I mentioned that I got a new riding mower a few days ago. Today, I was going to play with it for the first time. I loaded it on our trailer and drove it out to Danforth to mow. I’ve push mowed Danforth a few times and it takes a crazy amount of time and effort. Never mind getting the occasional bee sting. My plan was to get out there and ride fast enough to not get stung and enjoy.
When I arrived, I realized that this mower is about as wide as my trailer can handle. I was very lucky as I didn’t do any measurements before I selected this model. It didn’t take longer before I was unloaded and starting to mow. I lowered the deck to get the optimal mowing height and started right out. Things were going great working on the orchard area.
About ten minutes into my glorious debut mowing, I hit something and the engine stopped. This seemed bad. I restarted the mower and engaged the blades only to kill the engine again. It turns out that I hit some very low stump and bent one of the two blades. With anger, I moved the deck to the highest setting and knew I needed to drive the mower back to the trailer and take it home. Now I rode it back to the trailer and it was dragging the bent blade on the ground all the way.
I was so frustrated with the turn of events, I planned to take the mower straight back to the shop I bought it from and have them fix it. But I wasn’t done mowing. I went back to my shed and removed my push mower that we leave out there. I pull started my faithful push mower and quickly started push mowing the area. I would keep it up so we didn’t lose all of our progress.
Fate was not on my side today. Not five minutes into push mowing, I ran over something and bent the blade on my push mower the same way as the riding mower! I let out an appropriate expletive for the situation I was presented with.
With a semblance of self control, I packed and locked up the shed and pushed the mower to the trailer to be taken back to my house and repaired. I know how to repair mower blades and was less concerned with how to correct this.
I drove very carefully home. I have heard my whole life that bad things come in threes. I didn’t want that to manifest as an automobile accident or a speeding ticket. Forty five minutes of driving home gave me time to think about when I would be able to drop off the riding mower for repair. I had a good plan.
When I was safely home, I went to unload the trailer. There I learned that bad things did come in threes. Both of the tires on the right side of the mower had gone flat during the drive home!
I was angry again, but in a different way. I didn’t want to break things and invent new expletives. I wanted to solve problems I knew how to solve and fix the issue. I went out to my local Menards and got a plug kit for the tires and a new blade for my push mower. Note that they didn’t have a blade for the rider and the plug kit was my first concern.
Back at home, I made short work replacing the blade on the push mower. Now one of three problems fixed. Next I found the hole in each tire of the push mower and plugged them. I was able to unload the rider and put it in the garage. Two out of three fixed. Back in the house, I was able to find and order the blade for the riding mower. It took me two days to pick it up and then install the replacement blade.
Here is the rider blade on my trash can for reference how bent it is.
We will need to perform more maintenance on the orchard area to make it safe for mowing. Some stumps will need to be cut down further. There are some very hard/sharp items that will need to be cut. I had one nearly go through my boot and I’m guessing that is what punctured the tires.
Hogan Haake
Well, damn it!