2015 July 11: Our riding lawn mower has been undergoing maintenance for several days now; to make certain that our yard doesn't get too out of shape in the meantime, my son began mowing it with our Fiskar's Reel Mower today. (This is an updated version of the type of lawn mower that my grandparents used on their tiny yard 'way back in the 1960's!)
I helped as much as possible -- but as there is quite a gentle-yet-noticeable slope to our yard, I admit that I cut the places that went downhill or side-to-side, and gave the mower back to him to operate whenever it came to walking uphill! Matthew ended up walking over 17,000 steps (The equivalent of 8.5 miles!) as he walked back-and-forth cutting over an acre of our yard. I only walked 9,000 steps (4.5 miles) while helping him.
On the plus side: Since the reel mower is people-powered there are no other costs involved after purchase, and it is our most reliable mower. It is great exercise. This type of mower makes a beautiful cut and helps keep the grass healthier than other types of mowers. I especially like that it operates silently.
On the minus side -- and these are rather huge!: Physically and time-wise, it would be near-impossible for us to maintain two acres in this manner. Also, if the grass ever goes to seed (ours had today) this mower is not able to cut the thin seed-stalks.
I am grateful for this option, though, and happy to see our yard cut! Today was hot, but it was fun to spend the afternoon working on this project together and sitting in the shade sipping ice-cold water as we rested.
I used a Push Mower until 1994! We have an acre to mow here and when I was younger I never minded, even when I was tired and they, like you said, cut really nice and I got plenty of exercise. Then on Mother's Day, John bought me a riding mower and I've never looked back!! BEST Mother's Day present ever!! NO, he didn't make me mow the grass, I just love doing it. It's what I call my "God Time" It is much too hot to push mow here in the south, even with the ones that have engines!!! Fun to see someone still does this even if it's a last resort!! LOL FAV!
@cashew Kathy, I like mowing the grass (on my riding mower!) also...for the first couple of hours. It usually takes 4 hours to cut our lawn because of all the trees that we have to cut around. I have some noise-cancelling earbuds; I use those to listen to sermons by my fav preachers and my fav worship music on my MP3 player while I cut the grass.
July 13th, 2015
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
