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View Full Version : Mowing acreage with a push mower is no fun!



Brian Elfert
08-26-2015, 9:36 PM
My riding lawn mower broke after mowing a portion of my 2 acres of grass this past weekend. The broken part won't be delivered for another week. I had to pull out my push mower and start mowing this evening. I had about an acre left when the rider broke. I figure it will take four to five hours to mow the rest of the lawn with the push mower. I was already nearly a week overdue on mowing and I can't wait another 10 days past when the rider broke.

I only did 30 to 40 minutes today and I'm roasting to death from the humidity. It is only about 74 degrees outside. I'll be real glad when I'm done mowing with the push mower probably on Saturday.

Bruce Page
08-26-2015, 11:35 PM
Reminds me of Sheldon Cooper on Big Bang Theory.. "I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested" :)

Don't give yourself a stroke! :eek:

Mark Blatter
08-26-2015, 11:49 PM
When my dad retired, they bought a place on the Missouri River between Great Falls and Helena MT. The house came with 12 acres, about half of it wooded, the rest was natural grass land. The house had about 1/2 acre of lawn is all. Not having enough to keep him busy, he bought a skid steer and started planting lawn. By the time he died he had almost 5.5 acres of grass to mow each week. He loved it, but it helped that he had a John Deer zero radius turn mower that cut about a 6 foot swath. I swear that sucker moved at close to 15 mph. It would take him half a day or so to mow the entire lawn. He had the entire management of the company out to the house each year for a BBQ and everyone would get a turn mowing. Always made me think of Tom Sawyer, the bucket of whitewash and the fence.

Robert Engel
08-27-2015, 7:12 AM
You're not getting any sympathy from me, pal.

I have 4 acres of grass to cut and I have a farm tractor to do it with.

74 degrees?

Where I live its been 93-97 degrees almost every day for almost 2 months.
Coupled with 75% humidity and its been raining like Amazonia.
And now we might have a hurricane coming......

Get off your wallet and just somebody to cut the grass ;)

Justin Ludwig
08-27-2015, 7:16 AM
You're not getting any sympathy from me, pal.

I have 4 acres of grass to cut and I have a farm tractor to do it with.

74 degrees?

Where I live its been 93-97 degrees almost every day for almost 2 months.
Coupled with 75% humidity and its been raining like Amazonia.
And now we might have a hurricane coming......

Get off your wallet and just somebody to cut the grass ;)

That made me laugh. #firstworldproblems

roger wiegand
08-27-2015, 8:05 AM
Trying to decide how bad to feel-- by "push mower do you mean one of these?
320314 or one of these: 320315

If the latter, not so much sympathy I'm afraid. If the former, I'm impressed.

Malcolm McLeod
08-27-2015, 8:07 AM
74deg? ...I am trying to decide how bad I feel too.

I keep the house at 78deg. Wanna trade?

Brian Elfert
08-27-2015, 8:13 AM
My body is very sensitive to high humidity so even 74 degrees with high humidity causes me to sweat like a pig. I have suffered heat exhaustion multiple times in my life.

I was soaking wet with sweat from just 30 to 40 minutes of mowing.

Keith Outten
08-27-2015, 8:31 AM
Brian,

Maybe you could rent a riding mower for a couple of hours.
.

Larry Edgerton
08-27-2015, 8:34 AM
I figured out how long it was taking me to mow the lawn with my rider and went out and bought a X Mark 54" walk behind with a sulky. Not only has it cut my time by 50%, but its fun! The turns bring me back to my enduro riding days.......

Beau Cassidy
08-27-2015, 8:54 AM
I would definitely pay someone to cut my grass once or twice or go rent a larger lawn mower. Having a stroke or hear attack isn't worth it.

Greg R Bradley
08-27-2015, 9:07 AM
No neighbors with a big lawn and lawnmower?

Oh, and its 74 degrees here at 5am.

Bert Kemp
08-27-2015, 9:15 AM
Yes and my house is 80 to 82 from June till Sept and altho its 105 to 110 outside low humidity the house humidity is around 70% because a swamp cooler makes humidity :D So I can go outside and roast or stay in and sweat.Not much sympathy from me either.But hey I'm in NH right now just getting over kidney stones 75 and 80% humidity so still no sympathy from me LOL:p


74deg? ...I am trying to decide how bad I feel too.

