Mowing the lawn (again)Author: jawapro
Date: Sat 14/06/2008 07:06 PM
Apparently I’m boring because I don’t post enough. Thanks Em!
At least I’m not as bad as certain nameless friends of ours who officially stated they would post once a week, and then didn’t post again until the following year. In fairness, it was only 2 weeks away. The weekly thing feel apart pretty quick, and we were lucky to get 2 a month. They’ve picked up again recently though.
Anyway - enough whining about broken promises.
The photo above isn’t me. In case you hadn’t noticed. It’s my Dad. But it’s relevant because I did the mowing today, and have the same problem he did. I actually did the mowing a few weeks back - but it was so long that once wasn't enough - plus it grew again. Lawns seem to have a tendency to do that.
I don’t own my own mower yet, so I borrowed Dads. It’s a catcher mower, or a mulching mower, depending what attachment you put on it.
The bad news is that if you have longish grass - neither attachment works.
The catcher is a great idea - but the grass gets clogged up around the blades and the mower eventually stalls - and there’s hardly a blade of grass in the catcher. It’s hopeless. It does catch the grass - just in the blade compartlment, not the catcher bin.
The mulcher attachment basically prevents it getting rid of the grass, so it has to chop it up until it manages to fall down underneath the mower. But when the grass is getting clogged up anyway - that would only increase the problem.
The only solution (other than getting a different mower) is to find something to hold the back flap up, and throw all the grass straight out the back. It still clogs up eventually, but lasts a lot longer than the catcher does. I’m not sure why it doesn’t throw the grass into the catcher - but it doesn’t.
It’s not designed to be used like this, because if something gets flung up, it’s headed straight for your legs - so you sort of have to walk besides the lawn mower, not straight behind it.
Anyway - my lawn is mown now - so hopefully I don’t have to worry about it for a while, and when I get myself a mower, I’m going to think hard about getting a slightly more expensive model that throws the grass out the side like our old ride-on did. These catcher mowers are more work that they should be. I still had to rake the grass up afterward which sort of defeats the point.
Anyway - that an interesting enough post for you Loopy?
In case not - here’s a little suspense for you.
I went to Toyworld today (yes, I’m sad, ok) and bought something rather large.
And just to keep you interested - I’m not going to say what it was!
You're welcome to guess though. And no spoiling it Mike - I know you know what it was....
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