Jean Mason McKemie b May 15, 1954

 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5p8LEfq8HxahoTPy5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JyBUxWV2Jodgs8546

Happy birthday, Jean!

I came across a batch of photos that had been emailed to me, likely from Jean's cell phone in May 2011.  That is my explanation for the low resolution photos.  I believe that, at that time, Jean had been diagnosed with her final Stage IV breast cancer.  The photos, I believe, are from two farmers markets.  I think the market without the Sprinter in the background is the Sunday Hope market on E4th in Austin.  I can't guess on the one where we were able to sell directly out of the Sprinter.  

At that time, we hoped for Jean to have up to about five years more of life and we were making plans to best use the time we had.  As it turned out, we had only about 15 months left at that time. 

Note that we were selling out of the Sprinter cargo van.  About this time, we were to buy a similar Sprinter, but one that had been converted to a camper van, and build the "RV Building" to shelter it.  We had hoped to travel in the conversion van but were able to make only a single trip.  I did not grow crops to sell for the following year, 2012.  The photos were taken of my last farmers market season.  I don't remember exactly when I quit but I had a crop of okra in the works so I at least sold okra to grocery stores until the end of the season.

Note the seasonal crops: squashes, red potatoes, onions (and probably garlic), carrots, asparagus.  Greens of some sort.  There may have been just a few peaches.  Note the rack of "canned goods".  The very nice wood rack was made for me by Donna Menke.  

I am now semi-content to watch YouTube videos of asian women "homesteading" and selling at farmers markets:

https://wmckemie.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-worlds-sexiest-woman.html

Lithium Mowers

 Right now, this is mostly for my own future reference.

For five+ years, I've been using two models of Black and Decker 40v mowers with good results.  Though the batteries are much shorter lived than they should be.

About 2019, I bought a very pricey 18hp Kubota diesel mower with belly mower and front end loader.  Though useful for many tasks, I have not been happy with it.  May expound on this later.

About 2020, I bought a 38" Ryobi rider which I thought had a lithium battery.  Bad on me for poor shopping; it had 4 75ah AGM 12v lead batteries.  Which were just crap.  The Ryobi has quite a few other problems that make it unreliable.  The blades are WAYto easy to bend.   If you hit a mound of dirt while mowing and a blade hits the dirt in the right way, the blade digs in, stalls, and the momentum of the mower may cause the blade to bend double.  Also, the blades tend to slip on the motor shaft.   After ~10 applications, the tires finally have enough sealant to not go flat very often.

When it became clear that the Ryobi was going to spend long periods of time waiting for repair, I bought a VERY pricey 42" Cub Cadet Zero Turn Radius 48v lithium mower.  I think it was about $4k.  The Ryobi was about $3k.  That was "out of the frying pan and into the fire".  I have never had a more troublesome lithium powered vehicle.  The mower refused to charge at all when temperatures are above about 95 deg F.  I fear the battery did not survive our ~20 deg winter temperatures; it has not run this year.

Both Cub Cadet and Ryobi provide TERRIBLE customer service.  When in warranty, Ryobi seems to provide service out of Dallas.  Tractor Supply sells Cub Cadet but they know nothing of getting repairs done.

The Ryobi is back in service after about two years or so of very intermittent service.  I had four 12v lithium batteries (100+ ah Valence brand) installed and I first used it today, 5/11/2023.  It has an hour meter which read 130 after the battery swap.  First use was an hour or so and it worked ok though mow quality is poor.  In high grass, you can not go slow enough to get an even cut across the width.  That, due to having two blades that do not overlap; three blade mowers are unlikely to have that problem.  The lithium battery gives a mowing time of around two hours and has MUCH better power.  The blade motors are much more resistant to stalling.  With the lead battery, one would stall a blade, have to back up, and toggle power to blades.  Very tedious mowing.

Since reviews (wish I had done more research before buying) say the lead battery is unlikely to last more than a year.  Mine had less than one year worth of use.  That was NOT a case of running the battery all the way down between charges; I very rarely ran it below 50%.  That was the indication given by the very crappy state of charge display.  Ryobi seems to believe that $600 worth of battery each and every year is reasonable.  That reminds me of Nissan.  Nissan swears up and down that about 20k miles on a Leaf battery is "normal" and not subject to warranty replacement.