What about Snapper, they have 2 different walk behind mower lines now. Their top of the line seems nearly identical to mowers they were making decades ago. Everything seems old time heavy duty. Which leads to a few big positives. Reliable proven design, dependable, and when yo do need a part chances are it will be available. (A problem I had with a 10 yr old Murray, sure those generic parts are available at big retailers, as well as some parts for more recent models, but they like to keep you buying new equipment every few years.) Plus they are mostly sold at dealers who are also service shops. When you need your mower serviced, the big retailer wont be the one you bring it to. Look at many of the mowers they have discounted in their discount area. Usually the ones returned for one reason or another often with the sticker of the local repair shop that serviced the machine. Snappers other line is new and designed and priced to compete with mowers sold at the big retailers. Im not sure about the dependability, but if you are using them with different teen operators and on Camp sized property with hills and such with enough area needed mow that two mowers would be needed to cut it quickly then it may be wise to purchase from an authorized service / dealer like Snapper. And the prices online at Snapper are suggested list only. When I got my new Snapper I had moved from a flat 7000 sq ft lawn to a sloped 20,000 sq ft lawn. Considering I had 3 times the amount of lawn, I definetly wanted self propelled, mulching, and a high quality motor. So I picked the old style Snapper mulching deck with the 6hp Kawasaki engine that is used on many commercial models for $599 , $100 under list without bargaining. If I had gone with the standard B&S engine it probably would have been closer to the price of the Deere yout mentioning since the mulch only B&S Snapper is listed at $499 and your planning to get two so you could probably get a nice deal. Ariens also makes a nice mower I was considering, but the Ariens dealer wasnt as close as my local Snapper dealer. Also considering the other equpiment you have it would be even more of a reason for me to buy from a Dealer / Service shop as opposed to a big retailer.

I married a great man. We dated for 5 years before getting married. We have 7 children between us. There are two ex-wives both allergic to work, neglectful mothers with drug and alcohol issues. Two of my step children lived with their mother who was hearing impaired and couldn't crawl out of the bottle. The other two children were kept from their other siblings. Their mother was/is a drug addict who had her son running drugs for her. My husband worked a lot of hours and out of town. Last ex wife took husband to the cleaners, lied about domestic and claimed to have spent her life ensuring her children were raised correctly and self sufficient. The adult kids have been dependent on my husband for over 10 years. He pays the mortgage on the house that was supposed to be sold so his youngest son can live there with his girlfriend and their children. The girlfriend collects welfare, my SS makes good money, they sub-rent the house, they have three times the allowable animals by city ordinance, the house is trashed, and the ex wife her boyfriend, the girlfriend's parents squat there. It's a mess. The people that live frequently live there are criminals with drug & alcohol problems. We just bought a house and I'm always worried about liability. The mother of our grandchildren keeps the kids from us we hardly see them, unless they need $$$ or it's a birthday or holiday. She never finished high school and now she partially home schools our grandaughter. I'm sure it's so she can stay home and run around with her twin sister. My step son is a glazier and makes good $$$ and just hands her his debit card so she can but whatever. They rarely contribute to the expenses of the house. They have stated they want to buy the house and my husband will sell it for what's owed yet year after year they swat. They can't rent anywhere because they have a history of not paying rent, and she's an animal (dog) hoarder. My 35 year old step daughter is a single mother, with drug & alcoholic problems. She uses bi-polar as an excuse for her bad behavior. My husbands picks up the slack for our grandaughter because SD wouldn't turn dad in for child support. Dad is a Mexican national who is an alcoholic and wouldn't work and leaches off his elderly mother and sister. SD is hard on cars and dad helps her out about every 16 months with a car. SD makes decent money but spends it like water eating out, Starbucks, cigarettes ... anything but car repair, paying speeding tickets etc... 30 year old step son is living with us, he hooked up with a meth head that we supported along with her three children. He got a DV for trying to leave her after she attacked him. He then crashed our car, and isn't getting another, despite my husband saying he will buy him car. While spending thousands of $$$ to help him, his mother is doing meth with him. Yes I spend a great deal of time trying to clean this woman's mess but she is mother & grandmother of the year. Good grief! She's now scheming and scamming claiming back problems to try to tap into my husband's social security. My last step son is amazing. He is hearing impaired and works his ass off. His wife was a teen mother who just graduated from college. Their son is well mannered, motivated and grounded. They are wonderful parents, partners and work hard to be self sufficient. My kids are not perfect but I limit how we help them, My youngest is living with us because he can't rent an apt in the current market having a good rental history. He has medical issues in which we help pay for the last surgery. He's 21, works, helps out & pays his bills. My middle child is somewhat disappointing with his recreational drug use, job hopping and pretty much being self centered. He is slow to pay back loans. My oldest pays back loans, works his tail off and lives in someone's attack, so he's at least on his own. My kids aren't going anywhere in life but they try to be self sufficient. I was always the smothering mother, but my husband wanted me to back away. It was hard but I did, and I'm blunt with my children on many subjects. It is not beyond me to pull over and tell my son to get out of my car if he can't be respectful and that the walk to where ever he is going will clear his head. My husband watched his sisters leach off his mother and father until they died. None of those sisters are self sufficient and they are in their late 50's. I'm sick of it because my husband wants to retire as his body is sore from working construction. He can't because he wouldn't cut the kids off. There's one thing helping, but we are supporting and not getting that dependent tax credit. This is ruining our marriage. I flat out tell my husband that if he dies before me I will not keep his kids in the manner that they are accustomed. I don't make that kind of $$$, not do I agree with paying for adult kids, girlfriends, grandchildren, dependent ex wives, parents of children's girlfriends etc..... My husband wants a new truck and he wanted to take a loan out against our house for it. I told him no take it out against the one that the kids live in that was to be sold 10 years ago that he pays the bills on. I do love my husband, he's a wonderful, intelligent hard working man. When I met my husband he had no job and no home. His wife kicked him out and he went to stay with daughter whom was my neighbor. Everything we have we have built together as a couple. It is not for the taking by the children and certainly not while we are living. I live in fear of liability from the irresponsible step kids and their associates. It's very stressful and effecting our health. Yet my husband prefers to be complacent and continues to shell out. How long should one carry their 30 year old + kids & lazy drug addicted ex-wive ? I think about divorce just to escape the unnecessary drama. Two's company but with a parasitic ex wife and adult children there is little relaxation and enjoyment.

