Broke out the B7100 today. Kinda glad I didn't sell it. The B2150 is too big to do the job I needed this time. Basically, the PO brought in some top soil and/or leveled the back yard putting the slab of the guest house slightly below grade with water diverted to the slab. I had previously planted a row of Cape Honeysuckle for the wife's humming birds and to form a hedge to shade the west side of the guest house. Anyway, the hedge is only about 6' from the house, which without damaging the plants too much gives me less than 5' to work in. The little 7100 and small tumbler box just barely fit in there. Slow going, but dropped that entire strip by about 5". I still need to do a little mile sculpting to add a sort of shallow trench to control run off flow from the roof, but all in all a successful day.
Of course it can't go too smooth, after all, this is me. When I got the 7100 lit, it wanted to die. Never done that before!? When it finally stayed lit, I heard a new sound. Realized the idler was not turning! So spent over an hour disassembling EVERYTHING on the left side so I could get the panel off so I could get to the idler. I HATE crap like that. All it needed was a slot for the exhaust, but NO, some twit decided a hole was better. Didn't realize it till today (oil changed with new filter just before I got it) but the same process is necessary just to change the oil filter! WTF were they thinking (or rather not). Tractors should be open to be worked on should the need arise. That POS side pane is going on a shelf in the shed. When convenient (or required) to remove the air filter, the right side will join it as well...
Oh, and while I'm grumbling, who designs these box blades anyway? No provision for weights at all??? I finally took 3 plates of 2" about 14" x 7" (press plates) and clamped them on with some big Armstrong clamps. Turned out just about right for the box size, tractor ability, and the not too terrible soil I was working. Still, when I hit the caliche it just sorta grazed across like it was on cement. Had to break it using the rippers, and then since I could offset due to house/hedge borders, I had to use a hand pick to break up the rest so the box could move it. So one more thing on my list of projects. Add a provision for adding weight selectively biased side to side. At my current rate and list, should get done around June of 2023...
