Coolerman
Bronze Member
When I lived in town I had a lawn service that came 4 times a year. (I traveled so much I had NO time to work the 3/4 acre lot) Had the prettiest lawn on the court. Thick green grass, no weeds. I would hand sharpen the blades on my 2 stroke Lawn Boy 22" push mow once a month for that perfect cut. I would mow twice a week in the spring to keep it looking great.
Now that I have moved to the country, and have 2.3 acres of converted cow pasture as my "lawn", I have a different approach. I don't feed it, water it or do anything else to it that would cause it to grow faster or greener. The Kentucky Fescue #31 is slowly crowding out the weeds, but it may take several more years. (As was stated weeds are green so it doesn't really matter.
Since moving, I now commute two hours a day for work, in addition to travel for my work, so i REALLY don't have time to have the perfect lawn... :laughing:
I mow once a week up until mid July. By then it's mostly brown and only needs mowing once every two weeks. It's a very rough yard (except where the contractor graded close to the house), being that it's a old cow pasture, and it takes me 2.5 to 3.0 hours to cut with my 60" deck.
Deck Leveling Story
I admit I did take the time to level the deck when I first got the tractor. However I learned something about previous owners that later cost me half a day when I did it...
When I bought the tractor I received TWO 60" decks with it (bought it used). The previous owner had one deck he used for rough cutting a field, and the other was set up as a finish mower. The finish mower was mounted on the mower when I took ownership. I mowed with that deck the first season, then that fall I took that deck off, cleaned it up, sharpened the blades, greased it, and set it aside. I wanted to mount the other deck to spread the wear between them. I was in a hurry and checked just the left blade on the rough cut deck. It appeared to be sharp so I did not bother checking the other two blades. I greased that deck up, mounted it to the mower, then leveled the deck according to Kubota specs. The next spring I noticed that this rough cut deck seemed to cut "rougher" than the finish deck but it was acceptable to me! I cut the grass till about July then decided to swap decks again. Since all the adjustments for deck leveling are on the tractor, I was completely surprised when the "finish" deck scalped badly on the right side! I double checked the blade height, and sure enough it was lower on the right. Thinking I had messed up the leveling somehow, I did it again. Now it cut better but not great... Fast forward to the fall when I swapped decks again. Now it appeared to slightly scalp the left while leaving the right high! WTF? I pulled that deck off and set it next to the other deck on my concrete shop floor. The anti-scalp wheels were set to the same height, the deck edges were the same height but sure enough on the rough cut deck, the right BLADE was closer to the ground! Closer examination revealed that the previous owner had two blades that were OEM Kubota on the left and the middle, and the one on the right was some other brand with a different shape that had it closer to the ground! A bit miffed at myself for not checking both decks more thoroughly, I ordered a set of Gator Blades for the finish mower. When those came in I took the best of the finish decks three OEM Kubota blades and replaced the unknown blade on the rough cut deck. After re-leveling the deck for the third time, I finally had a consistent cut when swapping decks.... :confused2:
Now that I have moved to the country, and have 2.3 acres of converted cow pasture as my "lawn", I have a different approach. I don't feed it, water it or do anything else to it that would cause it to grow faster or greener. The Kentucky Fescue #31 is slowly crowding out the weeds, but it may take several more years. (As was stated weeds are green so it doesn't really matter.
Since moving, I now commute two hours a day for work, in addition to travel for my work, so i REALLY don't have time to have the perfect lawn... :laughing:I mow once a week up until mid July. By then it's mostly brown and only needs mowing once every two weeks. It's a very rough yard (except where the contractor graded close to the house), being that it's a old cow pasture, and it takes me 2.5 to 3.0 hours to cut with my 60" deck.
Deck Leveling Story
I admit I did take the time to level the deck when I first got the tractor. However I learned something about previous owners that later cost me half a day when I did it...
When I bought the tractor I received TWO 60" decks with it (bought it used). The previous owner had one deck he used for rough cutting a field, and the other was set up as a finish mower. The finish mower was mounted on the mower when I took ownership. I mowed with that deck the first season, then that fall I took that deck off, cleaned it up, sharpened the blades, greased it, and set it aside. I wanted to mount the other deck to spread the wear between them. I was in a hurry and checked just the left blade on the rough cut deck. It appeared to be sharp so I did not bother checking the other two blades. I greased that deck up, mounted it to the mower, then leveled the deck according to Kubota specs. The next spring I noticed that this rough cut deck seemed to cut "rougher" than the finish deck but it was acceptable to me! I cut the grass till about July then decided to swap decks again. Since all the adjustments for deck leveling are on the tractor, I was completely surprised when the "finish" deck scalped badly on the right side! I double checked the blade height, and sure enough it was lower on the right. Thinking I had messed up the leveling somehow, I did it again. Now it cut better but not great... Fast forward to the fall when I swapped decks again. Now it appeared to slightly scalp the left while leaving the right high! WTF? I pulled that deck off and set it next to the other deck on my concrete shop floor. The anti-scalp wheels were set to the same height, the deck edges were the same height but sure enough on the rough cut deck, the right BLADE was closer to the ground! Closer examination revealed that the previous owner had two blades that were OEM Kubota on the left and the middle, and the one on the right was some other brand with a different shape that had it closer to the ground! A bit miffed at myself for not checking both decks more thoroughly, I ordered a set of Gator Blades for the finish mower. When those came in I took the best of the finish decks three OEM Kubota blades and replaced the unknown blade on the rough cut deck. After re-leveling the deck for the third time, I finally had a consistent cut when swapping decks.... :confused2:
