Kinda Crazy 'Bout My Farmer's Tan...

Like Kenny sings - She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy!

Oh no, we didn't!  Did we?!

Not John Deere green, but Kubota orange looks better on us anyway - 

Over up our driveway, lordy, here she comes -

She likes the way it's pullin' while we're bushhogg'n up our land -

Open up a throttle and stir a little dust!

We already have over twelve hours on her and she's a beauty!

Outdoor Chores Completed!

** Update **

Okay, now it's official!

As of today my yard is now 99.5% winterized and put to bed!

Patio furniture stowed, hoses drained and stowed, and took the deck sail down and stowed!

I got my wires crossed thinking this past Monday was the day the town was to pickup the yard waste, however, it's actually next Monday, the 10th. So, my mistake actually worked to my advantage and allowed me to add more bags.

So, I added (8) more leaf bags to the pile, making the total now (44)!

Today, I mowed my entire lawn for the last time this season, making it the 19th time.  What I like to do with the last mowing is to lower the mower deck, so instead of #6, I cut it on #4; nice and short.  Hoping this helps prevent the remaining leaves from getting caught up in the grass and instead make them easier to get blown away.

Here are a couple pics of the freshly mowed side and back lawns.

Also, this year I took a different approach to pruning the (14) tall ornamental grasses I have around the pool and yard.  In years past I would tie them up, then cut each down at the base; (14) easy to move bundles.  However, since I no longer have a way to get these big bulky bundles down to the recycling center, this year I cut then down in handfuls, then cut them up in 6"-8" lengths into the brown yard recycling bags and simply added them to the pile at the end of the driveway.

Not ideal! A lot of work and a lot of time to do it this way but at the end of the day they'll all be gone come Monday, so I'm gonna take it as a win.

I have one planter with a still flowering annual that I couldn't dump out, so this is the .05% remaining to be completely outside winterized.

I ended the day by rearraigning the garage a bit, which then allowed me to pull my car in, where it will be parked out of the elements for the winter months.

Phew, "Calgon take me away"....

Never Ending Lawn Upkeep!

We've had a couple of gorgeous days recently - today and yesterday, perfect!

Yesterday was about puttering in the yard; weeding, edging, pruning, trimming and ended with some front yard sitting, relaxing taking in the blue sky and enjoying the fruits of my labor -

Today, I mowed my lawn after work.  It really didn't need to be mowed and could have gone a couple more days before really needing it.  However, I'm headed to Chicago mid week, and it would have definitely been too long by the time I return. Truth be told, it's gonna need to be cut when I get back...

Luv the look and smell of a fresh cut lawn; MY fresh cut lawn!

#Blessed

It Was A Good Day!

Another outstanding day yesterday!

So, I took advantage and spent a couple most of it in the yard.

My bags of leaves is growing and now stands at (46) and as you can see in the picture below, the maple tree is still loaded with leave yet to fall, UGH, so it's very likely there will be more.  Scheduled leaf bag pick up is scheduled for this Monday, 11-14, which will be the last day I pick up a leaf rake for a long while!

After raking I mowed my entire yard one last time, then washed my ride mower and let it dry in the sun.  Once dried, I stowed it in the back corner of my garage, then shuffled some other items around, e.g. wheelbarrow, lawn spreader, etc., so I can now park my car IN the garage.

A couple items left to do before I'm officially done with outside chores and I'll take care of those when the weather officially returns back to seasonal.

The day ended with another nice sunset off my back deck -

Cooked and had myself shaved steak with peppers from my garden, onions and mushrooms, and some sweet potato fries, which was washed down with a couple glasses of merlot.

#Blessed

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho

I spent yesterday afternoon in the yard, taking care of chores.

I did a bit of tree limb pruning, raking and mowing!

Although, the lawn is brown and beat up in spots from the lack of rain we've had, I still like how it looks when it's freshly cut.  Especially now with the leaves falling it doesn't stay clean for very long.  Since we've had our for frost, the leaves will begin to turn and start dropping even faster.

I piled the trailer even higher with the limbs I cut!  It's a good full load now, tied down and ready to be taken to the town recycle center -

For those keeping track, like me but of course, this was the 20th lawn cutting of the season!

** UPDATE: ** We took the trailer to the town recycle center this afternoon and ALL was dumped; it's gone!

Mulch Mulch Baby!

I bought this pair of mulching blade this spring and have installed on the ride mower.  I'm going to give these a try in concert with not bagging the clippings.  We've been in the house for 20 years now and up until this point 99% of the grass cutting has been bagged.  Hoping to see an improvement in the lawn, as the clipping break down and add additional nutrients.

I've cut the lawn about a 6 times now with this blade on and so far so good.  No clumps of grass in the lawn but I'm also trying to cut it sooner rather than later for that reason.

Only In New England

The crazy part isn't mowing your lawn in early December.  The crazy part is mowing your lawn in early December while wear shorts!

