My dislike for mowing the lawns stemmed from the time I made a living from mowing lawns. It was back in 2002 when I was laid off from my job for 2 years.
In order to mow lawns I had to get customers. This meant that I had to walk around the neighborhood and put flyers on peoples doors. I ended up with 12 customers doing this but being out in Florida heat walking miles through neighborhoods getting all sweaty discouraged me from getting any more. I also had a small 21 inch self propelled mower to work with and that meant it would usually take me an hour to mow, edge and weed eat a yard. Needless to say I ended up tired, hot and thirsty all for $20 a lawn.
My payment structure was all wrong too. I charged by the cut where most services charge by the month. This just felt more ethical to me. So when winter came around or when the grass didn't grow much my income went down. The customers I had were good although some of them were quite the character. One customer wanted me to mow the lawn in a particular pattern and always complained about the job I had done. I quit after the third time he complained and told him to hire someone else. I admit lawn care was not my forte. One time I destroyed 4 sprinklers in one mowing. The owner charged me for fixing them and then docked my pay. I quit because I figured it would happen again and I wouldn't make much money.
Another reason mowing lawns was its no fun starting and maintaining the engines. Its such a hassle pulling on that cord to start and engine in 100 degree heat especially if it wont start. And then there is the weed eater line that runs out or stops spooling.
Anyway, after the lawn mowing service experience I swore that I would never mow lawns again. I hired a service for $70 a month and they took care of it. It was great. Getting someone else to mow my lawn freed me up to do creative things. I mostly ignored it when they destroyed my plants. The weed eater guy removed the protection I had around my orange tree and took the bark off the tree and then it died. The lawn mower guy obliterated my favorite one of kind African Aloe plant. It always bothered me when I could hear the string of the weed eater bang against my new garage door. However, no matter how hard he tried the Wayne Dalton garage door finish never showed a mark.
But the time I had for creativity was the lawn service's worst enemy. I made plans for a cedar covered porch, a garage expansion and a new boat lift. Once construction started the yard became too dangerous for them to mow. It looked like a mine field as I have outlined in my previous blog.
Anyway after going for 2 years without a lawn service it really began to sink in as to how much I had saved by not having them. Over two years it would have been about $1700. It became obvious to me that if I would buy a lawn mower then saving by not having a lawn service would pay for it. This also meant that I could justify buying a really nice lawn mower.
Because of my dislike of mowing lawns, I decided to buy a lawn mower that would enable me to mow the lawn quickly and efficiently. Because I had a slope in my yard a riding lawn mower was not the best choice because it could tip over and end up on top of me in the canal. Some really good information on dangers of riding lawn mower roll overs can be found at this link. In my case the best lawn mower for my sloped yard is a self propelled walk behind.
The lawn mower I bought is the Toro Time master 30" lawn mower with electric start. It is by far the best lawn mower I have ever used and it took down the tall grass in my yard effortlessly.
Since it is 30" wide and has a top speed of 5.2 MPH it easily cuts the lawn way quicker than the 21" mower I used for the lawn service. Here is a video of some of the features of the lawn mower. One thing alluded to in the video is the handle folds for easy storage. However they don't show the other position of the handle which makes it easy to put in a vehicle. The handle actually folds flat over the engine reducing the lawn mowers height. Also not mentioned is the lawn mower comes with a charger.
Anyway, I will add to this blog if any problems occur with the lawn mower.
In case your wondering, after two years of being laid off I did land a job. It paid half the price of what an engineer should make. However, after mowing lawns I found myself sitting in a cool office not sweating behind a desk using my brain and knowledge. I remember feeling that this was the way it should be for me.
As for the construction project, the boat house is coming to a close. I expect to turn my attention to the shingles this week. There might be about 15 hours of work left on the boat house. However, there is a category 5 hurricane (Mathew) near Jamaica making its way up the coast of Florida. I hope it doesn't hit my home. I know I will get high winds and their will be a large surf. I really want to get this project done before having it all torn down by a hurricane. Crossing my fingers.
Happy Building!
The Dr.
No comments:
Post a Comment