May 28, 2016

At the Green Grass Café...

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... you can talk about whatever you like, such as the near-perfection of your lawn or your love of the color green.

ADDED: Meade made that lawn and keeps it mowed with a Fiskars Staysharp Max Reel Mower that he loves so much he's out there mowing the lawn every day.

59 comments:

rhhardin said...

I was out in the back yard tuning the radials on a portable whip antenna. My 5 watts has reached today Croatia, Bulgaria, California, Minnesota, Kansas, Virginia and Arkansas, on a band not given to great distance usually (40m).

Unfortunately I have nothing much to say to any of them, the same problem with it that came up when I was 12 years old. I figured as I got older I'd have something to say.

However it's a contest today and nobody is talking, just exchanging serial numbers. So you get to try out the radio, and they're willing to work to get your contact because it's points for them, even if you're a very weak signal.

pm317 said...

points if people recognize where this is

Original Mike said...

The green, green grass of home.

eddie willers said...

"Fore!"

robother said...

After 25 years, getting my Rainbird system upgraded. Although, with all the rain we've been getting, I haven't needed to turn it on yet, and the lawn and garden's never looked better. Also, maybe not coincidentally, the backyard bird activity has never been better. And the wild flowers are finally starting to explode. Life is good.

Freeman Hunt said...

That's some impressive lawnage.

Our sprinkler system does not work because the wiring needs to be fixed. We have had people out to look at it, but they cannot figure it out. At some point I may be interested enough to try myself, but for now I have hoses.

Kirby Olson said...

Should we mow our lawns? In this town in the Catskills, if it goes over 5 inches you get 500 dollar fine. No one actually ever gets the fine, but we talk about it all the time. It seems to be on the books, but not ever utilized.

tim in vermont said...

So much depends on the ruby throated hummingbird through the rain glazed screen

Any way, it looks kind of artsy, even if it did all happen by accident.

Curious George said...

I'm more of a "if it's green it's grass" guy. And when it's starts going brown in the heat of summer, well that's what grass does. It's a feature, not a bug.

Curious George said...

"Kirby Olson said...
Should we mow our lawns? In this town in the Catskills, if it goes over 5 inches you get 500 dollar fine. No one actually ever gets the fine, but we talk about it all the time. It seems to be on the books, but not ever utilized."

My freaky neighbor down the street is mowing his two foot high lawn today.

tom swift said...

What exactly does one do with a lawn? I mean, if one has no interest in croquet, or hosting antique or classic car meets.

Etienne said...
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mockturtle said...

Will Sanders schlong Hillary in California?
Will Viagra be required?

Etienne said...
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Etienne said...
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Paco Wové said...

I cheated by Googling "mexican grill marilyn monroe"

Fred Drinkwater said...

The other day a water company truck was prowling my street, to no apparent purpose. A bit of observation showed that he was looking at folks lawns and yards. Now, this is California, and we are under some kind of rationing, due to lack of foresight in both water infrastructure planning and population management. (But what do I know? I'm only a 6 decade native resident, after all.) Doesn't really affect me directly, since my place is drought-tolerant except for a small, struggling patch of lawn. Probably a couple neighbors got "the letter" from San Jose Water, though. And one can get used to living in a surveillance state.
In my area, the pictured lawn would probably result in a SWAT raid.

Meade said...

Yes, they'll all come to meet Original Mike, arms reaching, smiling sweetly.

Ann Althouse said...

"What exactly does one do with a lawn? I mean, if one has no interest in croquet, or hosting antique or classic car meets."

1. Look at it. It's the calm space between more complicated, showier stuff, giving shape and balance.

2. Walk on it. Barefoot is best. It's very plush and springy and cool. It's a great pleasure just to walk on.

3. Lie down on it. It's very comfortable, very cool. A husband and wife can lie down on the grass and look up through the trees at the sky. Best activity ever!

4. Mow it! Meade loves to mow it. Mows it every day. Sometimes more than once. He even goes over and mows other people's lawns for the pleasure of it (and to be nice).

Meade said...

"He even goes over and mows other people's lawns for the pleasure of it (and to be nice)."

And to adverse possess their property (not).

TA said...

5. Get a Labrador, or invite one over. Labs love to lie on green lawns.

Michael K said...

Winston loved to go poop on green lawns. When I had a house in Tucson, there was only one house nearby that had a green lawn. All the rest were typical Arizona gravel. When I would take him for a walk, he would head straight for that lawn. I always picked it up but, fortunately, I don't think they ever saw us.

