“In Nebraska, they call a property like ours ‘an acreage.’ We own 5.05 very diverse acres bordered on two sides by cornfields. We have a creek that runs through the front, some woods, pastures for horses, and a lot of fence lines.
We have a large barn we use for storage and a separate 5-stall horse barn. Our garden has a picket fence around it. We also raise chickens and ducks for eggs. We’re building a summer kitchen, too.
We have two greenhouses where we grow bamboo as part of an agricultural grant project with our local zoo. In addition to our property, we rent about 2 acres of pasture from a neighbor, and we help her maintain her yard as well. We’re pretty busy! We always have several projects going at the same time.
Our house is passive solar. We heat with wood in a soapstone woodstove. We have not used the furnace in our house for 6 years. We have a log splitter, and a DR Chipper. We’ve got the big 20HP DR Field and Brush Mower with a snow thrower attachment. If we hadn’t had it last year, we couldn’t have gotten out for weeks because we had so much snow.
“Before I know it, I’ve maintained every inch of my property.”
I always use my DR Trimmer/Mower to clean up around the creek beds and fence lines. I use it to trim the yard around the house as well. When we’re getting ready for winter, I also use my DR Trimmer/Mower to take down the weeds that have come up over the summer around our gardens and trees. I try to give our property a good cleaning before the snow comes.
“We love our country lifestyle.”
Jenny Christensen and her husband live what they call “our country lifestyle”…and wouldn’t have it any other way. They’re like so many DR owners, finding deep rewards in owning and caring for a country home on a few country acres. But let Jenny tell her story…
“My dream was always to have my own acreage. I was brought up on in Southern New Jersey on 6.2 acres with a horse barn in the back. That’s the way I grew up and I’m fortunate enough to have continued that lifestyle into adulthood here in Nebraska. My husband and I both love the rural lifestyle.
“It couldn’t get any better than this.”
We’re always busy, but at the end of every work day, my husband and I say that we go on a vacation every night because we can sit out on old metal chairs and let the ducks out of the coop and watch them have a party in the pond. We just say, ‘It couldn’t get better than this.’ We haven’t been on a vacation since we’ve gotten married because our property is our vacation.
For me, my favorite time of day is 5 in the morning. I feed the horses before I go to work in the morning; I go out and hear the birds. When I use my DR, and after I mow the fence lines or along the creek, I just stand there and admire my work. It makes me feel good about my property.”
I like the fence lines to look nice. I mow them, then one thing leads to another and I say, ‘Oh, I’ll go down and clean up around these trees.’ I’ll mow a little further, and a little further, and before you know it, I’m maintaining every inch of the property instead of letting it get overgrown.
“It’s not unusual for me to log three or four hours at a time with my DR Trimmer/Mower. I use it hard and often.”
I have the 8.25HP DR Trimmer/Mower with big metal wheels and it’s really easy to push. I can’t use a hand-held weed whacker for more than 3/4 of an hour without getting tired, but with the DR, I can go all day, running through three tanks of gas, and not get tired. My husband laughs at me but I use the DR hard and often. It’s not unusual for me to log three or four hours at a time with the DR.
I used to use 3 implements to maintain my yard: a riding mower, a push mower, and a hand-held weed whacker. Now I have just a really good zero turning radius mower and the DR. That gets the whole job done.
I use the DR to do the fine trimming around the house every other week. I mow every week; every four or five days in the spring. I set the DR’s mowing head strings low and trim things close. That way I don’t have to trim with the DR every time I mow the lawn.
“I’m on my third DR Trimmer/Mower – I use the heck out of them.”
I’m on my third DR Trimmer/Mower. I used the first two for 6 or 7 years apiece, four or five hours every week. That’s good value.
Quality? I wouldn’t have bought three if I didn’t think they were good quality. From a value point of view, what I paid versus what I got, you’re going to pay a little more for quality but you get what you pay for. My mother-in-law bought a similar machine from Sears and got only 2 seasons out of it and she didn’t use it anywhere near as hard as I do.
I saw your DR Trimmer/Mower in magazines — I subscribe to a lot of gardening magazines, Mother Earth News, Countryside, and others. I never even considered buying a different brand because you invented this kind of machine. It’s been a great product and I’ve used the heck out of it.
Made in Vermont, USA Is “Extremely important.”
On a scale of one to 10, the fact that the DR Trimmer/Mower is made in the USA, in Vermont, is a 10. We believe very strongly in buying products made in the USA. I work for a manufacturer; we make level detectors you put in silos to let you know when your silo’s full. My livelihood is based on producing and manufacturing products here in the USA. We really try to always buy American when we can. It’s extremely important.
The DR Trimmer/Mower is easy to operate, especially with the big wheels. You build up a rhythm using it. The discharge is always to the right so I make sure to work counterclockwise so I’m not re-mowing what the mower discharges. The new mow ball just glides along.
I’d tell a friend, ‘Get rid of your weed whacker.’ You don’t need to carry one around any more. If you get a Trimmer/Mower, don’t fool around. Buy the DR from Country Home Products because it’s the best one out there.”
— Jenny Christensen, Springfield, Nebraska