Oh the Trials: the Saga of the Lawn Mower

We have two lawn mowers. A new one and an extremely old one.

Our old lawnmower is blue and small. The armrests are falling off, there is a hole in the floor, a ragged old rug covering the chewed up seat cushion, and bungee cords hold the deck in place so the blades cut the grass even. And, it only starts when its in the mood. yah, a real nice ride. So, one year ago we decided it was about time to get a new one. The new mower is great.

About two weeks ago, our new mower quit working. Supposedly, it ran out of oil and we basically burned out the engine. While its in the shop we've been using the old mower.

This morning I had to mow. I got on the little blue mower and turned the key. Nothing. I choked it, turned the key, it shuttered and died. My uncle Fred was walking by and I roped him into working on it for me. He took part of the engine apart and sprayed some ether on something, and it started! We put it back together and realized the deck had fallen. We had to turn the mower off to fix the deck with bungee cords. It wouldn't start again so once again we took it apart and put it back together again.

Finally, I was mowing pleasantly along in the apple orchard when I noticed I couldn't see in front of me it was so foggy out. Then I smelled it. Yah, the mower was on fire. I stopped, turned off the mower and fixed the smoke problem.

Once again, I was seated nicely on the mower catching the sun when I looked behind me at what I was mowing. The grass was cut in slants. My bungee cords had snapped and I had mowed over them. The lucky Fred was walking by again and I waved him over, and we rigged it back up again with a new bungee cord and one of the old ones we managed to bend back into shape. So, I kept my eyes on the cords the rest of the time. But, that's not the end of it.

I was just about finished with the apple orchard when the mower sputtered and stopped. I checked the bungee cords, they were there, I looked for smoke, there was none, I looked to see if I had accidentally cut the fuel, nope. Then, smart me, I checked the gas tanks, completely empty. This time my dad came to the rescue. He found me a gas can, filled it with gas, and filled up the mower for me. :) I'm sure he was rolling his eyes, but he did it anyway.
And that was that. I mowed the rest of the yard with no problems (except for mowing over another bungee cord...sigh).

Anyway, I got some sun and fresh air so, it wasn't that bad.

Moral of this story: farmers are great. I'm sure on a sweltering hot day they'd rather not be fixing a mower every five minutes. :)

In Christ
~Michelle