One had a drive system, but needed some repairs and the other worked ok, but was a bit heavy to push. Both of them, needless to say, have had many years of service.
He offered one to a friend and decided to be kind, and give the second to our neighbour. They have a lot of land, and the husband only has a strimmer, which is not enough to keep the grass in check.
On Sunday, the neighbour was near our boundry, doing some work with a chainsaw. Ed shouted him, and then passed the mower over the fence, climbing over himself afterwards, to show him how to use it. After a quick demo on how to start it, Ed decided he may as well mow their lower terrace for them, as it is ajacent to our drive. I popped into town for a gallon of petrol and Ed quickly set to, making a huge job look really easy.
A little later, I heard him shout me. As he climbed back over the fence he said, "I've run over my foot". I felt sick. I couldn't see anything and his foot was still attached to his leg, so it wasn't too drastic! I ran and got a bowl of clean cold water as he carefully took off his trainer. There was a cut through the protective toe area and the soft area aroud was battered. Thankfully, his toe hadn't been cut, but it was very swollen and going black, along with the next 3 toes.
As he mowed around the telegraph pole, the mower had snarled on some metal buried in the ground. He lifted it up a little, to see what the problem was and in that moment, he slipped down the little bank, sending his foot under the mower and into the rotating blades. As they are rotating so fast, they have cut about 30 times, before you can even move your foot.
It was astonishing that the skin hadn't been broken on his foot, let alone the fact that his toes were still attached. Thankfully, he had had a rare moment of 'can't be bothered' before hand. He was going to sharpen the blade before passing it on. If he had, it would have been a very different story.
After a short rest, he jumped back over the fence and finished off the job! (Only the bit that we can see.) About 4 hours later, the neibour and his brother-in-law came and took the mower back to their house. They tried to start it, but couldn't. In doing so, they managed to break it! So, after all of his hard work and injuried, Ed now has to have the mower back again, so he can fix it, just to give it away.
They do say, that "no good deed goes unpunished". I'm sure it's not meant to work, that that the person doing the good deed gets such a bad deal!
Needless to say, his toe got more and more painful. Without any doubt, it is broken, but there is nothing that can be done at the hospital. Lots of soaks in iced water have helped, but it will be a long and painful healing process.
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