Living here on 10 acres means sometimes one must mow. Even tho we have two horses to keep some of the grass down, there are always weeds that grow through and some of the large gum trees start to spawn new gums that are gorgeous but have the potential to grow into monsters over time. There are also actually types of grass our horses do not eat and mowing is also a good mechanism for spreading the horse manure around, preventing disease and parasites.
I recently posted here about the dangers of snakes at this time of year, especially around areas concealed by grass and shrubs so I thought I'd take my own advice and cut down the up-kept areas for safety reasons also.
Because we are in our rainy season here in North Eastern Australia, our place has looked a bit homeless; growing wildly. We chose, after some time searching and viewing some ride on mowers, that we didn't want to fork out the initial expense to by one and the subsequent expense of the up keep and maintenance.
We thought we'd hire one for two days (Saturday and Sunday) for $198. It was a 13 horse power model that did the job well. We picked it up on Friday late arvo (afternoon for non-Australian readers). We had to give it a go straight away. Part of this weekend was not just to clean up the property but also to experience the new toy and rate it.
It performed quite well as you can see in these pics.
Friday night we managed to get the house pad done and part of one of the paddocks.
We started Saturday morning before 7am and we did a mammoth effort throughout the day.. We got four paddocks done, which would be somewhat over half the property. We worked all day other than an hour lunch break and finishing for the day at about 5pm. It was hot too, something like 38 degrees C (over 100F for American readers).
Sunday we started at 8am, the brakes ended up failing as I was riding down a slope, lucky I was able to turn and angle it diagonally. By jeepers it was a scare when my foot on the brake pedal went straight to the floor and I felt the mower turn from mower to roller-coaster. It was like a scene from a nightmare where your brakes fail and you lose control of the vehicle.
We rang the business and they brought their spare to us.. very good customer service, especially on a Sunday. So we carried on only a couple of hours later with a replacement model and we finished by 2.30pm. Tho one paddock and half wasn't done , this is because there are so many big and small rocks in them that it's physically impossible without damaging the mower. We'd need to prepare those areas first before tackling them with a mower.
It was definitely a exhausting weekend but our place does look great with its new manicure. Rather than living on a property that looks abandoned, we now live on a property that looks like the residents are on top of their responsibilities in life!
Now although the ride on definitly did a good job, we would say to anyone looking to mow such a big area that they should opt for one with more power, and of a zero turn design. That would make the job a little easier and possibly get to areas we couldn't with this one.