to put into citrus mix, however they didn't even carry that this year. No they don't ever grow lemons, sometimes they flower but that's ok- the leaves smell really nice.

I find it strange that so many people are trying to grow northern vegetables following a northern calendar in FL. No wonder you're having so much trouble! I'm in central FL 9B and I grow stuff all year round - but what I grow changes with the temperatures. For example, this past year in the cooler months (late fall/winter) I grew lots of leafy greens like lettuce, chard, cilantro, garden and red sorrel, bok choy, radishes, carrots, and peas. I've got a few pigeon pea "trees" (they live for ~5 years and produce pigeon peas year round. They are drought tolerant and infertile sand tolerant). I've got straight Myakka sand and I haven't been amending. To my surprise, quite a few plants were very happy in my infertile sand. The only thing I do is occasionally add some coffee grounds once in a while or some diluted urine. I'm now in the process of making and charging biochar to long term improve the fertility of my sand since any compost I added in the past disappeared almost immediately (to be honest, it disappears in my compost bin before I even really get a chance to use it). In October I started tomato plants from seeds - now that it's March they are flowering and fruiting. Everglades tomato is a FL native tomato that can perform even during our crazy hot and humid summers. There's also Floradade tomato, which was developed in south FL specifically to cope with the brutal summers and can handle up to 100F. I've got those sprouting now (mid March) so we'll see how they do. There are at least 10 other tomatoes I know of that purportedly thrive even in FL summers but they will not be the tomatoes everyone knows in the north. If you want to grow northern tomatoes, just do it in the spring; most tomatoes will drop flowers by June due to the heat. If you can keep the plant alive through the summer (usually by shading it from afternoon sun) they will start producing again in the fall when temps cool down. I've also got sweet and hot peppers, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, eggplant, callaloo (amaranth), garlic chives, lagos spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ethiopian Kale, Malabar spinach, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, and Moringa for the summer. Rule of thumb for FL gardening: Southeast Asian + Caribbean veggies do particularly well in FL summers and "northern" veggies grow well here in the winter. As for fruit trees... stop trying to grow what does well in the north and grow what does well here. I've got a monster guava that I never fertilize or water and can deal with the occasional cold snap. Mulberries also do particularly well - they are basically zero maintenance (no extra watering, fertilizer, thrive on neglect). They fruit multiple times a year (mine are flowering now). There are plenty of other options if you look.

I just would like to do a couple of follow ups to the questions people have had for me. I am hoping this helps answer mine as well. One- they both get leash walked, however, Sampson doesn't go very far and he doesn't care for the cold much (thank God, it's starting to warm up). Truman goes on a lease and a harness b/c he's about 100 lbs and he does so much better with his harness. The puppy goes for a couple of short walks a day and Truman goes for a lengthy walk each day (usually when we get home from work). Second- I used the word "only" to describe where we were at that day, purely so that people could see that he has gone outside to potty. Using the word "only" doesn't mean I don't want to fix the problem, it means it's not fixed yet. Third- Usually my fiance and I are off by 10:00 every night, so we certainly aren't sleeping during the day. I am up , among other times to clean the crate, by 8:00 am at the latest every day. The dogs are taken out to potty and then fed right then. The second time we feed them is at around lunch time, although sometimes they decide not to eat...annz, I think you are right, if he decides to skip it, then I should too. That is where I have messed up, b/c I feel bad and so I want to feed him later b/c he ate his lunch later...We do have a gal that comes by when we are both at work to let them both out and wet their whistle. Usually neither of them eat at that time. The youngest dog is about 16 weeks old. I am certainly not comparing my dogs to dobermans by any means. I was just making the point that some dogs, even the ones who haven't been on schedules their whole lives can be very well behaved and trained. I am so trying to find better ways so that my dogs are happy and so are we. We love them dearly and just want to find a way for all of us to make our new house a home. Thanks for everyone's advice. If anyone has anything to add, please feel free. I know there isn't a magical pill to fix things- I will try anything (but neither of us can quit our jobs. Our schedules are just backwards from most...when others are working during the day we are home, when they are at home in the evening, we are working. Plus, we do have the gal come over to let them out (which Truman doesn't need but likes her coming over anyway). Michelle