model save() function not working?

This has nothing to do with the question... Maybe you want to search a bit about "defaults in mysql for an int field" before polluting the thread...
Anyways, it seems that the problem is solved now. For the posterity: I have mistakenly set the "deleted_at" field as default='now()' in mysql, and together with 

Code:

protected $useSoftDeletes = true;

in the model definition, and strange things happened (like not even the find() did work because the row was actually marked as deleted).
Thanks.