Posts Tagged ‘Greenworks tools’
Rolling Again
The ground hadn’t dried out all that much but the grass was growing so thick and tall along the driveway, with more rain due to arrive soon, I decided to take a chance with the heavy zero-turn riding mower yesterday afternoon. The experience I gained driving the machine throughout last year’s mowing season appears to have carried over nicely. I successfully avoided getting stuck or making muddy skid marks despite needing to drive over slippery grassless spots and navigate the challenging slope along the road.
To warm up my skills, I started with the area behind the barn where it is drier, the grass is well-established, and closer to flat than most of the rest of our grass areas.
From there, I set off for the muddy slopes along the driveway. The thick, wet grass presented the perfect conditions for sticking to the mower deck and plugging things up. I was already prepared to deal with that situation because I made ramps last year that hook on the loader bucket of the diesel tractor. It was a sturdy surface that provided just the right height.
A clean mower deck makes for a happy mowing guy. The unfortunate thing about the task is that I get to see how abused the blades are. Okay, that is a good thing. I just don’t like seeing it.
At about the same time that darkness arrived at the end of the day, it began to rain hard enough and long enough that I felt really happy to have gotten out to mow when I did. Based on the seven-day forecast, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna get any drier around here anytime soon.
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Hedge Trimming
I have talked for years about trimming the random growth along our north property line to turn it into a hedge fence but it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally made visually satisfying progress. The secret weapon that enabled me to reach this milestone is the Greenworks hedge trimmer that Cyndie’s mom gave me for Christmas last year. I have tested this impressive tool on multiple trees and bushes and on every occasion the performance has exceeded my expectations.
What a fabulous addition to my collection of yard and garden tools.
It chewed up everything I asked it to while hardly sipping from the energy of the battery. I couldn’t be more pleased about how well it worked. This beast is going to become a very handy resource for controlling the explosion of growth that happens at this time every year.
The northern border of our property is identified by a rusty old barbed wire fence. On the east half of that border, a short width of random growth separates us from a neighbor’s plowed field.
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I’m really pleased to have my vision finally taking shape. It took me years to get to this point and it will take a few more years for the “wall” of growth to fill in, but I take yesterday’s progress as a successful proof of concept. It should be easier every year now that I’ve established the first cut.
Progress stalled in the middle of the afternoon when our co-op propane tank inspector arrived but that was perfectly timed with a passing rain shower so I would have needed to take a break from trimming anyway. We got two out-of-date regulators replaced at no cost. Safety first!
After that work was completed, I went back to the trimming and worked until dinnertime to get it done. I didn’t want to leave it unfinished because we are headed up to Princeton, MN today for an overnight visit with George and Anneliese. Asher will be staying home with a pet sitter.
From this point on, if any new growth dares to reach beyond the line of my new hedge wall, it will get snipped.
Hah! What do I mean, if? We all know the correct word is, “when.”
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Warping Time
Yesterday disappeared in a flash of endless conversations, wonderful food, and quality time with our animals. Minutes whisked away like seconds which made hours swoosh past so fast we didn’t see them coming or going. Our friends, Pam and John, graced us with tales and photos from their two-month travels in India, loved up our new pup Asher, and spent some quality time getting to know our horses.
It was a great day to be outdoors since the dew point temperature was low and a breeze made the air quality a smidge better than it had been for the previous few days.
After trimming the tall grass and weeds along the rocks of the labyrinth on Tuesday, I ran the mower around the pathway yesterday before company arrived and was so dang pleased with how it looked, I stopped to take a picture.
Both of the Greenworks mowers we have do such a fabulous job of cutting grass it feels like a privilege to be able to use them. I can give the company a shout out for their customer service, too. The 5amp/hour battery that came with the blower we purchased mysteriously wouldn’t charge all of a sudden. After exhausting all troubleshooting options, I called to see about sending it back for repair.
They chose to replace it and didn’t need the bad one returned. In a matter of days, the new battery showed up and we were back in business, hassle-free. Thank you, Greenworks! Job well done.
I do not miss my old gas engine riding mower one bit, even though it did a great job for me before I switched to electric. The battery charge on my new mowers happens to be pretty good at warping time, too. So far, they are lasting much longer than I have needed to complete the areas I set out to cut. I was skeptical about how long the charge would last for the amount of cutting we need to do. They repeatedly exceed my expectations in that regard.
Recharge times are also quicker than I expected. Warping time at warp speed.
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Exploring Gravel
Morning chores were done, breakfast was eaten and the paper read. It was time to commit to whatever work deserved to be accomplished for the day. Thinking that I needed to use the power trimmer, I asked Cyndie if it mattered to her what I started on.
She said, “Why don’t you go for a bike ride before the air quality gets any worse?” Man, I love her.
I got ready as quickly as I could and stopped to look at a map on my laptop for a new route to explore. 410th Street going north out of El Paso looked like a good option. (Did you know there was an “El Paso” in Wisconsin? I didn’t until we moved here.) A marker on the map for Driftless Farm Sanctuary caught my eye. I could check it out.
Being well familiar with the roads to El Paso, my exploration didn’t really begin until I reached 410th. Oops. It was gravel.
