[Saturday 5/27: 5k Kiwana Memorial Weekend Race; Monday: 3.20; today’s run 3.20]
The wife and I have been fussing back and forth about buying a new lawn mower.
The one we have is a “consumer grade” John Deere zero turn which we bought in late 2009 or early 2010 shortly after moving to Mississippi and it now has 700+ hours on the meter.
Over the years it has been pretty good, but recently has given us some trouble. I had the local Deere dealer work on it, put about $1200 into it and they fixed some things, but it is cantankerous and I still don’t think it is right. I worked on it myself and that helped but not 100%.
So, I finally relented and we are shopping for a new one. It finally dawned on me that she did most of the mowing for 2010-2019, so if I can keep her happy and she will mow then it is a great bargain to get a new mower. She wants something reliable.
The other outcome is that she doesn’t trust the Deere dealership service department and I have to agree. They are good at charging an hourly rate but the actual results are disappointing.
We are looking at some of the other shops in town and are thinking we may try to move up in the line a little bit and get something a bit stronger. We mow right at two acres and it would be really nice if it would last for 1000 hours or so. She tells me that the consumer grade units are expected to last about 500 hours and I think our old one would go farther if the plastic bits were up to it.
The pinnacle of my mowing experience was the 10 years we lived in Estes Park. No mowing. We only got about 15 inches of rain each year. The elk and deer wandered through and ate what grass would grow. And the soil was rocky. People in general didn’t try to grow a “lawn” but just go natural. It was wonderful.
But if she will mow in Mississippi that is 99% as good.