My name is Patrick Perry I own ‘A Worm’s Tale’ in Jacksonville Florida, Coos Bay Oregon, Cedar City Utah, Vancouver British Columbia and other locations. We are the largest producer of organic worm castings in the world. I live in Salt Lake City, but I evaluate each location every year. I have been using WWGrinder, TroyBilt, Craftsman, MTD and other chipper shredders for over 30 years. I prefer the basic WWGrinder design that has been coppied by others. I currently have over 20 machines that work well. I like extra heavy made flails with the exit screens these machines use for reducing the size of materials. After shredding, we sift using an expensive 1/8” trommel and reshred the larger materials. A worms mouth is 1/40 of an inch, so we regrind all shredded materials after they pass through a 1/8” screen. We also have at least 10 commercial grinders; we prefer burr grinders. We stock parts and know who manufactures parts for all these shredders. We usually buy hundreds of flails, chipper knives and have 10 screens of one size custom made at a time (1.5”, .75”, .25”, 125”); they usually cost $150 each. At each location we have mechanics that overhaul and maintain our shredders. We also have HUGE custom built chipper shredders that output material smaller than 1/8” If you need advice, parts or want to sell a working or broken machine, we buy and sell them after reconditioning. Most of the chipper shredders with exit screens are no longer made in the USA. The Chinese replacements are cheaply made with inferior steel and parts; they do not work very well; parts and exact engines become unavailable very quickly. Most people throw them away when they break. We keep a bone yard of obsolete machines for parts if you want to discard one and help others to repair their machines. We believe organic nutrients are the healthiest way to live and we encourage shredding organic materials for growing nutritional foods. (385) 202-4446 texts with a picture is preferred

foodonastump - There are technical differences between whole grain (or wholegrain, or whole-grain) and whole wheat, in accordance with the laws that dictate such things, when you talk about commercial "whole wheat" flour and labeling. And to add to the confusion, there is also "whole wheat" flour called whole meal or unbolted flour, and graham flour. Most of these names have been used interchangeably for "whole wheat flour". For all practical purposes, because these commercial flours have a certain percentage of the whole grain in it, by law it can be called "whole wheat". "The original "Definitions and Standards for Food Products" published by the Department of Agriculture specified Graham flour as "unbolted wheat meal" and further described meal as "the clean sound product made by grinding grain." This means nothing added and nothing taken away. Graham flour was also a coarse flour, instead of being milled into the superfine flour most flours are milled today. This definition would exclude the reconstituted whole wheat flour products by modern roller mill factories." Bolted flour (or reduced bran flour) is whole wheat flour that has about 80% of its bran sifted off. Some "whole wheat" flour is nothing more than white flour (bran and germ removed) with some of the bran raked back into it to make it "brown", which occasionally is directed by law to meet these standards, to give the flour longer shelf-life without refrigeration. The wheat germ oil quickly oxidizes once the grain is milled into flour and the oil goes rancid quickly. The bran is the "coat" that protects all of this from happening to grain. Once that bran is cracked/shattered, the oxidizing starts to degrade the oils and the nutrients in the grain within 3-hours of milling. In some instances, commercial whole wheat flour is processed like white flour, with the bran and germ separated from the endosperm. Then bran, germ, and white flour are recombined according to some standard formula. This gives the flour consistent results in baking and flavor. This flour is NOT 100% whole wheat flour. King Arthur and Hodgson Mills mill their whole wheat flours from the whole grain into 100% whole wheat flour, nothing removed and nothing added. This is also known as 100% extraction. Then you can get into speciality flours like Irish Wholemeal Flour, which is a coarse grind of American whole wheat flour. It can often be milled from a soft wheat, or low-protein wheat, which is a traditional wheat variety used for making scones and quick breads, without as much gluten in it as in high-protein hard wheat flours. The endosperm can be milled into a fine flour, but the bran and germ milled into a coarse grind and the 3 recombined to certain specifications. All commercial flours are milled from a combination of wheat with different protein levels to give it a standardized protein level. Within the same field you can have wheat that is 14-16% protein, and in an area where it gets run-off water and sits in too much rain water, or it gets a bit of shade from trees, it might be 8-9% protein. So the protein level is based on a mixture of wheat proteins. -Grainlady

Are these 2-cycles? If so, you may need to adjust the Hi and Lo mixtures or at least move the needle valves in case there's some crud built up there. Using treated gas, you should be nearly immune from carb trouble but sometimes mixtures get a little cockeyed over the years. Typically hard-starting is a fuel starvation issue and running issues can go any number of ways. If they are '4-cycling' (firing on every other stroke) it usually is too rich. If they don't have a good throttle response and tend to slow down its usually too lean. Then if this doesn't fix it you can go with the new carb. You probably will have to get a special screwdriver to fit your particular application on the needle valves. The government forced them to make them difficult to adjust because of emissions. Unfortunately it also makes most of these tools impossible to use. I got my tool on ebay and it was the best $3 I ever spent. My Ryobi is tame and sweet as a house cat now, but I was ready to shoot the darn thing before I was able to adjust the mixtures. It would not start or run, basically. That pretty much does it as far as being able to use the tool you paid for. I buy mid-range gas and use Sta-Bil 360 Marine in it plus about an ounce a gallon of Marvel Mystery Oil, plus my regular mix oil (synthetic blend at 50:1). Same for the 4-cycles except for the mix oil, of course. Every gas engine on my place, vehicles included, stay happy and sweet. The vehicles do not get the MMO except in the oil a few days before an oil change.

Where are you located? In my experience, a little mulch or any other covering for that matter doesn't slow vinca minor down. If you're in a warm enough zone where active growth has started, it should be fine. If you're concerned about it, try taking a leaf rake and *lightly* brushing it over the mulch to help distribute it down below the leaves and keep it from matting down.