Mowing. And More Mowing.
Since arriving back home last week we have been pedal-to-the-metal yard work and garden work. This means almost all day every day I am outside here in Shangri-la, riding the lawn tractor to get the grass under control, using the smaller trim mower to get the places where the riding mower can’t fit, and using the bush hog as a mower on the portions of the hillsides where the mower would be too tippy. I’ve already flipped the riding mower over on to me — remember the episode with me winding up in the chilly creek with almost a half ton of machine trapping me underneath? — an accident that by all accounts should have killed me had the mower rolled over just a little more and the steering wheel crushed my chest. Nowadays I am much more cautious because Mrs. Barn does not want to scatter my ashes just yet.
Yesterday was exasperating in part as I just tuned up the little push mower and hit a hidden stump, bending the brand-new blade less than an hour into its lifespan. Off to get another as soon as I finish this missive. Then more mowing, including using the DR walk-behind on the hillside just above the greenhouse terrace. I don’t really need to post pictures of me mowing the homestead, do I?
At least today it will be cool and cloudy, probably about 60, which will make it a pleasant day to be doing some heavy walking, rasslin’ a 500-pound brush hog. Oh, and it will be cooler at the burn barrel as I work my way through a pile of brush.
Punctuating all of this is the occasional trip to purchase plants as Mrs. Barn gets her summer gardens, both flower and vegetable, up and running. In addition she tends gardens at church and the local library, so her appetite for plant shopping is prodigious. I am delighted to help her with the set-up of the gardens, erecting the structures, hauling bagged composted manure, etc.
My neighbor AM will be getting a greenhouse kit tomorrow and I will be helping him assemble it. Partly to be a good neighbor, but truthfully just to check out the structure. Since we are on the cusp of erecting a greenhouse ourselves I want to see if I should order a kit myself or instead order a truckload of lumber to build ours.
All in all a good time to be on the homestead, although tonite may get down into the 30s.
I hope for you that you only got a bent blade. I hit an exposed stump thinking I had clearance. Yes I too bent the blade but upon replacing the blade found that I had also bent the crank shaft. Off to the repair shop for a replaced shaft since the mower was in good shape and the replacement cost of the shaft was much less than replacement cost of the mower.