Lawn Mower

Troy-Bilt 21 inch Lawn Mower

Bought a new lawn mower last week. I have a small lawn in front of the house and another small lawn in the back of the house. The house is built on a hill, so the backyard is one story lower than the front. Once upon a time there was a path going down the side of the hill so a lawn mower could be wheeled up or down the hill, but a while back we put in some fancy stone stairs right over this path, so no more wheeling the lawn mower up and done the hill. Lawn man didn't care, he had a partner, so the two of them could easily carry the lawn mower up and down the stairs.

But now Rob's partner is moving on, Rob is cutting back, and so carrying the mower is no longer viable. For a long time I've been trying to think of a solution, like replacing the wooden steps on the other side so they incorporated a ramp, or making some kind of removable ramp that could be laid over the stone steps, but all these seemed like a lot of work (which meant expensive, like a couple of thousand dollars), so nothing ever came of it. But now push has come to shove and I realized simply buying a lawn mower and keeping it in backyard would solve the problem.

About a month ago I dialed up Craigslist and saw several ads for used mowers that looked like a good deal. I fiddle farted around and didn't do anything about it, and the next week when I went back all the good deals were gone. So I go to Home Depot and Amazon and found several mowers for under $400. Then I remembered Home Depot had sent me a coupon for 10% off, so I went with them.

There are cheaper mowers available, but I've found that the cheapest item is not always a good deal. Spend a little more and you are likely to get much better quality.

I thought about an electric mower, but the electronics and the battery scare me. Electronic circuits are generally very reliable these days, but if they fail there is usually no recourse than to replace the whole circuit, and it will likely cost as much as the mower. Same deal with the battery, except that it will almost certainly die before you want it to, which means buying an expensive replacement battery. Probably cost near as much as the mower in the first place. After all, tool companies practically give away the tools in order to sell you a battery.

Anyway, this mower with a cover and the discount was less than $350. It only took me nine years to arrive at this solution. Very sad.