A NEW mower – oh joy

I know I mentioned that recently I burned up my little red electric mower.  I was, actually, surprised it lasted as long as it did since it sat in 12-15 inches of water for three days during THE GREAT FLOOD OF 2017. 

Because I do not understand the workings of electricity (my personal belief is --- magic), I called my brother to question him about several “electric lawnmower” things.  Based on what happened with the red mower, did he think I could still use it with a different extension cord?  What kind of extension cord should I be using?  How long a cord can I use?  Yada, yada. 

His immediate response was NO, do not use the mower again.  And then he said I should just get a gas-powered mower (no cord, no electricity needed, etc.)  But, if I was getting an electric mower, I needed a 12-gauge extension cord no longer than 100 feet.  Then he talked about amps and volts and GFCI outlets – a whole other language of weird.

OK, so here’s the problem with a gas mower.  (1) they require gasoline.  (2) they also need oil, spark plug(s), air filter(s), lines cleaned out and a bunch of other stuff.  (3) they need somebody who understands the “how-tos and when-tos” to fix them when THEY WILL NOT START.  I am not that person.

I went to the Lowe’s website and shopped for a mower.  Decided on one – under $200 that’s good.  Then looked at 12-gauge 100-foot extension cords.  Whoa!  It cost just slightly less than the mower.  (When asked, brother said – it’s because they have more copper and copper is expensive.)                 O K  F I N E.  Put everything in the shopping basket, hit send and waited to get notification that everything had arrived at Lowes.

Today, I decided to take the mower out of its box and mow the weeds (still don’t have grass but I have all sorts of weeds!).  Six pieces along with three instruction books came out of the box.  Putting together power tools of any sort has never been in my job description but – “how hard can it be”.  

Well, first of all,

“Fit the lower handle into the two holes in the machine body and fasten the handle on both with the screws provided.”

That sounds easy.  NO!  It is not easy.  The handle ends just barely fit into the holes and only go in a little way.  It took me pushing and a hammer to get the damn things in so the screws would actually do their job of fitting into the side of the mower and through the handle thus holding it in place. 

Next,

“Join the upper handle to the lower handle using the knob, washer, and bolt provided.”

This wasn’t hard although an extra hand would have been helpful to hold the two handles in place to bolt them together.  Then, I realized I had not remembered to put “the extension cord restraint hook” on the upper handle before bolting it to the lower handle.  Too bad.  Not taking it apart.

Next came the Side Discharge Chute (and one the reasons I chose this mower).

So, I live in Texas.  If you mow with a grass catcher on your mower, you will have to stop every 6 or 7 steps and empty the bag.  That is just way too much work.  I firmly believe the clippings are good for the grass and are just fine laying there doing whatever it is they are supposed to do.

OK – the Chute –

“Raise the spring-loaded ejector flap.  Fasten the side-discharge chute to the mower body by sliding the chute tabs onto the coupling hooks found under the ejector flap.  Make sure the chute is securely fastened.”

Huh?  OK, well ….. hmmmmm …….

And, finally, Taa Daaa!  A cute little green mower.

Take care.