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[MamaLiberty]

Lots of good people there, willing and able to take care of their own... as long as the government will let them, of course.

Lusk dries off from flood, plans quick rebuild and rebound
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/lusk-dries-off-from-flood-plans-quick-rebuild-and-rebound/article_ba55a4e5-1f9f-58b8-a725-e376e0cddaeb.html

Local volunteers, however, continued to stream in and out of businesses Friday, pumping water out of basements and tearing and hauling away carpet.

Tears welled in Connie Halligan’s eyes as she alternately mourned the damage done to The Pub, which she owns with her husband, Jesse, and praised the help of strangers, neighbors and friends.

“This is home, and not just in a physical way,” Halligan said.

Everywhere, the common refrain from business owners was the next building over received worse damage and needed help first. The common theme: Lusk would be back open for business soon.

“We have coolers full of flowers, and we’re ready to roll,” said Twila Barnette, co-owner of Bloomer’s, which sells flowers, gifts and antiques. “We’ve got cattle fans running. We’re going to dry this baby up … we have carpet samples coming tomorrow."

In a small town like Lusk, everyone knows what belongs to whom. Barnette said everything made its way back to their shop, even the rusty bucket that holds the sign.

[slidemansailor]

Nice. Much like small town Montana. 

People tend to be a whole lot more caring of individuals when they live outside the crush of population.

I'm thinking a thread title change to "good neighbors in small towns", or even simply "good neighbors" might give this thread legs.

[MamaLiberty]

Nice. Much like small town Montana. 

People tend to be a whole lot more caring of individuals when they live outside the crush of population.

I'm thinking a thread title change to "good neighbors in small towns", or even simply "good neighbors" might give this thread legs.

Ok, I'll change it.

[EwB]

I thought it would be about an old BBC show....

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075511/ 

EwB

[slidemansailor]

There is ONE plumbing company in my immediate vicinity with the only competition coming from the town 30 miles away. This guy almost as old as I, and his two grown sons get Forest Service, police, jail, rest home, all government contracts in addition to those of the super-wealthy who have built up in the hills around here. That plus the regular and poor folks all vying for their time and services.

He and his two sons came to one of the training sessions I put together to help people get their amateur radio licenses. We have become friends in the year-plus since then.  I feel a tinge of guilt every time I mention I would like help or even just advice on plumbing or stringing antennas in the trees. He apologizes for any inability to be here on the spot!  I mean seriously apologizes profusely.

Yet he's so busy everybody else around here is hard-pressed to hire him to fix their plumbing or install new. Meanwhile in my humble abode, I can't even pay Al for anything. Oh, belay that, he did let me pay wholesale cost for a new faucet on our kitchen sink. But that's the first out of all the materials he has brought and installed.  I can never catch up with repayment, yet he keeps on coming.

Sigh. Sweet, guy. Lovely family.  And I seem to be finding more like him the longer I live here.

[MamaLiberty]

Sigh. Sweet, guy. Lovely family.  And I seem to be finding more like him the longer I live here.

Indeed... I simply don't mention any problems to my neighbors unless I'm truly desperate and can't hire a local handyman. I am embarrassed to be seen as "needy," yet more grateful than I can express. One lady comes every year when my weeds have simply gotten away from me, and mows the verge around the house and yard. I can't get my mower to start most of the time, so I get behind very quickly. 

[da gooch]

ML

They do make key start lawn mowers for folks who cannot ( or even those who won't) yank the flywheel around with a pull cord. (the usual method)

You MIGHT look into one of those and possibly trade safety classes for a discount on one?

Just me thinking out loud again ...  I'll go be quiet now. 

edit to add:
We do have a lot of the "helpful" types here in my small town but it is growing and we are slowly losing some of that "family" attitude.
A pity that.

[MamaLiberty]

ML

They do make key start lawn mowers for folks who cannot ( or even those who won't) yank the flywheel around with a pull cord. (the usual method)

That would be wonderful, but they are very expensive. I don't have a garage or storage shed to keep such things in either, so they must sit out year round. The tarp blew off the mower this winter, so I don't know what will be needed to get it going again. My mechanic said he'd look at it, but I don't know how long that will take since I can't get it into the car to take it to him. He will come eventually, I know. Right now the grass is too wet to mow anyway. The young man that does most of my mowing does a pretty good job, but he is too young to know much about how the machine runs. Ideally, I'll get him to come up when the mechanic is here...

Being an old lady sucks... being a poor old lady is worse. LOL But I can cope because I have good neighbors.

[da gooch]

ML

They do make key start lawn mowers for folks who cannot ( or even those who won't) yank the flywheel around with a pull cord. (the usual method)

That would be wonderful, but they are very expensive. I don't have a garage or storage shed to keep such things in either, so they must sit out year round. The tarp blew off the mower this winter, so I don't know what will be needed to get it going again. My mechanic said he'd look at it, but I don't know how long that will take since I can't get it into the car to take it to him. He will come eventually, I know. Right now the grass is too wet to mow anyway. The young man that does most of my mowing does a pretty good job, but he is too young to know much about how the machine runs. Ideally, I'll get him to come up when the mechanic is here...

