Day 201

As I prepared to acquire the brush cutter, I was able to borrow my brother-in-law's truck. Then, I reconnected with the seller and made sure I had accurate measurements. I also asked if I would need a second person to help lift the machine into the back of the truck. It seemed like the machine would fit without issue but the seller recommended I bring another person to load it up.

My wife and I decided to make it a date night. We got childcare and headed to the seller’s pickup location. When we got there, he provided a quick demonstration and we loaded it onto the truck without issue. My wife, recently becoming a ratcheting expert from her work with the slackline, secured the brush cutter into the back of the truck for our next adventure.

Considering we were so close and sans children, we had (and I emphasize “had”) to stop at what has become one of my wife’s favorite places, Ikea. Personally, I go for the meatballs.

After meandering through the maze of furnishings and picking up a few house accents, we headed home. We were able to acquire the services of a neighborhood friend to meet up with us at our house and help us unload. 

Once the brush cutter was safe and secure in our barn, I fought back the urge to take it for an inaugural spin around the backyard and exercised patience. Knowing this machine would be vital to our trail, I wanted to have our small engine guy give it a lookover before taking it out.

When he was able to squeeze us into his schedule, he gave it a glowing review besides needing a blade drive belt. Knowing my history with belts, I was a bit nervous but I knew the rest of the machine was in great shape. I ordered the new belt and knew the machine was good to go. Plus, our small engine guy mentioned he had the same broken down machine in storage and could easily part it out should anything go haywire with our news acquisition.

I took it for a quick cut on the trail. The results were very exciting.