Look up at the top of your browser where you see the address you're looking at. "Guardian of Guedryfell" bet you're wondering about that, huh? Now to any Game of Thrones fan, it's clear I have shamelessly ripped off the name of home of the Starks and twisted it to my own devices. Why would I do that? Some time ago, a friend of mine jokingly referred to my house as Guedryfell and the name stuck. Since buying this house nearly 6 years ago, I have been in a constant pursuit to make it better. I am not one of those people who buys a home because it has everything I want. I buy a home because it has most of the things I want with room for improvement. Building, landscaping, and now this blog are my ways to relax and unwind from the other aspects of my life.
Everybody has a favorite time of year. For some its the holidays. or summer time, or mid fall when the apples are harvested. For me it's the 1st day of yard mowing season. It's just warm enough, there's a light breeze, and there's work to be done, but my kit's not ready yet. I have often times envisioned myself as a blacksmith reborn, because every time I have a tool in my hand, I want it to be clean, sharp and in perfect working order. My lawnmower blade is no exception, so I strapped gloves on and set to business. I popped the starter cord from the spark plug, unscrewed it and ran a steel brush over the threading to remove the carbon buildup. Next, I rolled the mower on its side and loosened the bolt holding the blade in place. Once in hand, I stuck a piece of red gaffer's tape on the bottom so there was no chance I would fix it back on upside down. If you've never made this mistake, trust me when I tell you that no work gets done.
I looked the length of metal over and saw that it had its fair share of nicks from previous seasons. I clicked the switch on my grinder and it whirred to life. 4 passes on either side was enough to even out the battle damage from 2 years of mowing, so I stopped the grinder and flipped the blade over into my vice. This is the part where I get to feeling like I belong in a forge. 5 strokes on either side with my bastard file and the blade is looking shiny, and sharp as a butter knife. You can laugh, but believe it or not, that's what you want. If you go for a razor edge, it can weaken the blade. Once all the hardware was back under the mower where it belonged, I gave the whole deck a shower of WD-40 and we were ready to rock and roll.
For the next hour and a half I plodded over the green that is my lawn and listened for any sounds I wasn't used to hearing out of my hardware. With the exception of a high pitched squealing each time I engaged the self drive handle, all was well. There was no impact to performance despite this, but I still need to research causes, because its unnerving even with earplugs. As I walked, I remembered why this is my favorite time of year, it's the smell. Not any one smell in particular, but the smell of nature as a whole. This smell changes with the seasons, but its ever present, and its the reason I would rather be out there, then shackled to this computer.
Go get you some nature
-Chase
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