Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Baymule]

I get real nervous on even a slight incline. I admire your smooth mown hill and I admire your expertise even more!

 

[Bruce]

Yeah that first picture looks REAL steep in the foreground.

My mower has a button to allow mowing in reverse. My mower won't back up a hill for beans but if I mow up a hill, I can mow on the way back down. There are places I can't cut as close going forward, run into a fence. Would be a real PITA not to have it, having to re-engage the PTO EVERY time I had to back up some??

Plus, the taller stuff gets pushed down when mowing forward. When I see it has happened, instead of making a bunch of passes over the same ground I can mow in reverse which brings the "tips" in contact with the blades and as they cut, the "new tips" are right there to cut.

 

[Mike CHS]

@goats&moregoats that was part of our plans when we started doing this but life has gotten in the way often enough this year that we made the decisions to prolong getting any goats. Our fence line is slowly making it's way in that direction but that hill may never be fence because of the maintenance issue of keeping it looking decent. That part of the fields is the first thing people see when they enter our drive way so I like to keep it looking nice.

 

[Mike CHS]

@Baymule - the first season we owned the place I trimmed that hill with a weed eater. Since we were only here for a few days a month it didn't get done very often. Once we got the tractor I could start at the driveway going down hill but there is one spot that as soon as you get close to the bottom, the contour changes and tipping over would be likely if you didn't know the lay of the hill at the bottom. One reason I keep it short all of the time is that the switch isn't really easy to see.

 

[Mike CHS]

We got the last of the vine crops harvested this morning and the garden beds cleaned up so I can get the fall plants in that I have started. I'm later than I like to be but they will be planted in the next couple of weeks. I have a flat of broccoli and a flat of cauliflower and anything else we plant will be direct seeded.

I have no idea how much we have gotten out of the garden this year but we and the neighbors have been eating squash of some kind and melons and cantaloupe several times a week.

We have a rack full of winter squash already but these pictures are the last of them and the melons.

 

[CntryBoy777]

That FEL sure beats the wheelbarrow we have....course ya certainly have much longer hills than us, too....

 

[greybeard]

My old Troy-bilt just had a wire that could be disconnected under the seat.

If physically activated by the seat, that's almost always the start/run safety switch. Prevents start and kills the engine if no one is sitting on the machine. (some will be bypassed if the brake is locked down and the PTO is disengaged)
Reverse safety switch is usually located somewhere that is physically connected to the shift lever or to the transmission itself.

Machines like the one LS has bypasses the rev safety switch remotely on the "dashboard" via the wiring's circuit.

 

[Bruce]

Prevents start and kills the engine if no one is sitting on the machine. (some will be bypassed if the brake is locked down and the PTO is disengaged)

That is how mine works though the PTO will be shut off if it is engaged when the parking brake is set and the seat vacated.

 

[Mike CHS]

Our mower doesn't function like that but there is a spot on the dash for a button so it must be an accessory on this mower.

 

[Baymule]

That's a lovely bucket of melons!