Up to the task

Those who have been following my blog for a few years will recall when we purchased an old (seriously ancient) ride on lawnmower.

The cheaper ride on lawnmower we found on
Gumtree back in 2011

It was a very basic lawnmower, and, at ZAR1 500.00, it was all that we could afford at the time.

And it had it's problems.

Firstly, we battled to find a small but powerful battery to run the dang thing.

Havig finally source the battery, we discovered that the alternator was faulty, and it didn't charge the battery whilst it was working.  Plus it kept overheating - 1 hour of mowing, resulted in 1 hour of cooling off / recharging battery time.

Finally, the belt which drove the blades kept falling off - even after RMan "adapted" it to try and rectify the problem.

Spares, for an old ride-on mower, were unavailable.  Isn't that always the case...

It sat, covered with a tarpaulin, below our bedroom window providing a home for various generations of field mice who liked it's postition close to a food source - the duck enclosure and alpaca stables are nearby.  I forget how many times RMan tried to get the mower going again - and having to rewire it again, and again, due to mouse damage.

So, the old lawnmower was given to a very happy youngster who loves motors of any kind, and, with his superior knowledge and time to tinker, he got it working again. But, not to mow lawn, merely to ride on - I can't see anyone being able to fix the blade belt problem.  The youngster, having removed the blades competely, is going to use it to toddle round his father's expansive property - recycling at it's best lol  But - Yay! - no waste, and no landfill material.

So, for the past 2 years RMan has been walking behind his old heavy, petrol driven push mower - a full 8 hour day it took him to mow the grass area in front of our house.

In the heat of the summer sun.

Not fun.

Addmittedly, the excitement of mowing happened rarely - and it was a chore which took him away from other more interesting / necessary farm work.

But - long grass = ticks.  Long grass = hiding space for snakes.  Long grass = cover for mice to run around.  Long grass = other predators as well.

Such as:

The furthest pomegranate
tree down near the dam

Rooikat droppings.  We kept
removing them and they kept
reappearing - obviously
the rooikat was marking
it's territory 

Rooikat used the cover the long grass provided to skulk round at night.  We found evidence of their presence in a pile of droppings which kept being (re)deposited under the furthest pomegranate tree.  No wonder Miranda kept staring in that direction every night.

Something had to be done.

Again, I scoured Gumtree in search of a ride on mower.  For months and months.

I wrote to lawnmower places asking about 2nd hand units.

Nada reply!

Or...

...the only machines available were too far from us, and too bloody expensive.   And, too far to take back - if something went wrong.

Fianlly, in desparation, I suggested to RMan that we should stop in at the local John Deere outlet whilst we were in town for our weekly shop.

My, oh, my, they have some lovely shiny, sparkling new mowers on their showroom floor.  All with lovely shiny, sparkling new prices.

I nudged RMan and whispered - "Ask them if they have any 2nd hand models".  Which he duly did.

Guess what?

They had just traded in a smaller model for a bigger new model, and the old one was sitting in the back of the workshop.

Yeeeeeeha!!!

The price was right (less than half the cost of a new machine), they would give it a full service and a going over, and would then bring it out to our smallholding to give us a demo.

Which, 2 weeks later, they duly did.

And, for their effort, they made a sale :)

The grass was in desparate need of a mow...

And not a moment too soon either.  As you can see in the pic above, the grass was pretty high.

A bit of rust on the blade guard is the only evidence
that it is a 2nd hand machine.

Apart from a bit of rust on the blade guard, the rest of it looks in good condition and the motor looks brand new.

And we get a guarantee from the John Deere agent :)  Spares will not be a problem either :)

But, one of the features that makes RMan a little happier - he will not dehydrate during the 2-odd hours it will take him in the hot summer months when he is mowing because...

Now that is what I call a perfect machine
for RMan :)

... he has a handy bottle holder in a perfect position.  Trust John Deere to think of everything :)