Why I carry paired fixed blades

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zzyzzogeton
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Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:47 pm
Location: In the Heart of Texas on the Blackland Prairie

Re: Why I carry paired fixed blades

Post by zzyzzogeton »

Buddy, so glad you were not hurt worse. That's the type of scenario that usually occurs with push mower incidents.

Even if this thread never gets a single soul to start carrying fixed blades, if it gets people to THINK about what they are doing around running machinery, I'll call that a win.
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treefarmer
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Location: Florida Panhandle(LA-Lower Alabama)

Re: Why I carry paired fixed blades

Post by treefarmer »

buddyie22,
Your story reminds me of an old neighbor man many years ago who had an encounter with a small push mower, this was probably around 1976.
His name was Mr. Carter and he lived just west of our house. A friend and I were at our cow pens which were almost a 1/4 mile from the houses. We heard Mr. Carter holler real loud, "ooooeee!" That was a greeting he and I used when we would see each other in the yard as his little house was about 600 feet west of our house, across the pasture. I told my friend, "Somethings wrong with Mr. Carter!" We got in the truck and hurried to his house, where we found him holding a finger he had stuck under his mower while it was running! We choked back the bleeding and headed for the hospital. The doctor insisted on lining the bone up and sewing the finger back in place, all the while Mr. Carter was telling him he would rather he just close up the wound and not deal with trying to save the finger. The doc won out and the finger pained the old feller the rest of his life. Mr. Carter was born December 18,1898, he had moved from our community to live with a daughter and passed away sometime during 1993, still fussing about the finger!
Treefarmer

A GUN IN THE HAND IS BETTER THAN A COP ON THE PHONE.
SolWarrior

Re: Why I carry paired fixed blades

Post by SolWarrior »

I have a few acres down here in Texas that I cut regularly and some that I just leave as nature intended, mostly heavily wooded areas and drop offs. The land has lots of uneven areas with slopes and wavy landscape and sits on a hill. I have lots of majestic oak trees, elms and a dry creek bed that floods 100+ yards wide at times. I use an old reliable 30" Briggs and Stratton riding mower (30 years old) that I bought a few years before I had land so I'd cut my small yard with it. It was a little embarrassing. :oops: But I bought it because I knew one day I'd have land. It was a dream of mine since I was a kid, to live on a few acres away from it all, in nature and surrounded by wildlife. I rigged the riding mower to stay running when I get off to run alongside it where the brush is too dense and thick along the field fence and where I end my cutting; where the property drops off.

It all works well but only because my dad who worked the fields always took time to tell me about his stories and advice so that I'd be careful and think when working with dangerous equipment, sharp things and so on. His stories came to life and are imprinted in my mind. They were the best of times. But they also taught me to think before acting or you can lose an eye, a finger, toes, an arm or your life. Getting to my point - I carry a machete on the side of the riding mower, a pocket knife on my right pocket, a fixed blade on backside to my right and a dagger hooked onto the mower just below the steering wheel. In other words, I'm packing when I'm on that mower. It takes me 6 hours to get done and even though I'm hurting from chronic back pain and spasms I still enjoy every minute of it and always remember my dad's words of wisdom when ever I'm doing anything out there.

There's nothing like learning about safety and other important things the old fashion way - as a kid from my dad's story telling and advice. It becomes instinctive. :wink:
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