Adventures in Grass Cutting

Untitled We live in the country. That means city people (flatlanders, we called them growing up) think we are slow, stupid, and have nothing with which to amuse ourselves. Well, cutting several acres of grass can turn into an adventure, and I have chronicled it here for those of you who also find this sort of thing interesting.

We bought 3 1/2 acres in 1999. In 2001 we added two more. Small by some standards, but enough to take up time in maintenance. We had been using a John Deere 400 garden tractor to cut the fields, but with the larger property came the need for a bigger tractor and mower. I came across a great deal on a Ford 2000 Super Dexta, and added a 6' King Kutter rotary cutter to do the grass chores.

The real adventure came in getting the King Kutter home. We found one in stock at the Farm And Country store just down the road, but getting it home proved to be a challenge. We wanted it, no, needed it, as soon as possible. The grass was not getting any shorter, and it had gotten past the point where the JD could handle it. Unfortunately, there was no one to deliver it. Besides, delivery would have been around $50.00, and my frugal Mennonite spirit rebelled at spending that kind of money.

In a flash of inspiration, I hit upon the idea of a hoist. The store had a forklift to get the Kutter onto my truck, but I had no way to get it off, and they were not about to follow me home with the forklift. They did have a chain hoist in stock though. I had several buildings which would support said hoist, so we added it into the bill, with the intention of fixing the hoist to a beam and lifting the Kutter off the truck in that manner. Not only would I acquire a tool for roughly the same price as delivery, I would have endless opportunities for hoisting things in the future.

Theory and practice can be, and usually are, two quite different things. The theory was this. We would driver home, affix the hoist to a beam in the shed, hoist the Kutter off the truck, and cut the field. Simple, right? Wrong. I failed to factor in a visit by my old acquaintance Mr. Murphy.


All went well at first. We arrived home without losing the Kutter off the back of the truck (it weighs 750 lbs). I quickly attached the hoist to the beam of our one shed, and began the process of attaching the working end to the Kutter. My middle daughter Sarah was helping.


I was taking up slack in the hoist when problems began to mainfest themsleves. The more slack I took up, the harder the hoist became to operate. I naively assumed that this was due to the weight of the Kutter, and just pulled harder. This was a huge mistake. The hoist was manufactured in Red China. It was even called Red Dog, or something like that. In addition to being roughly manufactured, it appeared to have been dipped in a vat of grease before shipping. I was greasy, black, and now I was stuck. The chain had twisted somewhere in shipping, and now it was locked up tighter than someone who had ODed on Immodium. Not only that, the Kutter was hovering about one inch above the truck bed.

After a lot of work, and several bad words, I was able to get the Kutter back onto the truck, and disconnected from the winch. I then disassembled the winch, straightened it out, and reassembled it. All this happened in these few sentences. Actual elapsed time was on the order of about two hours.


Here you can see the Kutter as it is just free of the truck bed, with the truck being moved out.


Here it is completely free and hovering in the air, suspended only by the heretofore unreliable Chinese hoist. It is things like this that make my wife glad we have a good insurance policy.


One nice thing about hoisting it off the truck like this, we were able to spin it in the air so it was pointed in the right direction for attachment to the tractor.


Here it is safely on the ground. No one was hurt, and we were only a little dirty (okay, I was a LOT dirty). Anyway, it only remained to assemble it and go cut the grass. Hoisting it off the truck had only taken a total of three hours, what else could go wrong?

Apparently lots could still go wrong, and it did. The manual that accompanied the Kutter was for a previous iteration, and lots of changes had been made. Fortunately, the people at the King Kutter plant were knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. I will not bore you with all the details. Suffice to say, it was a real trial of patience to get it all assembled and working properly. In the meantime, the grass had grown another two inches.


After lots of fiddling around, gouging ground, and breaking several shear pins, I was off and running. If it had taken me any longer, I would have had to forego the tractor in favor of a machete to cut the grass. It was about 18" tall at this point, and very thick. SWMBO stood at the top of the field to take a few pictures of the operation.


During the purchase process, I had quite a bit of time to speak with the gentleman at the Farm and Country store, who was a retired farmer. He informed me (after it was paid for and loaded) that I might have trouble with such a "small" tractor if I got into heavy grass. To my immense delight and surprise, my machine cut through the growth like it wasn't even there.


Backing up to the edge of the road is always exciting. The hill is fairly steep at this point, and while the road is straight and drivers can see me, they are usually going too fast to do anything about it. Fortunately, most of the speed demons drive rice burners which are smaller than my tractor. If they hit the Kutter, we'd just have to hose them off the road.


All done with this field, and almost time for a cold beer. Ahh, to enjoy life in the country. After cutting the grass, there is nothing quite like sitting there in the quiet and watching it start to grow back.