[GR8racingfool]

Been driving by thiscommercial property on the way home for several weeks, only to watch the grass get taller and taller by the day.

The business closed down, and the building, and property are up for sale, and is kinda being neglected.

The other day, I see a guy, and his wife out there working. Hes using the string trimmer, and she is using the push mower...mulching I might add.

I stopped by later when they were "done" and left them my name and number and said I could take care of that for you if you like, I just live down the street. he said he would ask his sister and brother, as they are all the owners still.

Last night, I get a call, he said they tried to mow some more, and its just too thick, and tall for their mower. He asked what I would charge to finish the lot up. I said i dont know, knowing that $30.00 would be worth it to me, I threw out $35.00 to $40.00 I guess. He said he was thinking more towards $50.00, which is worth it to me. So deal was done I was hired on.

Last night, I drive my 300 on down the street, set my deck to the level his little push mower was at, and dive on in.

Best part of the story here...

the tallest of the tall grass was over the top of the hood of the tractor by a inch. The shortest of the short, and the really thick green stuff was over the top of the front tires.

So, I can see why they were not having much fun with the push mower. :fing20:

My 300 with a 48" deck I rebuilt got put to the test here for sure. Engine ran strong, never bogged down, and the grass shooting out the discharge shoot was thick and green the whole time. When I thought that I should slow down or stop, the grass shooting out would stop as well, so I knew I was not packing the deck up with cut grass.

So, when I was done, looking at the lot, I would say the next step would be to pull a bailer now, and pick up my nice thick straight lines of cut grass. ha ha ha :fing32:

Owner said before I even started, if it piles up, that's fine, he didn't care, he just wanted it cut, and looking better than it did before.

Took me about an hour to do, cause after I mowed, I went back and recut what piled up again to "thin it down some".

Best part is, I mowed at my regular speed most the time. I was amazed I did not have to go slower.

Wish I had a before picture to share...but you might have an idea of what it was like based on my little story here.

:trink39:

Edit: added a picture of the work horse.

~F~

 

[NEWT92]

:congrats: It never hurts to ask. Just remember in those kinds of situations where the grass is like that, keep in mind if you hit something, whats gonna break and whats it gonna cost to repair. I been there done that. :banghead3

 

[KHodges]

That's great, that he offered you more than you asked, and didn't just say "okay" when you made your offer. Will this be a regular gig, until they sell the property? How big an area is it? Now that you have it "beat down to size", you can get it done in less time, so the same amount of $$ will get earned more quickly. Nice to have a little something on the side, at least buy your gas for your own yard.

Good looking GT, I always liked that body style the best of all the JD's.

 

[Wid LT1000]

That's a great story! I'm glad it worked out for you.

I'm glad you didnt hit any buried surprises. I've gotten tangled in several "signs" from previous elections that never got removed.

Keep an eye on the underside of that deck - when I have cut fields of similar growth - I get all sorts of build up underneath.

 

[PBYAN2]

Bout a year or so ago. I fell into about the same sort of deal. High weeds on a vacant lot. No challenge for my Powerking. Easy money.
Was doing good till about halfway through I found about 10' of dog chain.
Cost me a couple of blade adaptures.
No big deal, They were sort of cheesey anyway. Gave me the excuse to build me some better ones.
Also still have the dog chain, Just in case I ever get a dog.

 

[G-1]

Isn't there some sort of law that says you cannot have as much fun as you had and still get paid for it ????
Maybe you should give some of the money back!!!! :ROF :ROF :ROF

 

[Upper5Percent]

Make sure you get yourself some commercial liability insurance...

 

[bontai Joe]

Good deal. I used my Kohler 316 (essentially the same tractor as yours) commercially for 6 years cutting up to 5 acre lots. Worked great, and helped me pay for the tractor and truck. A side note, I think a lense for your headlights is about $20 new from Deere.

 

[defcondaze]

Make sure you get yourself some commercial liability insurance...

make sure you get your self another 10 customers !

any one know what insurance like that runs for a small mowing operation ?

 

[HydroHarold]

2 months ago I gave up my "good neighbor" accounts. I had 2 neighbors left that I mowed and did snow removal for. Recently one of the neighbor "children" started strategically planting and camoflaging chunks of concrete and his sister's toys around their place. "Times being what they are" I decided it was time to get out of the liability for my machine and their property. Let 'em hit their own stuff with their own machines.

Neighbor with the kids scored a used Yard Machines rider from his mother and for the first time in his homeownership is finally doing some "yard work" (riding)...and the other neighbor hired the job out using her own Toro walker. I thought I'd miss the seat time but I don't, it had become annoying "work" and you all know how much I hate the "W-word"!

 

[rabbit rescue]

great story ... how much land are you talking about on that lot? - more than a few acres? ... I can see $50 being well worth it for getting out of that job using a push mower and trimmer, depending on the person

you could make really good money with that mower, a string trimmer and a snowblower ... countless landscaping companies (often very successful ones) start out that way

 

[bamataco]

:fing32: Way to go had fun and got paid to.

 

[GR8racingfool]

Whole lotta questions...I'll work through them here. raying:

:congrats: It never hurts to ask. Just remember in those kinds of situations where the grass is like that, keep in mind if you hit something, whats gonna break and whats it gonna cost to repair. I been there done that. :banghead3

The only thin I hit was a Pepsi can and a toad who could not hop fast enough. I felt bad for frog in all seriousness. I knew of the lot, and kinda scanned ahead as what I was in store for, and hopefully did not have any bad surprises...like a political sign or a dog chain.

