The process of mowing is mesmerizing. Soothing, even.
And it's a really satisfying activity, because there is such contrast between the "before" and the "after." This is especially true if you only mow every few weeks, which is what I do - not by choice but because of competing priorities.
I generally like mowing on my rider. I can understand of course I only have 1.5 acres.
Now weed-eating... I hate it with a passion. I will do almost anything to limit how long I am weed-eating. I think I hated it about 10% less with my old straight shaft one, but it broke and I ended up with a curved shaft piece of sh*t. I will buy a new one eventually.
I enjoy it takes about 45 min around my home then I go up to my orchard and mow the road going into the orchard and the hiking trail around the pasture it takes about 2 hrs.
Agree. Mowing is focused nothingness. Part of your brain goes into relaxed mode. The other part seems to focus only on where you are mowing [ah, a gopher tortiose has a hole, there, go around it....]. I also like to sing while mowing.
Baring the heat issue I even like self-propelled push mowers.
Re: heat issue. Got some rules. Sweat dripping into eyes. Stop. My fore arms stopped sweating — stop mowing and go inside and drink a lot of water even if the rest of me is still sweating. Which is why I’m now typing and drinking. In the summer you can only mow short periods of time — which I also understand is better for any mower.
This time of year, mowing is what I do when it's too hot to do anything else. (In my OP, I forgot to mention I have a lawn tractor, a.k.a. riding lawn mower. I wouldn't enjoy mowing if I had a walk-behind, and I definitely wouldn't mow in hot weather if I had a walk-behind.)
I find it relaxing. A way for me to get away from the train wreck that is my life. I'm mowing about 2 acres or so (4 acres total, but horse pastures take up about half). Takes me several hours. Due to being in Texas, and health issue, I have to mow in several different blocks so I don't melt.
I like it until I step in a hidden fire ant mound. I usually try and do it during the hotest part of the day. The A/C feels so much better when done and a good hard sweat cleans the body and acclimates you for heat.
I used to, the heat + grass smells make my COPD flare and one of the drugs I take makes me sunburn super fast. I compensate by doing all the other gardening and landscaping on days he does not mow, at dusk and dawn.
I used to do yard care for a living. Mowing was my favorite part of that. It can be very satisfying to watch the progress. I hated pulling weeds from flower beds- especially ones that the owner wasn’t taking proper care of between visits.
I had one place in my rounds that had me weed his vegetables, which was a lot more satisfying because it was useful, and he would give me a couple bags of veggies during harvest.
Back to mowing, I like dumping the clippings from my parents yard into their chicken area and watching them scratch at it.
I mow about 4 acres total. I enjoy it if the weather is nice. MP3 player with the earbuds tucked inside my shooting muffs and Im good to go. If its hot and humid I do it because I have to. It's swampy around me so mosquitos will carry you away unless its in the middle of the day and the grass has to be kept short in order to see any snakes that might slither up out of the bottoms which id almost daily.
Weed Eat ?? No way am I going to weed eat. Not going to happen. I spray the fence line and around the house. After that its the wifeys plants and she weed eats around them because she know I just dont know the difference between a plant and a weed.
I love mowing, but I hate weed whacking, so that is my conundrum when it comes to yard work. I have a riding lawnmower for the about 2 acres I mow, and it takes me 30-45 minutes with picking up rock and all. The weed whacking takes me a good 2 plus hours. Got to do it to maintain my fire perimeter and eliminate areas for bears to hide. Mid June to end of July I typically need to do this every 4 days with the 18 plus hours of daylight.
I love mowing when I can beat my sister 5th Gear to the mower. She doesn't think I do as good a job on some of the semi-wild areas but then she seems to think the riding mower is a bush hog, resulting in a screwed up blade every once in a while. She keeps spares handy and is pretty good at changing them herself. :
I have the old ear protection muffs with built in radio and a little stubby antenna. Muffs on, radio on, and just mow and sing along for the next three hours. It's pretty relaxing.
Frequency depends on the rain but mowing is usually about every two weeks. Any longer than that and it takes the grass a lot longer to dry before mowing.
There's no string trimmer here but there's fixin' to be one soon. It will be for trimming around the 16 raised beds as I'm tired of pulling grass along those edges by hand. It's not so much the actual chore as it is the time it takes that can be spent doing something else. Time to loosen up that tight wallet! :thumb:
I find cutting grass to be satisfying. Something about a sharp blade on a good cutting mower turning a ragged yard into a smooth manicured surface. I mowed a zillion acres of grass from childhood through my late teens from cutting lawns for cash with a push mower at 8yo to taking care of three cemeteries and multiple residential lawns as a teen with commercial equipment.
I'm not a fan of weed-eating, (flashbacks to cutting around all those tombstones for hours and hours, lol). I have light weight straight shaft trimmers, one with double line head and a saw-blade on the other. I trim the edges every other mowing unless I'm just feeling like my back and shoulders won't punish me for it, then I'll trim every time.
The bluetooth/AM/FM hearing protection makes the time go by easier too. Talk radio as I work.
I used to enjoy mowing and bush hogging. The presence of ground dwelling yellow jackets has changed that. From mid summer to the end of november I do little mowing. I do a lot of spraying. A quart of 2-4d plus a quart of generic round up into three gallons is a good kill almost everything.
i've been cutting grass since I was 9. Love it is all I can say. Nothing like the sight of nice crisp symmetrical lines of well coifed lawn. Stress relief for me even though my Boy has started to take over for me.
I've got acreage that I mow 3-4 years a year, mainly for fire mitigation, but the wife and I both like the 'groomed' appearance to well-cared-for property.
Mowing is like driving a car. It is fun for the first year and then you realize it is work. The maintenance and fuel cost for mowing make me wish I had animals to eat the grass and weeds. The smell of fresh cut grass is nice, but I do not get any pride out of having a nice looking lawn. Its just another chore to keep within standards so nobody can complain.
I had a neighbor who asked me to not mow as often because he liked the way the tall grass makes waves when the wind blows.
Nope. Could be because my yard is shaped like a donkey d**k and has 3 hills. Add in the grape arbor, 5 raised beds, 5 garden plots, and 6 kids worth of toys. We have several action figures that are amputees'.
I like mowing and vaccuuming and painting, the immediate impact of things being more tidy and orderly does it for me. I know life without oil would be exasperating for me mentally , if not downright depressing.
Working out with weights or biking are enjoyable, but there's nothing to look back on when you're done and you can daydream while your doing it. Pushing a mower for a few hours keeps me focused on getting straight lines and being as efficient as possible. It's also fun to sharpen the blade just right so I can walk as fast as possible and not bog down the mower.
Great exercise. I can't see why anyone would buy a rider.
Push mow a half-dozen acres, lol! Don’t have that much free time!
I don’t mind the mowing so much as the prep work picking up tree limbs and knocking down mole hills. I use a commercial zero-turn, if I don’t do the prep work I have to sharpen blades every other mow.
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