Being an old lady sucks... being a poor old lady is worse. LOL But I can cope because I have good neighbors.

Most mowers don't mind the weather too much. The tarp should be sufficient if kept held down with bricks or rocks. Draining the fuel before the winter also helps.
Like I said I'm just thinking out loud but it can't hurt to just ask around. Maybe the mechanic guy will know of a used one worth investing in so that you can maintain your independence as to lawn maintenance?
PLUS outdoor exercise is healthy as well as enjoyable. IMHO.
YMMV

[Adventurer, Explorer, Inquiring Mind.]

Consider cleaning the sparks and gapping them properly.  All of my weedwhackers came gapped .020 to .024.  I actually have the shop specs for those,a nd they're supposed to be .030.  Coincidentally, after properly gapping them, they start on the first pull.  Everytime.  Also, clean the sparks, clean the threads, make sure you clean those while cold.  May need to adjust the idle carburetor a little higher than default.  When I properly gapped my latest Featherlite, I discovered it actually required a higher idle fuel flow to stay running... (and yanking the trigger to the bottom would stall it without tweaking the carb.)

When it comes to mowers, I actually have what appears to be a magical 4 cycle mower.  10w-40 oil has its own dipstick, takes regular 85 to 91 octane plain gasoline.  And I'm in the process of dismantling the engine for my own curiosity since I hit a rock last year and bent the blade carrier shaft.  (Another curiosity is that Honda makes Single Overhead Camshaft designs.  Yep, your lawnmower could probably hit 5000 rpms without valve float or piston slap if its a Honda. Maybe more... and I wouldn't be surprised if their latest stuff not yet in "conservative" America is actually powered by 2 cyl VTEC or they managed to make single cylinder VTEC.  We'll probably get those when they're old news, outdated and inefficient and outpaced on every other continent.)  But lets not digress.  Back to mowers and whackers:


All of my basic 2 cycle mowers have ALL died of heat death.  Have you considered bad spark, bad fuel or bad head gasket?  One of my Briggs, back in the day, used to leak combustion, kept running it until one day a valve got stuck and it wouldn't start at all (that's what happens when you have ONE cylinder and it has ZERO compression because of a stuck open valve.  Then I took it apart and found that it had a gorgeous burn channel on the head gasket.  Every neighbor and "mechanically inclined" redneck would tell me its hiccups were from "bad gas with ethanol."  Well it WAS NOT the ethanol.  It was a VERY bad head gasket and a very dirty overheated engine.  These things overheat, and you need to realize that unless you've got active cooling on them, they DO build up heat, and eventually overheat.  Run 'em 30 min, then set them aside to cool.  If you cannot get your work done in 30 min.  Leave it for another day.  Overworking these little things without giving them an hour or so to cool, is a sure fire way to burn them.






While I'm at it, guess if I can FIND a head gasket and whatnot, I'm going to port the mower... see if I can get another half horse or two out of the little motor.  Its pretty low compression, there's no water jacket... and lots of cylinder head meat to peel away to form new airflow directions. 

* Destin Faruda misses doing such awesome shit on the coast with the crew, and wonders what might have been if he hadn't pulled his career's ship into Hara Kiri Harbor in Small Town Wyoming (tm).

* Destin Faruda can't blame anyone but himself.  Small Town Wyoming (tm) looked good on paper to him... but it proved to be an erroneous calculation.  Guess we're all entitled to pull into Seppuku Station once in our lives, eh?

[Moonbeam]

* Destin Faruda misses doing such awesome shit on the coast with the crew, and wonders what might have been if he hadn't pulled his career's ship into Hara Kiri Harbor in Small Town Wyoming (tm).

* Destin Faruda can't blame anyone but himself.  Small Town Wyoming (tm) looked good on paper to him... but it proved to be an erroneous calculation.  Guess we're all entitled to pull into Seppuku Station once in our lives, eh?

Destin, why do you continue to share your displeasure about your move to WY so frequently?

[StillaGhost]

.

[MamaLiberty]

   Why shouldn't he? Sorry but life isn't all Unicorns fartings Rainbows.........and Wyoming is pretty much *EXACTLY* what he says it is.

That's in the eye of the beholder.

And we've read his complaints ad nausea here - we already know what problems he's had and his response to them. It's as if someone posted the details of their bowel movement each day.

But of course they can. Nobody needs to read it.

[StillaGhost]

.

[MamaLiberty]

What part of "say what you want, but nobody has to read it" did you not understand, ghost?

Really. Give it a rest, gentlemen. You have your opinion, and others have theirs. Live with it.

And people who are looking for someplace to live would do well to take in as many opinions as they can find, visit the area in question, and make up their own minds. If anyone moves based on my opinion alone, that's not my problem.