I almost bought a goat last weekend. Instead, I bought a second lawnmower.
The first lawnmower was purchased last summer, and I paid enough to expect to be able to use it for a long time.
Turns out I was mistaken.
Thanks to my grass allergies, my son kindly comes over once a week and mows the lawn for me.
The third time he used it last year, he yanked on the pull rope to start it. The rope came right off in his hand.
So off to the lawnmower repair guy and we finished the season in fine shape.
After last fall’s last mow, the mower was drained of gas and put in the shed. When the grass - okay, weedy grass - got high enough to mow in mid-April. Sonny Boy pulled the mower out, put in the gas and gave that a rope a good yank.
The mower refused to start. So Sonny Boy started looking to see if he could find the problem. He checked the spark plug, and that seemed fine. He went onto another thing or two but couldn’t figure it out.
So on my next trip to the farm supply store, I bought that stuff that was supposed to clear out the engine and make it run.
That was a waste of money. We tried; we failed; we went on to Plan B.
After a little Internet surfing, my son decided it might be a filter. He found a picture on the internet, sent it to my phone and I took the picture into the hardware store. The part cost just over six bucks, a pretty good deal if it worked. Unfortunately, that wasn’t it either. The mower made the noise one does when it starts up but refused to keep running.
This has been a two-week adventure and the grass is high enough I had to tie a rope around the dog so I could her back out if she got lost doing her thing.
Okay, not a rope exactly. I just made sure I didn’t let go of her leash.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. It was THE day to get the lawn mowed. We were both determined. So while I sat in the house so as not to jinx things, Sonny Boy went to work on the mower.
He came back in and got a tool.
Went back out.
Then came in and made an announcement: “I think it’s the starter.”
I have no idea where to get a mower starter on a Sunday afternoon or even what said started might cost. I had a back-up plan in place, though.
There is thing called the Ashland Area Tool Library that lends tools, including lawnmowers. I could, if I wished, pick one up Sunday night at 8 p.m. and have it back Monday night at 6:30.
That was great. The downside was that my son would have to rework his work schedule to get to my house and get the lawn mowed so we could return the mower on time.
At some point Sunday afternoon, I decided we should go to the local pawn shops and see if any of them had a mower.
They, of course, did not.
We were back where we started.
Off we went to the farm store, picked out the cheapest suitable mower for the job and took it home. Sonny Boy put it together pretty quickly and fired it up.
Hooray!
It ran!
And it made quick work of the high grass, although the law looks a little raggedy. A couple more mows and my lawn will match the ones of my neighbors, whose mowers have been working just fine.
Sometime this week, last year’s mower will go back to the store and I’ll go that dance one does to get my money back, or at the least, to get it fixed so I can sell it.
Now I’m glad the grass has been whapped down, almost as glad as the dog.
But I do think my life would have been enriched if I had borrowed a goat for a day or two just to see my family’s reaction.
