My Red Lawnmower

Have you ever installed a ceiling fan yourself? Have you ever replaced your own car brakes? Ever install a toilet? Ever glazed a window? The art of fixing it yourself is disappearing. Would you believe that there are those who don’t even know how to change a tire? These simple skills can also transfer over into other areas. Take restoration for example. How many times have you heard where someone picked up an old car that the owner basically thought useless? The new owner simply changed a radiator, put in a new battery, and had himself a new vehicle. One man’s garbage is another’s treasure. There are many examples. Cars, furniture, electronics, you name it. I even know a 10 year old that builds computers out of thrown out parts and pieces.

Check out this article about a group in the United States Air Force that take others trash and restore and recondition old used parts. This one group saved the Air Force $600,000 alone. Tyndall Airmen prove it’s worth fixing one man’s trash to save Air Force thousands

Now why would someone become enamored with the idea of fixing things? For one, I think there is a bit of the curious cat in all of us. We want need understanding of how things work around us. To go along with this concept, not only do we need to understand, but we need to physically see, feel, and hear how something works. Who wants to look at a picture in a book, when they can grab a crescent wrench or screwdriver? Maybe this is why that an old sitcom was so popular, remember Tool Time with Tim Taylor?

Another reason people fix things is economic necessity. This necessity can be dictated both by not having the funds to buy something new to replace the old thing, or that you hate to pay labor charges. I was recently quoted $300 dollars to have my plugs and plug wires replaced in my Cadillac. $300 for $59 worth of parts (plugs and wires)! It was a lot more of an intricate job than it first appeared and it took 2-3 times longer than I thought, but I did it myself. The next time it will only take 1/3 of the time. What would you do with the saved $241? You would be surprised at how easy some of the things you can do, but only if you try it. There are many books at Amazon on just about anything and how-to web site’s galore.

Earlier this summer as I was walking up Vine St., I noticed that someone left out an old Snapper lawnmower with a cardboard sign that said “FREE”. I knew that Snapper was a very good quality mower and was curious. I went over and looked at it. It was old, maybe 12-15 years. But it had the classic Briggs and Stratton engine and it was mounted on an aluminum deck almost ½ inch thick. I checked the oil and gas, they were both empty. I gave a few pulls and nothing happened. I thought this would be a nice project to get it working. It sat in the garage most of the summer as it was to hot to work out there. But last week I decided to work on it. I simply drained what oil was there and replaced it with new. I put in a new spark plug. I added some gas. Put the switch to start, and gave her a pull. On the first try it started. I could tell she hadn’t run in a while so I opened it up. It wasn’t running the best but then I used a screwdriver to turn the carburetor adjustment and it started running super! I took a few swipes across the grass and the self propelling worked, the bag collected the grass. Some of my townhouse neighbors came out to see what was going on. The lawn is covered by our association dues. I would dare say to find a nice aluminum lawn mower that is self propelled would cost upwards of $350-$400. I couldn’t sell it for this price but I wonder, how much did the original owner spend to replace this?

And finally, one more reason people like to do it themselves, “Accomplishment”. It is by what we ourselves have done, and not by what others have done for us, that we shall be remembered in after ages. What do you dare to do that you haven’t done before? It may seem scary. It may make you uncomfortable. These things I speak of aren’t simply repairing and restoring things. They can also be talking to strangers, going back to school, getting involved with organizations, or anything similar. So in closing, I will leave you with Nike’s motto, just do it!

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