Ride Me
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I think that 22HP John Deere is in my future. I can't face another summer spending half the weekend behind a push mower.
I was only joking
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How large is the area you are mowing? Do you have any gates?
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How large is the area you are mowing? Do you have any gates?
The lot's about 1/2 an acre - there's a gate to the back, but I can do that with the push as it's a fairly small yard. I watch the guy across the street and he does his once a week in about 15-20 minutes. I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
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How large is the area you are mowing? Do you have any gates?
The lot's about 1/2 an acre - there's a gate to the back, but I can do that with the push as it's a fairly small yard. I watch the guy across the street and he does his once a week in about 15-20 minutes. I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
In August, 1963, I was pushing a lawn mower around my parents' home. It was hot and humid. I was sweating like crazy.
It was on that day I made a promise to myself: No matter how much, or how little, money I made it would ALWAYS be enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass.
When Mrs. George and I bought a house, we got a lawn mower, but she insisted (bless her) on doing the mowing. She got tired of that after about 1 ½ years.
I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
In August, 1963, I was pushing a lawn mower around my parents' home. It was hot and humid. I was sweating like crazy.
It was on that day I made a promise to myself: No matter how much, or how little, money I made it would ALWAYS be enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass.
When Mrs. George and I bought a house, we got a lawn mower, but she insisted (bless her) on doing the mowing. She got tired of that after about 1 ½ years.
I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
I'd not really thought about paying somebody to do it, to be honest. Maybe I'll have to see what they charge. I suspect it would eat up the cost of a decent mower pretty quickly. I don't mind spending up to an hour on it, after that it gets pretty old.
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I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
I'd not really thought about paying somebody to do it, to be honest. Maybe I'll have to see what they charge. I suspect it would eat up the cost of a decent mower pretty quickly. I don't mind spending up to an hour on it, after that it gets pretty old.
@Doctor-Phibes yup.
If you pay $500 for a lawn mower (I have no idea what they cost these days), and $40 for a mow, after about 12 mows, you're losing money.
But, that's 12 weekend hours you could have spent on the sax.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Besides, our migrants need the work.
By the way, my experiences as a kid doing this probably contributed to my development of a deep-seated hatred of everything yard-related. No gardens, no flowers, no shrubs, no veggies.
Nothing, nada, zip.
I'd rather sit indoors, in air-conditioned comfort.
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@Doctor-Phibes yup.
If you pay $500 for a lawn mower (I have no idea what they cost these days), and $40 for a mow, after about 12 mows, you're losing money.
But, that's 12 weekend hours you could have spent on the sax.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Besides, our migrants need the work.
By the way, my experiences as a kid doing this probably contributed to my development of a deep-seated hatred of everything yard-related. No gardens, no flowers, no shrubs, no veggies.
Nothing, nada, zip.
I'd rather sit indoors, in air-conditioned comfort.
If you pay $500 for a lawn mower (I have no idea what they cost these days), and $40 for a mow, after about 12 mows, you're losing money.
All the folk I see doing the mowing around here look like they're charging quite a bit more than $40. Mrs. Phibes arranged for a fall clean-up the first year we moved in because everything was so hectic and the cost was unbelievable, like $600 or something. I felt like an idiot.
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I think that 22HP John Deere is in my future. I can't face another summer spending half the weekend behind a push mower.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I think that 22HP John Deere is in my future. I can't face another summer spending half the weekend behind a push mower.
My SIL lives in Zachary (adjacent to Baton Rouge). Their backyard is bigger than their front. Her husband wanted to spend no more time mowing than necessary, but he had a gate he wanted to get through. The gate was 3 feet wide, which is pretty common. Commercial guys use a stand-on rider for those jobs (those are pretty expensive, considering). He opted for this:
https://www.gravely.com/en-us/power-equipment/zero-turn-mowers/zt/zt-34-kawasaki
Gravely/Ariens builds good mowers, as do Bad Boy. If you're looking for equivalent or better quality, check out Exmark or SCAG.
Having said all that, I mow 3-4 acres. I do that with a Cub Cadet XT1(gasp!)...24hp, 50" fabricated ( not pressed) deck or a 1985 diesel Kubota G5200 H with a 48" deck, along with a 40hp diesel Mahindra and a five foot cutter. I don't own a zero-turn...But I'm an old retired fart.
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@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I think that 22HP John Deere is in my future. I can't face another summer spending half the weekend behind a push mower.
