Echo
04-09-2013, 12:59 PM
Son Jim had a little episode that seems to me to be jnstructive. I'll let him tell it:
Sometimes one gets bright ideas that don’t turn out so bright.
I geared up to aerate my lawn last weekend and thought “What do I have that could weigh down my aerator to help it penetrate deeper? Boolits, lots of them…” So, with the aerator in tow behind the mower I headed back to the reloading shed and started piling on boxes of cast lead boolits. Four or five thousand should do the trick, and sure enough, with all that weight on it the aerator sunk all the way to the root of the tines…so off I went, happily mowing and aerating my acre of grass, kicking up dust and dirt, generally making a ruckus, content in the knowledge that I was providing it a great service for spring growth.
An hour later I rolled up to the reloading shed to offload my ballast and got quite a surprise. One of the boxes of .45 boolits had broken open, spilling all of its contents into the fertilizer compartment of my aerator. This had happened fairly early into the process, because the 700 or so boolits were covered in dirt and grass clippings, and were uniformly distributed across the width of my aerator. The only bright spot was that I didn’t have the fertilizer gate open on the aerator, so none of the boolits fell out of the bottom of the aerator as I numbly mowed. I angrily scooped up all of the boolits and put them into a big bucket, then sat there drinking heavily waiting for inspiration.
Rinsing with water helped remove the bulk of the dirt/dust/grass, but this would require some cleaning as well. Dishwashing soap is meant to cut wax/grease, so that would likely remove lubricant. Can’t use lacquer thinner or turpentine because that would remove the lubricant as well. Hmm…what soap is formulated to remove dirt but not wax? Soap for carwashes!! I loaded up a gallon container with a super dilute mixture of Armor All Car Wash and water, used an old pool skimmer basket as a container for the boolits, and rinsed those things 20 times with the slightly soapy water. Voila, after a final rinse or two with clean water the boolits were left to sun dry bright and shiny and dirt/dust/grass free. They now look as good as new, and will be loaded up this weekend.
So, a bright idea turned dim, only to be overshadowed by another bright idea that saved the day.
[/SIZE]
And guess where he got the Boolits!
Sometimes one gets bright ideas that don’t turn out so bright.
I geared up to aerate my lawn last weekend and thought “What do I have that could weigh down my aerator to help it penetrate deeper? Boolits, lots of them…” So, with the aerator in tow behind the mower I headed back to the reloading shed and started piling on boxes of cast lead boolits. Four or five thousand should do the trick, and sure enough, with all that weight on it the aerator sunk all the way to the root of the tines…so off I went, happily mowing and aerating my acre of grass, kicking up dust and dirt, generally making a ruckus, content in the knowledge that I was providing it a great service for spring growth.
An hour later I rolled up to the reloading shed to offload my ballast and got quite a surprise. One of the boxes of .45 boolits had broken open, spilling all of its contents into the fertilizer compartment of my aerator. This had happened fairly early into the process, because the 700 or so boolits were covered in dirt and grass clippings, and were uniformly distributed across the width of my aerator. The only bright spot was that I didn’t have the fertilizer gate open on the aerator, so none of the boolits fell out of the bottom of the aerator as I numbly mowed. I angrily scooped up all of the boolits and put them into a big bucket, then sat there drinking heavily waiting for inspiration.
Rinsing with water helped remove the bulk of the dirt/dust/grass, but this would require some cleaning as well. Dishwashing soap is meant to cut wax/grease, so that would likely remove lubricant. Can’t use lacquer thinner or turpentine because that would remove the lubricant as well. Hmm…what soap is formulated to remove dirt but not wax? Soap for carwashes!! I loaded up a gallon container with a super dilute mixture of Armor All Car Wash and water, used an old pool skimmer basket as a container for the boolits, and rinsed those things 20 times with the slightly soapy water. Voila, after a final rinse or two with clean water the boolits were left to sun dry bright and shiny and dirt/dust/grass free. They now look as good as new, and will be loaded up this weekend.
So, a bright idea turned dim, only to be overshadowed by another bright idea that saved the day.
[/SIZE]
And guess where he got the Boolits!