Mowing 5 acres in maine :) and snowblowing.. (cabin, agricultural, to move)

[Submariner]

Here in our town there are two different neghbors who each have big lawns.

One guy's house is right up near the road, with lawn to either side out maybe 100 yards on one side and 150 yards on the other side, and reaching behind his house a good 200 yards.

The other guy has his house back from the road, set on the tree line 200 yards from the road, and his lawn must be about 200 yards wide.

I have seen each of them out cutting with riding mowers, and on other weeks they will use a tractor with an 8foot side hay cutter.

I have no idea why either of them will choose a riding mower one week and their tractor the next week.

Those riding mowers look like they take all day to do the job.

I know that we do have a lot of rocks popping up here. While driving by each of our neighbors, I do not think I have ever seen a rock in either of those lawns. They are graded flat and smooth, like someone ran a rock rake through the soil at some point.

There are also a couple fields around here that are cut for hay. But the hay fields are each smaller than these two guys' lawns.

i figure that some folks just like cutting grass.

[IRV007]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Here in our town there are two different neghbors who each have big lawns.

One guy's house is right up near the road, with lawn to either side out maybe 100 yards on one side and 150 yards on the other side, and reaching behind his house a good 200 yards.

The other guy has his house back from the road, set on the tree line 200 yards from the road, and his lawn must be about 200 yards wide.

I have seen each of them out cutting with riding mowers, and on other weeks they will use a tractor with an 8foot side hay cutter.

I have no idea why either of them will choose a riding mower one week and their tractor the next week.

Those riding mowers look like they take all day to do the job.

I know that we do have a lot of rocks popping up here. While driving by each of our neighbors, I do not think I have ever seen a rock in either of those lawns. They are graded flat and smooth, like someone ran a rock rake through the soil at some point.

There are also a couple fields around here that are cut for hay. But the hay fields are each smaller than these two guys' lawns.

i figure that some folks just like cutting grass.

YIKES. 200 yards x 200 yards is more than 8 acres!!
That is liking to mow a lawn.

[woolwiTch]

We have almost the same situation as your dad has. For mowing, we use a JD 2210 with a 60-inch mower deck. We have about six acres to mow with a lot of things to mow around, and a lot of the more open space we have is very bumpy. It takes 4-5 hours to mow the whole thing.

We have a very long driveway and for plowing, we use the JD's front end loader or our Honda walk-behind snowblower. We plow a lot of area around the house and between the house and outbuildings and I tend to like the snowblower the best. It does a nice clean job. We are retired, so we have the time to do the job. It would be easier to have somebody just plow the driveway with a truck and plow, but it would cost money. So, since we have the time to do it ourselves, we do.

I've looked at snowblower attachments for the tractor, but they're pricey and I hate the idea of having to work backwards. And we already owned a good walk behind snowblower, so I never pursued it.

Back to grass... If money were no object, I would buy a separate riding lawn mower (would love to have a used commercial mower) and not use the JD as a mower. It's a fairly easy-to-attach deck, but you do still have to get down on the ground to do it and you have to disconnect the FEL. If you do a lot of work around the property, it can be a pain in the summer to keep switching the mower deck and FEL. And, let's face it, a tractor mower deck does only an adequate job, not a great one, on the grass.

Gang mowers are fine for parts of the property that are more pasture-like, but their big drawback is that you can only use them for the wide open spaces. Depending on the configuration of your property, you could consider hiring somebody to gang-mow the parts that are more pasture-like about once a month, and use a garden tractor or riding mower to mow the rest.

[roadrat]

It seems like a waste of time,gas,money, etc. to mow that much lawn let it go back to pasture but keep a cool winding path mowed around it with a small mowed area around the house.


bill

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by roadrat

It seems like a waste of time,gas,money, etc. to mow that much lawn let it go back to pasture but keep a cool winding path mowed around it with a small mowed area around the house.


bill

Here we go with the lawn police!!! We mow ours because WE WANT TO! It looks nice and cuts down considerably on the amount of mosquitoes and ticks we have to deal with. To us it's worth the gas. Besides we have large pastures surrounding our mowed area full of wildflowers and such. That gets bush hogged once a year to keep the trees out of it. My inlaws mow about five acres around their 7 acre pond. It's one of the most beautiful lawn areas around. LL Bean has used it to shoot their catalog.

[RANGER.101ST]

ive got a JD with a 72"deck and a 50"blower it mowes the grass quite fast but as far as the blower.
i have only used it a cpl times over the years id rather sit in my truck with the heat on and plow while sipin my coffee.

[RANGER.101ST]

[quote=Maineah;10825068]

LL Bean has used it to shoot their catalog.

that sounds like fun .can i bring my rifle down and shoot LLbean catalogs?

[Maineah]

[quote=RANGER.101ST;10825620]

Originally Posted by Maineah

that sounds like fun .can i bring my rifle down and shoot LLbean catalogs?

It was fun to see how many LL Bean catalogs it took to stop a 30-06! Bet the 50 cal would run right through 500 or them!
They don't do it anymore since they opened the skeet range on the Desert Road. They might frown on using a rifle at the skeet range.....they don't have much of a sense of humor!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

ive got a JD with a 72"deck and a 50"blower it mowes the grass quite fast but as far as the blower.
i have only used it a cpl times over the years id rather sit in my truck with the heat on and plow while sipin my coffee.

Don't you mean coffee brandy???

[RANGER.101ST]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Don't you mean coffee brandy???

you caught me and i thought that big travel mug would disguise my ACB.
but i would still go with the plow truck and a large lawn tractor