Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Do you DR?

Probably not, because you have NO idea what I'm talking about.  A "DR" mower is like a walk-behind brush hog.  Still in the dark?  A brush hog is a heavy-duty brush cutter, like a lawn mower on steroids.  Usually you pull them with a heavy duty tractor. 

These beasts used to be advertised in the back of all the magazines, such as Good Housekeeping, etc., when I was much younger.  Since there are so many more magazines, and more specialized magazines, you're more likely to see these advertised in Mother Earth News or Hobby Farm (if there is such a magazine...made that one up!)  Always wondered about them, but not having more than a city lot, it wasn't a "must have!"

Fast forward years, and years, and we now have 20 acres that we want to "manage" ourselves.  We don't want a commercial brush hog operator to come in and mow down all the small saplings we're trying to help along, and mow in tight corners where we're leaving "habitat" for some of the little forest animals.  The DR is just the tool for that.  Oh, let me clarify that we do NOT mow the entire 20 acres.  I figure about half or a bit less, is heavily wooded.  And it's a bit hilly, and large tractors pulling brush hogs do not do well on those hills.  But the 10 or so acres left, we, or rather I, want to try to keep as nice as possible, with little brush, and good pasture.  This is easier said than done. 

The DR is self-propelled but will drag you along (if you're in 4th gear) and take everything in its path.  I've cut down a few trees I didn't mean to...  I do go slower, depending upon the terrain, the brush, the area...I'm just impatient!  Let me take this opportunity to say that you REALLY SHOULD wear ear protection.  They are noisy!  I didn't the first couple years (!), and I'm paying for it now.  I have constant ringing in my ears.  At first I thought it was cicadas, but in December???

The DR is almost fail safe fool proof safe idiot proof safe!  If you let go totally of the gas/gear handle, it stops immediately, and the blade stops moving too.   So if you lose control and let go, the machine stops.  The worst thing you can do is walk in front or next to it, while it's moving.  I say this because while someone else was operating the DR, I was walking aside it and was hit in the rear by a flying rock (they do that too) and I thought I had been shot in the a**.    The thing about rocks is that the DR will NOT turn them to gravel, and so I'm a bit hard on blades, at times.  I try to miss them...

This is getting wordy, so I'll tell you my next step, next blog entry!






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