Husqvarna Automower Challenge - My First Cut

This is all a bit weird - Some time ago, and I can't quite remember when, I was reading my Twitter feed whilst seated carrying out my usual morning routine, when I spotted a competition entry for the opportunity to trial a robotic grass cutter.

This intrigued me as we already have a robot vacuum cleaner which has tirelessly kept our floors dust free for the best part of three years.  Another element that peaked my interest was the growing collection of lawnmowers that my wife was amassing, including a recently acquired Etesia ride on, a petrol self propelled, various hovery type mowers, and her current favourite a rechargeable Bosch with about 5 million batteries.  Obsession is a cruel mistress and probably a bit too strong a description. Lets just call it an unnaturally enthusiastic collection of lawn cutting paraphernalia.

All this would suggest that we have an amazing lawn but in reality due to our work commitments we  only get to butcher the lawn about once a fortnight when the Dandelions get too cheeky.

Winning the trial brought the lawnmower total to ten, and by all accounts will through it's persistent, incremental, continual and minuscule assault wipe the smile from the Dandelions faces.

"Hello, my names Charmaine and I'm a mowerholic"!

So Today 19/4/2017 Mike and Graham from Grahams Garden Machinery in St Austell arrived bang on time to set the perimeter guidance wires discreetly  into the lawn and prepare the charging station for the latest addition to our lawnmower family.

Mike fiddled and fettled and said stuff like

"Satellite Guidance" and "Random Cross Cut with an 8 mowing bed" which sounded about 16" deficient to me, and finished off with a glance at our 1 year old Etesia ride on saying "Cool! you'll be selling that soon enough then!"

I chuckled, I mean come on - this was a green plastic dustbin lid that was coming to live with us for a while, get molested by the resident badgers and hedgehogs before being sent back packing to it's Nordic origins. Right? Well possibly not if the first cut is anything to go by!

Day 1 - Cut 1 and it appears that someone overnight has only installed a bloody lawn where our grass used to be. Mike set the green beastie off for it's first mow at 6:45pm. We watched it for 5 minutes before going out and returning at 9:30 pm.  It, still not sure of gender, was still silently snipping away when we got back and carried on way past dark.

I didn't witness the docking and therefore can't say with certainty that it actually returned to base, however when I got up and looked out of the window at 6:30 the next morning the docking station was empty.

'Brilliant'. I thought 'Now  i'm going to have to find her and log the first disaster'. Except that silently and surely with all the confidence that could be mustered by a green dustbin lid the little mower clipped it's way across what was now beginning to look like a perfectly manicured lawn, Except this was our lawn!.