Sunday, April 18, 2010

Yard Work!

I have no pictures because I hate the camera I'm using since I so kindly let Superman take mine with him to Wonderland, but I thought you'd like to know that spring has arrived and everything is greening up, sprouting buds, and starting to bloom. Valiant headed down the street to start his regular lawn mowing job and since the day was so beautiful, I decided to join him. Yep, you read that right: I mowed the lawn and edged all by myself. The backyard was so long (and damp underneath--who knew?) that it kept stalling out the lawnmower - grrr. Still, after running out of gas and running down to Miss Sue's to ask Valiant if we had gas (we didn't and we used some of Miss Sue's), cutting my hand on the broken knob on the pull rope (why didn't you just splurge for a new knob?), quite a few blisters, and getting a bit frustrated by stalling out a lot (enough that I, oops, flooded the motor twice), I got the lawn mowed.

Then I felt ambitious and capable so I got out the edger (you know, the scary gas-powered edger that I avoid?), replaced the string thingy, and tried to get the *(&^*! thing started. It took me something like 500 pulls and I finally got it started. It sounded rough and Valiant was done at Miss Sue's by this time so he came to watch Mom. Valiant said that I need to squeeze the trigger and it would run better. I argued that the engine cut out when the trigger was depressed. "No, Mom, you're wrong." I squeezed the trigger, the engine cut out, and it took me another 250 pulls to get it started again. (Grrr!) But I did get it started again and I edged the entire backyard. Woot! (Jazz hands here!)

Tomorrow? Oh, tomorrow I'm doing the front yard...since it is 1/6th the size of the backyard, I think it will be a piece of cake!

1 comment:

Clark said...

Wow! 750 pulls? I hope that you switched hands to get a better workout! : ) That is a heck of a lot of work for one person. Especially when it is the first time of the season. If you have a lot of problems, you could raise the deck go over the whole lawn and then lower it for a second pass. I have had to do that a few times to get the lawn manageable again. Anyway, great job! As far as the edger goes, I have regretted buying that as a close out model. I only paid $69 at the time and thought I was getting a good deal. It should not cut off when you squeeze the trigger. If it continues to have problems, you can replace it for about $99. I know we should fix the things that we have, but it would not be a good idea to pour more money in to a mistake. : (