Grass Hates Me!

*If you read this post before 9:00 on Wed, read it again, if you want. I didn't mean to post it yesterday, I meant to save it so that I could work on the wording. I got distracted and apparently posted it. It sounds(reads) a little better now :)

Once again, we have no mower and no water. Last year I wrote this post about my Adventures in Mowing.

Well, here we go again. Riky bought us a very gently used Troybilt mower at the beginning of the season. It ran great! It mowed wonderfully, as soon as we changed the blades. We have had no problems from our mower this year.

We also bought a pump for the sprinklers. Not so trouble free. I spent Literally Hours in Ace Hardware (closer for those quick runs when we forgot or broke something) and Lowe's (cheaper for those times when we knew in advance that we were going to have redo the plumbing AGAIN) buying plumbing parts. We spent tons of time working on installing the pump. There was some errors on our part and some parts that were faulty, which wasn't our fault. Which all added up to tons of time and effort getting it just right. Because you have to with plumbing.

All in all we purchased, glued together, and took apart the pump a total of 4 times. We also replaced two or three of the spigots in the yard. Water. Glorious, life giving water. Our lawn was lush and wonderful for a full 2 months.

Then ~at the end of July~ a piece of the mower deck bent back while I was mowing (jarred loose by a bump that I hit)

...Which seized up the blades

...which seized up the deck belts

...which seized up the belts on the mower itself

...which caused smoking and squealing

...which made me start to shudder

So now what we have is:

a mower up on blocks with 2 of the belts replaced and two of them that had to be ordered. The back tires had to be pulled to get the belts off. So they are laying haphazardly beside the mower, making it look even more pitiful.

There was only one big thing wrong with the mower when we first got it. The shaft (essentially a bolt) that holds one of the blades on had been cross-threaded. While we are getting all of this belt stuff done, we decided to get a new shaft for one of the blades. Come to find out, you have to order it. It is $118 just for this one part! Come. On.~You've. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me.

Overall the repairs for this mower are well over $200. For belts and a bolt! And that is if we do them ourselves. Riky and his dad spend over 4 hours on this mower so. far. And we aren't even half-way done.

That is insane!

Saturday I went to turn on the sprinklers for the afternoon and nothing happened. Nothing.

No water.

We found out that the circuit breakers for the well needed replacing. They are some off brand that very few companies carry anymore. After about 8 phone calls just trying to locate someone who carried the brand I was ready to scream. They are also expensive. I have no idea what any other brand runs, but it is crazy what these are going to cost.

This is insane.

I am done with my lawn for this year. I'm not even going to worry about it. If we get the circuit breakers, it gets watered. If we don't, it doesn't matter to me. If the mower gets fixed this year, it will get mowed. If not, it doesn't matter either. It's just grass and dirt. Who cares? There are much more important things. And I will not let this be just one more thing to bring me down. I will not be sad over a lawn. How pitiful would that be? It's not worth it.

I don't like being outside anyway, so this works pretty well for me anyway!