Mowing ..

[LG17]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

The local quarry will not deliver granite on total fire ban days now after an incident where the stone coming down off the tipper sparked together in dry grass causing a small fire to break out.

Shows a couple of things - just how easy it is to accidentally start a fire in these conditions and how much the fires affect all people in all businesses.

[pottery beige]

small leaf goes to sleep and have a crack when it warms up



....



water and love

[Cav]

Listen PB that's not a lawn, this is a lawn ...

[Fed]

It might be lawn Cav but that ain't no dog.

[Cav]

Originally Posted by Fed

It might be lawn Cav but that ain't no dog.

If it's good enough for Fat Pizza to have one as an attack dog then it's good enough for me.

[.:4:.]

The only thing i like about being in drought is as opposed to mowing, all i have to to to level my dead grass is walk over it. Yeah no reliability issues with my lawn equipment, but its not 2 weeks between running it over and doing the edges.

[DFB FGXR6]

Yes, I clean my mowers too









The Meguiars APC worked a treat!

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Yes, I clean my mowers too

image

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The Meguiars APC worked a treat!

Now ya just showing off !!!!!!

It looks nothing like my caked on mess on mine ..I have washed the ride on once or twice though ...

[.:4:.]

Whilst my grass is dead, for some reason the dried out dirt the weeds love it. Makes no sense. But i put and end to it. Well, started another argument with nature. Im not talking about the common root system weed thing ive been battling lateley. Normal weeds. My grass, it gave up growing a while back. Surprisingly, my passed down $99 whipper snipper started and ran like a champ. Well, 1/8th turn to sort the idle, but... So tidied up the garden path. Said get absoluteley ****ed to a bunch of unwanted weeds. I think leaving the thing sans fuel probably helped as its sat a while. But, it started rediculously easy. Tomorrow i want to do the driveway and give the place a general tidy up even if the yard is pretty much dead.

[roKWiz]

Been worried about my place as I hadn't checked it in a few weeks.
Last week when I checked, no grass, all the trees look great (river reds soak up the moisture), all the natives are fine (toothbush grevilleas and wattle love the heat)
One weird thing I can never understand, is the grass is gone but I get lovely green grass patches that grow through a heavy 13mm pebble driveway that I laid with heavy gauge builders plastic under it on road base.
Amazing the power of grass.

[whitelion65]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Yes, I clean my mowers too


The Meguiars APC worked a treat!

Are you running a lot of toe-out on your mowers, or is it just the picture;-)

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by whitelion65

Are you running a lot of toe-out on your mowers, or is it just the picture;-)

Must help them turn into the corners quicker.

[whitelion65]

[QUOTE=Cav;6382282]Listen PB that's not a lawn, this is a lawn


Which is the “before” pic?

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by whitelion65

Are you running a lot of toe-out on your mowers, or is it just the picture;-)

Optical for the grey Mustang but the red one is a bit toe-out for some reason, still runs ok though.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Must help them turn into the corners quicker.

Yeah , but it affects the brake bias though and roll centre !!!!!

I think DFB FGXR6 adjusts that on every pit stop though..when he empties the catcher...

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Yes, I clean my mowers too

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The Meguiars APC worked a treat!

Your OCD mate
No way am I going to clean my mowers - service them yes but bugga cleaning them.
Do you spend any time with your fam let alone the Mrs's lol ?
between your fleet of cars then cleaning maintenance apparatus your mad !

and to you lucky buggers who can water their lawns, Sydney been on water restrictions now for some 3-4wks now, can't see us being able to use hose's for months yet - unless we get copious amounts of rain and importantly in the dam before this gets lifted ffs.
Were meant to be using buckets only to water our plants let alone the grass :(
I'm on 1290squares with alot of garden and grass areas.
I'm hurting seeing it getting sucked dry but I suppose its nothing compared to what some in the rest of the country is suffering god bless them.

[Mechan1k]

My lawn is brown and crunchy .... its not lawn anymore.
Normally lush green though.

Its killing me

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

My lawn is brown and crunchy .... its not lawn anymore.
Normally lush green though.

Its killing me

Its time to look away and forget about it.
I feel sorry for all the lawn care guys out there.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

My lawn is brown and crunchy .... its not lawn anymore.
Normally lush green though.

Its killing me

Then you wont want to see pics of a mates lawn....he runs a detailing business and is just as fussy with customers cars as he is with his lawn

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Then you wont want to see pics of a mates lawn....he runs a detailing business and is just as fussy with customers cars as he is with his lawn

image

Wow he is fussy. Wasn't it Oxford college where you weren't permitted to walk on the grass.
Pity he wasn't so fussy about that stonework.
.....stirring. Looks great.

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Then you wont want to see pics of a mates lawn....he runs a detailing business and is just as fussy with customers cars as he is with his lawn

image

Now that hurts me much, mine looks near to that normally, that one looks like I could do some putting practice.
Now seeing brown patchs appear and after tomorrows expected 40+ it will be crunchy I guess.
I sure will have to look away for I'm also going on hols next Tuesday for some 10days.
My garden will be poop once we return but alas as mentioned could be worse.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Wow he is fussy. Wasn't it Oxford college where you weren't permitted to walk on the grass.
Pity he wasn't so fussy about that stonework.
.....stirring. Looks great.

LOL, that's part of his mower in the pic, one of the lawn bowls cylindrical types I think.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by roddy1960

Yeah , but it affects the brake bias though and roll centre !!!!!

I think DFB FGXR6 adjusts that on every pit stop though..when he empties the catcher...

