Adventures in mowing

I needed to mow last weekend, but I couldn’t find the motivation. The reason being, the last time I mowed, I hit a root right before I was finished, and bent a blade. I wasn’t upset about the blade itself, because I had really needed to change them, but I hate taking the deck off the mower. But, I was left with no choice. So I went to Sears this morning because I knew the blades were on sale for half their normal price, and bought 2 sets. Taking the deck off and putting it back on was every bit as much of a pain as I expected it would be, but the hubby helped so it wasn’t as bad as if I had been doing it alone.

I set off with new blades, full tank of gas, and a yard full of tall dandelions in full bloom. The mower was cutting well, and running good, and I was fully enjoying myself. Then it happened. I was maneuvering around one of the many trees when I hit a root with the deck, which stopped my forward movement. Odd, in hindsight, as it’s a small root which I easily clear every time I mow around that tree. I backed up, steered around it, and the front dropped slightly as if I ran over a hole, but I hadn’t gotten to the hole yet. As I was putting my foot on the brake, the entire front end dropped hard to the left, and as I yelled out “Noooooooo,” I saw the left front wheel fall to the side. Oh, that can’t be good.

I turned off the mower, and hopped off to see how bad, and, oh, it was bad. The wheel assembly had broken out of the front axle assembly. There was no way to jerry-rig that back together either. So I threw my hands up, and walked to the house. The hubby came out on the porch, and asked what happened. I won’t repeat what I said first, but I followed it with “The wheel fell off.” He walked down there to it with me, and after looking at it for himself, agreed with my initial unrepeatable assessment. Fixing it ourselves is possible, but would take at least 2 weeks to get replacement parts. Taking it to the small engine repair shop just down the road is an option, but would still take 1-2 weeks.

Hubby: “I’m not push mowing this whole yard.”
Me: “I can’t push mow this whole yard.”

From that, we made the decision to buy a new riding mower. Of course that meant I had to take the trash to the dump since there were already bags in the truck because the can outside was full. There was rotten milk in one of the bags, and it smelled very much badly as did the dumpster I threw them in. The right brake on the truck sticks, and I had to deal with that for half the trip to Lowe’s. But I got a nice new riding mower that was on sale and has a bigger engine than the old one.

Of course the whole rest of the day as I mowed, I compared the 2. The new one, with the bigger engine, cuts better. It has a better turn radius, and tighter steering. It doesn’t kick up dust and grass on me as bad as the old one. It has a cupholder, which is the perfect size for a beer. Too bad I don’t like beer. HAHA The gas tank seems bigger than the other one. The lights are on when the motor is on and they are quite bright.

Now, what I don’t like is that I don’t have the same speed control as I did with the old one. I could get the old one down to just barely moving with the gear shift, but the new one has 9 settings, with the lowest one being fine except around the trees. It is still too fast and I have to use the brake to slow it to a crawl. The new one requires that I disengage the blades before I put in it reverse. And the seat is too small. Or my butt’s too big, which is more likely the problem. LOL

And the old mower still sits where it was when the wheel broke off. I’ll try to post some pics tomorrow.

10 Responses to 'Adventures in mowing'

  1. MrCorey says:

    Of all the luck. The first blade “incident” must have been the foreshadow.

  2. Earl says:

    Nothing like a new mower to raise the morale. Maybe you can make a hovercraft out of the old one. :cheesy:

  3. MacBros says:

    OH! I see I’m not the only one experiencing bad luck. 😛
    I hate to be the one who says this, but things like this happen in Threes.

  4. mel says:

    I want a new mower! I want a new mower! I want a new mower!!!!
    K?

    • DragonLady says:

      MEL!! :hugs: I didn’t really want a new one. But, if the new one lasts as long as the old one, and the old one was a 1996 model… :cheesy:

  5. Danny Poole says:

    Only us country folk can get so much entertainment out of lawn equipment…. :laughatu: