Aerobic lawn mowing

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Among the stuff left behind at our house by the previous owners is an old-time push mower. Since someone in this household hadn’t bothered to get the riding mower in for a tune-up before the mowing season rush, I decided to give it a go with the oldie. I was pleased to see that it still works, sorta.

It needs to be sharpened and lubricated, and a good cleaning wouldn’t hurt, but it does a fair job of sortening most of the green stuff growing in the yard - yeah, some is grass, some is flowering. As long as it’s green and short, I’m not sweating it.

It wouldn’t be half bad if the back yard was level. But it’s not. From garage to end of the house - maybe 65 feet? - it drops 8-9 feet. And it’s not a nice, even slope - it becomes more pronounced at the low end and actually continues to drop beyond where I intend to ever mow. Now, before someone helpfully suggests I mow across the slope, it also slopes away from the house towards the tree line. So no matter which way I mow, I’ll have an uphill component as well as a down.

I’m 51. I sit at a desk at work all day. I’m very out of shape. My pulse is just now started to moderate. But I’ll keep at it. A little each day. In a few weeks time, I’ll either be buff, or dead. But the lawn will be mowed…

Seriously, once my sweetie sharpens and lubricates it, I should be good to go. And there’s no reason for me to do the whole yard at once. Just as I’m doing a little raking every day, so shall I mow a little each day. Fresh air, exercise, and visible results. What more could I ask?

OK, I could ask for a studly, scantily clad gardener to do the yard work while my equally studly and scantily clad cabana boy brings me margaritas, but let’s be realistic…

I do love my yard!!

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I used to have one of those old-timey mowers. Now I live in an apartment and I don’t have to mow anymore. :slight_smile:

I like them because they’re so quiet. It’s just you and the smell of freshly cut grass and the swish of the blades. And they’re so easy to start! :smiley:

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Of course, they’re hard to push when they get bogged down in a mole hole.

grumble grumble stoopit moles

4

I have one that I actually bought. I hate gas mowers. My yard is fairly small and it only takes about an hour to mow and it’s good exercise. The husband doesn’t think it does a good enough job, but I think it’s fine.

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I came in from mowing my lawn last week with the best runners’ high that I have had since I quit marathoning.

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I use a push mower to mow my lawn. My personal best is five minutes.

Did I mention my lawn is a circle about 15 feet in diameter? :smiley:

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I just wanted to chime in and mention that I originally read this thread title as “acerbic lawn mowing” and thought, “Dang, FCM is sometimes kinda sarcastic, but that takes the cake…”

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Just FYI…the old mowers are called reel mowers.

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They still make them.

They cost as much as a cheap power push mower.

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My wife contends that the reason is that I come in so “up” after mowing my lawn is that one of the previous tenents of the place was a hippie who seeded the lawn with an “unregulated” grass seed.

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I’d love to get one when I finally get a lawn to mow - you can do it at 3 AM if you like and not disturb the neighbors! One hears that you have to do it pretty often, though.

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Our lot is about 3 acres. Not that all of it will be mowed. We’re letting half of it go natural. Then on the other half there’s the house, 2 sheds, driveway, gazebo, lots of hedges and a few small gardens. All told, probably less than a full acre to mow, and much of that is just moss-covered rather than grass, thanks to all the trees. The front side by the neighbor’s will be fairly easy - it’s the flattest section of yard we have. The other side is sloped up from the driveway, then down to the street, and it’s mostly treed and shrubbed, so it’s more a weed-whacker area.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. The lack of noise and exhaust is most appealing. Plus not having to buy gas - also good. And I’m convincing myself that the exercise is a bonus. We shall see.

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Oh, yes, manual reel mowers—a current specialty of mine. :slight_smile:

With a mower as old as I presume it to be (can you describe its build in any way? I’d love to see :slight_smile: ), the usual reverse-the-blade-and-apply-grinding-paste-and-push-it-in-the-driveway-for-ten-minutes may work—or it may not. You might have to take it in for a professional sharpening, unless your husband knows what he’s doing, of course. You can really mess up a reel mower with improper sharpening.

You might want to take off the wheels and regrease the gears and whereever the wheel contacts; do this as you sharpen (try the aforementioned backlapping first—that’s a good site to which Reeder linked).

You’ll be glad to hear that a reel mower, push or power, is the best way to cut one’s grass. It snips the grass cleanly, rather than hacks it away like a rotor blade. There are two types of reel, though—those with reels that just-barely do not touch the bedknife, and those that contact it. The former are the type you could probably use at three in the morning; while the contact-type are still relatively quiet, they do make a thresher-type noise that might be a little loud at that hour. I think Brill does the ‘silent’ type.

And, you can cut the grass very short with them—as you may know, a reel mower is the type that golf courses use, and it’s the secret to getting greens as short as they are (of course, that’s usually a ten-blade reel cutting at 3/16" of an inch or so, rather than the usual five-blade home model that does 1/2" at best). If you wish such short grass, you will have to mow at least every third day to keep it up

Which leads me to a couple of disadvantages: The reel won’t do very tall grass, which also neccesitates more frequent mowing if you have it on a lower setting. dandelions will need another pass. Sometimes, you will notice the similarity of a manual reel to that of a vacuum cleaner. :slight_smile: Also, sticks on the lawn aren’t sucked up, usually; they’ll catch in the reel and stop you short. So, watch out for those; they’re also a tad hard on the blade.

Do what I do: Use the reel for normal mowing, and keep the power one around for when you inevitably get lazy and let the grass go, or wish to obliterate sticks, etc… :slight_smile:

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:o You said sweetie, not husband. I’m sorry. Pardon me.

BTW, mine’s an American Lawn Mower Co., model 1815-18. Something like a hundred bucks at Lowe’s. It’s good for mowing the grass short for golf practice. :slight_smile:

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My husband is my sweetie! And when I read him what you wrote about improper sharpening, he mumbled something about “never intended to sharpen it…” He’s such a party pooper! We’ve got a couple of old-fashioned hardware stores around here - bet someone in one of them knows how to sharpen these blades.

I just went and looked at it - there’s no brand name on it that I can see. The wheels have a star design that fits between the hub and the tire. The handle is formed tubing. I can’t tell what color it was for the rust. I should clean it and paint it pink! :smiley:

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Incidentally, mine kinda looks like this.

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Oh, okay, good. :slight_smile:

The tubing leads me to believe it’s newer (I had visions of a shovel-handle -type one), but the rust may mean that it needs that professional grinding—last I looked, it was 35 dollars or so. Grinding paste is $1.69 for two tubes at the auto store, and know-how from the web as to backlapping is free. :slight_smile: You might just take your chances with the latter.

Anyway, good luck!

18

Powered reel lawnmowers look like they are just waiting to star in the next Stephen King novella and the subsequent movie. Creepy as hell.

This weekend, it was nice enough for us to get out and start picking up the yard. We opened the shed, moved out the summer tires and the lawn mower, put the ski stuff away, etc. It will be a month before we have to mow (we still have a little snow left on our lawn, but I decided to take it in for its anual tune-up anyway, instead of waiting until the last minute.

Makes me feel seriously virtuous.

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The thread title reminded me of when hubby ran into a yellow jacket’s nest, with the mower, last summer.

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If you don’t want to push it uphill, most of them are easy to drag backwards. The blade doesn’t spin, but you can get back to where you started.

If your lawn has plantain weed (buckhorn,) a reel mower won’t cut the tall flower stalks. Even the power reel we had when I was a kid couldn’t do it.