A Little Trim

Oh, did I mention that I mowed our lawn on December 26, the day after Christmas?!

Yup I did!

Crazy right?!

Who'd-a-thunk that here in New England someone could actually mow their lawn in December!

#ivegotissuesiknow

Dirty Dirty Dirty

 

Since it was so chilly this morning I decided to work inside until it warmed up some. The chore was to tune up the lawn tractor and get it ready for the lawn mowing season ahead.

 

I drained the oil, changed the oil filter, fuel filter, spark plugs and air filter, see photo.

 

Of course, after all this work I needed to put it through it's paces and spent the better part of the day thatching the entire lawn, then sweeping up all the thatch.  It was a lot of work but thankfully it's done.

 

Tomorrow, I will finish the day by applying Scott's Step 1 fertilizer and let Mother Nature do her thing.  Oh, by the way, the lawn tractor ran like new; purred like a kitten.

2011 Lawn Mowing Totals

My 2011 grass cutting totals are in:

- Dad's Lawn = 16 Cuttings
- KMichelson Lawn = 15 Cuttings
- BCox Lawn = 13 Cuttings
- FPreisler Lawn = 1 Cutting
- My Lawn = 26 Cutting

SO very happy the season has come to an end! Shoveling snow will actually be a nice change of pace.

Can You Hear Me Now?

I got myself a good old fashioned bee sting yesterday. First one in a couple of years I'd guess. A doozie too, on the top of my right ear. The stinger and the back-end of the bee was still in place when I got home a couple hours later.

It's nice and swollen and BIG this morning. You'd think I could hear a pin drop from across the room but no such luck. It just looks funny, especially compared to my left ear. Kept me tossing and turning most of the night but now it's beginning to itch.

Actually, I'm lucky to have received the one sting. I was cutting my dad's neighbors lawn yesterday (of course after cutting my dad's lawn) - that's what I do, I spend my Saturday's after a long work week, cutting grass for everyone. Anyway, I was mowing a section I had yet to do in the 7 previous cuttings of this yard, and stirred up one of them in-the-ground-plum-mean-yellow-jacket nests. You know the one's where a gazillion mad-as-heck bees come out swarming and just attacking. I was backing up at the time of the attacked, so perhaps this helped because once I got stung I kept backing up as you can imagine.

Upon further investigating it looks like they've chosen to base of a dead arborvitae for a nest. That's good for them because if I had ability to get the lawn tractor over top of them I would have and done me some bee mulching...

Oh well, one of the risks I suppose.

Bad, Very Bad...

Rather worn, very worn!

We're talking about a steering shaft assembly and a sector gear for a 2000 Craftsman lawn tractor.

The "teeth" on these parts were pretty worn out, so much so that the I was unable to steer the tractor. The steering wheel just spun round and round and round. The timing was good, sort of, in that my brother was up for a visit and helped removed these old parts. However, the replacement parts arrived after he returned home but in the end I was able to install the new parts and reassemble all that was removed with only one "extra" part, a washer. Let's hope it wasn't too important...

My reward for fixing the lawn tractor was 3+ hours of getting to sit on it while I mowed (3) lawns, UUGH!

New Lawn-Mowing-Machine

The ballots are in and the decision's been made - we're buying a new lawn-mowing-machine!

We've chosen the Craftsman 24 hp 42 in. Deck, DYS 4500 Lawn Tractor, see below! After you say Craftsman 24 hp 42 in. Deck, DYS 4500 lawn tractor you need to grunt like Tim Allen. You know what I'm talking about.

We chose this specific model because it has a 'Handy cup holder'. Cmon, I need to put my beer someplace. You have no idea just how much beer I spilled over the years using my other tractor simply because it didn't have cup holder. So you see I am actually saving money by stepping up into this new model...

Rock on - bring on the warm weather and grass cutting season!

Lawn Mowing Machine

With the arrival of spring, also comes lawn mowing. Of course keeping the lawn cut and manicured is a requirement of being a responsible and proud home owner but it's also an exercise in futility with very little return on the time spent.

Since the beginning of May 2007 here are the lawn mowing tallies I've performed through the end of June - just two month. This includes both my lawn and my dad's lawn.

1. My Lawn = 11 times to date and counting...
2. My Dad's = 7 times to date and counting...

While we're on the subject of lawn mowing, I am reminded of the following quote by Long Duk Dong from the 80's movie Sixteen Candles, which just happens to be one of my favorites -

"I love visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, and writing letters to parents, and pushing lawn mowing machine so Grandpa’s hyena don’t get disturbed."

Lawn Mowing

Cut my lawn tonight for the first time this year - 1 down, countless more to go!

The clippings come in handy:

1. I spread some around the strawberry plants to keep the weeds down and the mositure in.
2. I tossed some in with the chickens; they eat some and what doesn't get eaten mixes nicely with the hay and straw and droppings for a nice compost.
3. I fed some to the rabbits and guinea pigs.
4. The rest went into the compost pile; future food for the plants and gardens.