The comments from the rest of you were very entertaining:
• "A neighbor boy once asked, 'What is that?' for he had never seen a mower like that!"
• "Please put us in the push-reel mower column of your survey. We have about 1,000 square feet of lawn, own a Prius and are not members of the Communist Party."
• "When not in use, my push-reel mower makes a great decoration and conversation piece."
• "We live on a 12,000-square-foot sloping lot, and I have been using a push-reel lawn mower for at least 10 years. We kept our power mower 'just in case' but have not used it since getting the push-reel mower. We keep trying to sell it at garage sales, but so far, no luck. I guess $50 is too much to ask for a perfectly good, hardly used gas mower? Must not sell because it doesn't have a hemi."
• "I am a divorced mother in Lynnwood with a big yard. For two years, I wrestled with a big gas-powered Snapper. It was LOUD. I always had a lot of trouble getting it started, gas was always spilling, engine fumes emitting and it was just a lot of trouble to maneuver, despite it being self-propelled! So this spring I purchased a push-reel mower despite dire warnings (all from men) that it was going to be a horrible experience and I wouldn't be able to do it! My experience has been one of complete wonder and awe over this simple push mower. It cuts the grass neatly and cleanly, and I'm able to mulch the clippings back into the lawn. No more messing with clippings, no gas expense and no noise or fumes. Even though it's as easy (or easier) to push than a power mower, it's a really great upper body/arm workout!"
• "I listened to the eco-nuts and bought one of those push-reels about 10 years ago and used it for five. Things started out nicely when the grass wasn't growing in February. By March I had taken it apart a few times to oil parts that weren't behaving right and to sharpen it, which could take an entire afternoon. In April, it beat a few hours' workout at the health club, and in late May, I had to mow twice a week. In June, I was seen falling flat on my face after getting a running start to hit a heavy patch up a hill and losing my footing. I was ready to recycle it about the time grass quit growing. It took me five years to figure out this cycle and now have a real lawn mower that does the job in half the time, and get my workout at the club where all the people telling me to buy the reel mower were going all along. Moral: Never get lawn mower advice from people who hate lawns."
• "It's easy, quiet, clean, safe and takes up almost no space. In the fast-growing season, I mow twice a week. I don't use a catcher, so I don't have to stop. It goes real fast."
• "I am a 77-year-old great-grandfather, and I have a push-reel lawn mower."
• "I have a self-propelled gas mower that mostly sits in the garage. I have a 10,000-square-foot lawn on a corner, hilly lot with a steep terrace around the corner. I wish I could use a manual push mower, but I couldn't physically push it up the hill (or keep it in-line going across the pitch). Most of the time I hire mowers, and they also use a self-propelled gas mower."
• "I pull it out of the garage and begin to mow — quietly, therapeutically — and my neighbor across the fence, with a much smaller lawn than mine, has the same idea. He hauls out his behemoth and tries to start it — brrap, brrap, brrap. Nothing. But I'm mowing. He goes to his garden shed and gets something — tools, gas, a drink — and tries again brrap, brrap, brrap, spt, sputter. Nothing. And I'm mowing. I am happy not to be able to hear clearly what he's saying over there. He's cussing, and I'm mowing. I push the little mower back into the garage, and finally I hear it: Sput, sput, ROAR and he's off at last — mowing.
"I should add here that I am 73 years old. With relatively small lawns, these are so much more practical that one can only credit the macho attitude about all things noisy for the fact that the use of manual mowers is not universal."
• "Now that our culture is finally self-assessing how fat and diabetic we have become, and 'low-carb' is the new catch phrase, why not begin a campaign to push for push mowing!"
• "For years I would mow my lawn at least once a week and then rush in so I could spend a half-hour on my treadmill. I opted for a $99 push mower. I am more fit than before, my acne has cleared up, my hair is growing back in on my head and now I can play the guitar. My belief is that fumes from the old mower had caused temporary brain damage."
Darrell Hay answers readers' questions. Call 206-464-8514 to record your question |
