[Grizzly]

<p>Over the years we've drastically decreased the amount of lawn we have on our property.  Xericscaping and deck and garage and gardens.  We had an electric mower and it was on the fritz, besides the power cord often dragged across flower beds and was a hassle to unwind, plug, un-plug, wind, more, and repeat.</p>
<p><br>
So I thought about a hand mower but remembered with great distaste the one from my childhood.  GREAT distaste.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But a neighbour has a new generation one and we borrowed it today.  Loved it.  Went out and bought one and had <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>fun</strong></span> with it.  The missus tried it and had a smile on her face, and then the oby gave it a whirl.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Can I mow next week?"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Gee.  Should have done that YEARS ago.</p>

 

[Floridaboiler]

<p>I remember my grandfather had one that i tried when I was a young boiler but I think it was messed up or something.  I was trying to even push it along the driveway and nothing happened.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>That is cool that you got one.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>

 

[wherestheportojohn]

<p><span id="user_yui_3_3_0_8_130727059485914"><img alt="biggrin.gif" id="user_yui_3_3_0_8_130727059485913" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="width:16px;height:16px;"></span> brings back sweet memories [not] of my childhood mowing attempts....tough for a short kid to push that heavy beast; and with dull blades, all it did was push the grass flat <span id="user_yui_3_3_0_8_130727059485925"><img alt="mad.gif" id="user_yui_3_3_0_8_130727059485924" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/mad.gif" style="width:16px;height:16px;"></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><a class="H-lightbox-open" href="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/87790/width/1000/height/800/flags/" target="_blank"><img alt="lawnmower.jpg" class="lightbox-enabled" data-id="17018" data-type="61" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/content/type/61/id/17018/width/92/height/108" style="; width: 92px; height: 108px"></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Excellent idea for a small area, Grizz....just keep the blades sharpened!</p>

 

[Grizzly]

<p>Been out gardening and working with our neighbour on our next project - building a fence between our garages (to stop errant cars from hitting mine!) and removing sod.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Oby isn't satisfied with just shovelling, he asks the neighbour if he wants his lawn mowed, then takes our mower and runs through the job. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I'll repeat, I should have bought that YEARS ago.  But then again the novelty will wear off.</p>

 

[gretriever]

<p>Had the opposite experience. When we bought the house, we got a hand mower. For four years we used it, but it never cut down the  occasional tall wild grass, or some of the numerous dandelions. The yard always looked shabby, like it was never cut properly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Last week we gave up and got an electric mower. Does the job it's supposed to, and the cut job looks much neater. Now if there was some way we could keep those damndelions from coming back...  <span><img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"></span> </p>

 

[RaisingArizonainNH]

<p> My memories of the steel and hard wood mower my dad had me  mow his suburban lawn with as a kid are not all that fond. We maybe had a 1/3 of an acre.. not much really - but that thing was heavy!</p>
<p>   I have about an acre of lawn now, and requested a push mower a few years ago for a birthday present. For quite a while it was  a summer workout once a week... I agree though that is does not cut the tall grasses and such.. I tend now to use a push gas mower.  I did the back yard today and it is still a work out.  I like having the push mower as back up. It seemed for a time that every time I went to mow that we were out of gas, or the pull string would break or some other mechanical failure would occur with the gas mower. </p>

 

[yar]

<p>If you keep the blades sharp, the reel mower (that's the term for it) is supposed to be the best way to cut the lawn, both for appearance and health of the grass.  Donno - haven't used one since my dad bought an electric back around 1970.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>yar</p>

 

[fox-runr]

We are a riding lawnmower family...we even went bigger...but my boys now salivate mover the neighbors rhino. I don't do grass, so I don't give a rip. Snow removal is my job (only cuz nobody believes that I am allergic to snow)

 

[jrjo]

Did the reel mower for a summer once, if I let it go more than a week, yikes, too much and it'd take three or four passes.<br>
We're renting now and lawn care is included, a guy could get used to this. With all the moisture here, lawns are like shag carpets, glad someone else has to slog thru it <img alt="surprised.gif" class="bbcode_smiley" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/surprised.gif">

 

[Mrtambalynman]

<p>I bought one of those light weight german manufactured ones - Gardena sells it out of Home Depot - when I got my first house.  It didn't mow very well and what it did cut didn't land in the basket.  We sold it to a friend and I took my mom's old gas mower.  Personally I'd rather have a sheep. </p>

 

[mmoonptdeux]

<p>My grandfather had one of those reel mowers when our family stayed with them for a couple years in the 1970s.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I enjoyed using it to cut the lawn (my grandfather was meticulous in keeping those blades sharp) but the lawn was pretty small to begin with (pretty typical of San Francisco houses) and it was so foggy, windy and cold (again, very typical of San Francisco, especially where our house was located) most of the time, actually having a nice sunny day to get out & cut the lawn was actually kinda' fun </p>

 

[jcumming]

<p>We have one down at the cottage to do around the areas that the lawn tractor can't get at.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It's easy to push, and we got the blades sharpened, but it doesn't like grass over 3 inches long.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Paid a whole $10 for it at a garage sale. That's about what it's worth.</p>