It’s my birthday this week and Joy and I were having a hard time deciding what to get each other. There aren’t any new videogames out that I want and with the new Mini I’m pretty set electronically. So I told her that I’d been thinking about getting a new mower for a few months. There was nothing wrong with our current mower, an electric Black & Decker Lawn Hog (or some such creature), but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about something even more “green.” When I told her about it, she said “if that’s what I really want…” and we were off to Lowes!
So, this is my new lawn mower. It’s the Fiskars Staysharp Max Push Reel Lawn Mower. Yup, it’s one of those old-timey reel mowers. But this ain’t your Paw-Paw’s mower! It has a chain-driven inertia drive that keeps the blades spinning after you’ve built up the momentum so it’s super easy to cut with. This kind of mower is supposed to be better for your lawn because it snips the blades like scissors instead of tearing the tops of the stalks off like a rotary mower does. The cut width is the same as my electric mower, 18″, and it’s not self-propelled (neither was my electric), so I’m not having to make a huge adjustment. I do like that it cuts just as well whether I push it fast or slow and there’s no cord to worry about cutting! It’s super quiet too so I can new listen to my audiobooks while cutting the grass.
There’s not much else new. I’ve been busy doing “man” things like installing a 220 volt outlet and fluorescent lighting in the garage so I can use my compressor and air tools and see what it is I’m doing out there with them! I put in another full day yesterday working on Pokey. Every weekend I think this is going to be the one where I get Pokey finished and send him off to paint, but I’m about 95% there. Got a little more cleaning to do in the cabin with the wire wheel and the fenders to massage a little so they fit better.