Saturday, October 07, 2023
Mowing Da Lawn
I've taken over mowing the lawn over the past few months, and I've learned a thing or two:
- The electric mower is much nicer than the gas mower. Both are self-propelled, but the speed control is nicer on the electric than the gas. Also, the electric mower is easier to start.
- One bad thing about the electric mower—the grass accumulates inside, and when it gets too thick, the mower stops. I then have to tip it over and scoop out the cut grass. The gas mower does a much better job of mulching the grass.
- Also, the electric mower has a safety mechanism where two latches that lock down the handle length (it can slide in and out, shortening or lengthening the handle) must be in the locked position, or the cutting blade won't start (just learned this today). Interesting.
- Over the past few months, I've learned that I can finish the entire yard (front, sides and back) with the two batteries we have, but only if the lawn isn't terribly overgrown. And by “overgrown” I mean “longer than two weeks” (we've been having a lot of rain lately).
- Moving the cars out of the driveway makes mowing the front lawn easier, as I can just simple go back and forth, crossing the driveway. I wish I could do that for the entire lawn, but alas, there are some trees, a fence, and oh yes, the house, in the way.
- Chez Boca is on a … I don't want to say a hill, because get real, we're in Florida where we give Kansas a run for its money for “Flattest State in America.” But there is an incline you can feel when walking towards the house. I suspect that when it rains, the water seeps into the ground, and because the ground here is nothing but sand, the water slowly seeps down the incline towards the street. I say this, because there's a two-foot strip of grass along the road that is gorgeous, but three weeks makes it a bit too long to cut with the electric mower without having to stop several times to clean it out.
- The north side of Chez Boca is the most annoying section to mow. It's too narrow—there's a fence on one side, the house on the other. There's also a large tree on the east end, and a shed on the west end, so there's no long stretches to mow. I now do that section after the front yard.
- The north-west side of Chez Boca is the second most annoying section to mow. It's next to the house, There are two small trees in the way (I mean, I like trees, but mowing around them, especially given they're very low to the ground, is annoying) and I've smashed several sprinkler heads a few times. I do that after doing the north side, as I'm not completely wrecked yet.
- I do the back yard last, when I'm completely wrecked from doing the north and north-west portions—like the front yard, I can do long stretches of back-and-forth mowing which helps when I'm exhausted from mowing (when I first took over mowing, I would end up with doing the north-west then north sections last, and that nearly killed me each time).
- After mowing the front yard, I move the cars back into the driveway, instead of after mowing the entire lawn. It's easier to do it then than when I'm about to pass out.
I'm having a hard time seeing why Bunny would give up mowing the lawn. It's so much fun!
