We are currently mired in the depths of a North Island winter. We have had, hopefully not to return, a few days of plant killing frosts in June and now normal service has been resumed. It just never bloody well stops raining. Well it did stop for a wee while yesterday and I partook of a pastime that has huge prominence in my life from September to May but has needed little attention recently. The maintenance of Obald Acres involves cutting grass on a scale I had never before contemplated but I now have it sorted. Tools are the key.
When we moved in the only lawnmower I possessed was a 18" MTF powered by a 3.5hp Briggs and Stratton. I imported this from the States via Singapore and it had manfully coped with about 10 square feet of lawn one degree above the equator and about double that thirty seven degrees south of the same meridian. However my current front lawn is 3/4 acre (and that is just for openers) and so some rethinking on the tooling front was required. In fact surveying the property mowing was obviously something that needed some thought and planning on a global scale.
Grass in many various forms and volumes. Four paddocks, paddock edges, aforementioned 3/4 acre front lawn, nice lawn around the house, four hundred metres of drive edge and median strip, assorted bits of grass and puny shrubs under trees. Not all herbivorous problems are created equal and in the end none of it addressed by the MTF which now sits forlornly in the barn awaiting my placing the black cap on my head and committing it to hang by the neck until dead on TradeMe.
New tools required. Fossil fuels need to be bought in ongoing large quantities.
However the first implement requires no fuel at all and is the best implement at my disposal.
Sheep are excellent lawnmowers. Over the last year between 35 and 60 of our woolly friends (depending on the timetable of the bus to Horotiu) have kept the paddocks looking jolly spiffo. What breed of sheep? There is only one sort to contemplate and that is the Lesser Spotted Other People's Sheep. Anything amiss with the operative dealing to the four square metres around the oak is cured with the usage of the electric telephone; on the blower to its owner. Sheep are every bit as daft as advertised and they need to be kept inside fences. They cannot be trusted to do anything except eat grass;reading newspapers or going where they are told is quite beyond them. The only other thing they do well is defaecate. This means the pastures grow well and there will be more for them to eat later in the year. I think I might not be the first person to make this observaton. Sheep are good stuff; get some. So the paddocks are sorted.
Moving up the food chain in terms of volume of grass consumed per unit time we have the next variety of mower I have found to be of value. This is a common or garden Masport (well this is New Zealand).
How boring is this? This is the house mower. It even lives in the house; well in the garage. I mean I don't keep it in the living room next to the elephant's foot umbrella stand. Just look at it. A real big girls blouse of a mower. Willy woofter 3.5 HP Briggs & Stratton motor (a good engine but 3.5 HP, please). Sort of thing hairdressers (and me, I suppose) would buy. All clean and namby pamby with his little catcher so he doesn't make a mess. Because that would never do when trimming the rye and fescue mix in the Eastern Suburbs would it? I hate this mower. It isn't even noisy and can quite easily be driven without ear muffs. This mower needs a harden up pill. But it is necessary to keep the really quite manicured bit of grass around the house respectable for afternoon tea and crumpets.
Enough of this crap lets get real. Paddock edges, under shrubs, slopes that would kill me if the tractor rolled on me, the drive border and medium duty scrub clearing need a man's toy.
Now we are getting to something a bloke can get serious about. 26" Stevens self propelled mower powered by a 6HP Honda 4 stroke. Marvellous bit of kit although it could do with a bit more horsepower. If this engine craps itself (or I get bored) I'll swap it it out for a 8.9hp. All this through a simple gearbox that drives the wheel drive shafts and a solid cutting bar with a couple of blades bolted on the end; easily self sharpenable - none of this taking to the dealer crap. Main reason for this is there doesn't appear to be a dealer. All good; I don't own three bench grinders for no reason. The pneumatic tyre shod wheels are driven independently by clutching them in with the levers on each handle. This tensions a roller on a drive belt; one for each wheel. Combined with the jockey wheels on the front which spin through 360ยบ the whole thing can turn in its own length. Careful here. The controls are overcentreing levers and they can lock on if you aren't paying attention. SWMBO calls the Stevens the Runaway Mower for a good reason. This mower was bought second hand from South Head Golf Club where a ride on was needed to replace it. About as serious a lawnmower you can get without sitting on it.
Pretty much all the grass accounted for except the 3/4 acres lawn (and a couple of expanses of about half this scattered at other loci around the place). Even I wouldn't attempt this with the Stevens. If you have to mow a bit of grass that resembles a bit of parkland you need a park mower, right?
Fieldmaster 500 series, three rotor 2.4m park mower with rear roller. This is not my one but mine is four hundred metres away, in its shed, it is dark, it is cold, it is raining and I can't be bothered walking up there to take a picture - tomorrow if I remember. Turn the shaft inside the yellow shaft guard and twin belts from the central gearbox spin the rotors. I got a bit bored pulling this around spinning the propshaft by hand. There was a fitting on the end that seemed like it might fit on the PTO of this.
So strap the mower onto the PTO of the 42HP Shibaura and we have a viable system. I've added front wheel weights since this tractor picture was taken and really must get around to filling the front tyres with water as all that mower on the back makes the steering very, very light when the hydraulics lift it off the deck. In fact if you aren't careful and raise it quickly going up an incline you can get the front wheels off the ground. That is getting into very dangerous territory. Now this is the business. Put the earmuffs on (and believe me they really are required at this end of the grass cutting scale) and start burning diesel. Mowing is no longer a chore, it is huge fun. Tractors are great. Dangerous but great. You don't play the goat with this stuff. Lose concentration and it'll chop your head off - I'm afraid literally. Never mind dangerous makes things more fun, n'est ce pas? If you haven't driven a tractor and attached things to its PTO you haven't any idea what torque is all about. Power, grunt, get out of my way or I'll chop you into bits - and I'm talking to you Mr Small Tree. Love it.
So what did yesterday's the break in the weather mean I could do? The sheep are the only things that work well when the ground is in swamp mode - and they don't really like it with that soggy foot rot thing they get. But they are sheep and don't have an opinion - shut up and eat. The hairdresser's mower? I struggle being seen pushing that around in February let alone demean myself by giving it an outing in July. The Shibaura/Fieldmaster combo ? I wish, but I reckon I could lose the lot in a flurry of mud and bubbles if I took it further than the concrete drive at the moment.
No, I had to content myself with a couple of hours with the runaway. And very soothing it was as well
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