I'm sure the title for today's post may have caught your attention. Why would we not want to mow since we do have(had) a working riding lawn mower? No real reason unless the weather is too cold, rainy, or hot! Today was a perfect day to be working in the yard. It was a little windy which did cause some problems this afternoon.
If today is a preference to what our week is going to be like - I'm going back to bed and not get back up until next week! Maybe I am asleep, and I had a nightmare. No, I'm awake, and we both had an experience we will never forget!
We have shown you pictures of our beautiful trees in the front yard! Today, Bill decided to mulch up some of these leaves. He got more than he bargained for! Using the riding mower, he made one swipe through the front yard when he noticed smoke! He turned off the mower; got off; and proceeded to move the leaves which appeared to be smoldering away from the front of the mower. Whoa - did our eyes see what appeared to be red flames shooting up from underneath the mower. Sure did - flames were blazing out from the front of the mower - that's where the gas tank is on this mower! Thankfully he had stopped the mower away from the bulk of the leaves in the front yard!
He saw he wasn't going to be able to stop the flames and told me to call the fire department. I ran into the house and dialed 911. I explained what was happening, and they assured me they would get someone here quickly! It seemed like hours before they came - but it was about 10 minutes! We have a volunteer fire department, and one of the members is the Chief of Police for Wayne! He and another volunteer came down and using our neighbors water hose (and their water) put out the fire! Our hose and spicket are on the other side of the house from where the mower was burning. They stayed around to assure us that there were no hot spots around the mower, and that the fire would not start up again.
Needless to say, we lost the mower; damage was done mainly to our neighbor's yard; and there was some smoke damage to a tree on their property. Insurance has been contacted and hopefully the damage to the neighbor's property will be taken care of, but we probably won't get back enough to buy a new mower. The insurance adjuster explained the process they had to use and that our policy has a $500.00 deductible!
The main thing is - no one was hurt! I thank God for that! We were afraid the mower would explode! Thankfully all it did was smolder with red flames blazing out from all around it. We are going to post some of the pictures Bill took for insurance purposes! I'm glad he thought about taking pictures - all I wanted to do was RUN!
I believe that the pictures will tell the story better than I. At one point we thought the fire was going out when swoosh the wind fed the fire and it came back with more vengeance!
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