This is what our yard looked like when we bought this property a few years ago.
While I was building the house, Marie went to work on cleaning up and mowing the immediate yard area around the house.
This is the JD mower that she used and I still use it to mow with.
We get a lot of leaves off those sycamore trees in the front yard so last fall, I bought a used lawn vacuum to pull behind the JD to pick up the grass clippings and the leaves from the front yard.
This was originally a trailer that towed behind the tractor but I didn't like having to pay so much attention to it when I was backing up to keep it from jackknifing.
I modified it so it now attaches to the back of the tractor with this 1 inch round bar.
This bar attachment is mounted on pillow block bearings so the vacuum motor and collection box can rock from side to side.
The round bar fits into the two holes on this bracket that is bolted to the back of the tractor.
This holds the vacuum straight in line with the tractor but lets the back of the box move up or down and rock from side to side.
Now I don't have to turn around and watch the vacuum box when I'm backing up because it stays inline behind the tractor and swings around on it's caster wheel.
I have the vacuum up on a work table right now because I need to change the caster wheels on it.
The ones I used are to small and to weak and I have already bent one of them sideways.
I'm going to put larger and stronger caster wheels on it.
So .... back to the front yard ... as you can see, the vacuum does a good job of picking up the mower clippings and leaves.
Looking to the east at the yard in between the house and the garage, you can see that the area where I had the two dead ash trees cut down is filling in nicely.
We have been only mowing about half of the back yard and Marie has always wanted to clean up the rest of it and mow all the way back to the edge of the ravine.
The weeds on the ruff area of the back yard grow to be three and four foot tall in the summer time.
We had talked about cleaning up and mowing that back area and we had planned on doing that this spring.
Even though Marie is no longer here to see it, I'm still going to clean it up and mow it for her.
Along with buying the yard vacuum last fall, I also bought this used pull behind Swisher mower unit.
Before last winter had set in, I hooked this up behind my R/T tractor and with the mower adjusted as high as it would go ( about 8 inches high ), I pulled it around the un mowed area of the back yard to ruff cut it all down.
Today I started picking up all of the twigs and dead branches in preparation for mowing this back area.
On the front yard and around the house, I use just the JD mower with the vacuum behind it.
Then I take the vacuum off and hook the swisher mower to it.
The JD mower is 56 inch cut and the Swisher mower is a 60 inch cut.
With the Swisher mower offset from the JD and allowing for the overhang between the cuts of the two mowers, I'm still cutting a 8-1/2 to 9 foot swath and it makes mowing the back yard a lot faster.
This is the first cut on the ruff area with the mowers set down to the same height as the rest of the yard.
This photo is taken looking straight back from the back porch.
This is the view that she wanted to see and it is the view you see thru the patio doors when you are sitting inside the house at the table.
It is also the view you will see if you are looking out the window above the counter where the kitchen sink is.
It will look really nice once I get it mowed enough times so the ruff area looks the same as the rest of the yard.
While I was building the house, Marie went to work on cleaning up and mowing the immediate yard area around the house.
This is the JD mower that she used and I still use it to mow with.
We get a lot of leaves off those sycamore trees in the front yard so last fall, I bought a used lawn vacuum to pull behind the JD to pick up the grass clippings and the leaves from the front yard.
This was originally a trailer that towed behind the tractor but I didn't like having to pay so much attention to it when I was backing up to keep it from jackknifing.
I modified it so it now attaches to the back of the tractor with this 1 inch round bar.
This bar attachment is mounted on pillow block bearings so the vacuum motor and collection box can rock from side to side.
The round bar fits into the two holes on this bracket that is bolted to the back of the tractor.
This holds the vacuum straight in line with the tractor but lets the back of the box move up or down and rock from side to side.
Now I don't have to turn around and watch the vacuum box when I'm backing up because it stays inline behind the tractor and swings around on it's caster wheel.
I have the vacuum up on a work table right now because I need to change the caster wheels on it.
The ones I used are to small and to weak and I have already bent one of them sideways.
I'm going to put larger and stronger caster wheels on it.
So .... back to the front yard ... as you can see, the vacuum does a good job of picking up the mower clippings and leaves.
Looking to the east at the yard in between the house and the garage, you can see that the area where I had the two dead ash trees cut down is filling in nicely.
We have been only mowing about half of the back yard and Marie has always wanted to clean up the rest of it and mow all the way back to the edge of the ravine.
The weeds on the ruff area of the back yard grow to be three and four foot tall in the summer time.
We had talked about cleaning up and mowing that back area and we had planned on doing that this spring.
Even though Marie is no longer here to see it, I'm still going to clean it up and mow it for her.
Along with buying the yard vacuum last fall, I also bought this used pull behind Swisher mower unit.
Before last winter had set in, I hooked this up behind my R/T tractor and with the mower adjusted as high as it would go ( about 8 inches high ), I pulled it around the un mowed area of the back yard to ruff cut it all down.
Today I started picking up all of the twigs and dead branches in preparation for mowing this back area.
On the front yard and around the house, I use just the JD mower with the vacuum behind it.
Then I take the vacuum off and hook the swisher mower to it.
The JD mower is 56 inch cut and the Swisher mower is a 60 inch cut.
With the Swisher mower offset from the JD and allowing for the overhang between the cuts of the two mowers, I'm still cutting a 8-1/2 to 9 foot swath and it makes mowing the back yard a lot faster.
This is the first cut on the ruff area with the mowers set down to the same height as the rest of the yard.
This photo is taken looking straight back from the back porch.
This is the view that she wanted to see and it is the view you see thru the patio doors when you are sitting inside the house at the table.
It is also the view you will see if you are looking out the window above the counter where the kitchen sink is.
It will look really nice once I get it mowed enough times so the ruff area looks the same as the rest of the yard.
