Kokos: the rootstock and the Liberty both came from Cummins Nursery, I had to order the Liberty about a year +- in advance so they could graft it. As far as spacing, I can only say that it is depends on the rootstock, scion, soil and how you train the tree. I have 9 different young trees on semidwarf rootstocks on 18' centers and trained to central leaders. If I did it all again I'd use 20-24' spacing or do a better job of training in the first 3 years. The trees can still and will be trained to fit their spaces better, they aren't out of room by any means but they definitely will not be allowed to get crowded as it makes all the cultural practices more difficult and certainly doesn't help in disease control. Here is a link that might be useful: Cummins Nursery

Buy whatever you want. Here is something to consider. The mower battery are available in 4 different power levels. 180 CCA 230 CCA 295 CCA 340 CCA The positive terminal is also available on the left or right side of the battery. Check your tractor before buying a new battery. Some batteries are the sealed design - meaning there are no battery caps to add water. Usually the battery terminals do not corrode on the sealed batteries. The other batterys are designed with removable battery caps - so water may be added. These batterys usually develop corrosion on the battery terminals. Periodic cleaning is needed to keep the battery healthy. A battery maintainer is a great tool to keep the battery charged. This charger automatically turns off when the battery is fully charged. If the battery loses a little charge, the maintainer turns back on. A trickle charger will boost a battery to peak power, but there is no turn off feature. If the charger is kept on the battery over the winter, chances the battery will live a short life. Some of the B&S batteries are made by East Penn. Sometimes they are made by the other manufacturer. Same is true with DieHard batteries. These are simply decals applied to the cheapest supplier. I use the East Penn batteries that are sealed as I don't want to fool around with the corrosion issues. When a battery maintainer is used, I see sealed batteries that survive 7-9 years. The water cap batteries will also last a long time if the battery is kept cleaned and charged. during winter storage.

Marcell, Thanks for the possible way to get some final value out of my old equipment built as part of a hobby and career. I was in the Naval Air, and Electricians Mate, was an AE2 P1 when I got off active duty and went into the reserves, I was a Chief Petty Office when I decided to get out of the reserves in 1968. I built Eico versions of all the instruments you mention, except the tube tester. That was on my list, I just didn't get to it before transistors took over. I went to college after leaving the Navy and have worked as an electrical engineer for many years - as could be concluded from the date I put on myself above, not to mention the date of the subject of this excursion away from the subject of this CAR forum thread. I have all the manuals to go with the test and signal generation equipment. As I mention the scope didn't work well, the problem there was a poor quality (multi-output) transformer, which had to supply the hight voltages associated with vacuum tubes. A few years back I purchased a dual trace scope from Radio Shack. It is a fully calibrated (time base and amplitude) with multiple trigger capabilities. It looks and functions like the old Tectronics (sp?) and HP scopes I used in my early days as an engineer. I think I paid about $300 for it, I couldn't pass up the buy. I rarely use it, but enjoy seeing it on my electronic/computer workbench anyway. This bench still has projects on it, that I never seem to find time to get around too... could be I'm spending too much time chatting on these forums.

I go crazy trying to find something on the radio in the evenings. During baseball and football seasons I can't even get Milt Rosenberg's show on WGN. I can't understand the appeal of having dozens of sports talk programs all day and all night. The polarizing radio talk hosts are disgusting, thinly-disguised rabble-rousers. I'm also not always interested in what's being broadcast on the FM fine arts program. Neither DH nor I watch any commercial TV except news and weather. We do record some PBS programs, and the DVD player gets lots of use. Our Chicago Tribune declined to barely worth reading, but is staging something of a comeback as far as content. Finances are another story. I'm sure we'll all be getting our 'print' online before long.