Michael K said...

The best version of the national anthem I have heard.

Big Mike said...

I read that someone defaced the Vietnam Memorial out in Venice, CA. I classify that as hate speech directed towards us Vietnam-era veterans.

Paddy O said...

Lawns are cultural appropriation. Just like golf. Let the Scots have their own culture.

Paddy O said...

"Meade loves to mow it. Mows it every day. Sometimes more than once."

Noise pollution! (Unless you're using one of them push mowers).

Paddy O said...

I loved living in the mountains where lawns were illegal. Nobody had a lawn (unless it was fake grass). Just forest floor. Very pleasant place to live. No social pressure to enjoy your yard in the socially mandated requirements. Get to know the native flora this way. Very peaceful.

Hagar said...

I have kept the last green lawn on my street.
This year I had the bluegrass/ryegrass mix lawn sod removed and I regraded the yard and re-seeded with blue grama (hot weather) grass.
So far I have had three people stop and tell me how relieved they were to see that I was re-seeding rather than going to "southwestern" landscaping.

"Southwestern" landscaping is not maintenance free. You have to stay after the weeds and every five years or so, scoop up the gravel and sieve the blowsand out of it.

Hagar said...

One lady told me my old "city park mix" always made her feel like taking her shoes off and run through it.
I told her to feel free to run through the blue grama as soon as I get it established.

pm317 said...

Thanks Paco Wove! Smart and I would not expect anything less. :)

Ann Althouse said...

"Lawns are cultural appropriation. Just like golf. Let the Scots have their own culture."

Both Meade and I are (in part) Scots.

"Noise pollution! (Unless you're using one of them push mowers)."

Meade always uses a reel mower. He's in love with his Fiskars Staysharp Max Reel Mower.

Paddy O said...

My outrage is now undefined! But still objective!

Chuck said...

I love that picture, and before Ann said a word about it, I just knew that it was mowed with a push-reel mower. Because Meade is that kind of guy. And in that, I mean the highest possible comment.

If anybody has ever worked on maintaining a high-end golf course, you'll know that the greens are mowed to within a 32nd of an inch. We used 3x5 cards to adjust the cut. Of course they were gas powered, with rollers, but the push-reel mower is the same concept.

It is basically the one and only way for human beings (as opposed to bunnies and goats) to keep grass -- fine grass -- properly trimmed.

Very best Memorial Day wishes to our hostess and proprietress and to reel-mower Meade.



I love it. I'd be in love with the Fiskars Staysharp Max Reel Mower too.

Chuck said...

"...highest possible compliment..."

And that may have been the weirdest possible spelling auto-correct of the week.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Today I mowed with a 30 year old push mower. Overhead were a B-25 and a P-51. At the edge of my place I have a flag on a tall pole.
Memorial, that is to say.

The Elder said...

It needs some 9-iron divots. I'll be right there!

Meade said...

Bring it, Bro!

Ann Althouse said...

My mother's maiden name was Beatty. That puts us in the MacBeth clan.

Guildofcannonballs said...

So now that everyone is blaming Buckley and his purges for everything unutopic, it is time I remind you all again of micro bigotry such as the beautiful and wise Reba Mcintire owned with her "so don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southerly lawyer; 'cause the judge in the town has blood stains on his hands" damn lyric.

The, I assume, subtext is "trust your soul to all frontwoods Northerly lawyers" and other some suchs, which is actually mens rea in that crushing the weak, even with non-uncondemnations penumbraing, is what the smart and powerful declaim venuewise friendly is their mission.

They call it "nudging" and ergo escape any cognitive dissonance that the less euphemistically-inclined could become derailed by.

Bill said...

I read Jessica Valenti's latest in the Guardian this morning, and don't quite know what to make of it.

rhhardin said...

I pulled in the Cape Verde Islands this evening, which turns out to be off Africa. The point of a yard is to have room to put up a portable antenna without its being buried in trees.

And a sunny morning spent tuning it, taking seven inches off each radial. The radials are 11 feet up, so you can scythe under them without bumping your head.

It's all held up with paracord, carabiners and a single clothesline tightener. Invisible from a distance owing to slenderness.

I made room for the 5-watt transceiver by moving the coffee cup on the desk. It's the age of miniturization, but I now have to drink coffee left-handed.

rhhardin said...

I've tried many reel mowers, but all have the disadvantage on a mixed lawn that an uncuttable species grass begins to take over.

