Saturday, July 09, 2005

Yard?-Work?

One of my co-workers who shall remain nameless really dislikes yardwork. He was informed that he should do something about his lawn. When I asked him how long it had been since he had mowed it he said "Well, at this point mowing will be a bi-annual event." Meaning it hasn't been mowed in over 2 years. As you can see from the picture along the side of the house his yard had issues. The fence you see at the bottom of the picture is 6 feet tall. I couldn't open the gate because the blackberry bushes (that is those green things with leaves on them are) were pushing against it.

Anyway back to the story. I rented what is refered to as a "Brush Hog" from Home Depot. It looks like a push mower on performance enhancing drugs. Two big wheels in the back and the front just has metal skids instead of wheels and a large platform under which is a big beefy blade. I put it in the back of his truck and drove to his house. However, when I went to try to start it, things didn't go optimaly. It would start but then when I went to engage the blade it would quit. Unfortunatly every time I tried this the mower wouldn't even start for 5 minutes. So I tried 4 times before giving up, returning it to Home Depot and quiting myself for the day.

The good part of that experience was that when I saw the yard, I realized that that machine might not be the best with which to start. So the next day after work I went to another rental place and rented what looks like a weed wacker but at the end where the string goes there is a metal blade that looks like it belongs on a table saw. WoooHooo! That was a fun toy. I could cut through blackberry bushes, Big sticker weeds, small trees, and the drain pipe only to get lodged in the side of the house. Ooops! I am glad drain pipes are cheap and made of aluminum. Well, that was hard work but fun. Once I cut down all of the big items I tried the really tall grass but that just got wrapped around the saw just like a python and made it stop working. So I cut some grass, untangled it, cut some more, untangled it, cut some more ... you get the idea, until my rental time was done. I then loaded up just the grass and weeds from the small front yard into the pickup. If there was no fence around the front yard you could park a maximum of 2 cars on the grass (or the area that should be grass but is mostly weeds, ivy and more weeds instead). So we are talking about a really small front yard. And look how much it filled the back of the pickup! In the next few days I still will have one more load to take away the blackberry bushes from the side yard but you can see what a difference it was once the blackberry bushes were chopped down. It was a lot of hard work but very fulfilling. I really appreciated this chance to help him plus he compensated me for the work quite generously.

4 comments:

Luke Storer said...

It was great fun to read the story of your Yard? Work? Your description was excellent and a lot of fun to read. What a crazy yard! How did you end up getting the job? Here is what I imagined...

You and your co-worker were standing around talking during a break, and then he mentioned something about his house and then said something like:
"the lions and tigers in my yard are starting to become a threat, I am beginning to worry about the saftey of my family. I called the zoo, but they charge too much for this type of thing. I think if I could get someone to remove their jungle habitat, they might move to a better location and leave me and my family alone."
and then you said "would you like some help?"
And he said, "sure, that would be great when can you come over"

(laugh)

-Luke

Anonymous said...

As for the python in the grass - grass cutter that is,
I can offer a method to employ the fast-turning tablesaw-blade on a stick.

Use the tool as a sickle or a sythe (is that spelled close to correct) - anyway, this is not a spelling bee.

#1 Use the tool, cutting from right to left in an arc in front of you.
#2 As you cut, you never allow the blade to cut more than the radius of the blade. A six inch blade will cut a 3-4 inch swathe. The projectile grass that is sent to grass heaven first makes its way into a pile to your left.
#3 Do not cut on your return to the right. Only cut from right to left. In this way you rarely have the grass bogging down the machine.
#4 As you cut, you rev the rpm up. As you return you allow the rpm to slow.
#5 Give thanks for your strong back.

Dopad

Anonymous said...

Your mom told me that you had pictures from Brasil on your blog, so I had to read it. It was quite fascinating. I want to go to Brasil now. But after reading Luke's blog, I kind of want to go to Laos, too. Mostly I think I want to go for the food (tee hee). You and Luke are so much alike. It's grand.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much work it would be to have more links on the side that would take an interested person straightaway to locations like the simulator photo "Where I Work" or to "Micah Balancing a Bike..."

Just a thot.

dopad