While it will not happen on a tractor, I learned my lesson on my boat trailer. We had camped on the boat overnight. The next day while driving home at about 55mph, I felt the trailer do something strange. I looked in the mirror and saw the trailer come up and the wheel come out of the fender. I immediately started to stop and watched the wheel go rolling down the road. Fortunately I was able to keep everything properly oriented and got the car and trailer off to the side of the road. My wife was a sleep and I woke her, telling her to get the water from the boat to put out the fire. On one side of the trailer one of the axle U bolts was gone and one about 30% remaining, the rest of the two bolts had started the grass fire.. After retrieving the wheel the adrenalin left me, and I was so weak I could not get a couple of nuts from the right wheel to attach the left wheel. (I had an extra in my tool box.) I drove the remaining 30 miles dead slow with three bolts on each wheel. and what was left of the one U bolt

Got Hickory Nuts? Here's Kenuche, a Cherokee Hickory Soup Recipe that solves the hand-picking problem. With a clean towel in a basket or big pot, use a smaller rock to crush nuts on a larger rock. The basket or pot catches the flying pieces. After you have a bunch, pick out the obvious big shell pieces. Pulverise the rest of the shells and meats until this is a crumbly and fine texture. You might want to sift this in a flour sifter, but I just squeeze it all together to form a baseball or tennis sized ball, which can be freezed in aluminum foil. When you are ready to serve it, pour about 3 cups of boiling water over the kenuche ball. Dissovle the hickory nut butter completely, and then add more water to thin it to your preference, warming it on low. As you stir and let it settle, the shell pieces will go to the bottom. (Strain that by pouring your soup into a different pot, thru a course sieve, or just don't serve the last bottom dregs.) Hickory nut soup is called Kenuche and it can be seasonsed with salt and served thick or thin. I like it thin with rice in it. It is very protien and fat rich. Some folks like to add a bit of sugar and serve it as a drink, alternatively. Testimony... Your squirrels will not be happy if you try this, because it is one of the best indigenous foods of the woods, and you'll want more!

We have 10 acres of solid woods that we are starting to tame and I have to say, it has been much easier than we expected thanks to the use of landscaping fabric. We clear an area of any dead fall, prune to the ground any small tree or large stem weed, use the weed whacker to knock the brush down, and then use a mulching mower to grind it all up. The area is then clear to plant whatever you want, and then simply place the fabric around your plants, put on some mulch, and Voila! no more weeds! This method has gotten rid of garlic mustard, poison ivy, thorny wild raspberries, woodland shrubs and a bunch of other stuff that was growing. At first I was hesitant to put the fabric down, thinking is was too much work and too difficult to plant in afterward. But is was quick to lay down and very easy to cut. When you decide you want a special plant in a certain spot, you simply move back your mulch, slice an X into the fabric and you have easy access to your soil. It is great and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to tame large areas. This will be our 3rd year gardening in the forest and I have to say it is much more exciting than I ever imagined it would be. I thought my plant choices would be very limited but it is not true. Shade gardening is very rewarding, very beautiful and so very peaceful. Good Luck with your gardening, and so far everything you have done looks very beautiful.

Hello Jasper, Guess we've all been in your shoes at one time or another. What you have is a prime example of Murphy's Law. Anyway, your Honda would of course have metric nuts and bolts. Go to your local hardware store and ask to borrow their metric nut and bolt gauges. One gauge counts the threads and the other gives you the size bolt needed. They probably have the size bolts you need in stock. You should be able to do this sizing in their parking lot. If not a friendly garage should also have these guages. They're really simple to use. Hope you haven't destroyed the nut thread with the bolts you used, if you have, then maybe you can use the thread chaser from whomever you borrow the guages from. Also probably the best way to get that one nut and bolt loose is with a Dremmel tool, (cut the bolt in half) they're great for small jobs like that plus they save a lot of hacksawing. Best of luck to you.