My SIL lives in Zachary (adjacent to Baton Rouge). Their backyard is bigger than their front. Her husband wanted to spend no more time mowing than necessary, but he had a gate he wanted to get through. The gate was 3 feet wide, which is pretty common. Commercial guys use a stand-on rider for those jobs (those are pretty expensive, considering). He opted for this:
https://www.gravely.com/en-us/power-equipment/zero-turn-mowers/zt/zt-34-kawasaki
Gravely/Ariens builds good mowers, as do Bad Boy. If you're looking for equivalent or better quality, check out Exmark or SCAG.
Having said all that, I mow 3-4 acres. I do that with a Cub Cadet XT1(gasp!)...24hp, 50" fabricated ( not pressed) deck or a 1985 diesel Kubota G5200 H with a 48" deck, along with a 40hp diesel Mahindra and a five foot cutter. I don't own a zero-turn...But I'm an old retired fart.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
-
@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
In August, 1963, I was pushing a lawn mower around my parents' home. It was hot and humid. I was sweating like crazy.
It was on that day I made a promise to myself: No matter how much, or how little, money I made it would ALWAYS be enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass.
When Mrs. George and I bought a house, we got a lawn mower, but she insisted (bless her) on doing the mowing. She got tired of that after about 1 ½ years.
I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Ride Me:
I thought we'd get by with a push, but not really.
In August, 1963, I was pushing a lawn mower around my parents' home. It was hot and humid. I was sweating like crazy.
It was on that day I made a promise to myself: No matter how much, or how little, money I made it would ALWAYS be enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass.
When Mrs. George and I bought a house, we got a lawn mower, but she insisted (bless her) on doing the mowing. She got tired of that after about 1 ½ years.
I always made enough to pay someone to cut the fucking grass, and I haven't mowed a lawn since I moved out of my parents' home. That was in 1968.
Grew up mowing four acres. Mowing grass was never a big deal and there's nothing you can do down here in the summer without sweating. When I worked for Columbia Gulf (pipeline company), I mowed 40 acres every week.
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@George-K good for you, holding to your word.
@Doctor-Phibes not sure if this applies, but here we often get local neighborhood high school kids offering to cut grass for like $20-40 or something. Maybe your neighborhood too? Your yard sounds very nice btw.
I’ve always enjoyed mowing grass. Not sure why, maybe it’s the smell of fresh cut grass and freshly burned gas. Maybe it’s nostalgic. But I enjoy it…even though some days it’s dripping hot, but the shower feels good afterwards. I actually refuse to get an electric mower because of the sound/smell of a gas mower, even though I did a bit study during my MBA program about how surprisingly bad our collective use of mowers is for the environment/emissions.
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I've been driving a Craftsman tractor for 15+ years.
I've blown the head gasket 3 times. Twice I replaced it, once I had a mechanic to do it.
Other than that maybe a few sets of blades and oil changes.
It has been fine.
I've been driving a Craftsman tractor for 15+ years.
I've blown the head gasket 3 times. Twice I replaced it, once I had a mechanic to do it.
Other than that maybe a few sets of blades and oil changes.
It has been fine.
Not the same mower or the same engine (if it's a Briggs). It sounds like a Briggs Platinum. If your model number starts with a 917, it's made by Husqvarna. 247 was made by MTD.
All Craftsman mowers are now made by MTD.
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@George-K good for you, holding to your word.
@Doctor-Phibes not sure if this applies, but here we often get local neighborhood high school kids offering to cut grass for like $20-40 or something. Maybe your neighborhood too? Your yard sounds very nice btw.
I’ve always enjoyed mowing grass. Not sure why, maybe it’s the smell of fresh cut grass and freshly burned gas. Maybe it’s nostalgic. But I enjoy it…even though some days it’s dripping hot, but the shower feels good afterwards. I actually refuse to get an electric mower because of the sound/smell of a gas mower, even though I did a bit study during my MBA program about how surprisingly bad our collective use of mowers is for the environment/emissions.
Your yard sounds very nice btw.
It's OK but it definitely needs some work. The previous owners had some 'issues', and we have two dogs, one of whom likes to dig. At some point we'll fix it up, but currently there's other priorities.
Luckily our next door neighbour is a historic family graveyard (I'm not kidding), and they seem happy. We just need to make sure the dog that likes to dig doesn't decide to visit them.
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In the back yard I planted a zero maintenance and drought resistant mix of clover, fennel and some type of low growing wild flower. Didn’t like it at first but have come to like it because it is always green, requires near to zero maintenance and water.
In the front we have kept the lawn but reduced it in size down to maybe 450 sq feet. The rest of the area is trees and shrubs in small cedar mulch filled garden areas that my spouse looks after. The grass I cut with a Fiskas manual self sharpening push mower bought at the local hardware store ten years ago for just over $100. It takes ten minutes to cut the lawn. I do not bag but rather leave the clippings on the lawn.
I dislike yard and garden work. Does nothing for me.
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