Time to mow...

Yessir, at Haney's Farm Mindin' Service, for a nom-yew-nal fee we will move into yer house, eat yer food, drink yer likker, and turn away any unwanted relatives that might show up at yer door. Mr. Haney, Green Acres

That sure is some service Mr. Haney offers. Wonder where I could get a job like that?

This is the mower I use to mow my yard. It looks kind of strange at first. It resembles a street sweeper or a garbage truck or a dump truck. And it sure will not pass for one of those glamorous John Deere mowers. But it does do a good job. Plus, it does not belong to me, my neighbor lets me borrow it.

With no steering wheel, initially it was tricky to drive. I have accumulated plenty of 360s in my yard. The speed is tricky too. Try to start out on a hill too quickly and the wheels spin. Thus tearing up the grass. Even now, there are certain spots in my yard that are as bare as Dixie Chicks songs on a country radio station's play list. I rationalize that in certain places in a yard, having grass is over rated.

Two things were important in learning to operate this equipment on hills. First, don't spin the tires because you loose traction and tear up the yard. And second, under no condition, never, ever let this flip over with me on it! This could cause me to have a very bad day. Luckily, #1 has decrease (not eliminated yet) and #2 has not happened.

This mower has a grass catcher. That is good and bad. Its good because I do not need to rake grass/leaves and the lawn looks nice. This is bad because I have to stop periodically and dump the grass AND I need somewhere to dump it.

My first choice is to use the grass as a mulch around all the trees in my yard. I am about to run out of trees to mulch, so this stuff may end up in a pile over the hill somewhere.

This mower does allow me to mow faster than when I had a Yanmar 155D 4 wheel drive tractor with a 48" pull behind mowing deck . But I don't get the same feeling of pride and power while sitting low in this Exmark as I did while riding high in the saddle in the Yanmar. While on the Yanmar, I considered myself to be just like Oliver Douglas in Green Acres.