The REAL reason for the Four Wheeler...

Yesterday we tried out our mower-ATV combination. It rocked. Much better than push mowing. For reference, it used to take me 2 hours to push mow our 1/3 acre in Charlotte. With the four wheeler, I completed mowing our 3 acre property in about an hour {to be fair some of our acreage is wooded, but still}. 

We {meaning Daniel} will still need to use a weed eater up close to the house and the driveway, but I am really liking this new form of mowing.

This Makes Daniel Happy...

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we purchased a mower that would require an All-Terrain Vehicle {ATV or 4-wheeler} to pull it. When deciding between a riding mower and a pull-behind, it wasn't too hard to lean towards the pull-behind. The price for a good John Deere verses a ATV/mower combination was similar and the ATV would give us more versatility {i.e. we can play with it too}. 

While deliberating, I pointed out that we would eventually have to buy a second ATV {you know, so we can both ride} and if we do that it will require buying a bigger trailer to haul two ATVs around... but for now, we are excited to have a new utilitarian vehicle.

The ATV also helps us to fit in a bit better. All of our neighbors own ATVs and during all of the snow earlier this year we felt a bit left out whenever we would see them pulling sleds and having a good ol' time. Next winter, that will be us :)

Since bringing our ATV home this past weekend, we had not had a chance to play with it at all. I know this was driving Daniel crazy, but he was sick most of the week AND it has been raining pretty heavily for the past couple of days.

Last night when Daniel got home from work, he was determined that we should take it for a spin. So we did. At first we rode together. Then Daniel took it out by himself – I think he just wanted to ride through the big puddles fast {and he knew I didn't want to get wet} and he wanted to open it up on the street.

Then I took it out by myself. It is a manual that you have to shift with your foot {just like a motorcycle} but there is no clutch to worry about. My biggest problem is forgetting to shift! You can't ride very fast in first ;)

Anyways, it is going to be fun to have around. Can't wait to go out to some wildlife management areas and play on the trails. Oh yeah – there is that part about mowing the yard too...

How to Unload a 500-lb Mower...

All you really need to unload your 500+lb mower off of your utility trailer is an engine hoist.

 

Everyone has those in their garage, right? 

Daniel hooked straps to the mower, then had me push a button to lift the mower. 

Then we lowered it onto jack stands.

 

Removed the straps and engine hoist and then Daniel lowered it to the floor.

EasyPeasy.

Our Mower...

Daniel and I are no strangers to traveling long distances to save a buck. We do it partly for the adventure, but also for the sake of being frugal.

Most notable is the time we drove to Durango, Durango Mexico for our friend’s wedding. We travelled 35 hours EACH WAY to get to the wedding location and we were only in Durango for two days.

 

And then there was the time we drove to NYC to purchase a Pathfinder via eBay. Did I mention we did this on a Fourth of July weekend? Or that we managed to get lost in downtown NYC? This was also happened to be my first {and only} "visit" to DC.

Of lesser note are the many 12-hour {one-way} weekend trips to visit my family in Arkansas or the 12-hour {one-way} weekend trips to Canada to see my extended family {one of which was to celebrate my Grandparents 50^th anniversary}.

We normally make these trips and then swear off ever doing them again.

Yesterday we managed to make a similar trip {though on a smaller scale – I suppose this means we are getting wiser with age?}. We drove 4-hours each way to the mountains of Northern Georgia to purchase a pull-behind mower that Daniel found on Craigslist. We got a smoking deal, but eight hours of driving later, we were questioning our rational.

To use the mower, we now need to buy a four-wheeler to pull the mower with. At least we have some time until our grass starts growing. Our goal is to limit our driving distance on the four-wheeler purchase… perhaps we can keep our driving distance to under two hours each way???

Next up: we have to figure out how to get the 500-lb mower OFF of our utility trailer {it took three guys to lift the mower onto the trailer – I’m afraid I won’t be much help lifting it off}.