Modern reel mowers are designed to rock up over hard-to-cut grass, rather than planting all four feet in the dirt and stopping on a tough patch as the old ones did. So hard-to-cut grass is always cut longer and longer, and you get these clumps rising up after finishing the yard.

A scythe makes short work of every kind of grass.

Humperdink said...

The Amish nearby use a reel type mower for their yards (naturally). They don't have lawns.

The amusing part is how they do it. It is generally a 2-youngster job as they use the smallest children. One pulls it with a rope and the other pushes it. Barefoot of course.

mockturtle said...

When I was a kid, my father made us mow with a reel mower. It was hard work because our lawn was multi-terraced and sloped. But it was quiet!

David said...

Real men use reel mowers.

Me, I hire a lawn service.

Humperdink said...

I have a 72" mower deck under a 38HP Kubota tractor, but I mow 3 acres.

Dave in Tucson said...

> he loves so much he's out there mowing the lawn every day.

Wow, Meade and I had very different childhoods in at least one respect. For much of my childhood, it was my responsibility to keep the lawn mown during the summer months, and we had a yard large enough that mowing it took the better part of a day (although perhaps it would've gone quicker for someone not dragging their feet so much?)

Anyway, I am perfectly happy living in a place where it is acceptable and even expected to have a yard full of rocks.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I kicked, tossed, Walker aside alone although I concede this forum.

Brad Fuckspring Scott hired and paid.

Trump would not be so foolishish as that unless it 'twere a tactic well-considered strategically.

All facts material without Pronons, The Ideal Conception Of Law,pronouns absolutely withheld as a first
, fuck it, The First, desired codification rendered.

Etienne said...

Clinton and Sanders both like Tim Kaine for VP.

Missed out in 2008 over the other Catholic: Joe Biden

Plus: Catholic
Plus: Bi-Lingual Spanish
Plus: Served as a Missionary in Honduras (as good as a Vet or Peace Corp in my book)

Plus: Lt Governor, Governor, DNC Chair, Senate

Minus: Harvard

My opinion, he should be President, and Clinton and Sanders should retire to their scammed millions and go bake cakes.

rhhardin said...

I got Australia this morning. There's nothing left to do.

That took years when I was a kid but the foreign hams have great receivers these days so moderately good conditions are enough.

Ron said...

Meade -- do you have the grass catcher attachment for this as well?

Humperdink said...

Speaking of the Amish, ever watch an Amish child milk a cow? Barefoot? Their toe jams have an interesting fragrance.

Paco Wové said...

Somebody mentioned Razib Khan a few days ago. Recently he wrote a nice piece relevant to the ethnic balkanization of the US, We Are Not Your Asian-American (Political) Sidekick. Considerably more nuance than, say, the NPR Codeswitch Justice Rangers are capable of.

Paco Wové said...

P.P. Beautiful lawn. I've used reel mowers, and I appreciate the quiet, but they work best on relatively small, unobstructed patches of turf. Far too many immovable objects in our yard that the reel mower is unable to effectively mow around. I used an electric mower for about 8 years, but when it broke I got a small gasoline mower and discovered I can mow the yard about twice as fast with it.

Paco Wové said...

P.S., dammit. P.S.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

How does the Fiskars mower do at the edges? My Scotts leaves an uncut fringe I have to trim by hand.

David said...

That is, by the way, an amazing lawn. Do you fertilize it? Water it when rain is scarce? Sing happy songs to it?

Meade said...

Thanks, to everyone who said nice things.

David, I give it a dry fertilizer in the fall and a couple rounds of liquid fertilizer twice 3 weeks apart in the early spring after the first mowing. I only water lightly (and often) if I'm trying to get new seed to sprout. Otherwise, I stop mowing and let the lawn go dormant in July and August. I'm always humming some silly tune or another.

Left Bank, the Fiskars gets half an inch from the edge. So I bought the Fiskers stand-up grass shears and now I'm addicted to trimming along with mowing.

Paco, you are right — reel mowers are best for small lawns.

Ron, no catcher. The Fiskers throws the clippings forward where they get a second slicing, decompose, and then feed the soil biota.

Humperdink, Kubotas are great. Years ago, I used a Z series Kubota when I took care of 15 acres. But I don't think they made a 72" deck back then (in the 70s). I'm pretty sure it was 48". Yours is probably hydrostatic and zero-turn. Nice.

I've had a scythe identical to rhhardin's for 30 years. Great tool. Like most cutting tools, the primary thing is to keep it sharp. If I owned more than 1/2 acre of lawn, I'd use a scythe like he does or more likely a combination of scythe and a reel mower.

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