Riding Mower - Day One

I'm pretty sure if I kept a journal of my riding mower experiences everything after day one would be pretty boring.  In other words, don't expect a "Day Two" post.

But let's discuss the days leading up to Day One.  First there was shopping for the house and me declaring "holy crap that's a big yard, we are going to need a riding lawn mower."  And The Husband condescendingly stating that he and his brothers had mowed a full acre and blah blah blah blah.  Whatever, Dickhead, YOU won't be mowing this yard, nor will any of your brothers.  Just me and my out-of-shape, middle-aged self.  We're getting a riding lawn mower.  I quietly kept my argument to myself, I would win this war.

The weeds were knee high and it was time to at least butcher them to keep the neighbors from complaining.  It was easy enough but I did get very sweaty.  The Husband started to back down from his notion that a half acre lot was no big deal to tame.

The following week I worked a smaller patch of very thick, very beautiful grass.  THAT was a workout and it kept killing the mower.  He took pity on me and then next day we were standing in Lowe's contemplating the world of riding mowers.

Neither one of us knows shit about riding lawn mowers.  There was one on sale at a palatable price that had been returned for repairs.  We were told it was the cadillac of the mower world.  When the salesguy rattled off horse power and blade sizes and vroom vrooms and whatever else, The Husband's eyes got really wide and was completely sold.  It was all fixed up and ready to go, except that we knew we were going to need a mulcher attachment, because let's be honest, bagging a half acre of grass is going to be even more back breaking than pushing a regular mower over it.

I could get into a whole rant over Lowe's decision to stop carrying mulching kits in-store and the fiasco of online ordering and getting it installed.  With the help of the store manager the part was ordered and installed on our mower.  It took forever and a day to get the part delivered, but pick your battles, folks.  We really did land an awesome deal for this vehicle so waiting two weeks was worth it.

And then it arrived. 

It sat in our garage with us pushing and poking buttons and levers and nary a sound was emitted.  Once we figured out how to start the thing, both feet on peddles pushed all the way down, choke out, gas all the way up... then we had to figure out how to make it GO.  I'm sure we spent close to an hour, turning it on, turning it off, revving it up, flooding the engine.  He was on the phone with the store, I was online searching for an owners manual.  We knew it was something basic, a special sequence or an overlooked button, but WHAT????  It turns out there is a tiny wire thing hanging out the back of the mower that basically puts it into neutral so you can push it on and off loading trailers.  ooooh

I had been inside for a while and ventured out to see if Hubby had any progress.  Evidently he discovered that wire thing and was speeding up and down the street!  He should have stayed on it and maybe the lawn would have been properly mowed but I hopped on and was not letting go of the controls. 

At first I just wanted to see how it mowed.  Well hell, since I'm there, let's knock out these weeds that are a horrid eye sore.  And then I wanted to see how it held up against the thick grass in the back corner - brilliantly, by the way.  Suddenly I am criss-crossing the yard in no specific pattern, mowing the grass.  I really should get up on my roof to take a picture of my tracks.  I broke every rule of mowing.  I went back over areas previously mowed, I didn't follow my tracks, I darted from one side of the yard to the other.  Granted the whole thing is now mowed, and completely in under 30 minutes thankyouverymuch, but it looks like a sixth grader on crack got his hands on a riding lawn mower for the first time.

Did I mention it was raining?

Mowing, mowing, mowing, mowing... And more mowing

McHoly Moly this is a bigass yard!  It is a half acre which is lovely to look upon and is a pleasant walkabout... however when it needs to be tended?  Ugh.

Husband is a farmboy.  He scoffed when the teenager and I raised concerns about mowing.  Why he and his brothers cleared a full acre with a regular push mower!  Mmmhhhmmm.  With his bad knees it wasn't going to be him pushing a lawnmower back and forth.  And with the teenager alternating weeks between here and his dad's house it is going to be ME doing the mowing.  Little, out of shape, Me. Huffing and puffing behind a lawnmower.  Across a half acre.

I figured my best line of attack was to break the yard into quadrants and the first one was more weeds than beautiful grass and it was (is) sprouting more rapidly than the rest of the yard.  I mowed it within days of moving in and then returned to the inside of the house unpacking boxes.  It was enough to keep the neighbors from complaining.

A week later I ventured to the second quadrant, a thick lush lawn.  It was so thick that it constantly killed the mower and it was a struggle to complete.  Hubby was resigned after watching me complete the first section that one day we would break down and buy a riding mower, but after seeing the smaller section pose a bigger challenge it was clear we were not going to wait until end of the season sales.  The next day I pulled the mower out and attacked the next section.  I was a bigger, but more barren piece of ground and was much easier than the previous two sections.

That afternoon we went to Lowe's to sign up for a credit card and buy a riding mower.  I will have to wait another week before it's delivered.  This means I will have to pull out the regular mower at least one more time.  There is still one quadrant I haven't touched.  Fortunately it is not too scraggly looking, but the weedy section is starting to scream out again.

Even with the riding mower the old regular mower will still be used.  This isn't one big flat park, there are twists and turns requiring a smaller mower for attack.

Despite all of my whining and sweating I have actually enjoyed mowing my yard.  The key phrase there is MY YARD.  It has been a mighty long time since I have owned property.  It is a good work out and I feel energized to do more.  I can't wait until I can do some serious landscaping which will reduce the amount that needs to be mowed and I will have lots of pretty flowers!

My yard.  My big, pain in the ass to mow, yard.  I'm happy.