Also, what about the "cut no more than 1/3 rule"? It requires cutting the grass much more often than waiting until it really needs it. Is this a big waste of energy and cause of more pollution? I personally won't mow anymore than necessary.

So what does it cost You to mow?

but when you figure inthe grass at the office in town, the office and tower inthe next town, and the 2 other tower sites that i mow, i make about 250 or so a week from that. my work pays for my gas to get to the sites to cut it too.

I refuse to let gas prices alter my lifestyle. Since my wife stays home with the kids and I drive 25 minutes each way to work, it would make sense to leave the GMC in the garage and drive the VW to work, rather than the other way around. But I never claimed to have any sense.

I guess I'm just a whipper-snapper here in this forum, but when I was old enough to mow but too young to work--1984 to 1989--I'd charge my grandfathers' friends $10 to mow yards which were less than 1/4 acre (pushed, no trimming, their mower). Gas was around a dollar then. Twenty years later, my neighbor's kid charges the other neighbor $20 to mow a 1/2 acre lawn (basically the same rate). And his parents even thought that was a bit steep. So even though fuel has tripled in price as of late, it wasn't until recently that inflation really started to affect so many other things. But I wouldn't say a homeowners' lawn-mowing frequency is one of them.

When I ws a kid we spent summers on Block Island. I worked for Capt. Dunn mowing lawns. He would load a couple of kids, several gallon jugs of gas with rag stoppers, and a couple of power reel mowers in his Model A, and we would go to mow lawns for .35 cents an hour and all the iced water we could drink. I broke the jug once and docked the gas from my pay..

Most of the lawns we mowed were rich people's, Once a week we mowed the Dupont's lawn. Mrs Dupont would give us lemonade and cake.She would promise us a tip if we would do a good job, and the tip of a couple of bucks was more than Capt. Dunn paid us.

Capt. Dunn was a good man though. He sold me an old rowing dory for $5 and then worked on it with me for hours replacing a plank, the seats, and the transom, , showing me how to caulk, painting it. He then showed me the best places to clam -- I could get $2.50 for a bushel of clams. He also taught me about small engines as he always had a couple being rebuilt-- lawn mowers or marine engines for lobster boats.