New Lawn Mower

You may recall that I talked of getting a new lawn mower about six months ago. Or that I talked about it a year and a half before that, or nine months before that. Yes, I do sometimes agonize over fairly minor decisions.

Well, I finally got a new one! No, it wasn't the 36V cordless from my most recent lawn mower post. I went with this 20" corded Homelite mower instead. I had originally planned to get this 18" Black and Decker model because The Home Depot site said that it was available in store and the Homelite was only available online. It turned out to be the opposite once I got there. I prefer the wider cutting width, so this is probably a good thing.

I've used it once so far, and I like it overall. It was pretty easy to unpack and put together without tools, which was a pleasant surprise. It started right up and was about as loud as a box fan, as people had commented in the reviews of various electric mowers. I briefly considered getting just a 50ft extension cord, but I'm very glad I got the 100 ft. 14 gauge cord instead - I don't think the 50ft range would have been enough.

The mower itself only has two design flaws that I am aware of so far. First, the height adjustment selector only has labels on the lowest (1.5") and highest (4") settings. There are seven settings, which means you can change it in slightly-less-than-half-inch increments, but it's not entirely clear if those increments are exactly equal. Second, the rear flap is really stiff and will sometimes catch on the ground and make turning difficult. That's not a huge issue, and the flap might loosen up in time.

Most of my problems with the first mowing were related to the composition of my yard. My yard is not a nice even layer of grass. Instead, it has clumps of dense grass that I will eventually have to kill (getting the yard entirely green is my first priority!), which the extension cord gets caught on. There's also a former garden area that has an extra inch of soil that creates an annoying ridge.

The cord was a bit of a hassle, but I think I just need to get used to it. I couldn't immediately figure out a good way to consistently and gracefully step over the cord as I turned, and I need to cut the side yards separately because the cord doesn't stay out of the way around corners as easily. Next time, I will try draping the cord over a shoulder, cutting the yard in five sections instead of three, and seeing how things turn out. Even if things don't improve at all, my annoyance level with the cord was pretty low. Switching from a self-propelled mower to a push mower was definitely a more significant change.

Gardening 101

Tuesday night is the evening before trash day, and hence the time when I take out the garbage. I also like to weed my lawn around this time - technically it's usually around 12-1am on Wednesday morning. When you weed the lawn when the trash can is already at the curb, you can avoid the decomposing yard waste stinking up your garage. It would be better to use those paper yard waste bags, I suppose, but I never seem to have those on hand, and I definitely wouldn't fill one up with just weeds. Even though I have a lot of weeds.

I have a wide variety of weeds, too. There are a few growing in the back that get to be almost two feet high in just a couple of weeks. When I pull them, it smells vaguely like something vegetable-y I've eaten in the past. Though, given what I like to eat, that doesn't mean what I'm remembering was a quality ingredient.

This is where my first rule of weeding comes in: Nothing worthwhile grows that quickly. If it's taller than the (living) grass after a week of growing, it gets pulled. Maybe these aromatic weeds are actually wonderful delicacies, but I doubt it. I would have taken pictures so someone out there could enlighten me as to their culinary uses, if any, but as I mentioned, I weed late at night. I think a flash would produce bad pictures and maybe even disturb the sleep of a neighbor or two. And my camera is locked in my car and is therefore too much of a hassle to get.

A Story From My Childhood

My grandma told me a story that my older brother, Brian, recently told her about our childhood. I think it says a lot about who I was and still am.

Brian and I were working in her backyard by picking up acorns. I don't know what the context was - perhaps we were just picking up acorns to make barefoot walking more comfortable, or perhaps we were prepping the yard for being covered with sand, brick, and rock. After all, it wouldn't be good to have hundreds of oak trees trying to grow up out of a patio. Either way, Brian and I each had a bucket that we were filling with acorns for some reason.

After awhile, Brian noticed that my bucket was a lot more full than his was. My grandma said he was surprised because he is four years older, but maybe he'll grace us with a comment giving his side of the story directly. He asked me, "Did you pick up all those acorns yourself?" I responded, "No." After a bit of silence, he prompted, "Well, how did all those acorns get in there?" "One fell from the tree and landed in the bucket," I answered.

This tells me three things about myself that remain true to this day. First, I have an aptitude for tedious tasks like picking up acorns or knitting. Second, I don't always recognize when more information is expected after I give an initial answer. Third, I generally don't lie, especially when it comes to pointing out technicalities.

It's also interesting to analyze my memory of this. I don't remember the words said, but I do remember the acorn falling into the bucket, and I remember that I pointed it out somehow when explaining the fullness of my bucket. I don't remember anything else about the scene, though. I was pretty young, so I'll use that as my excuse. Anyway, nothing major in this post, just thought it was cute and fun.

My failure as a homeowner

So, a couple weeks ago, my failure as a homeowner became official. The neighbor across the street came over and rang the doorbell one Sunday morning while I was asleep. Carrie answered the door, and the neighbor gave her some local church material, then asked if she (Carrie) would mind if she (the neighbor) weeded the front landscaping. Of course Carrie didn't mind, so I woke up to a weeded front garden!

Obviously, this worked out well for me - I got some free yard work. However, I still do feel bad about the whole thing. I asked my dad what the appropriate response was - do I offer computer help in return? Do I pretend nothing ever happened but take better care of things in the future? Do I send a fruit basket? He agreed that not making a big deal out of it was probably the best course of action for now.

And of course, this is just one of my many failures in homeownership. I will skip the documentation of those for now...until they reach ridiculous proportions.