Oh wouldn't I LOVE to have any/all of you as neighbours! But I would still need the chain link fence, both to corral the dogs and to meet the municipal requirements for TCS's pool. But the chain link is rapidly being covered with Clematis (of course), Variegated Honeysuckle, and Virginia Creeper. A dense planting of daylilies is already beginning to hide the weedy growth between my fence and my neighbour's 6 foot board fence. Works for me. You guys have hit the nail on the head re:dogs. Each of mine know their own names and are getting to the point of listening for my command by name. They have learned that their name followed by "Wait" means to sit quietly while the other dog has attention, food, affection, gets the leash on etc. DH also simply calls "Dogs" at around 10:30 every night and they both respond right away by going to the door for their nightly whatever. If they are being rowdy, we can call their names, say the command "Chill" and they will quiet down, although they will go back at it when released with "O.K.". When they are in the yard, I can call "Bostons" and they will usually both come running. Of only one comes I can call the other and get the appropriate response, usually. This all happens on their home turf of course; here we are higher up in the hierarchy than they are. When together on other turf however, they seem to lose a lot of their responses in the heat of the moment (ha ha, no pun intended!!). If I see another dog when I have one or both of mine on the leash on the street, I try to walk up a laneway for about twenty feet and make them (or it), sit and wait. They will still be excited but most of the time they don't come across as aggressive. Off the leash, well, let's just say that I don't do that outside our yard. We affectionally refer to them as "The Brats" - much like "The Wrecking Crew" or "The Huge One"..... Hey, I think I am going to try "Travelling with Pomegranates" if I can get it at the library. I have been reading reams of murder mysteries but many, if not most, are not realistic and are only mildly entertaining; after a while they all seem to be the same, and lately I've been chucking them after a few chapters. It's time for something new. Maybe the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" will also go on my list. Our Hort Society is falling to pieces with cliques of the "Ins" and "Outs" forming within the executive. I was an "In" but I sympathized more with the "Outs", so I was not unhappy to tender my resignation when I injured my neck last Easter. Two "Outs", one "In", and myself have been meeting for lunch on a regular basis: We refer to ourselves as the Perth and District Ladies Poker Club. None of us play poker. But we are gardeners and friends. We are having a quiet Sunday. As it is Hallowe'en, we will roast our pumkin seeds (from the orange pumpkins), do the Trick or Treat thing, and sit back with a glass of red by 9.00 tonight. Speaking of seeds, does anybody want to try the seeds of white-skinned pumpkins? We call them Ghost Pumpkins. I am saving some seeds for TCS to grow next summer - should be a hit in our little suburban back yard! Cheers, Julie

Thanks for the tip about the JD forum, rcbe! I didnâÂÂt know that existed but I visited there last night (havenâÂÂt posted anything yet) and it does seem that all those âÂÂJDâ types hang out there! LOL I took a pic with the tension rod engaged and disengaged. I took an eyeball measurement of how far the pulley moves forward when it is engaged and it is about 3/4 of an inch which sounds about right to me. Now here is the interesting part: Thanks to jimmy56 (and I have no idea why I didnâÂÂt think of this!), I put the deck back on and got out the string and, when the tension rod is engaged the length of the string is 60 and 1/4 inches. The belt for the 48 inch deck according to the documentation (M143019) is 63.386 effective length (outside circumference) and is supposed to be .410 thick making the inside curcumference just a hair short of 63 inches. That is 2 1/4 inches longer than my string measurement! I'm not sure what to make of this but I have made absolutely sure that the deck is assembled correctly and attached to the tractor correctly. I can't vouch for all of the parts (like the deck hanger) being the correct part but I was told it was 'fine' the last time it was used to mow (which has been more than a year now). Thanks for all the suggestions to date. This is a great forum full of great people. I think I will cross post this over to weekendfreedommachine forum and see if any of the JD heads have any advice. Stil very open to any other advice if this latest post clicks with anyone!

My funniest experience in an aircraft happened while I was stationed in Germany. The Air Force used to use a Kaman HH43 helicopter for an emergency responce crash vehicle. They had a huge 6ft diameter round metal pressure sphere that was loaded with firefighting foam which they carried on a hook under the helicopter. Two firemen were inside the helicopter with the Asbestos firesuites on. When an aircraft crashed they would fly in quickly and set the firebottle down and the firemen would jump out and grab the foam line, then the helicopter would hover over the burning aircraft using the downdraft to blow the flames back while the firemen laid down a path of foam till they could get to the aircraft and pull the crew out. One day my buddy, who was a crewchief on the helicopter called me and said they were going up on a training flight and asked if I would like to ride along, so off I went. As I boarded the helicopter I saw the pilot & co-pilot up front, my buddy, the crew chief, two firemen and another guy who worked at the base chapel that was coming along for the ride. We were all seated in the back while the helicopter just flew around in circles close to the base when suddenly we heard a radio call on our headphones. They had a crippled F4 Phantom coming in with an engine fire, so the pilot told us he had to go back and hook up the firebottle and while they were hooking it up I and the guy from the chapel would have to jump off. The chopper landed and while we were jumping off one of the ground crew hooked the cable on the lifting hook and the chopper took off again, but when it was about 50ft off the ground one of the firemen jumped out, bouncing off the ground from 50ft and broke his leg. I didn't have a clue as to why he just mysteriously jumped out, but later that afternoon while sitting in the NCO club my buddy the crew chief came in and he told me. It seems that while we were flying around the guy from the chapel had got airsick, but not wanting to appear like a whimp to the other guys onboard he didn't ask for a burp bag, instead, he had barfed in the firemens boot and while we were jumping off the firemen was pulling his boots on. By the time he realized that the guy had barfed in his boot he tore off after the guy without even thinking and jumped out....LOL

Also older than ... and glad to be above rather than under the ... dirt. Anyone remember 78 mm. ... no, that was r.p.m. ... records? And the needle being on a circular disk that one lifted off of the record and put up, over and back to be held in place above the arm that swung back and forth over the record but didn't move up or down? Our "Party line" phone was a big brown wooden box on the wall with a metal thing like a tulip sticking out of the front into which you talked, and a line with a black tube on the end that hung on a yoke sticking out of the side of the phone, that lifted when you took the receiver off to listen, which connected the phone to the line, by making the contacts with the large batteries inside. If you wanted to call some other person on your line, after listening to see whether the line was busy, you turned a crank on the right side to make the double bells on the front of the phone ring, in a code of short and long rings, which rang in everyone else's phone on the line, and the ones whose code it was answered ... sometimes others did, as well (almost always remaining silent while doing so). If you wanted to call someone on another party line, you pushed a black button on the left side of the phone and turned the aforementioned crank on the right side, which silenced all of the bells on your line and sent a signal to the operator on the central switchboard and she connected you to the other line and pushed a button or turned a crank to ring the code of the person to whom you wanted to talk. ole joyfuelled ... who liked eating at the dining room table ... in the large kitchen