Note to self:  At some point it would be fun to learn how to weld.

This weekend, I had a primary pully on my mower desk shear off.  I
have a John Deere 12-hp lawn tractor that I use to cut my back yard …
my back field.  While out cutting, I suddenly heard a screech from
underneath and the blades stopped.  I quickly shut off the PTO to
see what was up, and there laying next to the front tire was a
pulley.  I recognized it as one from the mower deck, and so I
headed to my barn to investigate further.  Once I had the mower
deck off, it was obvious where the pulley came from, however there were
no signs of how it had been attached!  No threads, no key, no
nothing.  I called my neighbor Jerry Ellis and he came over to
look.  Jerry retired from the Utah Highway Dept. years ago, and is
a skilled mechanic and welder.  He too was puzzled on how the
pulley had been attached, but offered to weld it back on if I wanted.

I put the mower deck on my wheelbarrow and rolled it up the street to
his house, and then around the back to his shop.  There he had his
electric welder with it’s thick black cables.  Ten minutes later I
had a repaired mower deck … along with a quick education about
current technology in welding equipment.  (He had this killer
helmet that had an automatic lens to protect your eyes!  Something
like this!)

Within 30 minutes I had the mower deck re-installed on my tractor and
was cutting the back yard again.  Man … if I didn’t know someone
like Jerry, it probably would have been a long time to get this fixed
… and a lot of money.  Hmmm … I’ve always wanted to learn how
to weld …