Both our large mowers are on-the-blink

Kenny’s zero-turn where he left it last night out of gas. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

Both our large mowers are on-the-blink.
About two weeks ago I set about doing our paths with our Greenie, a John Deere SRX95, a small rider with only a 38-inch cut.
We bought it almost immediately after the stroke, since I was leery of my giant Locke reel with the 70-inch cut.
The Locke was a walk-behind, and being a reel you had to mow every week, lest it be overwhelmed.
It also weighed over 700 pounds. You didn’t dare go astray. (I once horsed that monster out of a ditch.)
I also have a zero-turn, but that’s 48-inch cut — too wide for our paths.
38 inches is just right.
But the Greenie is very slow compared to the zero-turn, so I only cut paths with it — and perhaps trim.
I made it about two-thirds of the way, and the drive-belt tanked.
This is drive-belt number-two.
I replaced it years ago; it’s about six or seven years old.
So who knows? It may have disintegrated, or just popped off. Replacing a drive-belt is very hard, so I farmed it out.
John Deere service can probably do it in a couple hours — it would take me an entire weekend.
And I’m no longer as agile.
I also asked them to replace the blade-belt too, since they’ll have it apart.
The blade-belt is three-to-four years old and slips. But only if the load is tough.
My zero-turn is tight — no slippage. If the load is tough enough it stalls the motor — an 18-horsepower overhead-valve Briggs & Stratton V-twin.
So the Greenie is in the shop — no Greenie.
A week ago my Husqvarna zero-turn began acting up.
Pushing forward the right lever (and centering the left), turns it left.
I’d push that lever to trim left around a tree, and it might go about a foot, and then nothing.
Driving drainage-ditches requires offset to keep it going straight.
It wouldn’t go straight — the right drive wasn’t doing anything.
I was able to finish, but then poked around afterward, and I could see the pulley for the right hydrostatic was cockeyed.
“Well, that doesn’t sound right......” said mower-man (the guy who sold me the mower).
So now that zero-turn is in the shop too.
Which means I have nothing to mow our gigantic lawn with.
70+-year-old Billy, only child of the deceased 94-year-old nosy neighbor, who now lives in their house across the street, is out-of-town, so I couldn’t borrow his 42-inch John Deere lawn-tractor.
So I called “Kenny,” the guy who mows Billy’s lawn, and has done a few small things for us.
He mowed our lawn last night, and mowed it at 2&1/2 inches. I mow at four inches in Spring, and then at three later in the summer.
So he was left with a thick layer of detritus he had to blow aside.
We had a long discussion about mowing-heights. I was mowing at four because I thought three stalled it. He suggested starting mowing earlier, but at two or 2&1/2, so it doesn’t become impossible when it starts filling in.
But my wife says anything less than three lets the weeds take over. And Kenny says anything less than two is scalp city.
I’ve been advised to let the mower-man weigh in.
Factored in is that the so-called Back 40 is what grows fastest; and I felt like I was a week late starting mowing it. (Coulda mowed at three earlier.)

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). I also am loudly excoriated by all my siblings for preferring a professional camera (like the Nikon D100) instead of a point-and-shoot. This is because I long ago sold photos to nationally published magazines.

A “zero-turn” riding-mower is a special design with separate drives to each drive-wheel, so it can be spun on a dime. “Zero-turns” are becoming the norm, because they cut mowing time in half compared to a lawn-tractor, which has to be set up for each mowing-pass.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.

The “Back 40” is a large field behind our house.