old mower

So we had some ordinary ignition issues with the lawn mower, that strange temperamental beast that boynton has finally had to get to know. To mow.
I did the survey at Victa and confirmed that I would pay extra for a key starter - were I ever to be in the serious market. Actually, I did the survey and found out that according to my consumer preferences, this is actually the best mower for boynton.

the webb witch sounded pretty good too
And don't know if I'm quite old enough - but still interested in this question

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Comments: old mower

that thread is just sooo... demented it is exactly what the web is for. love it.
Posted by David Tiley at February 19, 2004 04:00 PM

Yep - I agree, the web is for people who take their mowers seriously.
"I have a Lawnboy 10550 with the same drive system as the Toro Recycler. One of my best friends loves it because it is so easy to use. He says that any mower he can use with only one hand is great"
Posted by boynton at February 19, 2004 04:22 PM

I don't know how it goes for girls, but you can describe every boy raised in Australia before the advent of playstation and the death of the back yard by the exact nature of his relationship with small petrol engines. "ignition issues" indeed.
Posted by David Tiley at February 19, 2004 10:43 PM

well - I hate to generalise - because I know not many girls are as small-petrol-engine-challenged as I am,
but I don't know nuthin' bout small petrol engines.

and so when Victa says:
"Victa understands that zip-starting isn't for everyone, particularly those people suffering from arthritis"
they should maybe add - and people who are small-petrol-engine dumb, and people who are lacking in motor mower motor skills.

(Yep - I've been allowed to play helpless female around mowers too long - but now I'm finally zipping along)
Posted by boynton at February 19, 2004 11:11 PM

our zip cord thingo zipped right out of our victa last time Mr. S mowed (yes, sorry to be such a girl - did mow in my youth, but no longer). So he borrowed the neighbour's - and stuffed up the blades, so borrowed our brother-in-law's which promptly died.... I think one of those rotary mowers would be good. Or maybe no lawn (we could just extend the already extensive dog patches. Nice brown dirt here)
Posted by wen at February 20, 2004 10:13 AM

I've always suspected that a zip cord might zap out - how horrible, sounds almost anatomical.

and reading some stuff on mowers by mower heads, I am rather opressed by the mechanics and 'maintenance issues'. I thought a mower was just something that ate grass and sat quietly in the shed.
Posted by boynton at February 20, 2004 12:14 PM

Having destroyed a number of petrol mowers and sustained repetitive repetitive strain injuries I now have a nice girly electric mower. I have eventually come to the stage of being secure enough in my own masculinity to be able to ignore the neighbourhood blokes who look pityingly at me from behind the wheels of their turbo-charged V8 jungle tamers.

It hovers, it glides, it sashays, it jettés. Then there is the living on the edge mowing experience of avoiding running over the 880 yard long extension cord.

What would really happen if you did? Is there a 1 nanosecond micro switch that would save you? Maybe I should run over the cord just to see? That leaning over a cliff and the sirens calling you to jump feeling. I have resisted their songs so far. It's only a matter of time.

The mower's idiot cousin, the whipper-snipper is another matter in similar vein. I have destroyed a number of them also, though in reverse order. The electric ones first. A puff of acrid blue smoke ... another one bites the dust. Our most recent one, the petrol one is also no more. It didn't run on its own cord. It has gone to a better home ... somewhere ... courtesy of our local Timsons.

Is the tapping the end of the whipper-snipper on the ground to feed out the cord merely an urban myth? It might happen once or twice, thereafter no amount of bashing the whirligig on the ground can winkle out the plastic cord of mass destruction. I'm with David Kay. Mere whipper-snipper programmes related activities
Posted by Sedgwick at February 21, 2004 07:04 AM

I'm with you on the electric mower as being far more sensible, but that great cord fear also strikes a chord. Indeed, is that a (sub)urban myth? Has anyone you have known ever been zapped - owing to their preference for zip-less mowing?

Actually the other night I saw one of those 1800 ads on the television for a product that made me sit up and notice.
A battery-powered mower.
Was it all a 1800 dream?

And there's a very recalcitrant whipper-snipper sitting alongside the mowers (like a stable mate for a highly strung racehorse) that I'm not even game to approach...hence there are whiskers around the now mown lawn that do detract from its clean shaven look.
Posted by boynton at February 21, 2004 04:17 PM