Not quite, every second pit stop

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by FTE217

Your OCD mate
No way am I going to clean my mowers - service them yes but bugga cleaning them.
Do you spend any time with your fam let alone the Mrs's lol ?
between your fleet of cars then cleaning maintenance apparatus your mad !

Guilty as charged!

Although, in defense, cleaning the gunk from around the fuel cap does have a practical purpose of preventing it from potentially entering the tank...............then OCD kicks in and I just keep going!

And the family know it's my escape and way of unwinding. I post so much on here about my mowing/detailing as my way of sharing my passions, the rest of my family are not "car people", although sometimes they have no choice

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by GasoLane

Then you wont want to see pics of a mates lawn....he runs a detailing business and is just as fussy with customers cars as he is with his lawn

image

FUSSY! That sprinkler in the corner looks like it was cut around with scissors!

Seriously though, that looks amazing. I can only imagine that lawn would put a lot of confidence in the minds of his clients. If he is as meticulous with his lawn, I can only imagine the quality of his detailing work.

[DFB FGXR6]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Its time to look away and forget about it.
I feel sorry for all the lawn care guys out there.

Whilst most of my clients lawns are irrigated, some are not and it certainly leaves a mark on the weekly budget. I certainly feel for those that would be hurting business wise due to the lack of rain.

[roddy1960]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Whilst most of my clients lawns are irrigated, some are not and it certainly leaves a mark on the weekly budget. I certainly feel for those that would be hurting business wise due to the lack of rain.

Do you have any real estate maintenance contracts as part of your business ?

One of the chaps here has an agency that retains him to regularly maintain unsold blocks and properties.

I understand contracts can be a bit problematic . first hand experience on that when Rod's Lawns St. Marys , me , had one in 1995-to 1997 .

I got a sub contract from Jim's Mowing to maintain about 20 local Telstra sites . Once I did an induction course on security related matters directly with Telstra and signed off on spray licence requirements with Jims Mowing contractor as well as , relevant public liability and business name registrations and such I took on the sub contract and had to work to a strict schedule .

It was great to start with but after a few months I had gutter repair and cleaning , non flush toilet can replacements in remote locations, basic building maintenance and other stuff added with no increase in the rates .

I fitted in about 40 regular private customers and the occasional periodical customers in amongst that .

When it came time to re negotiate with the Jim's Mowing contractor from Devonport I found it a tough task to get anywhere with a few extra bucks but about that time I picked up a part time job at our High School from 7am to 11.30 am each day .

I'd get home by midday , gobble down some lunch , load the ute and head off up to 70 kms for some Telstra jobs , tick off a set lot of duties and often wouldn't get home to 7pm especially if you could get two or three closeby Telstra sites done in the one trip..

Eventually I finished the second contract time and found out another person recently retired was interested so I let it go .

Not sure I'd ever want to go through that again , negotiating contracts .

[FTE217]

Originally Posted by DFB FGXR6

Guilty as charged!

Although, in defense, cleaning the gunk from around the fuel cap does have a practical purpose of preventing it from potentially entering the tank...............then OCD kicks in and I just keep going!

And the family know it's my escape and way of unwinding. I post so much on here about my mowing/detailing as my way of sharing my passions, the rest of my family are not "car people", although sometimes they have no choice

OK
Agreed re dust build up around the fuel cap, I grab dust pan brush swipe 3-4times cleaning done I keep noting watch closer when refilling not to over spill haha.....

Your right about "escapes" or good home down time.
I'm no in house during daylight.
Love doing my lawns/gardens/clean man shed and then get onto one of the cars if time permits.
1 son is a car person the rest incl wife just means of transport, shocking minds lol.....

As for my soon crisping grass, its 10.36am and were already @ 36deg :(
43 by 1pm I'm seeing.
I cheated and watered through the early hours this morn, 3amish.
It won't save it but at least most of the plants will.

[danzvtil]

No problems with water restrictions in Adelaide, all my clients lawns are irrigated, I make good money maintaining sprinkler systems.
How’s this, one of my clients had a malfunction in one of their sprinkler zones, it was flooding the neighbours property, so with a solid week of 40 plus degrees, they switched off the ENTIRE system and decided not to tell me. Jesus Christ some people have no idea, lucky I caught it a week later and not 2 weeks which is my call cycle.

[Rallye Sport]

Well times are changing and it became quite apparent yesterday.
The last of our true old schoolers retired after 50 years in the industry. I am now the oldest in the shed at 42 and the average age is down to 29.
So as we sat down for his last smoko break of coffee and cakes the new school arrived, quite poignant really.
Introducing our new Toro eTriflex greens mower...


The fairway mower has been hybrid for quite some time but this is the first greens mower of its type I've experienced.
Other than being significantly quieter and having the ability to run for weeks on a 20L tank it has no hydraulics. Quite an advantage if you've ever seen the aftermath of a hose blowing on a green. A month on and my last one is still scorched earth

The technology is astounding, I won't bore anyone with details of adjustable blade counts or variable clip control but I'll expand on the two things that have impressed me the most.

The traction system is amazing, early zero turns can break traction and scuff quite easily and previous traction control versions have felt too glitchy. This one feels natural and simply won't let slippage happen, it even controls the steering rate to avoid tank slapping on the return. Apparently you can do a full 360 on a delicate bent grass green without leaving a mark, although I'm not that courageous with it yet.

The biasing of the cutting heads is pretty special too. If you think of an old style unit as a locked diff the inside cutters do a lot more work on the turns leading to scalping and scorch from hot sole plates. The sound of the reels individually slowing and speeding up on turns is really noticeable and the cut is silky smooth.

Without the old schoolers conversation and the new schoolers buried in their phones I've got a big owners manual to read and comprehend at smoko times for quite some time.