Quite the eventful First Mow of the year

Got the mower deck for the lawn tractor out of mothballs today. Let me first say that this is quite the old mower and the deck is rusting and breaking welds...so basically it's literally held together with thick wire. But that's another story. New belts this year on the deck and it didn't last that way for long. Manged to get the deck mounted to the tractor with out any major problems, the blades are old... ok they're really old. Round edges, they don't cut the grass so much as beat it into submission where it finally breaks and gets discharged out the side. So away I go, start the mower up and engage the deck and the tractor quits. I start the mower up again and it quits... forgot I jumpered out the mower deck cutout safety switch...so after I tinkered with that I managed to get the deck running and "cutting" grass. Now, theres an area of the yard that's next to the paddock that contains the horses...each time we bring them a bail of hay we cut off the strings and hang them on the fence. Well I'm mowing away and am approaching the area where these strings are suppose to be hanging... I happened to not see a pile laying on the grass and the deck began to make a funny, yet not so humorous noise and started to shake. Then it happened.... a large white cloud of smoke. It took about a second or two to shut the deck off... and it took about 10 minutes for the large cloud of smoke to cross the yard. You'd of though mosquito control showed up. So much for that new belt on the deck...oh it still works but theres quite the vibration. The deck on this mower is a 50" cut, three blades... appearently two of the blades were now tied together by an amazing knot of strings. So much so that cutting through them was not an option.... After removing all three blades I was able to clear the strings and once the blades aka beater bars, were reattached I was able to contiue with my mowing experence....although slightly more vibration than before with the now partly melted deck belt. Oh well ... it's only grass. Back yard is mowed now...but Lord onlyl know's what will happen when I mow the front yard...

Truman (yellow dog) watched out the window the entire time... what's his crazy owner up too this time.

Jared