Green Wellies and Baler Twine

Update time - I watered the docks with roundup, 2 weeks ago yesterday & on saturday they were beginning to develope a satisfying yellowish tinge Very Happy

- which is a great relief because it went "out of date" in 2004 Embarassed

Dug the first 4 feet or so & planted the baby parsnips in three rows 9" apart both ways. Sadly the soil is very clay - so there may be a lot of work to do in getting it into good nic. Not too much couch in it Cool

but some signs of bindweed - still the ground should be clear for another spray after I harvest the beans & Tatties.

Now have broad beans in a larger version of the paper pots, outside Hardening off Twisted Evil

& new potatoes under t' bed sprouting - hopefully they'll both get planted next weekend (If I can get the rotavator running) Rolling Eyes

(Gardening doesn't HAVE to be excessively hard work) Laughing

- But I absolutely KNOW the oldies won't approve of it (& they ALL seem to be "Oldies" with "Organic" overtones ( a fair bit of carpet & Comfrey Apparent)

We have been fighting the docks on the fields too. Roundup not an option so we are using the manual slice through the buggers. Rolling Eyes

The runner and broad beans are sprouted and ready to pot on. I think I was too early or something because not one of the tomatoes has seeded.

Mad

Ok - so last week I got the rotorvator to fire - decent spark (flywheel mag) & had it running for about 20 seconds - then it stopped & now I can't even get a spark.

Then I got to thinking, it's OLD, it was OLD when I got it & it's been standing out for 15 years, in all weathers. So I was pleased it sparked at all ( after a bit of a clean) - Normally I convert these oldies to coil ignition, merely utilising the existing points & fitting a new condenser, with a car battery strapped on top somewhere. - but this one's different. The points are opened & closed by a push rod which emerges from the centre of the condenser & they only actuially Close momentarily before opening again to generate the spark, so I'm wondering whether there would be enough time closed for the (new) condenser to charge up from a car battery. I'd obviously need to fit tha externally too, since the old one needs to be retained for the push - rod arrangement.

Then I thought about this new fangled Unleaded petrol & whether that could be the problem Confused

A bit of prodding on google found This thread :-

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18777

Where they're saying it's a load of old cobblers & unleaded would be fine : Very Happy

They'rer also saying Briggs & Stratton have ALways recommended unleade Shocked

- & since she's a B&S 5 horse, fitted onto a Mountfield ( I seem to remember ID'ing it as a M3 way back )

So anyway - I've had a good look on e-bay & I'm Not paying £350-£400 + for something Less good than my old £35 donkey, so it's Damn Well Going to Go Cool

I'm off to get a new plug for it - in the meanwhile - anybody know whether I need to adjust the timing for unleaded ? or even How to do that with fixed points & a Keyed on flywheel ? - I can only think of adjusting the points gap to advance or retard it a tiny bit.

& does anyone know what the plug / points gaps should be on an old 5 horse Briggs & Stratton ? Embarassed

- I'm using 25 thou plugs & 15 thou points (is that a bit tight?) atm.

one word WD40

So - last evening, I'm driving home with that rotorvator I wasn't going to buy Rolling Eyes

& there at the side of the road, nibbling grass, is this mini-Kangaroo Shocked

I knew Wallabies were reputedly in Derbys, but here in E Northants - not five miles from home Cool