It’s that time of year, at least for me. - to start mowing and yard work

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

It’s that time of year to start mowing and yard work.  I mowed the last two Saturdays. This means about three hours of mowing plus any yard work time that I can’t work in the barn on projects. Fortunately my wife likes to mow, but she had surgery on Monday which means I have to mow at least for the next few weeks. Today was the first day that it wasn’t raining and it’s suppose to rain this Tuesday through Friday so I’ll be mowing next weekend. Life can get in the way of our project time. Mike

[Bhigdog]

At least you,re looking down at it rather than looking up....bob 

Edited April 6 by Bhigdog (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

Could be worse.  I plowed 10 inches of snow 2 days ago.  2 weeks before that we had 15 inches.   The only bare ground is where it's plowed.   A month ago,  there was no snow anywhere,

[3macboys]

45 minutes ago, auburnseeker said:

Could be worse.  I plowed 10 inches of snow 2 days ago.  2 weeks before that we had 15 inches.   The only bare ground is where it's plowed.   A month ago,  there was no snow anywhere,

Yup, at least with mowing the grass there is always the chance for the grass cutting beer at the end for a job well done, never heard of a snow shoveling beer

[plymouthcranbrook]

1 hour ago, JBP said:

 

West Coast: "The great thing about rain is we don't have to shovel it off our driveway and sidewalks!"

 

Central and East: "Oh yeah? Well, at least we don't have to pump snow out of our basements!"

Yet

[John Bloom]

Locked in a cage match on my property trying to get rid of the buckthorn in the wooded areas.....this battle has been raging for years with me losing ground, until this year. I feel like I finally swung the momentum a bit and have taken back more than I lost. I do this until the warmer weather kicks in and brings the mosquitoes with it. Then I am done  till fall after a good frost. 
 

very little car time till the window of “Spring yard push” closes....

 

 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

LOL!

  Listening to you folks kinda makes me GLAD for my tiny yard.    Ten minutes does it.

 

  Car time?   Yea, buddy.  Behind the wheel for the next two weeks.  Baby son [ 54! ]taking care of the place.

 

  Enjoy life!

 

  Ben

[60FlatTop]

14 hours ago, auburnseeker said:

A month ago,  there was no snow anywhere,

My daughter attended St. Lawrence University up in your neighborhood. At the end of her first year we asked her if it was warming up for spring. She said "Yeah, it's getting warm enough to snow!"

[TAKerry]

I have 5 acres and it takes me about 20 minutes to cut grass as the most. All but where my house sits is heavily wooded. And what I have in  the front yard is nothing by moss and weeds which usually doesnt require a good cutting until about the end of May. But I do cut the grass at my mothers house. She's only about a 5 minute trip away which is nice but it takes twice that long to hook up the trailer and load the mower and other tools. I usually spend an hour cutting grass and hour talking then come home. So its a half day job when all is said and done. I actually enjoy cutting grass and spending time with mom is a bonus so all in all its not too bad. Today will be the first the cut of the year, then once a week until November. 

[NewOldWood]

11 hours ago, John Bloom said:

Locked in a cage match on my property trying to get rid of the buckthorn in the wooded areas.....this battle has been raging for years with me losing ground, until this year. I feel like I finally swung the momentum a bit and have taken back more than I lost. I do this until the warmer weather kicks in and brings the mosquitoes with it. Then I am done  till fall after a good frost. 
 

very little car time till the window of “Spring yard push” closes....

 

 

My fight is with Kudzu, Chinese Privet, and greenbrier,(along with a couple other annoying thorny vines). I've been here for three years now and am finally getting the upper hand. Keeping ahead of the native growth is bad enough, but the kudzu and Privet are self inflicted invasive species.

[Jubilee]

I have two vehicles I want to paint while I’m still able to lift and hold a full pot gun steady. 
I want to do one this spring/summer which means I may have to hire some yard work out. This is a desperate move for a skinflint like me.

[1912Staver]

Here in the Pacific North West it's Blackberries. Left on their own they really take over. Probably not as fast as Kudzu from what I have heard, but very sharp thorns. This time of year is best. If you just cut off the vines they grow back quickly, you need to yank out the roots. Big root system. This time of year the ground is soft enough that with a lot of hard work you can pull out enough of the root the plant usually won't grow back. Either that or a small cat with a root ripper blade.

