Things to make you barf

Got home late yesterday, but I did manage to swap mowers (drop the batwing and hook up the disc mower) before midnight. This operation turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be.

I've had the batwing hooked to the Ferguson for a month and a half now, and the driveshaft was stuck (rusted?) to the pto shaft. I had to beat the damn thing with a pipe wrench to get it to come loose. It had gotten dark by then, but for once I didn't have any trouble hooking up the disk mower. After I got everything connected, I raised the cutter and was immediately overwhelmed by the gawdawfulest stench I have ever smelled in my life.

I had forgotten to clean the seedheads and other assorted debris off the apron when I parked the mower back in June and all those clippings and seeds had rotted and turned into a thick smelly goo that smelled like a 3-day dead cow in July, lying in a pile of fresh pigsh*t, toped with fresh vomit. Vile, vile vile.

How's that for a visual?

In other news, I got the starter for the Deutz rebuilt (sidenote: Bosch parts are pricey, but still not quite as bad as Caterpiller parts...) and I hope to have it where it will start with a key now instead of having to roll it off. It rolls off easily, but I can't leave anything hooked up to it, unless I have someone around with a truck and a chain to pull me off, which is rare. I guess I'll have to put a new seat on it now. My master plan for using it as trade-in on a brand new Massey Ferguson has fallen by the wayside because the dealer I was going to try and trade with has gone out of the tractor business. Now the only close dealer is a John Deere dealer and I doubt I will ever be able to afford that green paint.