I keep the house at 78deg. Wanna trade?

Phil Thien
08-27-2015, 9:17 AM
I would definitely pay someone to cut my grass once or twice or go rent a larger lawn mower. Having a stroke or hear attack isn't worth it.

Yeah I read that sweating profusely or a lack of appropriate sweating is an indication your body is having problems regulating your temperature.

I'd proceed very carefully.

Wade Lippman
08-27-2015, 9:30 AM
I've always wondered why people HAVE 2 acres of grass. Certainly there are more interesting plants you could put in. Make one acre a flower meadow or a woods.
Why grass. I have a quarter acre and my plan is getting rid of it. Now... my wife feels differently.

My first house was a half acre and cutting it with a push mower was a chore. Do you have a neighbor you could borrow a rider from?

Wade Lippman
08-27-2015, 9:35 AM
Yeah I read that sweating profusely or a lack of appropriate sweating is an indication your body is having problems regulating your temperature.

I'd proceed very carefully.

You should have seen my wife using a nordic track when she was 8 months pregnant. Sweated profusely and her sweat rotted out the chrome on the machine; just like strong acid.
30 years ago and they are both fine. Wife and baby; we had to throw the nordic track out.

Judson Green
08-27-2015, 9:42 AM
I've always wondered why people HAVE 2 acres of grass. Certainly there are more interesting plants you could put in. Make one acre a flower meadow or a woods.
Why grass. I have a quarter acre and my plan is getting rid of it.

My thoughts exactly.

Malcolm McLeod
08-27-2015, 9:49 AM
I've always wondered why people HAVE 2 acres of grass...

My long term goal is convert my grass to mushrooms. Maybe moss? Or anything else that will hold the dirt in place, but not need mowing:), in the DEEP shade under my giant trees.

Now I just have to keep drought from killing my 3' trees (16 so far) and live to be 186 years old. :(

Jim Koepke
08-27-2015, 11:28 AM
My riding mower died.

Now the parts of my property without trees is mostly ferns, tall grass and weeds. The deer love it. When need be a weed whacker gets used to make paths.

jtk

Brian Elfert
08-27-2015, 11:30 AM
I've always wondered why people HAVE 2 acres of grass. Certainly there are more interesting plants you could put in. Make one acre a flower meadow or a woods.
Why grass. I have a quarter acre and my plan is getting rid of it. Now... my wife feels differently.


It is grass because that is what was there when I bought the place last year. The lot is three acres, but one acre is not mowed and is just tall grass. I haven't had time to do anything with landscaping other than mow the grass as I have had tons of other things to fix first. I don't have any need for three acres, but this is the only city I could find that would allow me to build a large enough garage for my motorhome. The property taxes are also less than half what I was paying.

I don't know how you plant native plants without them getting full of weeds. Weed killer would probably kill the native plants too.

My riding mower is not your box store lawn tractor. It is a Toro Groundsmaster commercial mower.

Steve Peterson
08-27-2015, 2:14 PM
I had about 1/2 acre of grass to mow where I used to live. My riding mower broke and I switched to a self propelled push mower. It was good exercise even though it was nothing but walking to keep up with the mower. One day the belt driving the wheels broke and I had to actually push the mower. I gave up after just a few minutes.

Steve

Keith Outten
08-27-2015, 3:03 PM
I've always wondered why people HAVE 2 acres of grass.

I would have a hundred acres if I could afford the property. Surrounded by woods with an "S" shaped driveway to the house would be perfect :)
I could never live in a neighborhood again so close to others that I can hear my neighbors arguing or their kids hollering all day long. Been there and done that.

I cut about 2 acres of grass and I bush hog 3 acres about four times per year which leaves me about 1 acre of woods. I have a 72" wide mower and a 72" wide bush hog and wish that both of them were bigger. I haven't owned a push mower for over 20 years and hope that I never need one.
.

Wade Lippman
08-27-2015, 3:10 PM
I would have a hundred acres if I could afford the property. Surrounded by woods with an "S" shaped driveway to the house would be perfect :)
I could never live in a neighborhood again so close to others that I can hear my neighbors arguing or their kids hollering all day long. Been there and done that.

