I've not long come in from cutting the lawns....and...for the first time, went next door and cut theirs as well....because they are away for 6 weeks and I've done a deal...they bring me back some decent red wine from Spain and I cut their lawns.
Trouble was, I got the thing stuck on a lower lawn, the grass ramp back up again was too slippery...so....I thought i'd give it a go on a more shallow part, but at an angle.... you know, give it some welly and lean right over into the bank, with your backside mostly over the edge of the seat...what could possibly go wrong?
Very, very stupid thing to do...because, I rolled it.
Not much scares me, but that did. All I could think of as I was going over, was my mate's dad, who killed himself on his a couple of years back, when his landed on top of him.
As soon as I hit the deck, I was off...rolling away like a madman...straight into the stream.
The lawnmower ended up upside down, with petrol pouring out, so when I emerged from the stream (looking like God knows what)I had to right it pronto. Amazingly there's nothing wrong with it, although it smoked well before it started. It still has enough oil in it.
Won't be doing that again. It's one of these: tinyurl.com/blw9wk2
I got lucky, just an aching lower back and sore head.
Last edited by: Westpig on Mon 13 May 13 at 18:05
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Crikey - shades of Rik Mayall and his quad bike accident. Glad you lived to regret the miscalculation, WP.
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Look I know this is inappropriate, and sounds really really crass - but I bet if one was viewing this from over the fence, it was a gut splitting funny thing to watch.
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I say WP. Bit of Miss judgment eh! I know her only too well. Once turned a mini-digger over whilst loading a dumper with the front bucket. I ran (knowingly) over a brick, yes a brick that had fallen from the last bucket load. This brick, all 75mm of it was enough to tip the machine over. I was obviously working to a tight limit at the time, bit to be fair not noticeable to me and orf I went. My saviour was that the load arm was in the Dumper as the machine tipped and the hydraulics let me down sooo slowly. Won't be so careless again.
Glad you're OK.
On a separate note I am slowly moving the Fantic (remember a previous thread/topic or whatever they are called) to the front of the lock up. You had suggested calling your Brother (I think). Would you kindly let me have the details here or by private message please. The mods should oblige if required.
Best...............MD
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I'm glad that mower didn't roll on you too Wp.
I used our new mower today for the first time on the back lawn. Nice engine. It drives itself but the thing I find heavy going, in my present horribly unfit state, is turning it round to do the next stripe. I hope doing this every week or so will improve my remaining health.
One of those steering-wheel luxury jobs would be just the thing for the dell below here, although it has some dangerous slopes here and there. But I don't think it can quite be justified.
I'm just remembering with a shudder the digger sinking into a bog down there a couple of years back. They got it out in the end.
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>> On a separate note I am slowly moving the Fantic (remember a previous thread/topic or
>> whatever they are called) to the front of the lock up. You had suggested calling
>> your Brother (I think). Would you kindly let me have the details here or by
>> private message please. The mods should oblige if required.
Dan...DMS Wrangaton Motors.......01364 73503
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Does Dan have a website WP?
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>> Does Dan have a website WP?
No, not yet...we're both thinking of having one, but they're still on the 'as and when' pile. I'm happy for a Mod to dish you out my dets and speak on the phone or e-mail.
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That could be useful Sir.
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>> if one was viewing this from over the fence..............
It might well be on "You've Been Framed" at some point.
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>> Look I know this is inappropriate, and sounds really really crass - but I bet
>> if one was viewing this from over the fence, it was a gut splitting funny
>> thing to watch.
>>
I did think that, stood there soaking wet and covered in mud. Fortunately no one saw it. Although I did ring my brother to pop up and help me get the thing back up to where it should have been...and he couldn't control his laughter.
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Me neither:)
Sorry....
Pat
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Glad you survived. It is surprising just how much you can think of during incidents like that. The underside of that mower looks like it could make a right mess of you.
Back in the 70s when I worked on a motorway construction site I saw a 100 ton twin-engined scraper roll down a 15 metre high embankment it was helping to build. The driver jumped off it as he felt it start to go and was un-injured. But the steelfixers working on the culvert at the bottom of the embankment got the fright of their lives as they saw the scraper rolling towards them. Luckily the scraper stopped just short of them but they injured themselves clambering over the steel they were fixing.
Something like this. cfnewsads.thomasnet.com/images/large/029/29146.jpg
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Glad you are OK WP, a good fright (and soaking) could be a future lifesaver.
A bit of advice if I may. From my days as a skier I am aware of the "Fall line", the path a ball will take if rolled down a slope and a skier zig zags across to control their speed. You should never deviate from this line when driving anything unstable on sloping ground. It has kept me shiny side up when driving tractors with fully laden barley trailers on steep slopes. If it gets stuck tow or winch it out.
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Turning uphill was the one I learned after a terrifying two-wheel moment in our tractor.
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Sounds like you may have learned on similar kit to me ON? Long thin wooden skis with fixed cable bindings attached to leather lace up boots? "Shoulders to ze falley shentlemenz, alvays, shoulders to ze falley, ben ze kneez, alvays, ben ze knees..." - "No, not like zat !....get up !! "
:-)
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>>"No, not like zat !....get up !! "
>>
>> :-)
>>
I was taught to ski by the Army. Even as a seasoned matelot I increased my vocabulary with a few words not repeatable here. :-)
The instructors were national (and one Olympic) standard coaches, as their contract was for the season and unlike ski school instructors were paid whether teaching or not, the Army had their choice of instructors. They taught from basic up to ski instructor level. The course included mountain survival, ski maintenance, and a wide range of related skills.
