Learn something new every day

My plan for today was to make a start on the lawns. However, at this time of year they need a good couple of hours for the dew to dry off, before they can be mowed.

This meant that I had the morning free to find other things to entertain me. 

The clippers were found and Dog #4, aka The Rat, was summoned from her bed. The next hour was spent giving her an approximation of a Lamb Clip. She looks a lot better, but I am undecided whether to leave her like that, make it a Miami Clip, or shave the whole damned lot off ... Watch this space.

Since I had the clippers out, I also tidied up Whiffler's face and rear end.  He is due for a complete clip, but that was enough for this morning.

The afternoon saw me getting my step count up, with the mower around the lawns at the back of the house. They look much tidier, but two factors made me leave the front lawns until tomorrow.

Firstly my knee is still quite tender, and I am trying to avoid overdoing any exercise. Secondly, after about an hour of mowing, the mower's self propel mechanism failed. I finished the job by pushing the mower around and then consulted the internet to find out likely reasons for the failure.

The cognoscenti on YouTube suggested that the drive belt was likely to have slipped off, and provided a detailed video showing how to put the belt back on.  This all seemed quite straightforward, and, at this point, I should mention that it was a twenty four minute video, of which I watched about four minutes in total.

I soon had the mower upturned on the drive, and deployed my trusty socket set to remove the blade. The plastic cover was removed next and it was apparent that the drive belt had indeed slipped off. I soon had the belt back on the pulley wheel and the mower reassembled.

I now have to ask why the hell someone produced a twenty four minute video of a job that took a first timer less than twenty minutes to complete? I dropped the bloody woodruff key twice, once in to the guts of the mower, and it still only took me twenty minutes!

Usually I am quite a patient person,* but there was no way I was going to watch a tedious chap prattle on for nearly half an hour, when the salient information I needed was divulged in a fraction of that time.

Perhaps I am a lawn mower savant?

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* Please ignore 30% scoffing in the background.