[28 Chrysler]

That is only one of the reasons I don't live in those areas.

I have a bit over one acre and if there is a blade of grass I get the weed killer out.

I kind of like 4 inches of rain a year and 350 days of sunshine.

[60FlatTop]

The woods is men and machine work.

 

The women do the yard.

 

[auburnseeker]

3 hours ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

LOL!

  Listening to you folks kinda makes me GLAD for my tiny yard.    Ten minutes does it.

28 + acres and I would buy the whole horse farm next to me if I could and that's not for horses or the barn.   Yup cuts into car time,  but privacy and shaping your own land,  has as much of a gratifying feeling as finishing a project on my car,  plus it's better than a gym membership.   A heated and dehumidified shop helps,  as the days it's just too cold or wet outside,  I can work in the shop. 

[NewOldWood]

1 hour ago, auburnseeker said:

28 + acres and I would buy the whole horse farm next to me if I could and that's not for horses or the barn.   Yup cuts into car time,  but privacy and shaping your own land,  has as much of a gratifying feeling as finishing a project on my car,  plus it's better than a gym membership.   A heated and dehumidified shop helps,  as the days it's just too cold or wet outside,  I can work in the shop. 

Other than having 15 acres, this is me!! Couldn't have written a better description of myself,myself!!

[JACK M]

7 hours ago, 1912Staver said:

Here in the Pacific North West it's Blackberries. Left on their own they really take over.  sharp thorns. This time of year is best. If you just cut off the vines they grow back quickly, you need to yank out the roots. Big root system.

One of my farmer buddies told me the best way to get rid of those black Berries is to spray them with Crossbow on the last sunny day of the fall.

Spray the leaves. This will be the time of year that the vines are pulling back to the earth for the winter, hence the timing of late fall. This is the best way to actually kill the roots. Those vines will all be dead by spring.

I sprayed about daily for a couple of summers and made no progress. I would see the BB leaves starting every time I looked.

I got good advice from my farmer friend that knows his farming.

Another thing about those stupid vines is they are murder on tires. I use lots of that green stuff in my mower and tractor tires after working on the berry vines.

[Pfeil]

On 4/6/2024 at 3:17 PM, auburnseeker said:

Could be worse.  I plowed 10 inches of snow 2 days ago.  2 weeks before that we had 15 inches.   The only bare ground is where it's plowed.   A month ago,  there was no snow anywhere,

What we here in Prescott Az. call "par for the course", Of course the kids coming from school call it "Climate Change".

Rain, snow showers, and snow last week and yesterday and today sunny.

[rocketraider]

I was thinking a few days ago "maybe I should cut a few mower widths less yard this year". That would be about 15 feet less width around the perimeter of the currently 2 acre yard, and possibly knock off about 45 minutes of mowing time (takes 8-10 minutes to make a lap around the perimeter with a 42" mower running medium ground speed).

 

Then it struck me I'd still have to bush hog it, just maybe not as often. Plus the larger yard keeps rodents and snakes a little farther away from the house.

 

Sure it cuts into time for other things, but I find mowing to be relaxing, mindless work. You go round in circles but look behind you and you've accomplished something.

 

I did buy a Ryobi battery weedeater and blower last year. I'm at a point that wrangling the Stihl gas equipment takes a lot out of me.

[DrData]

After more than 40 years, man and boy, of pushing a mower, we gave up. Stripped out remaining turf and weeds and 0lanted native, drought resistant plants (Northern California). Once established, we turned off the drip system to save on water…didn’t bother them in the least.

 

Part of our property also has blackberries…sort of like barbed wire with a bad attitude. About every five years, I hire some one to cut everything back to stumps.

[Lahti35]

I'm just hoping for a dryer year than last... Man it rained and rained and rained last year, the grass grew like it was hopped up on fertilizer. I was mowing every 4-5 days and by the time summer was ending I was sick of it! 

 

I moved up to a zero-turn a few years ago and cut the mow time down from 3 hours to 1 but it still eats up garage time at an alarming rate, lol!

[Bill Boudway]

Time to get the '26 Chrysler out.

It started up pronto and we went for a short ride.

