Up until last year, my husband was the lawn guy. When we first moved into this house, he bought a Lawn Boy mower. He said it was supposed to be "the best" because it would last forever.

Well, I don't know about that, but what I do know is that he was often out there mixing oil and gasoline, driving to the store to buy aforementioned oil and gasoline, and tinkering around with it trying to get the darned thing to start. Then when he finally did get it to start, I'd run away and hide in shame from the blue-black cloud of exhaust streaming out behind him and our daughter would run and hide from the noise. Finally he also became embarassed by the thing and I convinced him that we should trade it in.

The Louisville Metro has a program where you can turn in your old gas guzzler and recieve a voucher for a good amount of money off a new reel mower. (I've got the link for the program in the Resource/Going Green section. I don't know it off-hand.) So we did that - there are several locations around town where you can pick up your new mower. We got ours from Horton's Hardware.

After that a few things happened. My husband was no longer solely responsible for mowing the lawn, because I was no longer embarassed, I wasn't afraid of cutting off my foot, and I could mow the grass with my little one digging for worms nearby. We also haven't needed to buy gas for a lawnmower anymore. Yay! It's a win-win.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not perfect. It doesn't cut as well as a power mower, but so what? It's cutting the grass. You can clearly see the difference by looking underneath the gigantic pile of tree detritus that the city has yet to pick up. There the onion grass is about 2 feet tall. The rest of my yard just looks like it was cut by a power mower yesterday even though I cut it just a few minutes ago.

I also wouldn't recommend it for someone with a gigantor yard like my mom. I wouldn't want to be pushing it around her acre-sized front yard. She either needs to get a goat or make a regular habit of tying one of her horses out front.

The rather unexpected benefit is that it's a heckuva workout. Who needs to join a gym? Not me, that's for sure. I definitely feel like I got my exercise for the day. In the hot days of summer, I like to wait until the yard is in shade. On a cool spring day like today, mowing in the sun suits me just fine.