"Terry Horton" wrote in message
...
| The grass was coming out of dormancy. Our Ryobi cordless electric
| mower was dead. Ryobi'd left the biz, and the only new battery
| available was an expensive, jury-rigged affair. So it was time for
a
| new mower. Prices on new B&D cordless mowers are outrageous, but the
| electric had spoiled us for quiet and fumeless mowing and we just
| couldn't see going back to gas.
|
| The idea of a push mower intrigued me. As a practicing
| environmentalist and lover of good food, I like the fact that
instead
| of gas or electricity they burn tacos and Italian cream cake.
They're
| obviously dead quiet. But my research turned up no 'reel' (cough)
| consensus for our situation. Our back yard is wooded creek bottom
and
| a prairie restoration, and at most one corner gets a weed whacking
| once a year. So we had only the front to consider. The front is
| large-ish and sloped, St. Augustine under oaks with a dozen
understory
| trees and several flower beds, i.e. a mowing nightmare.
|
| Lowes had the highly-rated 18" American Lawn Mower reel mower at
only
| $99, and with a 15 day return policy. It sits in our garage now.
| http://tinyurl.com/8ids
|
| Our opinion is very positive, but I'll start with the downsides....
| Sticks. Running over a stick with this thing is like hitting a brick
| wall. Even smallish sticks. My first run must've looked pretty
| funny, me cruising along then suddenly almost flying over the
| handlebars. Secondly, tall growth tended to bend instead of being
| cut, necessitating hitting it from more than one direction... not
good
| if you only mow when you can't find the dog (our excuse: first mow
of
| the season :-) Lastly you can't cut any closer to the curb than the
| wheel can run, which means more work with the edger.
|
| That said, we *absolutely love* this thing. It's incredibly light
and
| agile... effortless to maneuver and a breeze to push. Once we
picked
| up a winter's worth of our oaks' self-pruning this became the
easiest
| mower we've ever used. The SO and I each waited impatiently for our
| turn to wheel through the grass, which is astonishing given we like
| mowing only slightly better than minor dental work. Good way to
meet
| new neighbors too... everyone who walked by in the hour and half of
| putting it together and trying it out stopped to ask about it, a
| couple opening up with childhood stories.
|
| Can't wait to get out again and play with it again. :-) Will report
| back as the season progresses.

Thanks for saying where you got it. I think that these days all mowers
of this sort made in this country are made by the same outfit, no
matter under what label they're sold. We have one from Sears that's
over a quarter-century old and has had a part or two replaced
(rollers, mostly) and the parts are always kept in stock. The biggest
drawback is that the people who used to sharpen our mower every year
or two are now gone and we haven't found anybody else to do it who
doesn't charge pretty much as much as the cost of an entirely new
mower. Our yard is full of oaks and pecans. It doesn't hurt to do what
we call "leaf chi"--go around first and pick up any debris, and that's
good exercise also. We have always loved our mower. It's so easy to
mow around trees and shrubbery. You're right about the cross-cross for
the very tall stuff, but, now that you've come this far, there's no
harm in trying out out a scythe or a sickle for that. Apart from the
ease and lack of pollution, a wonderful feature of these mowers is
their safety. Talk to an attorney familiar with negligence litigation
sometime. Despite all the safety features added to power mowers during
the past decade or two, there are still plenty of personal injuries
caused by them: damage to limbs and vision, not to mention hearing
when earmuffs aren't worn). The very greatest feature of these mowers
is that, besides being cheap, they make next to no noise! Your
neighbors will thank you.