Comments on: Turf wars.

By: Carnival of Money Stories: Spending Wisely Edition | Sweating The Big Stuff - Spending Wisely

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:06:25 +0000

[...] Freedman presents Turf wars. posted at Surviving and Thriving. The real lesson? Take care of your finances early and often and [...]

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:46:03 +0000

@Jen: Re the beard-scratching and melon-feeding, I think some human work crews would in fact welcome such attentions. Eeewww.

By: tundraflower

tundraflower — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 06:20:47 +0000

Donna, the kind of weed trimmer we have ejects a length of string when you hit the bottom on the ground (it’s the string casing that triggers the string release). Maybe that will work on xxxxx’s trimmer.
You may have all ten toes, but if you want them in their entirety you’ll leave the flip flops for the beach. Machines can always malfunction, even the safety mechanisms. Our electric mower’s “mudflap” didn’t always prevent the occasional stone from ejecting out the back toward my feet.
My favorite way to keep the grass and weeds down is to watch someone else do it —- my horse. He especially likes to eat the taller grass around the edges.

By: Jen Mahan

Jen Mahan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:52:16 +0000

I have rented goats and they work great! It cost $200 / week for 4 goats. I had them for two weeks and it was amazing how much they cleared out my overgrown back yard. Quotes from landscaping companies were coming in at ten times the amount and I assure you they would not have been as quiet, or as entertaining to watch. Human workers most certainly wouldn’t have let us hand-feed them chunks of watermelon or scratch their beards.

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:19:22 +0000

@Funny About Money: In Seattle you really CAN rent a goat. People lease them out to take care of weed infestations. Often the “weeds” are blackberry vines. Having picked blackberries and gotten my arms raked by the thorns, all I can say is that goats must have cast-iron mouths.
What a way to amortize the cost of owning the critters, though: Rent them out plus they get fed in the bargain!
Thanks for reading.

By: Buferino

Buferino — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:56:00 +0000

I can’t STAND cutting the lawn. It took buying a house to make me realize I’m also allergic to freshly-cut grass. I had the same weather problems as you did over the weekend except it rained as I was halfway through cutting. Half the lawn is foot-tall dead dandelions, fluff everywhere; half the lawn is somewhat trimmed. It looks like a science experiement. Anyone want to buy a small home with an uneven yard?

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:09:13 +0000

Heh. Brings back memories. Thank god for xeric landscaping!

I always had electric lawnmowers. Maybe the newer ones are better, but the electric models were less powerful than gasoline mowers. And you had to be really careful not to run over the power cord. Because people will sometimes pull the mower backwards, like running a vacuum cleaner, even a model with a mud flap can be dangerous for your feet. And string weed-whackers! Arghhhhh! A device designed to drive you nuts. Semi-demi-exboyfriend hated them so much he insisted on getting down on hands and knees and trimming the edges with shears. What that meant, o’course, was that the lawn rarely got edged.

Personally, I feel the highest and best use of a lawn is to feed the goats.

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:22:57 +0000

To all of you who seem worried my feet: It’s an electric mower with what on a truck would be called a mudflap. Nothing gets out the back, in other words, and since it’s electric the engine quits the instant I let go of the lever.
The only way I could face amputation is to lift the mower and stick my foot under it while holding on to the lever.
If I ever get my own place I’m getting an electric mower. They are way cool.
But thanks for the concern, y’all.
– Donna “Ten Toes” Freedman

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:07:12 +0000

Mowing the lawn was probably my least favorite aspect of owning a house. Over the years I alternated between hiring someone and doing it myself, but one year I hit a ground nest of hornets and got stung, resulting in a trip to the emergency room. I would have been happy to keep a pair of goats as permanent residents, but my neighbors and the city would have objected. Now I’m a renter, and I let someone else worry about getting it done. If I ever own a house again, a dubious proposition at best, the front yard will be an English-style flower garden and the back yard will be all fruits and veggies.

By: Victoria - My Freelance Road Trip

Victoria - My Freelance Road Trip — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:14:39 +0000

That’s hilarious! What great writing. Yup, and so true too. It always rains right when the lawn is at the perfect height to be mowed. I get sick when I’m out in the heat, so this year, I said, “Enough is enough,” and hired someone to do it. I was having such a hard time recovering after mowing the lawn that it’s well worth the money. I was getting too worried about my health.