Walt: Thanks for the quick response. I actually thought that, even though I'm very careful with how much oil I add, I might have added a bit too much since this problem just started with the last oil change. I drained some oil from the engine, started it, and voila! it sounded great...no smoke and very solid running. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed, but I guess these engines are a bit more susceptible to too much oil than I thought. Like I said, I try to be very careful, but maybe this time I just got a bit too much in there. Anyway, thanks for the quick response and take care!

Last week while out of town, in a one hour time span, my display on the laptop went out, my watchband on my favorite watch broke and I swallowed a gold crown. Fortunately, was able to limp by with cheap monitor from Walmart. Walmart also had my favorite watch (I got the last one they had). Bad news.... when you swallow a crown, it is not covered by anytype of insurance (should have had the wife punch me before I went to the dentist, that way I could say it was knocked out) and since I was out of town, I was not really able to look for it. Glad things happen in threes, and like Rusty, I played guitar with my buddies for 3 hours last night which always makes things better.

You may want to try the smoker. Once you get the hang of it you actually use very little smoke. The bees are extremely sensitive. And I'm with Konrad, I don't use the smoker for quick inspections, only when I'm opening the hive all the way. I recommend you join your local beekeeper organization, they will have tremendous experience of trying different things. I was at my local groups meeting and the speaker was explaining hive drapes or cloths that are used instead of smoke. Atttached is a link from beekeeperlinda's blog. She was at the meeting and captured the info. Here is a link that might be useful: BeekeeperLinda blog

seems to me ...... i recall that mine took 3 to 5 years.. to bloom.. after transplant ... but mine wasnt as large as your ... but yours did go thru serious transplant stresses this year .. you need to think in shrub time.. rather than our instant gratification world ... it will bloom.. when its ready to bloom ... it takes time.. to grow the mature root mass needed ... as to size.. check the link . and look at its potential ... you are not going to make it a small bush .... its has huge potential ... and as noted. if you cut it down every year ... it will never bloom ... and note.. none of those that are flowering.. are small/young https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Royal+purple+smoke&t=ffcm&iax=1&ia=images if you do decide to to prune it .... rather than just cut it down ... . google REJUVENATION PRUNING OF FLOWERING SHRUBS ... yours sure looks like it has the space it needs and deserves .... ken