{"id":4060,"date":"2013-06-15T07:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=4060"},"modified":"2013-06-14T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T13:53:16","slug":"lawn-mower-meets-rocket-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/06\/15\/lawn-mower-meets-rocket-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawn mower meets rocket science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been pretty wet so far this spring. Lush, green and vibrant.<\/p>\n<p>Not so great for tender tomatoes and such. And floods are still a real issue in some areas.<\/p>\n<p>Floods aside, I&#8217;d call the weather a big relief over last year&#8217;s severe drought. Naturally, this spring&#8217;s climate also means thick lawns with lots of mowing on tap.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4205\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/06\/mowerrace_600.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4205\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4205 \" alt=\"A lawn mower race, August 2012. Photo: Teresa Musser, Creative Commons, some rights reserved.\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/06\/mowerrace_600-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/06\/mowerrace_600-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/files\/2013\/06\/mowerrace_600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4205\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A lawn mower race, August 2012. Photo: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/55047373@N05\/7728124534\/\">Teresa Musser<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Some of us walk behind the noisy mechanical beast. Others ride. Some are on souped-up speedsters that zip though acreage in no time. And we probably all know small-engine buffs who have\u00a0cannibalized\u00a0lawn mowers to build interesting custom contraptions.<\/p>\n<p>Well, those crazy folks at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.topgear.com\/uk\/\">Top Gear <\/a>are taking that to the next level. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-22784725\">According to this<\/a> from the BBC,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p id=\"story_continues_1\">Honda engineers are racing to build the world&#8217;s fastest lawnmower after being put up to the task by Top Gear Magazine.<\/p>\n<p>They are targeting a speed of 130mph (210km\/hr). That would easily beat the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prweb.com\/releases\/2013\/3\/prweb10563148.htm\">current record<\/a>\u00a0of 96.5mph claimed by the fuel additive firm, Gold Eagle.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.topgear.com\/uk\/car-news\/top-gear-130-mph-mower-lives-video-2013-6-4\">first look<\/a>\u00a0at the machine &#8211; showing flames coming out of its exhaust &#8211; has been posted online.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yep. A lawn mower that goes 130 mph. And (presumably?) still cuts grass. It would not be pretty but it would be fast.<\/p>\n<p>We groom our half-acre with a walk-behind mower. It takes well over an hour &#8211; and that&#8217;s with part of the back yard left as meadow. And that&#8217;s nothing, I know. Lots of folks have property that takes a half day, a full day (heck, several days!) to mow.<\/p>\n<p>Mowing can be pleasant in a meditative sort of way. But right now, especially, I often find myself resenting how that chore represents time lost for other garden tasks &#8211; many of which are past due already.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Is 130 mph fast enough?<\/p>\n<p>How long does it take to mow your grass and what do you do to keep the chore tolerable?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been pretty wet so far this spring. Lush, green and vibrant.<br \/>\nNot so great for [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4060"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4207,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4060\/revisions\/4207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}