I just found this thread. Glad you got it running. An earlier poster suggested going to half choke, pull a couple times, then go to full choke. That is backwards according to the manuals for every small engine I've ever read. It's full choke till it tries to start, then half. Be listening for that "tries to start" - it will be a brief firing of the engine and you HAVE to stop there and go to half choke so you don't flood it. Another poster mentioned being careful with the choke so as not to flood it. I would agree 100% with that. If you pull it on full choke several times (my limit is about 5) and it does not try to start, STOP and go to half choke for a couple pulls - it may be already flooded with fuel and needs more air. These things can flood easily and no amount of pulling will clear it, only fresh air. If I suspect I've flooded one I go to full open on the choke (ie RUN mode) and pull a couple times. If it doesn't start I go get some ice tea and leave it for a few minutes. Once the engine is warm you may need no choke to restart it, or only half choke. Don't go to full choke on a warm engine unless it won't start without it, or you can flood it. And don't suck up bad crap. :-D

Sammie, You should be so proud of yourself. What an accomplishment for a college student! I am also a big fan of natives. My husband and I recently moved to the southern mountains in NC from suburban Chicago and couldn't be happier. We have quite a few native woodland plants and shrubs/trees. My project over the next few years is to educate myself on native savannah plants that would be appropriate for an easement on our property and work them into that area. Keep up the good work and keep educating people on the benefits of natives! You might want to either repost or direct the folks on the native board to your post here. John Blakeman has answered many many posts on the native board. I personally have learned a lot from his posts. Of course now, I have to relearn a lot as we went from the prairie of Illinois to the moutains of NC. Jeanne

Now 77 years old and now diabetic 2 (but I can eat fruit and I do have a lot of fruit). Waiting 2 more weeks before I start indoor grow light seeds, winter sowing seeds, salad seeds in heated mini greenhouse. Replaced mini greenhouse by myself and covered edges with many rolls of UV film. Sprayed chairs and ornaments with UV spray. Sprayed rusting items like dog pen for blueberries and metal ornaments with WD40. Chairs must have 2-3 bricks on them to keep them from blowing down in the wind. Laid black plastic film to replace so called landscape fabric that loves weeds. Poly film and clover are great aides to prevent weeds. I have a giant leaf blower and shredder that is now hard to lift - so I got a light weight leaf blower and blew away most of the oak leaves and nuts near the back of the house and the wind moved more for me. In spring my ex son in law will trim the too tall again so-called dwarf apricot and plum trees for me with my new electric chain pole saw. The peaches, nectarines, and mini apples are short enough. I have watering lines for sprayers and emitters and use timers. I laid out a hose line with switches from the center sprinkler so I could hand water if needed (2 times so far after water lines drained for winter) and to spray the fruit trees - now both are super easy jobs. It now takes less than 5 minutes to spray the 14 fruit trees using a hand sprayer (wonderful invention) - hah!. I also have a mister in case I overheat in the summer. I will have to prune the brambles and remove dead food crops from tubs later - but that is easy with a hand pruner. I have large trash cans with drainage slits placed at every end of the back yard for yard and garden debris until they either compost or go into the trash. Planting food crops in tubs is so easy and so is picking them. Back yard getting really gorgeous all year long. Have colored chairs, colored tubs, colored and white solar lights (getting more this week), colored and green foliage (dwarf conifers, some evergreen sedums, strawberries/blueberries/brambles turning color - earlier EAC was vivid red). I have solar and non-solar ornaments with more coming this week. I even recently added fake flowers for some tubs - crazy but it looks good this winter. Front yard dwarf japanese maples and azaleas turning color. The 2 giant oaks dropped their nuts and leaves again but not as bad as in previous years. The city just added a sidewalk so that is less area to take care off. In spring I will have lots of bulbs and flowering bushes and trees. In summer I will have food crops and flowers. In fall I will have food crops, flowers, and fall foliage. In winter dwarf conifers, sedums, and food crops in the GH. Life is good and gardening is now super easy. I find it hard to believe what I used to do when i was in my 20s - like try to garden in clay in the country and carry water from a creek a long distance away.

g'day sos, using a whipper-snipper comes from practice, i use a manual feed head on my brushcutter that suits me as i tend not to waste nylon like tap and go heads do plus a manual feed is not as mechanical and does not come into contact with the ground as much as t&g heads do which causes them the break down needing replacement, plus some brands have t&g heads that you find hard to reload with nylon, i load mine in a minute or 2. i'm a straight shaft fan. anyhow have a look at our site below might be some help there for you, list up a list of more direct questions and ask them they will get answered. using equipment takes experience, rider mowers really only for larger blocks. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page