to continue:

the code to reset tmr1 would be something like this:


void tmr1_init(unsigned char mode) {
  TR1 = 0;  //stop the timer
  TMOD = (TMOD & 0x0f) | ((mode & 0x0f) << 4);
  //you may wish to initialize the tmr/counters now
  TR1 = 1;  //start the timer
}

so in your code, you set tmr1 similarly:

tmr1_init(TMR_COUNTER | TMR_MODE1); //set tmr1 as a counter, not gated and in mode 1

the beauty of this is that if you ever need to swap the assignment of tmr0/tmr1 (tmr0 for counter and tmr1 for timer),

all you need to do is to call different routines

//tmr0 as counter, not gated, mode 1
tmr0_init(TMR_COUNTER | TMR_MODE1);

//tmr1 as timer, gated, mode 1
tmr1_init(TMR_TIMER | TMR_GATED | TMR_MODE1);

the key to embedded programming is to minimize your touch points with the actual hardware. a very counter-intuitive point for many embedded programmers.