Then felt lucky and the "curb find" lawnmower started on the third pull, so the grass got the first trim on the year.

[yachtflame]

On 4/6/2024 at 6:17 PM, auburnseeker said:

Could be worse.  I plowed 10 inches of snow 2 days ago.  2 weeks before that we had 15 inches.   The only bare ground is where it's plowed.   A month ago,  there was no snow anywhere,

Seems you got all the snow. We gave up skiing on March 1st this year. I hate skiing on grass!

[auburnseeker]

1 hour ago, yachtflame said:

Seems you got all the snow. We gave up skiing on March 1st this year. I hate skiing on grass!

Well when we went to the slopes mid march the only snow I think in the entire Adirondacks was on the runs they had made snow.  They got a bit sketchy in the afternoon.   Now last time we went after the 15 inches of snow end of March, there was snow everywhere,  but it was 60 by the end of the day and one of the runs I went down at the end,  I could have sworn there was more snow in the morning as we had to follow the little snow goat trail to get back over to the other side.  Literally not much wider than my 2 skis.   I motioned to the wife (behind me) to go the other way,  but she wasn't paying attention.   We got to the bottom and said that's good enough for this season.  LOL

[DFeeney]

I also spend a lot of time mowing and doing yard work.  My place is a cross between a State Park and a Boy Scout camp and I enjoy keeping it looking nice.   I hope I never end up "Kicking" a large beach ball around the Nursing Home. 

[dship]

Today (4/13/24), I broke out the ECO 21" lawn mower and battery pack weed wacker, and I stored the Cadet 30" 3 stage snow thrower.

[auburnseeker]

3 tanks of gas through the chainsaw yesterday.  Ton of stuff down or bent over that won't recover.  I really wished I burned firewood as I generate a pile of it.  If it rains I'll work on the A today,  if not,  out to clean up the brush and piles of wood I generated.

[EmTee]

33 minutes ago, auburnseeker said:

3 tanks of gas through the chainsaw yesterday.  Ton of stuff down or bent over that won't recover.

About 6 tanks for me courtesy of the Emerald Ash Borer...

 

 

Edited April 14 by EmTee (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

We have those here as well.  More crap we didn't need from China.

[Duck Flower]

Yes time to start up the old stationwagon and let it go to work.😄

 

Edited April 16 by Swedish Car Nut (see edit history)

[Jack Bennett]

On 4/6/2024 at 2:33 PM, Mike "Hubbie" Stearns said:

It’s that time of year to start mowing and yard work.  I mowed the last two Saturdays. This means about three hours of mowing plus any yard work time that I can’t work in the barn on projects. Fortunately my wife likes to mow, but she had surgery on Monday which means I have to mow at least for the next few weeks. Today was the first day that it wasn’t raining and it’s suppose to rain this Tuesday through Friday so I’ll be mowing next weekend. Life can get in the way of our project time. Mike

We have owned this house for over forty years. And, for the past thirty five years I mowed the grass, trimmed the trees and manicured the junipers into perfectly round columns of greenery.

Then, shortly after my wife died in 2019 I had to rethink what I was doing to harm the environment and defeat what nature was trying to do to keep it pristine.

Weeds, such as dandelions are edible plants and provide the makings of a popular salad for some nationalities of people. Nettles and thyme are plants which provide a source of holistic medicine and a pleasant addition to food to enhance flavor and aroma.

Grass keeps down airborne irritants such as dust and mold spores, and is a excellent source of oxygen and consumer of carbon dioxide.

On the other hand, my old cars leak oil and sweat rust which can contaminate the water table, and ultimately kill marine life in our coastal waters.

So, the decision to increase the salinity of the atmosphere with my sweat, and increased global warming from the copious quantity of carbon dioxide I emit when working, or just work on my old cars was a no brainer.

I will take a bit longer to let winter worry about the greenery I use to destroy with my smoke belching mower, but I think I can wait. 🤓

Jack

[Wire-Wheels]

Spring time here means I am probabily not going to have time to work on my cars and bikes until next winter. We have our main residence and a cabin up on the mountain. There will be more than enough repairs to take up the summer months. The wife does all the mowing, but I am tasked with keeping everything working. When winter sets back in I  hunker down in my heated garage and play with my mechanical toys for the winter. ...Jim