Bob Ackley wrote in a message to Roger Nelson:

 BA> 20+ years ago I had a riding mower for my tiny lot in Plattsmouth. 
 BA> I found it didn't take any longer for me to mow my next door
 BA> neighbor's yard (no fences at the time), she was about 75 at the
 BA> time.  After a short time I started mowing the fellow's yard next
 BA> to her - he had a double lot and couldn't mow it himself as he was
 BA> disabled by age (80-ish) and infirmity; he insisted on paying me,
 BA> so I let him give me $1. It took about an hour to do all four lots,
 BA> now it takes me five hours to do mine - and with a slightly larger
 BA> mower (42" deck as opposed to 36" on the old one).

Not too many guys around like you anymore, Bob.  When I lived in
Mandeville, it took me a couple of hours to mow the lawn on a rider.  It
wasn't that the yard was huge -- you had to go around picking up pine tree
limbs all over the place. And the cones I put in an area where the
squirrels could get to them relatively unharmed.  Then there was the pine
straw.  I used the mower to arrange them in circular piles and then placed
those piles at the bases of the trees in the front and back.  They are
gone, now.


Regards,

Roger 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+