Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

Alabama has 60,000 acres of an invasive and intensely flammable weed: cogon grass. From the Washington Post this week:

“Don’t buy it, don’t dig it up, don’t plant it and just let somebody know if you see it,” said Laurie Reid, forest health specialist for the South Carolina Forestry Commission.

Nationwide, over 1 million acres are infested, “and experts say the Southeast’s drought makes the highly flammable intruder more threatening than ever.”

“I don’t think there’s anything more flammable in our environment’s landscape. I don’t know anything that burns as hot in our ecosystem as cogon grass,” said Jim Miller, a regional invasive plant scientist with the federal Agriculture Department.

A native of southeastern Asia, cogon grass was once used as packing material that arrived in Mobile, Ala., on ships in 1912. It chokes all competing vegetation _ it kills off pine seedlings in forests and overtakes grazing land where most animals won’t give it a second look because of its saw-toothed leaves.

You have to be impressed by a grass that will take over kudzu.

“It’s actually got to epidemic proportions,” said Ed Brown, a spokesman for the Mississippi Forestry Commission. “I call it a super weed. I have seen it grow on some of the driest sites that wouldn’t hardly grow anything and I’ve seen it growing down the edge of water. I’ve actually seen it taking over a patch of kudzu.”

[…]

Alabama has formed a cogon grass task force. Officials there hope to determine where in the state cogon grass can be wiped out _ and where it can only be contained.

“We are trying to figure out where we can kind of draw a line in south Alabama and say, ‘On this side of the line there’s not a lot we can do. But on the other side of the line we are going to do everything we can do eradicate it,’” said Forestry Management Division Director John Pirtle.

The second picture is a picture of a cogon grass fire near Auburn.

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Spring… songbirds are tuning up, trees are budding, baseballs are popping into catchers mitts…

Speaking of baseball (can you ever do that enough?)… the Sacramento Bee has an article of lawn care tips including some from Dave Vander Heyden, grounds manager for the baseball home of the Sacramento River Cats baseball team

Keep the mower blade sharp, Vander Heyden says. Dull blades tear grass. Sharp blades cut them.

[…]

Beware of putting too much nitrogen on your lawn, Vander Heyden says. “Sure, it makes the blades deep green, but all you’re doing is pushing leaf growth, and the grass can’t sustain that forever. You want healthy grass and a healthy root system.”

There’s more.

The boys in the back here are getting ready here for the spring rush of lawn mower maintenance that will be coming our way. If you haven’t already, now is the time to change the oil, air filter and spark plug, drain old gas and sharpen the blade. Take care of your lawn mower, and you will get mow for your money.

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Related Articles:

• One Mower Resolution for 2008
• Yesterday's Happiness

When you make your resolutions for 2008, don’t forget your yard buddy, your lawn mower.

Here is a link to four simple service tips that can help keep your lawn mower a cut above the rest.

For example, here’s #1:

Lawn mower owners should clean their units as often as possible, but minimize the use of water. Water and detergents can lead to corrosion problems. For example, if water sits on a bearing seal or an electrical connection, it can do more harm than good. Exmark recommends using compressed air or blowers as much as possible. If water is used to clean the mower, users need to grease and lubricate the unit afterward.

Here at Doc’s Political Parlor and Home of Lawn Mower Repair, we’d like to remind you that the best lawn mower repair is the one you don’t have to make. Treat your friends right, and they’ll treat you right.

Why not resolve now at the beginning of the new year to use all four service tips to keep your mower running sharp?

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Before you put your lawn mower away for the winter, you can put them to good use this fall…

The easiest way to dispose of leaves is to simply mow them into the turf. Regular mowing during the fall will chop the leaves into small pieces and allow them to filter into the turf.

Research at Purdue and other universities shows that tree leaves can be mulched without any detrimental effects on the soil or turf. Actually, just the opposite may be true where tree leaf mulching may help improve the soil.

Mulching leaves with a mower is much easier than raking, blowing, and/or vacuuming the leaves like we have done in the past. Plus, it disposes of the leaves without filling up our landfills and saves our cities thousands of dollars in disposal costs.

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If you want Doc and the rest of the back room gang to put down their tools for a moment and maybe even get glassy-eyed, ask them about last week’s lawn mower pull in Oak Grove and what they would do with a lawn mower if they had five or six thousand dollars to put into it.