I cut about 2 acres of grass and I bush hog 3 acres about four times per year which leaves me about 1 acre of woods. I have a 72" wide mower and a 72" wide bush hog and wish that both of them were bigger. I haven't owned a push mower for over 20 years and hope that I never need one.
.
Sure, I had a cottage where the nearest neighbor was a half mile away. I get the privacy idea, but why grass? I had 1/16a of gravel, and all the rest was woods. Except for getting the leaves off the gravel, there was no maintenance. No mower, no bush hog.

Brian Elfert
08-27-2015, 3:46 PM
The only reason I even have a push mower is because it moved with me when I moved from my previous house that had a very small yard. The push mower hadn't been touched in over a year. I changed the oil and put in gas and it started on the first pull.

I really would like to get a bigger 62" or 72" mower, but I have enough trees that it might not be any faster.

Bert Kemp
08-27-2015, 4:53 PM
couple of goats will take care of that in no time

.
The only reason I even have a push mower is because it moved with me when I moved from my previous house that had a very small yard. The push mower hadn't been touched in over a year. I changed the oil and put in gas and it started on the first pull.

I really would like to get a bigger 62" or 72" mower, but I have enough trees that it might not be any faster.

Tom M King
08-27-2015, 5:07 PM
You should have seen my wife using a nordic track when she was 8 months pregnant. Sweated profusely and her sweat rotted out the chrome on the machine; just like strong acid.
30 years ago and they are both fine. Wife and baby; we had to throw the nordic track out.
I met Mick Jagger at a party a couple of decades ago (or more). I told him that he always looked like a runner to me. He said he couldn't run much because he had a bad back, but did spend a lot of time on a stationary bike. I told him I did the same thing, and my goal was to get mine to corrode in two from sweat. He laughed and said he had already done that.

Bill Orbine
08-27-2015, 7:39 PM
Make hay fields and find a farmer who would be happy to cut and bale for free two times a year so he can feed his livestock. All you need to do is sit on your porch drinking beer and watch!

Keith Outten
08-28-2015, 8:01 AM
The only reason I even have a push mower is because it moved with me when I moved from my previous house that had a very small yard. The push mower hadn't been touched in over a year. I changed the oil and put in gas and it started on the first pull.

I really would like to get a bigger 62" or 72" mower, but I have enough trees that it might not be any faster.

Brian,

A ZTR wil cut as close to a tree or building as any other mower. You still need to use a trimmer no matter what mower you buy so you may as well get the largest deck you can afford if your property is large enough.

Bill, I used to allow a local farmer to use my field but I got concerned about the chemicals he started using, particularly when we use a well thats just 50 yards from my field and I didn't want my family drinking pesticides and fertilizer.

Brian Elfert
08-28-2015, 9:04 AM
I use a Groundsmaster front deck mower. It can get every bit as close as a zero turn. The one I have is the baby model that only has a 48" deck. My ideal would be to find one that is the next size up that has the 60" mulching deck. The bigger model that is 72" is easy to find, but the middle one with the 60" deck is near impossible to find. There is then the additional issue of finding a snow blower attachment. I have the snow blower for my current mower.

The 72" wide would probably not physically fit between some of my trees. I'm thinking I will probably stick with what I have for a while because it works just fine. I don't know that saving four hours a month during the summer is worth spending another $4,000 on another mower. There is a nice mid size Groundmaster with the 60" mulching deck in Miami for $2000, but it would cost me $1000 to get it home.

Brian W Smith
08-28-2015, 3:16 PM
This post is about comparing stupid fast sportbikes and stupid cool grass cutting machines....you have been warned.

We have a fairly large estate......and for the haters,I built it literally from the ground up.....before turning 30 y.o.

It occurred to me this beautiful Fri afternoon while mowing.....how mowing,and it's equipment reminded me of railing through the mnts on sportbikes.Imagine almost 200 HP,!K sportbikes......pulling the fr wheel off the pavement while rr steering(sliding the rr),in a turn......we call it "surf-in".

Just don't see a whole lot of difference in mowing world?We're sporting a custom "Land pride"...72" mowing deck behind a 1320 NH tractor.

The problem is,most folks haven't railed on a stupid fast 1000 ......seeing God.Then understanding the how's and why's of what it really means rippin and tearin up pavement?Same thing with mowing a large estate/parcel of land.

Just sayin,until you've pulled a fairly wide "finish" mower.......doing it right.Where does one get off?