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>>
>> I was taught to ski by the Army. Even as a seasoned matelot I increased
>> my vocabulary with a few words not repeatable here. :-)
>>
>> The instructors were national (and one Olympic) standard coaches, as their contract was for the season and unlike ski school instructors were paid whether teaching or not, the Army had their choice of instructors. They taught from basic up to ski instructor level. The course
included mountain survival, ski maintenance, and a wide range of related skills.
In S. Germany Austrian border area ON? If so still teaching today in that area. I went a few years ago, good fun.
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>>
>> I was taught to ski by the Army. Even as a seasoned matelot I increased
>> my vocabulary with a few words not repeatable here. :-)
>>
I expect you found that very useful; serving in a submarine!
;-)
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>>
>> >>
>> >> I was taught to ski by the Army. Even as a seasoned matelot I
>> increased
>> >> my vocabulary with a few words not repeatable here. :-)
>> >>
>>
>> I expect you found that very useful; serving in a submarine!
>>
>> ;-)
>>
>>
As was the HGV 1 training and test I did with 2 MT Squadron RAF. :-)
Last edited by: Old Navy on Thu 16 May 13 at 15:07
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Nasty - we have a little (well not so little) John Deere Lawn Tractor - it seems to be a more stable design than the one you link to - we also have a grass ramp (alongside a paved one) and I cut the grass on that the other week, not for the feint hearted - the grass was bone dry when I did it and there's no way I'd do it when it was damp. I gingerly allowed it to roll backwards down the ramp....not much scope for error. Incidentally, the Deere's built in the USA and has (apart from a drinks holder) a number of idiot proof safety features including a cut out on the seat - you exit the seat and the motor stops. Near miss the WP.
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>> a
>> number of idiot proof safety features including a cut out on the seat - you
>> exit the seat and the motor stops.
Mine does that, get off the seat and it'll stop.
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Take it those pursuit driving courses don't cover lawnmowers then?
:-)
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It was a TPAC that went wrong.
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Glad no-one got hurt.
I know someone who inadvertently drove one of those things into a swimming pool. He had to take a lot of stick about drive-through car washes.
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>> Glad no-one got hurt.
>>
>> I know someone who inadvertently drove one of those things into a swimming pool. He
>> had to take a lot of stick about drive-through car washes.
>>
Not long after I did it, I rang my mate, as he was the one who gave me all the advice about which machine to get...(and it was his dad who died on his 'ride on').
He just laughed...and said he'd toppled his over twice. First time, apparently he and the machine went into his pond. Whilst stood there, trying to work out how to get it out of the pond, a farmer went past in the next field and stopped for a chat...and he had to stand there shin deep in water, pretending there was nothing wrong.
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I have this unpleasant image of the blade still spinning and rolling over and onto you and creating salami. Anyway sounds like a lucky escape glad you are A OK.
Advanced drivers? Tcch :)
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>>The lawnmower ended up upside down, with petrol pouring out,
>>
So how to explain the big brown patch? Must have been a dog or fox or ?
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>So how to explain the big brown patch? Must have been a dog or fox or ?
Mrs WP probably just threw them in the bin.
Didn't even bother washing 'em.
Last edited by: Kevin on Mon 13 May 13 at 23:19
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>> >So how to explain the big brown patch? Must have been a dog or fox
>> or ?
>>
>> Mrs WP probably just threw them in the bin.
>>
>> Didn't even bother washing 'em.
>>
They've been lawndered nicely, thank you.
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Only just discovered this thread (been busy acting as "agent provocateur" spewing out rubbish on some of the others)
Glad that you are OK, WP. Aren't you supposed to get straight back on after a fall, rather like a horse?
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Our school chaplain cut half of one of his feet off with a petrol Flymo type thing. As boys, we were, rather bizarrely, I am embarrassed to admit, quite amused by that. He became known as "Hopalong".
Children can be cruel.
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We had a history teacher who held his head at a curious angle - he was known as Isaiah....cos one eye was higher than the other....
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>> We had a history teacher who held his head at a curious angle - he
>> was known as Isaiah....cos one eye was higher than the other....
>>
One of my old work colleagues had a very noticeable lazy eye.
The cruel sods nicknamed him 'Izzy'.......which I couldn't work out, so had to ask.
'Is he'...........as in, is he looking at me or looking at you?
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Our school chaplain cut half of one of his feet off with a petrol Flymo type thing.
Didn't happen in a New York advertising agency, did it?
New French teacher turned up for his first day at my school in loud check trousers and was 'Rupert' from that day on. May have been a smart move considering what we called some of his colleagues.
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>>Didn't happen in a New York advertising agency, did it?
Now, you've foxed me there? As far as I know it was in his back garden somewhere in Edinburgh circa 1972-ish. He did have the grace to admit that he allowed himself to swear a bit at the time but that was not to be taken as a signal that we could.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Tue 14 May 13 at 22:01
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WdB is referring to an event in the excellent series Mad Men, now only available on Sky Atlantic, sadly for us Virgin customers
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I wouldn't mind being a virgin customer, but you can't get it around here.
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Must be tough with all those wild women in Devon;)
Pat
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Wears me out trying to catch 'em! Need quicker wheels or new knees......
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Try a pony. Good on the rough stuff.
>> Wears me out trying to catch 'em! Need quicker wheels or new knees......
>>
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Alastair gets this week's gold star. We Freesatters used to get it on BBC HD, but the series is so beautifully shot that it's worth the price of the Blu-ray set to get it in the best possible quality. Just got to wait now - no spoilers, please.
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>> Only just discovered this thread (been busy acting as "agent provocateur" spewing out rubbish on
>> some of the others)
>> Glad that you are OK, WP. Aren't you supposed to get straight back on after
>> a fall, rather like a horse?
>>
It is meat & right so to do. (Cue horse puns again!)
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Garden accident - WillDeBeest
