My Last Mowing of the Year...I Hope!

My Last Mowing of the Year...I Hope!

My wife Tammie and I live on five acres and we love it. Some of my current friends think I'm crazy for living out in the "country", but it's only about 10 minutes to  the nearest Target, Chili's, Kroger and wine shop!. I mean what else do you need? We have neighbors--but they're not too close. We could have horses and chickens--but we don't. What we do have is a lot of open space which I  mow. Notice the "I". Tammie won't mow, our college age kids won't mow...I mow.

I had to buy a new mower this year. My trusty old Craftsman Riding Mower with a 54" deck bit the dust. I had nursed it along for the last couple of years, taking it to be welded together at the start of each new season. This year it stopped mowing and my repair man said it was time to put it out to pasture. Literally. We told him to keep it and he took it to the scrap metal recycle place where it's probably found new life as a cyclone fence or something.

A new mower! I started doing research (because that's what I do) and found that what I really needed was a Zero Turn Riding Mower. Cool! I asked my mower repair man Brad which mower he'd recommend if he were buying a new one. He suggested several to consider, but told me if he had a choice he'd buy a Ferris Mower. Never heard of it, I said. 

You can't buy one at Lowes or Home Depot he noted, which disappointed me greatly since I spend so much time in those stores wandering around. Yep, he said, you need to go to an actual Lawn Equipment Dealer. Whoa.

I called around and found Nashville Lawn Equipment in Nashville. Their staff was outstanding and the price was competitive so we purchased it and it was delivered.

There's a bit of a learning curve for using a Zero Turn Mower. No steering wheel at all, it has "ground speed control levers". It also has a large roll bar which will apparently keep me from getting crushed if should I flip the mower...What?

I finally got the hang of it after about 5 or 10 minutes and stopped making donuts on our grass and never really had a concern about flipping over. Thank Goodness.

I just finished mowing a few minutes ago. While I love my new mower, I do hope it's my last mowing for this year!