The continuing saga of my lawnmower karma
Most of you know I have lawnmower issues. In my short history as a house owner, I’ve gone through three lawnmowers (so I guess that’s one per year). The first one died a horrible smoky death. The second one suffered the same fate. The third one, my current lawnmower, you can see below:
This poor, poor lawnmower had some uninvited guests last weekend. Iwanted to mow my backyard before it turned into an overgrown jungle that I’d never be able to mow, so I retrieved it from my shed, gassed it up, checked the oil (I’ve learned much in my tenure as a homeowner) and started it up. And…three mice jumped out of the engine. So, thinking that mickey and his buddies had vacated my mower, I tried again. Unfortuntealy, one of mickey’s buddies did not make it out in time. Knowing I was no match for mice handiwork, I called my trusty lawnmower mechanic and broke down about my mice massacre. In between my call and his arrival, I emailed Mike McGrath regarding the removal of the mice from my shed without causing more micey deaths.
This was his reply:
They are VERMIN, Becky–get over the Disney thing.
Then read the
mice “Question of the Week” we answered in depth on our Public Radio show.
You can find the written version at the You Bet Your Garden section of the
Gardens Alive! website (http://www.gardensalive.com/);
scroll down—the link to the show is on the bottom right of the opening page.
You can also access this archive of valuable info on LOTS of frequently
asked questions at the You Bet Your Garden website (http://www.youbetyourgarden.org/). It’s worded like this:
Looking
for the answer to a gardening or pest control problem? Check
here for an archive of Mike’s detailed recommendations on dozens of
topics.Thanks,
—Mike McGP. S. The big button that just
says “archives” on the left hand side of YBYG’s home page takes you to hundreds
of entire shows you can listen to over your computer, but NOT to any print
archives…
And I thought I would be getting sympathy from my gardening hippie friend. No such luck. So Lee shows up that afternoon, to help me with my lawnmower crisis. He take apart the engine, where the mice had built a whole mice community. Townhouses, a pool, grocery store…the works. So, we evicted the mice squatters, and Lee did in fact get it up and running. Amazing! So now, the lawnmower is living on my porch, away from any more mice in need of a new living arrangement.
