However, in the past couple of years, we've had several things go wrong with it. Earlier this summer, one of the blade spindles broke and it was in the shop for about 3 weeks. During that time, we got a lot of rain and the grass really got ahead of us.
We were just beginning to make a dent in the mowing when I noticed that it was not mowing "even". There are 3 blades on the mower and, obviously, one of them is out of kelter!
We've lifted the mower up with the tractor and looked to see if it was something we could fix, but we couldn't see a problem. Plus, to try to repair it ourselves without the proper tools and lifting equipment would be a big headache. Tom doesn't want to put a lot more money in the old mower and decided to look for another one.
He ended up buying a "zero-turn" mower and here it is.
These mowers are a whole new concept in mowing as far as steering them goes! The old mower had a steering wheel and you steered it like a car. This one has two ... well I don't know what to call them ... levers, handles, bars? I'm sure they have a proper name. I'll just call them bars.
To go forward, you push them forward. To slow down, you pull them toward you. To go backward, you pull them all the way back. There are no "breaks". To stop, you have to just pull the bars toward you until it stops. To put it in park, you push the bars outward into the position they are in the above picture.
Okay, so the above actions are not too difficult to master. The tricky part comes when you want to turn it. To go left, you pull the left-hand bar toward you. To go right, you pull the right-hand one. If you pull too hard, it will make a 180 degree turn. If you are going too fast, this can be a rather scary experience, as I discovered while trying to learn to drive it. Just glad I didn't run into anything!
I ended up putting it on a very slow speed and, after many squeals from me and zig-zag patterns in the grass, I slowly got used to it and began to gain more confidence in driving it. After mowing with it for an hour or so, I was beginning to like it. After a couple of hours, I had it on a medium speed and was doing pretty well, if I do say so myself.
One time, I got it hung up on the guy-wire to the electric pole and thought I was going to have to call Tom to help me. But, as it turned out, all I had to do was pull on the right-hand bar to turn it away from the guy-wire and it did a 90 degree turn away from the wire and off I went.
When mowing, you want to make sure you have the proper equipment. This includes protection for your ears.
And, plenty of water in hot weather.
Our old mower is still useful for things other than mowing. We've used it to drag large branches that have broken off the trees to the burn pile. We also have a little cart that hooks on the back and you can haul small loads in it. We may even end up getting it fixed (again) if it doesn't cost too much. It would make the mowing go a lot faster if we could both mow at the same time. However, we may have to draw straws to see who gets to drive the new mower!
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