The continuing saga of Geri Sullivan, Girl Homeowner and Lawn Mower Abuser

[gerisullivan]

The back story, for those just tuning in:

May 30, 2009: The Very Bad Lawnmower

August 29, 2010: Rock 1: Lawnmower 0

I've been researching lawnmowers online during spare moments over the last couple of weeks. My splendid next door neighbor mowed the lawn here at Toad Woods before I returned from the midwest, but that was 6 weeks ago. The property reverted to looking abandoned and I really did have to do something to correct that.

benyalow helpfully suggested setting a forest fire to burn all the grass. Alas, the GT friends who could manage such a trick while still leaving the Zeppelin Hangar standing are most of a thousand miles away, so I turned my attention instead to the question of whether last summer's decisive battle in the 7- Year Rock War had done in just the blade or the whole engine of The Very Bad Lawnmower.

The first "Geri Sullivan, Girl Homeowner" moment came when I approached the mower with Liquid Wrench and implements of destruction and bolt removal. Squirt, squirt. Bang, bang, bang. (The Liquid Wrench bottle advises that judicious application of hammer to bolt can help in the loosening process.) The adjustable wrench didn't do it, but the Vice Grips were up to the task. Color me competent. I love it when tools are my friend.

Blade in hand, I headed to the Sears store in Auburn. The back-up to get on the Pike was the worst I've ever seen -- don't know what was going on there -- but rather than joining hundreds of cars a half-mile back, I quickly hopped back off onto Hwy 20 and took the back roads east.

At Sears, I opted for a heavy duty replacement blade and also talked with Ken Cardinal, an excellent lawn mower sales guy. If the blade didn't do the trick, I've narrowed my choice down to two rear-wheel drive, variable speed, self-propelled models. (Is key start worth $50? Probably not on my budget, but that doesn't stop the temptation...especially after the adventures that followed once I was back home.)



The new blade went on fairly easily. (Thank goodness they print "grass side" on the blade itself.) When it came to starting, the mower was...recalcitrant. Soon it was recalcitrant and noisy, but not in a good way. I turned it back off, confirmed the blade was tight, started 'er up, and set off.

The mower cuts grass, but it's clearly not what it used to be. It balks at even minor thickness, cuts off at every encounter with a small rock or stick, or anything it doesn't like, really. And it doesn't like a lot. If it were human, I'd credit past traumas as the likely cause of its behavior difficulties. Totally understandable, even for a piece of equipment.

I mowed up along the edge of the drive and the road, so there's at least some visual sense of caretaking and tidiness up there. When I came back down, I mowed the front lawn to help ease the poor, cranky engine into the real work at hand.

I only had to restart it 2 or 3 times, a huge improvement over the 6 or 8 restarts up at the top of the drive. Pull, pull. PullPullPull. That key start is sounding better and better. PullPullVroomChunkaVroom.

By the time the front yard was finished, I was wiped. The mower isn't the only part of the equation that's out of both practice and condition.

Twenty minutes or so in a comfortable canvas chair I pulled out of the garage cooled me down and left me ready to see how far I could get on the side flatland and hills for dark and/or rain, whichever arrived first. Unfortunately, it didn't do the same for the mower. There's still gas in the tank, but it wasn't about to turn over and mow, mow again. Not tonight, anyway.

I'll probably give it another try when the rain stops, or at least before I head back to Sears. But at this point, I'm rather expecting that I'll entice a new mower to follow me home shortly. Then it will get its first taste of the horrors that await any lawn mower fated to live at Toad Woods.

Here's hoping it lasts seven summers and then some. The Very Bad Lawnmower truly has been amazing. With luck, its replacement will be, too. Any bets on whether or not I'll ever change the oil in that one? I am going to start it off with the heavy duty blade, just to give it a fighting chance. And because after today, I know I can replace a lawn mower blade.

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I know you are a very Competent Girl Homeowner but might it be worth asking your kind next door neighbor to take a look at it? Maybe there is some small adjustment that would help make it slightly less balky.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am far from a competent Girl Homeowner. Fortunately, I am blessed with a sense of humor and tolerance about my homeowning skills and lack thereof.

Good idea on getting help from my neighbor. I could start by asking him to help me change the oil as that's sure to be a good thing, yet it's something I've never done.