Dances with Cords

I was always a reel mower guy.  Each year I’d remove the wheels and pinions, switch the position of the pawls in the reel shaft, switch the pinions from one side to the other, replace the wheels, and with a thin film of lapping compound on the blades, spin them backwards against the cutter bar to put a clean edge and polish on for the start of the season.  Slight adjustments of the cutting bar and some elbow grease would result in a shiny edge across all of the blade surfaces.  After putting it all back together the way it was to start, I was good to go:  low tech and dependable.  The only thing that gave out after about 10 years was the handle which I fixed with the section of some steel pipe I’d saved for just such a need.  Stuff eventually wore out that was beyond my skill at repair so I eventually bought a second.  I believe that was the extent of my capital investment in lawn moving technology since about 1986 when we bought our first house.

Not that I was uncomfortable with a Briggs and Stratton.  Hell, I took one into shop class in high school and put it all back together.  Sure, it didn’t run but I learned how to gap a sparkplug!  My folks had two acres when I grew up so we always had a push mower.  I was no stranger to small gas engines and the flying debris a six-horsepower engine generates.  I just never cared for the noise, the gasoline and oil, the steel blade whirring at 3,000 rpm that could easily remove a toe, and the bits of rock that could scour the chrome off a bumper (back when bumpers were still made of chrome).  No, I opted for the quiet whir of a man-powered spinning reel of sharpened steel that stopped when I stopped, that didn’t pitch stones at my neighbor’s kids, that was easy to swing around with one hand, and did a nifty job on my postage-stamp 1/8^th acre just fine, thank you very much.

What a surprise it must’ve been to my neighbors to hear the hum of my new electric Green Works mower one weekend after Father’s Day last year.  I’m not sure if it was more my wife’s decision or the kids’ – I think they all felt a bit deprived over the years about not having a “legitimate” lawn mower in the garage.  Not that the reel didn’t do a swell job, but ok – it did take several passes to conquer the errant tall weed, and yes twigs did tend to jam the mechanism, and yes it was “old fashioned.”  So, I decided – ok, I’d give it a try.  I already had the extension cord for use of an electric trimmer, so I figured this would be a similar exercise.  Plug it in and away you go.  Well, yes and no.

Yes, it’s a suitably powerful electric motor and I must admit that the spinning blade flying at thousands of revolutions per minute does an equal job to most perfectly sharpened reel mower.  And yes, the bagger attachment and the mulching option are both helpful – heck I can use the thing as a vacuum when leaves are on the driveway.  And twigs?  No problem – chops them right up like nobody’s business.

Then there’s the cord.  Managing the extension cord with an electric mower is a bit of an art – well, more a dance.  The trick of course is to not run over the cord while the blade is spinning.  There is a safety handle that will cut the power when released, so the chance of damaging something by running over it is lessened if you’re paying attention, but it is still possible.  The awkward bit is arranging the cord so that the action of running up and down the yard is as efficient as possible.  Think about it.  You have to work away from the cord.  I keep the cord on my left and work to the right.  I run up one row with the cord on my left so that when I turn and come back the row to the right the cord is now on my right (toward the cut grass).  I continue to work away from the cord always keeping the cord to the cut side as I move toward the uncut.  Sounds easy enough and for the most part it is.  Complications arise when I have to traverse steep grades that require some back and forth movement or return to an area that’s been cut.  It takes a bit of finesse to keep the cord out of the way on the steep front grade of my yard.  I wrap the cord over my left shoulder, use my right foot to whip the trailing cord aside, and grip the safety handle with my right hand while doing my best not entangle my feet all while working to avoid shaving the grass too closely at the border between the steep bank and the sidewalk.

I imagine my neighbors watching the dance from across the street.  I figure they’re ready by the phone waiting to dial 9-1-1 or they’re filming for an episode of American’s Funniest Home Videos since they know the powered mower is a novelty in my yard and that the tangle of orange extension cord around my feet can’t be intentional.  Now into my second season with the machine, I feel like I have the choreography down though.  I flip the cord aside with a flourish as I make my turns and enjoy the speed with which I can complete the task as well as the tidiness of the finished product as I dispose of the cuttings.  I’m guessing the neighbors appreciate the improved quality of the cut as well.

Still, powering up a 13 amp 120-volt electric mower can’t compare to the nostalgic metallic snicking of the reel blades against the cutting bar.   Of course, after all those years with the trusty red Great States I wasn’t about to send it to the metal recyclers.  It’s still waiting in the garage for another chance to show its stuff.  No doubt it’ll reclaim the position of glory when the new-fangled machine has electrical problems that are beyond my ability to repair.