Nathan's Occasional Blog

I mowed our lawn this evening for the first time this season.  About a year ago I bought a pretty basic Honda lawn mower after getting tired of our Black and Decker cordless not having enough torque (clogged all the time).  It ran great throughout the year and sometime mid-October I “winterized” it by simply running it completely out of gas (thanks for the tip dad!).

Disclaimer: I have NO idea what makes an engine work or how to take care of it.  I barely remember to get the oil changed in our cars (which are both due right now), and don’t even ask if I do that myself.  🙂

So this evening I went out and filled up our gas can and came home to do my assigned duty (Alicea has trouble getting the mower up our hill in front).  A thought went through my head to check the oil, so I found the dipstick on the side of the engine and took a peak.  I don’t think this thing has gone through any oil since I bought it and the guys at the store put oil in it.  Sweet!  It was perfectly clean oil too – hurray!

I filled up the gas tank, remembered to set the choke on the throttle, and gave a little tug on the starter cord.  The engine turned right over before I was even done pulling the cord … WOW!  It took a minute to warm up (it’s been cold lately – heck we were a few hundred feet under the snow line this past weekend) but it ran great.

If you are in the market for power equipment, get a Honda.  Even I can’t screw it up!