Friday, September 6, 2013

BACK ON THE ZEN MACHINE


John Deere X320 with Utility Cart
So, over the long weekend, I fixed the mower!  It was a dead battery.  I took a chance that it might be that.  The John Deere dealer was closed Sat/Sun/Mon for the holiday and I needed my Big Green Zen Machine!  I did some reading and found that while John Deere makes an amazing, quality machine from a mechanical standpoint, they throw in a cheap battery at the end.  The Zen Machine stays stored in an outside three sided shed (for now anyway) and so it's in the heat and the cold all year long.  I got to thinking that maybe it was just a bad battery?

So I went to our local Batteries Plus, they were awesome by the way, and I bought a new one.  They had two to choose from, about $8 difference in price.  The higher priced one was much better suited to our harsh Summers and best of all, I had a coupon that made the price of the better one less than the other.

Next, I had to get the old one out.  It was a pain because the bolts were corroded and one of them stripped out, so it was off to town to get some replacements.  78 cents and about an hour and a half later, I got the new battery hooked up and now I'm back, back on the Zen Machine...
(isn't that a song? LOL).

I finally got to use the cart I was given and it was awesome!  I moved some stuff around on the farm, heavy things that I needed to move (a concrete bench being one of them).  I also used it to fill up some watering buckets and drive around to water the fruit trees, it made that task much more convenient.

I was in my element, mowing and clearing trails, as you can see below.



Here is one of the trails that I mow on a regular basis.  Although I haven't mowed now in about 3 weeks, our lack of rain has kept things from growing too out of control (above) and this is one of the last really green spots.

It still needed mowing of course and now looks much better (below).


Not sure how much more time I'll have on the mower this season, I'll have to go out this weekend and finish the task, but I think I might only have one or two more times would be my guess.  I'll miss it...but not the heat, ha.


9 comments:

  1. what fun! the cart is so useful. i would love one of these but i have all stairs and hills.

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    1. Oh the cart is wonderful and I've barely used it so far, ha. Yeah, I'm guessing stairs wouldn't work, hills possibly, depending on how steep.

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  2. 1st Man,

    Yay......the green zen machine has been fixed.

    Now only cut when it's not to hot and take a break.

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    1. Yea ma'am! :-) I hear ya it's SO unbelievably hot, ugh. Come on Fall!

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  3. Now see if you were there full time and had a flock of sheep they would mow that for you, but then what fun would the Zen Machine be.

    I had a dead battery in my Kubota Tractor, took it into Napa, told them I needed a new battery, well they started fiddling around with testing it, meanwhile, I am getting impatient, just came to BUY a new battery .... well they put a new one on the counter .... FREE ..... I didn't even have my receipt .... it was under warranty, I didn't even remember where or when I bought it. Guy told me to be sure if I was having any problems starting it towards the end of the year's warranty to be sure to bring it back. Now where is my receipt because I have no idea when I bought it.

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    1. I bet sheep would be fun to watch doing their thing. But I'd miss the machine too. That's awesome about the battery. I did ask John Deere and they said they didn't warranty the battery. Dang it. But I should be better about keeping my receipts too.

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  4. Good job on fixing your mower! Without it, trimming down grass on your farm will need twice the effort. Thanks to machinery and tractors like this, works needed to be done in a farm are easier and you can do a lot more.

    Patria William @ Red Bull Equipment

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