As we begin developing the addition to the camp, we are faced with some necessary but rather mundane tasks; such as mowing nearly two acres of grass. The original part of the camp is about 3/4 of an acre and we mow it with a small push mower. But that is too small to do the additional ground that we are now developing. At the present time, it is cut with a weed whacker. But that is a slow and laborious process. The real solution to mowing two and a half acres of ground is a wide cut riding lawn mower.
This type of machinery is rather new in Colombia, where grass does not normally exist except in cow pastures. In the cities, most people cement their entire lot or leave only a tiny patch of ground on which to plant a few flowers or a tiny bit of grass. This is evidenced by the fact that grass seed here is sold in one ounce packages and anything larger must be special ordered. As a result, it is not easy to find mowing equipment in Colombia. But we are faced with a need and so have been looking to see what is available here in country.
We looked into a small John Deere or Kubota tractor. But one of these is well over $20,000. While that would be very useful and very nice to have, we felt it was simply too much money to spend on equipment, at least at this present time. So we went looking for other alternatives that would enable us to mown the lawn in a reasonable amount of time but not cost so much money.
The local Home Center, a local version of Lowes or Home Depot, has a Murray 42” 17hp wide-cut riding lawn mower for sale. It is like the one pictured below. This would make cutting the two and a half acres of grass that we now have with our church camp a one morning job rather than several days worth of work as it now is. Our camp development fund has run dry as we struggle to finish the first cabin. We desperately need to get a mower, but here in Colombia this Murray mower costs $10,000,000.00 Colombian Pesos; which comes out to about to just about $6,000.00 US Dollars. We are unwilling to buy things on credit, so we will wait for the purchase of this mower until we have the designated funds on hand to do so.
You can help us purchase this mower by sending in your designated gift for our Camp Mower Fund. In this way we can save valuable time and even money in the long run as it will greatly increase the efficiency of our maintenance tasks on the new camp property. This would make a great summer project for your church VBS, Summer camp missions offering, or Sunday school class. No one likes to spend days mowing their yard. Please help us cut this task down to size by being a partner in the Camp mower project.