Lawn Mowers

I agree that goats make better pets than horses. However, cows are stupid. Monumentally stupid, even though they make better lawn mowers. And while oxen can provide transportation (pulling an ox cart) they are too slow. A cow, of course, can transform your grass into milk, but this is a Prius site, so I figure that transportation is the common interest. And horses are clearly the best animal for transportation.

 

Living in California, the only grass I grow doesn't get mowed, only manicured once a year in the fall, and smoked the rest of the year!

 

Re: Animal-powered mowing:

• I avoid being around any animals bigger than myself (i.e., horses and cows are out)
• Animal mowing does result in another form of, umm, litter that is not much fun to clean up, either. (Cows are definitely out.)
• Nothing is dumber than a turkey.
  • 
    (I will admit, though, that goats have a lot of personality. At least the ones I've met.)

 

I don't know about that. You'd have a hard time finding a turkey as dumb as W.

 

I have 3 mowers:
1. Friendly Robotics (electric) robot that does most of the lawn.
2. A Scott's Reel mower for the rest.
3. A (corded) craftsman electric mower used once in a while since it does a better job on certain grass that bends over for the reel mower.
3.5 A corded electric weed wacker a couple times a season.

My Prius is the only device I own that uses gas right now.

 

my mower was the cheapest K-mart sold a few years back. i mowed 5 acres with it. i would either spend an hour a day for a week or just say hell with it and spend one full day mowing it.

and yes it was a push mower... maybe that's why i sold the place after 17 years...

 

Our mowable yard is a whopping ~1000 sq ft. I have a Scott's reel mower. Kinda only OK. It can't do squat with seed stalks. I either cut the stalks with scissors or ignore them. It would help a lot if they had some "lift up the grass blades" mechanism. Anything longer than about 4 or 5" would rather push down flat than get cut. Generally have to make 2 or more passes in different directions on the entire patch if I let it get out of hand. It is nicer than the ones my neighbors (both sides) have since the reel on mine keeps spinning at a reasonable speed and time when I slow down to turn, theirs does not.
It is a pain to sharpen. No one will do it, they'd have to charge more than a new one cost. I did get the LL Bean reel mower sharpening kit which does work, except the nut on my mower is a different size than the one on the LL Bean's so I have to mess around with a socket wrench.
When I was a kid we had a corded electric mower. It had numerous pieces of electrical tape on the cord.
I'm thinking I might go the route of a Neuton mower (a nice Vermont company). Though I just looked at their site, these things are incredibly expensive - $389 as a rear bagger so maybe I will stick to the reel mower!