Mowers of Lawn: To Me!

[Barrister]

As for man-caves... I don't have a man-cave as much as I have a nerd-cave.

When we were building the house, I originally claimed the top floor of the house as my nerd-lair. Alas, I had to give half of it up to her, for her own studying and other office purposes. But I still have a nice sized area littered with RPG books and miniatures and art supplies and books and brick-a-brack, and my computer of course.

It probably doesn't have enough tools to be considered a man-cave (I'm not sure an easle, brushes, paint, photo supplies etc are universally considered tools for this purpose), but it's my cave and I will defend it to the death.

Somehow I did manage to snag an "office" in the new house.  It only has my computer and several hundred books.

This ties back to my "computer in the kitchen" thread as I do have to occasionally share the King of Macs with the wife until we get her own computer set up again...

[C.C.R.]

Offices count as Man Caves, IMO.  Its all about you & what you want to do.  My personal setting basically has to be outside because I smoke & haven't smoked in my own home since Wifey & I first started trying to get pregnant ten years ago -- everything else is more or less a customization of the smoking hut...

[Barrister]

The big question for my office is whetehr or not to set up a small tv in there.  I mean there's a big TV in the adjoining room 30 feet away, and it's not as if I WATCH tv in my office, but it is nice to BS with languishites about what is happening in the Big Game or Big Election.

[C.C.R.]

The big question for my office is whetehr or not to set up a small tv in there.  I mean there's a big TV in the adjoining room 30 feet away, and it's not as if I WATCH tv in my office, but it is nice to BS with languishites about what is happening in the Big Game or Big Election.

The TV is a no-brainer, IMO -- do it ASAFP.  The *big* step to the Man Cave, though, is when you add the couch/ hide-a-bed/ recliner (where you can sleep hiding from the wife & kids) and/or add the poker table (where you can hang with The Boys away from the wife & kids).

Or something.  I guess I'm projecting a little with the whole "hiding from the wife & kids" thing.  Your Man Cave is about what *YOU* want to do, so if you want a TV then put one in there.  Stat.

[Barrister]

The big question for my office is whetehr or not to set up a small tv in there.  I mean there's a big TV in the adjoining room 30 feet away, and it's not as if I WATCH tv in my office, but it is nice to BS with languishites about what is happening in the Big Game or Big Election.

The TV is a no-brainer, IMO -- do it ASAFP.  The *big* step to the Man Cave, though, is when you add the couch/ hide-a-bed/ recliner (where you can sleep hiding from the wife & kids) and/or add the poker table (where you can hang with The Boys away from the wife & kids).

Or something.  I guess I'm projecting a little with the whole "hiding from the wife & kids" thing.  Your Man Cave is about what *YOU* want to do, so if you want a TV then put one in there.  Stat.

But if I put in a couch / recliner, that might just encourage people to come in and visit with me.

[C.C.R.]

But if I put in a couch / recliner, that might just encourage people to come in and visit with me.

The proper decor might help encourage the "proper" people to visit (and discourage the "improper" people)...

[Malthus]

Heh, I'm gonna have to come back to this thread when I design my library. 

[C.C.R.]

Edit:  My "man cave" is the back living room.  Computer, TV, stereo, PS3, etc, back here.  The downside is it's all the way across the house from the garage, which is where the beer fridge is, but it is next to the kitchen (which is also where all the booze is), so I can just bring multiple beers in and stash them in the regular fridge.  I'm considering getting a couple club chairs for back here, but haven't pulled the trigger yet because club chairs aren't cheap dammit.  They would also block my view of the TV from the desk if/when I get them, so...

Missed this edit earlier.  Sorry.  And general apologies to anybody that's still serious about posting about lawn mowing after the Man Cave tangent, but fuck it, I've lost interest in that angle.  Its who I am.

Anyhoo, couple of thoughts on your Man Cave:

1)  A cooler in the back living room would be acceptable for extended parties of visitors.  Sure, the condensation might leak onto the carpet, but its only water.  In the Long Term you can always pick up a dorm-sized fridge to put in there.  My first Beer Fridge was one of the tiny ones that I picked up in a garage sale for $20 & that fucker lasted me the better part of ten years.  Its still kicking now, in fact, I just no longer own it -- but that's a story for another day...

2)  Fuck club chairs.  Get four or six foldable camping chairs in the carry bags from Wal-Mart & bust them out when you need them.  And if you can score one I also recommend one or more of the foldable camping tables that also fit in the carry bags.  I have two & I love the snot out of 'em.  One of them is actually the base for the poker table in my garage that I made out of plywood & a vinyl tablecloth...

