Man oh man you guys are gonna kick my bu** when you hear this. Okay, so I drain the gas out of the BCS walk behind tractor and bring it into the garage to dismount the engine. My buddy and I unbolt the engine and it comes off with the dry clutch attached. We notice that there is a lot of grey aluminum shavings inside the case...hmmm. We look closer and staring back at us, hanging out of the clutch is this 2" long set screw that has come loose, backed its way out and is grinding against the inside of the case. This caused the screeching, the stalling and the grinding feeling when turning it over. How putting MMO in the cylinder freed up this *seize* is a mystery to me but at the time it sure seemed like it did. I was happy to find this cause it meant that the engine is still good. The next day we got hit with a snow storm so I rushed to put it back together. The set screw got a few drops of LocTite blue just to be sure it dont come out again. Actually I was a little over zealous and broke the allen head on that set screw when I tightened it...hope I dont have to take it out. I also managed to cross thread one of the 4 mounting points on the engine pto side, forgot how delicate the cast aluminum threads are...mixed up some 15 min epoxy and put the bolt back in. By the time I got her all back together there was 5" of powder snow on the driveway. I put gas in the tank and she fired right up - not having the drag of the set screw cutting a rabbet into the aluminum case sure helps things a lot ;-) . It works fine. Thanks to all of you for all your help and suggestions expecially *mownie* who said back in the beginning "....Check the components that deliver the engine power to the wheels and make sure something there is not seized or locked up before you devote all your time to the engine per se." Maybe I got lucky with the set screw backing out and causing all this. It sure prevented the engine from seizing up due to gas diluted oil and now I know how exactly gas in the oil can ruin an engine. In addition, I know how to go about rebuilding it and have looked through the B&S rebuilding steps on their web site. This isnt the same as the experience of actually doing it but its something. Thanks again, Tim

I was also sad to hear of Bridge's closing the nursery. I really liked doing business with Dennis and found his roses to be very healthy and vigorous growing. I do hope some other nursery will pick up all of his roses he hybridyzed as there are still a few that I wanted. I did get lucky and got a single bush of Ricky Hendrick and I really like it alot. John

Sara, Please bring some onions! I planned on bringing some standard condiments (catsup, mustard, relish if we have it, etc.), as we are pretty close to the park and we can handle any perishables. A suggestion to all, if you have seeds for exchange, please bring them. With the expected turn-out, even your extra "common" seeds might find homes, and isn't that what it's all about? Well, that and the chance to show off my little prince and princess ;-) P.S. I have a row of leaf lettuce and arugula that we will never be able to use all of before it bolts, anyone interested in some green salad? If someone were to bring a selection of dressings...

it truly is amazing how young they are learning to use this extremely valuable machine. I can only imagine where I would be if I had had the opportunity to have a computer at such a young age. How fortunate they are to have the world at their fingertips. Your grandson is a very lucky boy to have you around to get him his very own computer and he will love the apple, not as many infection worries there too, although more recently there have been some aimed at apple but not as many as for windows. I think that is one of the reasons so many of the small netbooks and the one pc per child versions have linux pre-installed on them, no infection worries and what a great head start to learn linux so young. Here I am in my gray hair days learning linux! It sure would have been easier when more of my brain cells were co-operating LOL but I figure I am better off exercising them than letting them laze around.