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Comment by dentemple | Hacker News Reader

Even today, with modern information available to us, people still woefully underestimate what it would take to live in a true wilderness.

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I've got a great example of this. I'm renting a house that provides a gas powered lawnmower for tenants to use, and I've elected to just let the grass grow because I have no idea how to use the thing

Are you joking or something? It's just check the gas and oil, hold down the brake lever on the handle, pull the crank a few times and away you go. Maybe it's old and has a fuel bulb or a choke, or fancy and has a transmission and the lever to engage it, but it's really not complicated at all.

I grew up around many different sorts of power tools. By my mid-20s I was comfortable using routers, table saws, sawzalls, jigsaws, jackhammers and more.

But nobody in my family had any gas-powered motors for anything at all.

I'm 61 now, and a volunteer firefighter. We have lots of gas powered chainsaws, circular saws, ventilation fans, and more.

I'm still extremely uncomfortable with starting these engines.

Now look, there's debates to be had about whether or not lawns are good idea, or how long grass should grow, etc. but there's no excuse for not figuring out how a gas mower works. I could tell you here in a paragraph or you could watch a 30 minute Youtube which will contain in it somewhere the 1 minute of actual instructions you need. It's a pretty damn simple system.

The colonists didn't have anything near this level of technology though...

Lazy,

You cannot live this way. I can walk you through anything related to home care.

just anxious. i live pretty remote; if i get hurt and cant get to a phone, no one will find me until my lease expires. one of the downsides of auto payments i think.

use age1s6cz86s99unkfm2sqy045w5w79n8lyyulwu9qy3gkaeydmexwv5qvkh2pp reply with your contact if you want help.

lol. not sure what age1s6cz86s99unkfm2sqy045w5w79n8lyyulwu9qy3gkaeydmexwv5qvkh2pp means, but if youre in the greater seattle area and want to teach me how to be an adult, shoot me a text. 360-624-3791

On the other hand, just letting it grow isn't going to hurt anything.

With a modern mower, it's pretty hard to hurt yourself.

I wouldn't necessarily assume it's at all modern. I've had Briggs-and-Stratton-powered mowers that had the deck rot from corrosion long before that B&S engine dies. Point being, if the mower was "provided", who knows the vintage? It sure isn't going to be the landlord's top-shelf mower fresh from the dealer.

It's actually pretty hard to hurt yourself on the active blade of a push mower. I've only heard of one account of this happening first hand, someone 1) slipped while 2) gripping and not releasing the handle interlock switch as they slipped while 3) pushing the mower uphill and 4) wearing flip flops. Don't do that, and you'll be fine.

I don't have any data but I'd assume it's vastly safer to mow the lawn than drive a car.

Probably depends heavily on how you normalize the risks, and I had a good chuckle at the thought of “injuries per 100k miles” applied to lawn mowers.

I would guess lawn mowers are higher risk per time or distance, but lower prevalence in injuries per year. I would guess the injuries are mostly a) hit rocks, b) did something dumb with the mower, or c) general outdoors risks like slipping or being bit by snake, etc.

Don't mow rock, wear protective eyewear and a mask if you don't want to inhale dust/pollen/etc and you will be protected from 99.9% of all conceivable injuries from a modern gas mower that has a safety switch.

Adjust the height to the highest setting.

Put gas in it. If there's a soft rubber thing near the gas, hit it twice to provide some fuel but no more as you risk "flooding" the engine.

Hold down any handle at the top of the mower, often the thing will require you to manually hold it down during start and all operations.

Look for the starter pull. It's often on the right, on the motor or mower handles. It's a piece of plastic attached to a cable. Give it a yank with a full follow through. It doesn't have to be maximum effort but too gentle won't work either.

this is maybe the most accidentally insightful post I have seen on HN. Or satire so sharp it cuts in line.

Note that once the grass has grown past a certain height, you won't be able to use a mower anymore even if you want to. At that point it will require a line trimmer (a.k.a. weed whacker) which is a lot more work.

Though personally I'm a fan of "kill your lawn" efforts. You can smother it with cardboard (or burn it, or till it, etc) and replace with native meadow.

Sure you can! Ask me how I know.

(Has cleared overgrowth consisting of both vines and grasses roughly a meter high give or take some)

What you do is tip the mower up, holding the handle near the ground and push it right into the mess. Then lower it down, essentially taking a "bite", which will cut many folded over plants.

Pull back, then tip and advance repeatedly, cutting more each time.

I cleared a quarter acre this way. Took one hard afternoon and a couple tanks of gas.

hmm ok. its mainly ryegrass, though, so i dont think itd be a problem to cut through. i just think its really pretty, plus the birds/squirrels/chipmunks seem to like it a lot.

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