Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Lawn Mower Fiasco

At the end of last fall we had a little hiccup with the lawn mower.  Isaac was mowing the back yard and happened to mow over a large tree root and it stopped the mower and did a little damage to the mower.  But it was the last mow for the season so we put the mower in the shed and said we would see if we needed to take it in to be looked at before we needed to mow this year.  Really it seemed to be doing well, the blade turned fine and didn't look bent or anything.

The lawn mower is probably around 12 or 13 years old.  My old boss gave it to me 5 years ago when I bought this house and said if I took care of it, it would still last a while.  I tried to take good care of it, spraying off the grass and changing the oil and such.  The side developed a rust hole a couple years ago, but besides that, we have been managing pretty well.

This winter was pretty mild and it has been a very warm March.  At times I really believed it was May.  Really.  So the grass, I mean weeds, have been growing and it was getting time for the first mow of the season.  And what made it worse was that most of the neighborhood had already mowed their lawns and ours looked atrocious in comparison.  We have been pretty busy the last few weeks, especially for this time of year.  So I didn't have much time but I really wanted to get the front lawn mowed.  I pulled out the mower, checked the gas and oil to make sure we were looking good.  I know I needed to change the oil this season, but I figured I could get one mow in.  And I really had limited time to get this project accomplished before we had to go another place that evening.  So I set out to mow.  One other note about the mower is that once I've started it, if I stop it then it doesn't like to start again right away.  It needs a little cooling down.  So when I get it started I try to get the whole yard finished before I stop the motor.

The lawn mower was making a bit of a funny sound and so I went ahead and stopped it to take a look.  It seemed like the blade was not hitting anything when I spun it around so I started it up again, it started, and commenced mowing.  There was a funny sound again like I was running over something in the grass, but there was nothing there.  It turned out to be the flap at the back of the mower.  For some reason it was stuck forward and in the way of the blade.  What was going on I still don't know.  So it ended up a little chopped up, but I continued mowing.  And then all of a sudden the mower stopped and left a large brown spot in the grass, cutting it too deep.  So I was concerned there was something wrong with the blade.  Again it was not hitting anything when I spun it around and everything looked okay, except for the flap that was stuck but I was making sure not to have it under the mower.  This time when I tried to start the mower again it did not start.  So I went inside to get a little work done and thought I would try again before I had to get cleaned up for the evening.  I really wanted the grass mowed.  Especially since it now had funny cuts in it and you could really see the growth of the weeds.

After a little while I came out, well I came out several times over the next little while to try to get the mower to start.  Finally I came out one last time to give it a try before I would put it in the shed and go take a shower.  Our front yard it not terribly big so it probably takes 20 minutes or so to mow.  I wasn't going to tackle the side or back yard, just the front.  This time the mower started so I mowed and mowed.  I was only a few passes away from it being finished when the mower started to make a knocking sound.  I kept thinking, what is going on.  The blade is not hitting anything and I checked the oil and it is fine.  It continued and was getting worse, but I persisted because I was almost finished.  And then it completely died.  So I pushed it to the side yard even though I had a few scraggly spots left but I really needed to get in the shower so I figured I would take care of it later.  Then I got thinking that I wonder if there was not oil left because the knocking sound was what an engine makes when it is out of oil.  So I checked the oil again and it was smoking and there was nothing in there.  Then I felt really terrible because I had run the mower out of oil.  Who does that?  My parents taught me pretty well about taking care of things.

Well we decided it probably would be best to buy a new mower because salvaging this one would probably cost as much and not be worth it really.  So thank you wonderful lawn mower for a good life, even though I think things should last forever. I will miss you and I'm terribly sorry I ran you out of oil.  That will teach me to persist in getting the lawn mowed before I change the oil for the season.