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Thanks for your input, make me wonder how people with alot of land cut their grass prior to gas mowers existing. I imagine most people only cut their grass within a 30 - 40 radius of their house and a path to the street leaving the rest to grow wild or for growing food. and those who could afford it hired people to do it, gas mowers must have killed a lot of jobs. were today a lawn service may send 3 - 4 people they may have sent 10 - 20 back then.
built in 1946-
Current lawnmower (1949)-
My family had a farm in Ohio- back in 1880. The 'yard' around the farmhouse was .25acre and kept with a reel mower or scythe. Surrounding grounds were horse with drawn sickle bar mower (like on my cub above).
My problem with mowers.. Are mostly of my own making. The latest one I had, a Wal-Mart special just didn't run good out of the box. 1 winter storage without draining the gas or using Sta-Bil just made it much worse. The carb wasn't right on it from the start.. Add a little old, gummed up gas in it.. I just had enough. I took it to the repair shop with the weed eater and the guy was looking like "No, I really don't want any of that" until I told him I wasn't trying to sell it to him.. They were his if he wanted them.. He took them then. With a smile. The Murray mower, outside the carb, was still in good shape. But, i'm getting to the point I really need a self-propelled mower.
The weed eater.. I love the 4 cycle, not having to worry about mixing gas.. But.. the hoses just crumbled in it. After about 5 years. Even the filter fell apart in the tank. It was a nightmare to get started after a winter.. Plus, I wanted a straight shaft to make life a little easier.
Prior to that.. I had a Yard Machines push mower that I loaned to a family member and by the time I got it back.. It was junk. The starter cord snapped on it, but it started, so, they figured "Let it run".. Yeah.. That didn't end well. The cord banging around did enough damage to the parts that I would have to replace the entire starting mech on it.. Over 50% the cost of a new mower. Got about 5 years out of that one.
The lawn tractor I had to replace.. It was about 7 years old and the crankshaft on the motor snapped. Guy at the repair shop said it was common with the particular B&S motor they used on it.
But.. All in all.. yes.. I do have crappy luck with mowers. Some of it being of my own making.
As for how acreage was kept clear in ye olden days.. Yes, it was used for grazing for farm animals. Cows, goats, sheep.. Whatever. Also.. Don't forget about the sling blade.. And french fried taters.. mmm-hmmm. Wait.. Wrong sling blade. This one.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_blade
I love ours. We have one at each house. A riding mower would save time, but where would I put them? And anyway, pushing a mower is fun (except when it's 100 degrees with a 90 degree dewpoint, of course. One word - Kentucky.)
But for the most part, it's fun, and really good exercise on our hilly lawns. A great time to collect my thoughts and reflect upon things, too, because there sure aren't many distractions.
My brothers went through that, too! We had a 1/2 acre corner lot and two manual mowers, and all summer my two brothers were out there every weekend pushing them in the heat. It seems to me that they also had to manually re-sharpen the blades quite frequently, because they don't work well with dull blades.
Many American men grew up having to mow lawns with push mowers as part of their chores and it was very strenuous work. I felt sorry for my brothers doing that out in the heat.
Yeah, we didn't have the push mower...but I grew up with a wringer washer. At a young age I helped mom and sisters do several loads of laundry. The washer agitated, and turned off to grab the clean clothes to feed through the wringer. Into a rinse tub. That you had to hand agitate. Then flip the wringer to feed the clothes to the final rinse tub, where you put the fabric softener or bluing in the rinse. Hand agitate, flip the wringer around once again, and then wring into the basket to hang outside, if it was good enough weather....or hang them in the laundry room.
Then do it for more loads. The only good thing was you got to use the water over and over. You started with whites. Daddy's shirts and our blouses were first. White underwear was second. Sheets and towels were next. Then pants and jeans.
And no option, you had to press clothes.
I'll take automatic clothes washers, dryers, and lawn mowers, thank you.
My family had a farm in Ohio- back in 1880. The 'yard' around the farmhouse was .25acre and kept with a reel mower or scythe. Surrounding grounds were horse with drawn sickle bar mower (like on my cub above).
We still have a Farmall Cub, although it doesn't look as nice, and it needs some work to get it running again because it's sat in the tool shed for several years. I wish my brothers would to sell it to somebody who'd restore it ... there are a lot of people who do that in this area, and antique tractor shows are pretty popular. We sold my dad's big old Case tractors to a restorer about ten years ago, and he's got them both looking good (I ran into him at the county fair last year), but we kept the IH because it's a handy little tractor.
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We still have a Farmall Cub, although it doesn't look as nice, and it needs some work to get it running again because it's sat in the tool shed for several years. I wish my brothers would to sell it to somebody who'd restore it ... there are a lot of people who do that in this area, and antique tractor shows are pretty popular. We sold my dad's big old Case tractors to a restorer about ten years ago, and he's got them both looking good (I ran into him at the county fair last year), but we kept the IH because it's a handy little tractor.
