Adventures in Lawnmowing

Very rarely do I admit that a machine is smarter than a human. Unfortunately, I am sad to report that this was true for me this past weekend. The lovely machine below (named the Dominator due to recent events) outsmarted me on more than one occasion.

It all started about 2 weeks ago, when I noticed that our lawn at the Ganderson was beginning to look a bit like the Jungle Book...

Now, I don't do a whole lot of mowing. The one time I remember mowing the lawn at my parents house, I made the lines so crooked that my Dad told me I never had to do it again. I haven't done much here yet either. To be honest, Megan does about 90% of the yard work, but I thought, "hey, it's only fair that I pitch in- I'll mow the lawn!"

I kept waiting for the perfect time. I'm a busy girl, so there is little free time for me to mow the lawn. I plotted out a couple different days that I had enough time at home to mow- unfortunately, those days were rainy. Now I'm no expert, but I know mowing wet grass is not a great idea.

This happened for about 2 weeks. Then this Friday, I left work early and came home to relax. It had been quite rainy all week, but about 3:00 the sun came out so I thought I'd give it a shot! I was so excited- I love time at home to be productive. And seriously, we were quickly becoming the trashy house in the neighborhood that everybody is embarrassed about when they walk by.

So I pull out the Dominator. I start mowing, things are good! However, a couple rows into the backyard, it dies. Okay, I think, I've seen Bev put gas in here before, that's probably what it needs. So I get out the gas tank, and pour some in. I try to start it back up again, and it won't start. I get down close to the mower to examine, and I quickly realize that I actually poured gas into the oil tank. Not good. I run inside to do some Google work- basically, I learn that gas in the oil tank is indeed NOT a good thing, but I could remedy that by dumping the mower over and pouring the gas/oil into a pan.

So I go back outside, and dump it all out. A little bit scary, considering I really don't want gas and oil to be all over the backyard. Then I refill the oil and the gas, things should be good. I manage to get it going again, success!! However, a couple rows later, it dies again. Now the cord won't even pull, it's basically stuck. After a few minutes of yanking (and hurting my shoulder of course), I decide to call my Dad, the guru of all things home-ownery.

Dale reports that the mower is probably overheated (it was 90 degrees), so that makes sense. I give it a little time, sit on my deck, read a book, etc, then I decide to try again. With a little finaggling, I get the backyard done! Success! This whole process (for the backyard only) took about an hour. I realize that's it's late, and my ride is coming to pick me up, so I save the front yard for a different time.

So today I got home and decided to conquer the front yard. This is exciting! Looking forward to getting rid of the jungle, so I get started. Shortly after my first row, the mower dies again. Now, I know the oil and the gas tanks are full, so I don't give up. Persistence is key. It starts a few more times, and I get a couple more rows done, but it keeps dying. Finally I figure out that maybe the grass is TOO long, so I adjust the blade so that it doesn't cut so closely. This seems to work, and I get the front yard done. Unfortunately, because the blade was so high, the grass didn't get cut as short as I would like, and it probably will need to be mowed again within the next 2 days. Yeah right.

The Dominator really made me work this time, but in the end, I did conquer the lawns and we are no longer the white trash dumpy house on the block. Victory is mine!!! Two important lessons I learned from this month-long process of mowing-

1. Double check which tank you are pouring gas or oil into. They're not exactly supposed to mix- bad for the environment and all that.

2. Do NOT wait so long that you have to actually mow twice to even get the grass down to a respectable level. If you cut the grass more often, it's actually much less work than if you let it grow and grown and then decide to chop it all at once. Yikes.

Unfortunately, there are no after pictures of the Ganderson lawn. Next time maybe. If there is a next time...