Mowers competed to pull a “weight-laden sled down a dirt track as far as possible, up to 300 feet.” Lawn mowers in the outlaw division can cost five or six thousand dollars and pull sleds weighing around 6500 lbs.

The event was a fundraiser for the Oak Grove-Thach Volunteer Fire Department in north Alabama.

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Two tips for your lawn mower especially related to our disastrous drought.

• Raise the blade on your lawn mower. Closely cropped grass requires more water.
• Recycle your grass clippings back into your lawn by using a mulching mower. Your lawn will require less water (and you will also save time while mowing).

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In the back of the shop, the usual crowd was gathered around an old Evinrude 2-cycle that Doc had pulled apart, when talk came around, as it often does, to politics. Lots of jawing over many days, lots of input from people across the political spectrum, and pretty soon they figured that they’d answered some pretty good questions.

• What are the odds that Jeff Sessions will be re-elected?
• Who is the odds-on favorite right now to be the next Republican nominee for governor? And the Democratic nominee?
• What are the odds that …say… Beth Chapman will be the next governor? Or Mike Dow? Or your favorite candidate?
• Who are the four candidates figured to be tied at 14-1 odds?

Answers to all that and more… coming here on Monday. Don’t miss it.

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Lawn mower stories…

In a story reminiscent of the movie The Straight Story (itself based on a true story), a man sets out to travel across Texas on a riding lawn mower (and expects to finish this week). 624 miles. On a riding lawn mower. To call attention to his favorite charity.

Three guys, a support truck, and a trailer full of supplies. Impressive. Darned impressive.

Well, it would be…

Except at the same time here you have a story about a man travelling by riding lawn mower across the country. From Alaska. All the way to Virginia. Two years into it, he’s in Utah. No support truck, no trailer, no extra guys, just his dog Yoda. Travel cross-country they do.

At 15 mph.

Please use your lawn mower responsibly.

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Umm… maybe those Briggs & Stratton jobs leaving Missouri aren’t moving to Auburn after all. Just out: “Auburn’s Briggs & Stratton plant told 200 workers Tuesday their jobs will be gone as of Friday.”

At least in Missouri, the layoffs announced this week do not take effect until November 28.

Just a year ago, the company was “operating at full capacity in order to meet increased demand for generators resulting from increased hurricane activity.”

From the company’s release on Oct. 6, 2005:

“Dave Mauer, Plant Manager for Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, LLC and all the employees have sacrificed a great deal of personal time with their families in order to try and keep up with the demand. What this really is about is Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group employees willing to go the extra mile to help fellow Americans in desperate need,” concludes [Vice President of Corporate Communications, George] Thompson.

Was really great of those employees to sacrifice so much and go the extra mile.

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Somewhat related to the last post, Briggs & Stratton is laying off over 200 workers in Missouri. Some jobs “could go to China and some to Auburn, Alabama.”

They will no longer be suppliers for Lowe’s and Wal-Mart.

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Summer is in full swing. If you haven’t done it already, now is a good time to sharpen your lawn mower blades. Remember, sharp blades and quick cuts promote healthier grass!

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Let’s talk lawn mowers and Wal-Mart and about Jim Weir, the Man Who Said No To Wal-Mart:

“[I]t was clear that Lowe’s was going to build their outdoor power-equipment business with the Cub Cadet brand, and how Home Depot was going to build theirs with John Deere,” says Wier. “Wal-Mart wanted to build their outdoor power-equipment business around the Snapper brand. Were we prepared to go large?”

Snapper customers wanted quality lawn mowers that were worth repairing. (There’s a credo we can get behind.) Wal-Mart was selling lawn mowers cheap enough that they could be considered disposable. So Jim Weir tells Wal-Mart:

“Now, at the price I’m selling to you today, I’m not making any money on it. And if we do what you want next year, I’ll lose money. I could do that and not go out of business. But we have this independent-dealer channel. And 80% of our business is over here with them. And I can’t put them at a competitive disadvantage. If I do that, I lose everything. So this just isn’t a compatible fit.”

The Wal-Mart vice president responded with strategy and argument. Snapper is the sort of high-quality nameplate, like Levi Strauss, that Wal-Mart hopes can ultimately make it more Target-like. He suggested that Snapper find a lower-cost contract manufacturer. He suggested producing a separate, lesser-quality line with the Snapper nameplate just for Wal-Mart. Just like Levi did.

You might find this an interesting article about Wal-Mart, its workings, and its relationships with suppliers.

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