Mow, Mow, Mow Your Butt

Well, we picked up a couple free lawn mowers a bit over a week ago, and the parts I ordered to fix one of them didn't arrive on time before I went back up to the land, so I thought I would see if I could find a place to get parts up there. I did. For $3.20. And I bought a quart of oil, which was actually more expensive than the parts.

I installed the parts - which included a diaphragm and a gasket for the carburetor - and the mower fired right up.

So I started mowing. And like Forrest Gump, when he started running, I just kept mowing. I mowed and mowed and mowed and mowed and mowed, taking short breaks only to keep from passing out. I drank about a gallon of water, and after I mowed about two acres with this tiny little 3.75 HP grass-eating machine (with the blade mounted backward), I said to my wife, "could we have been happy with 2-1/2 acres?"

She said no.

The mower lost some power a couple of times (I think I've wounded it), so I stopped a couple of times to let it cool off and to clean it up good. Unfortunately, the parts store didn't have any air filters in stock, but fortunately it is a foam type filter so was not difficult to clean up (to some degree, anyway) and re-use.
But after mowing about an acre and a half, I noticed the cutting blade was mounted upside down and that the grass was being "cut" by the back side of the blade. And it wasn't doing a half bad job, either (although, the grass is DEAD). So, I removed the blade and re-installed it properly and it worked a little bit better after that. But it is still a bit sluggish. But I'm not complaining - the thing was free! But now I know why people have tractors.

The view in the picture, above, is from about where the house will sit (actually just it tad bit in front of the house) and you can see some of the lines where I mowed.

This picture here is from a vantage point further down the hill on the property. That little green area up on the hill in among the trees is where the house is going to be. We have had the irrigation water running up there to soften up the ground to make it easy to grate (grade?) when the time comes. HOPEFULLY VERY SOON! We're getting the plans back to the county this Friday.

Keep your fingers crossed! We need those building permits!