Or something.  Your mileage may vary...

[Barrister]

Frankly I'm more interested in the Man Cave tangent too.

But you and I are talking about somewhat different kinds of Man Caves methinks.  My dream man cave would be done up as a very old-fashioned library.  Built in floor to ceilign bookcases, over-stuffed leather chairs, oak panelling on the walls, and a nice large office desk in the middle.

We don't have the space or budget for that - but I am making progress.

My mini-law library has been in boxes for 10 years - and now it's out!  Okay, so my copies of Halsbury's Laws of England, and the All England Law Reports (1700-1980) aren't in my office, but rather in the family room just outside my office, but progress is progress.

In the office itself there are 3 more bookcases for my history and fiction books, plus the computer desk.  At this point there's no more room for further chairs or sofas.    But a small flatscreen tv might fit.

As would a beer fridge.  I usually have a cold one at the computer after the baby goes to bed.  I'd be afraid a beer fridge in the office might be a little too convenient though.   

But I may yet pull the trigger on one.  The adjoining family room has an older (but expensive teakwood) dining table that is perfect for poker when the right time comes.  Perhaps that is where the beer fridge should go.  Tere are already too many baby toys for THAT room to be a Man Cave, but I could make it more Manly...

[crazy canuck]

Mowing is an involved process at the CC household.  First I have to decide which boy will do the mowing.  This has to be done equitably having regard to the earning of allowance, who has been doing more "unpaid" work around the house and so is more entitled to this "paid" job while not alienating the other sibling.

Also, it must be a good Hammock day.  There is no point having the boys mow the lawn if I cannot watch/listen from the comfort of my Hammock.

The biggest issue is what to read/drink while on the Hammock and that is directly related to the day and time the lawn is mowed.  I prefer a weekend afternoon so that alcoholic drinks are more viable.  As for reading, it has be be something I dont mind putting down mid page as I dose off into a nap.  Watching the boys work is tiring after all.

[crazy canuck]

As would a beer fridge.  I usually have a cold one at the computer after the baby goes to bed.  I'd be afraid a beer fridge in the office might be a little too convenient though.   

But on the other hand it should not be too far away.  My beer fridge is in the garage adjoining the house.  I just have to walk out of my Den (well named) through the landry room (careful not to notice any of the laundry that might need to be done) and enter into the garage.   The whole route is well away from any areas of the house anyone else might regularly inhabit.  Its perfect.

My wine cellar is further away but that IS a good thing.

[C.C.R.]

But you and I are talking about somewhat different kinds of Man Caves methinks. 

Of course we are.  A Man Cave is as unique a snowflake as the man whose cave it is and shit.  Or something.  The very point of the exercise is to conceive & implement an artificial environment that would most make *YOU* happy, and I don't see it as a very big imaginative stretch for the rest of us to see that a personal library would make you and/or Malthus happy, just like I doubt it is very big imaginative stretch to picture the Hanson Brothers and McKenzie Brothers MacFarlane toys on the shelf in my garage & the Wedge Antilles flying an X-Wing fighter hanging from fishing line chasing the TIE Fighter hanging from another fishing line that adorn *MY* Man Cave.

Different strokes, Baby.  It's what you want to do & who you want to be.  A good Man Cave impresses others, but an excellent Man Cave impresses its master.  Wow.  This beer tastes good today...

[Grey Fox]

As it happens I'm just about to embark on a life-time on lawn mowing rituals. To be honest, I'm a lawn-mowing neophyte (I think I mowed my grandparents lawn a few times as a young one, but that was a labour task not an organizational one).

The sod got installed a little while ago and it's been raining and shining in about equal measures, so the grass is growing nice and long. I will probably have to purchase a lawnmower soon.

I'm thinking of getting a pretty basic push mowing kind of deal, for three reasons:

1. It's cheap and I gotta economize these days.
2. Our lawn is not particularly big.
3. A little bit of extra excercise is not a bad thing for someone who's mostly computer bound, like me.

A question to all you lawn mowing old-timers:

What's the pros and cons of leaving the grass where it is, cut, rather than raking it in and putting it with the yard waste?

No mowing until september!

[crazy canuck]

What's the pros and cons of leaving the grass where it is, cut, rather than raking it in and putting it with the yard waste?

The only downside is you might track some of the grass inside if you walk on it.  The upside is you get more water retention during the summer

[derspiess]

I'm thinking about getting a second shed, having electricity wired into it and hiding there.

So can we start calling you Ed "Two Sheds" Anger? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLjS3gzHetA