That wasn’t in my plan, but at the moment, I was feeling brave enough to ride the rough stuff. I turned onto the gravel and employed a little battery assist. What a smart idea it was to get an e-bike. The gravel continued for more miles than I expected, and every road that intersected 410th was also gravel. I learned that there are a lot more gravel roads nearby than I was aware of.
I came upon a very busy harvesting operation with two huge machines cutting and six trucks arranged for filling of what appeared to me would be processed to become silage. They probably didn’t expect to see a bicyclist passing by on that road.
I wasn’t aware there was growth already available for harvesting. This is the kind of discovery that comes from exploration.
There was another noteworthy find further on up the gravel roads. I came upon one of those places where you can’t roller skate.
When I left the gravel and rolled onto pavement again the pedaling became noticeably easier but the direction I was going took me to the big hills of 690th Avenue. I touched the control to increase my battery assist by two levels and sailed home with ease.
After lunch, I decided to test the idea of using the new zero-turn mower to cut along the fence lines from inside the hay field and back pasture to simplify trimming beneath the wires. I usually mow in there with the big tractor pulling the brush cutter but if the small mower can do the job, it would be easier.
Well, the little battery-powered beast was more than up to the challenge. That cutting, which knocked down grass much taller than I should have been trying to mow with the Greenworks CRZ426, will make the final cleanup with a power trimmer a breeze. I’ll be done in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken.
What a smart idea it was to buy that e-mower.
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Delivery Achieved
I got a phone call from the store in Prescott a few days after I learned the next available date (April 16) the delivery company would be able to pick up my new electric zero-turn lawn mower from Tractor Supply and drive it to my home. It was one of the managers. She expressed sympathy for my long wait and wanted to know if I would be around later in the day because a member of her staff had a truck and the store got a new trailer…
Even though the mix-up on the first planned day of delivery wasn’t the fault of the Tractor Supply staff, they wanted to take care of me now that they had the means to do it.
Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Mark this down as another victory in the realm of Customer Service. I asked whether the store would get credited the fee I had paid to their third-party contractor and the manager said they would. At this point, I chose not to haggle over the cost. In fact, I spent a little more cash on the deal because I couldn’t resist tipping the guy who drove his personal truck to pull their trailer.
That’s all behind me now. My pride led me to wait until the driver left before climbing aboard for the first time. My initial attempts to drive in a straight line were embarrassing and I quickly learned where the button was to select the slower speed setting. I accomplished a fair amount of squealing tires on the pavement as I experimented in my first-ever attempt at operating a lever-controlled steering system.
One of the big attractions to having the agility this mower offers is the number of obstacles there are around here. That also means I don’t have a hazard-free location where I can practice developing my control. I anticipate operating it on the slow speed setting for a while once the mowing days arrive.
In the meantime, I need to pick a location and configure a setup for the three dual-battery chargers.
Our fleet of 60-Volt Greenworks Tools devices now includes a 20″ push mower, a blower, and a 26″ hedge trimmer in addition to the new tractor. I think it would be fair to call me a fan.
Speaking of being a fan, this morning I am ready to tear up my membership in fandom for Minnesota sports after the epic failure of the UofM Gopher hockey team to match the attacks by the Quinnipiac University Bobcats in the championship game of the Frozen Four tournament last night.
I don’t understand why the Gophers tried to defend a one-goal lead for the entire third period by going into a defensive shell when their strength is as an offensive goal-scoring machine. Hats off to Quinnipiac for being such strong competition that they knocked Minnesota off their game.
The end of that game was embarrassing.
As many others have already commented online, that was such a Minnesota way to lose in team sports [MN Lynx excluded]. A quick internet search revealed the common phrase is, “Minnesota Sports Curse.” It’s a thing.
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Latest Addition
We have another new tool for managing our landscape. I have tried three different methods of cutting the grass path of the labyrinth, starting with a reel mower. The grass grew too fast for the spinning scissor mechanism to keep up. Next up was the Stihl power trimmer. It worked well enough but took a long time (hours) and used up a fair amount of plastic line and multiple tanks of gas. It was a real workout.
The new tool, a 21″ electric push mower, seems like it will be the winner for this job. The third time’s the charm.
I couldn’t stop smiling after I finished the job in just 40 minutes, exhausting only one of the two batteries it holds.
There are a couple of spots where I hope to adjust the rocks to optimize the exercise. There is one small portion that is probably an inch too narrow and several where the width is wide enough I needed to back up and make a second pass. Most of the curving pathway is perfect for an easy walking push directly along the route. Adjusting the entire distance for a perfect width will make the job even more fun than it already is.
I’ve been contemplating a push mower as an alternative to the yard tractor for areas in our front yard where there are obstacles and slopes that are tricky to navigate. When I found an electric model that would fit well in the labyrinth and got Julian to bring one he owns for a test, the decision became pretty easy to make.
By the way, this manufacturer offers riding mowers, too. Hmm. No more oil changes, dirty air filters, spark plugs, fuel…
It’s tempting.
Even though there are other things I was hoping to accomplish today, all I really want to do is mow the tricky part of the front yard with the newest addition to our collection of yard maintenance tools. Somewhat reminiscent of a boy with a new toy.
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Relative Something 