That's great, that he offered you more than you asked, and didn't just say "okay" when you made your offer. Will this be a regular gig, until they sell the property? How big an area is it? Now that you have it "beat down to size", you can get it done in less time, so the same amount of $$ will get earned more quickly. Nice to have a little something on the side, at least buy your gas for your own yard.

Good looking GT, I always liked that body style the best of all the JD's.

He sounds like a nice guy to work with, especially after not trying to work me down on the price. I know how to work people, but him being a business man too, knew as well, so it was about 2 minutes of us going back and forth of "I dont know what to charge, what do you want to pay?" "I dont know what its worth, how much do you want".

I did it more to help them out, cause watching them load up the push mower, haul it over there, unload it, mow about 1 or 2 passes before calling it quits...that was just too painful for me to watch them do. I dont know if it will be a regular gig or not. If so, cool, of not, no big deal. I think we decided on that if he cant do it, to call me, and see if I can before it gets too out of hand.

The property, I would say is about half a city block long. I only mowed around 10 or 12 passes that length. He is sitting on pretty close to a full acre, but just under that.

That's a great story! I'm glad it worked out for you.

I'm glad you didnt hit any buried surprises. I've gotten tangled in several "signs" from previous elections that never got removed.

Keep an eye on the underside of that deck - when I have cut fields of similar growth - I get all sorts of build up underneath.

Ya, got lucky, was expecting to hit something, but only a pop can...and a frog.

Under side of the deck, I was really worried about this too, especially after mowing something like this, so took a peek today, and this is all I see:

I have a few dozen mows on this from my own lawn prior to mowing this lot.

I think the powder coating is holding up, and keeping the build up down. Money well spent in my opinion.

Make sure you get yourself some commercial liability insurance...

Well, I have pretty good insurance through the company I work for. It was never brought up in our dealing with the property owner. I am sure I will be ok if I got hurt, my insurance would be there.

A side note, I think a lense for your headlights is about $20 new from Deere.

Ya, broke down and bought one months ago, thats an old picture. I even upgraded the light bulbs behind the lens to some bad *** LED's. I also have a new deere on the grill too.

great story ... how much land are you talking about on that lot? - more than a few acres? ... I can see $50 being well worth it for getting out of that job using a push mower and trimmer, depending on the person

you could make really good money with that mower, a string trimmer and a snowblower ... countless landscaping companies (often very successful ones) start out that way

I would say its about an acre lot, cause mine is a half. For the entire lot, I figure if I made 10 or 12 passes and made $50, the entire lot would be worth $150.00

I dont plan to make a habit of mowing like this for people, it was just a nice thing to do, cause they were punishing themselves with that little push mower.

I do have a 54" dual hydraulic blade, and I am working on making me a rear weight bracket for some large weights I bought cheep. Snow chains, I'll be set this winter. My job does not allow me to drive when the streets are bad, if your on the road, and they are deemed "bad" and you are in an accident, (does not even have to be your fault) automatic termination, no questions asked. So...figure if the streets are bad, I would at least go play out in the snow, and make up for the missing hours getting paid that way. Since I cant leave anyway...might as well stay home, and help out some neighbors.

~F~

 

[defcondaze]

Well, I have pretty good insurance through the company I work for. It was never brought up in our dealing with the property owner. I am sure I will be ok if I got hurt, my insurance would be there.

~F~

he meant for when the mower shoots out a rock that dents the 200,000$ mercedes driving by... or if you run over the family's pet frog by accident and then they want to sue you for pain and suffering ..... whoops too late :trink40:

 

[Upper5Percent]

he meant for when the mower shoots out a rock that dents the 200,000$ mercedes driving by... or if you run over the family's pet frog by accident and then they want to sue you for pain and suffering ..... whoops too late :trink40:

Yep...HOME OWNER'S Policies won't cover that...

 

[Brad]

Good story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[tcanthonyii]

What kind of Job do you work that they would fire you for being in an accident that wasn't your fault? Seems querky to me!

T.C.

 

[odis]

I used to mow for the public on the side. Working alone my insurance was around 600 a year. They wouldn't let me drop it in the winter i had to keep it year round. I made enough to buy my equipment. Its a good tax deduction too.
Jim

 

[GR8racingfool]

What kind of Job do you work that they would fire you for being in an accident that wasn't your fault? Seems querky to me!

T.C.

I work for www.reddyice.com

Pretty much the logic is, if the roads are too bad where you cant drive on them, you should not be out anyway cause people are not going to be buying that much ice. The risk out weighs the profit from the ice sales. Its more or less a rule, and to enforce it...thats what they threaten you with. Every year since I have worked for them, they will call us up one by one and remind us "if the roads are bad, dont go out".

More or less, every time we have a new rule, or company policy...it turns out somebody messed up somewhere in the company. So, like this, somebody was out in bad weather and was in a wreck, so to prevent it from happening again...they instate stuff like this all the time.

Latest rule was no cell phone use while driving. You get reported by anybody, automatic termination no questions asked. (we have "how am I driving" decals on the company trucks)

~F~

 

[tcanthonyii]

That doesn't count in your personal vehicle though does it? So what happens if someone hits you on a summer day that is perfect. You get termed then?

I work for one of the top 10 trucking companies in the usa and we don't have any rules like that!

T.C.