More yard stuff. And Piff.

[ladyjanelly]

Whew.

Mowed the back yard (both halves) with the rotary mower. It's a workout but I can't say that it was more work than pushing a motor mower. If a line of grass was too hard to mow I'd pull back and just overlap with the last row and it went smooth.

I think part of my problem was that I've never mowed a yard and I'm not so good with the mowing-pattern. It looked kind of like I was vacuuming the lawn instead of an orderly mowing.

The good thing is that it makes less crap in the air. I had a lot less dust than I expected. The whirly blades were quiet and that was cool.

Also, the first batch of compost (started March 3) is about half-done. I think a barrel of weeds transformed into compost every 18 days wouldn't be a bad deal for my investment in the cans.

Piff
Sigh. Piff has figured out how to climb me without hurting me. I'm sitting at the kitchen table on the laptop, and Piff jumps and grabs my shirt around waist-level and climbs me and until he can go over my arm and into my lap.

He uses a combination of holding me with his paws (no claws) and clawing into my clothes but not my skin.

The cat is weird.

Comments

[jellicle.livejournal.com]

Piff is made of complete awesomeness!

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

He totally is. I'll be standing and cooking and he'll jump up and grab the waistband of my jeans and try to pull himself up. I can't remember the last time he hurt me trying to climb me, just when he plays too rough.

Sometimes if I'm standing and cooking he'll stand up and wrap his front paws around my leg and just hug onto me for like a minute straight.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

We use a rotary mower on our back yard because it is FAR too tiny to bother with anything else, and one key seems to be to make sure to do it fairly often, so you're not trying to cut off a whole lot at a time. So just drag it out every week or so during prime growing season, even if the grass doesn't really LOOK like it needs a cut.

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

I'll keep that in mind. We try to keep all the Texas-grass pulled and the weeds pulled so that all the grass grows at about the same rate, so I think once a week might do it even in the fastest time.

[nova-berry.livejournal.com]

I've always enjoyed mowing the lawn, mostly because of the tangible sense of accomplishment. But I've never tried it with a rotary mower!

And ALSO, Piff is TOO CUTE and CLEVER.

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

I really like that feeling of accomplishment. I don't understand how people with a YARD can spend all day on video games or whatever when the weather is sooo nice.

[nova-berry.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as an apt dweller, I miss having a lawn SO MUCH. :/ Of course, I really didn't appreciate it when I had it.

[annawick.livejournal.com]

We tried a rotary mower but it doesn't work as good on all green stuff. We have mostly a 'weed' lawn (dandelions, clover, and dollar weed), which, as odd as it may sound, I like. I've discovered that dollar weed is pretty and only gets to be like an inch high. Clover is pretty and feels good on my bare feet. The only thing I don't like about the dandelions are the little stalks left after the seed poofs are all gone. All the left over stuff sluffs a rotary mower.

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

And rotary goes over to the 9hp gas mower and goes:
"See that crabgrass? Been sluffin' me all day. I think it should be your special friend"
and then gas mower pwns teh grass.

And it is good.

I think because we started with a nice St. Augustine lawn that we view it as part of the value of the house that we're trying to upkeep. Not that we're planning on selling anytime soon but it just seems a shame to let the weeds crowd the good grass out. Also, since 90% of the yard is good grass and grows slow, if I pull the weeds I have to mow less.

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

If you ever need a home for Piff...I'm just sayin'. I covet your cat! My Smokey is made of awesome and so is Piff. They'd make a fine team. *covets*

[ladyjanelly.livejournal.com]

Heh. I have a hard enough time keeping random visitors to the house from walking off with him. :)

[evolardnek.livejournal.com]

Piff is truly a weird cat! poor crazy kitten >.