My husband and I have two children together. We will be paying for their tuition and books, but they will have to get jobs for the other stuff. My husband has three children with his ex-wife. (One not biologically his, so he has no legal obligation to support her, although he does still think of her as his daughter. She was the result of his ex-wife's infidelity.) Anyway, we will also pay half of their tuition and books. They are both learning disabled and one is definitely not "college material," though, so I'm not sure what our actual obligation will be. They are both a few years away from college. We will pay for school not because anyone is or feels like they are "entitled," but because we want all of our children to have as much of a head start as we can give them. I support it all 100%. I worked to put myself through college and my DH enlisted in the military. If we can make it easier on our kids than it was on us, we'll do what we can. But we won't make it too easy, if you know what I mean. There will be rules and expectations... I will support no child, step or bio, who doesn't work hard in school. No child - his, mine or ours - will be supported through college on the "eight-year plan." What we do for one, we do for the others. If we can't do for all, we won't do for any. Period. My skids do enjoy a better standard of living than my children do, from a financial standpoint, anyway, in part because I have chosen to be a SAHM and in part because their mother has always made more $$$ than my DH does, but to me, that's neither here nor there. It just is what it is. My middle SD claims that she can get anything she wants from her mother by batting her lashes and shedding a few crocodile tears, but she also knows that doesn't work with us. I'm thinking she may have problems as she gets older. My skids are basically good kids. They are more appreciative of us than they are of their mom, but I think it's because we expect it and she does not. Here is a link that might be useful: Step Lively

I know bio mothers in intact families who read their daughters diary. It doesnt make it any less wrong. Privacy issues arent step family or non step family related. You reap what you sow with children, and if you snoop, expect to raise a snooper. If you are sarcastic, expect sarcasm. If you think someone is an annoying piece of work, expect them to think you are annoying. Most of the step moms who post on this forum are genuinely concerned about their families. Yes, many of them have a chip on their shoulder about the biomom, and blame problems on her, which may, or may not be fair. But overall most of the stepmoms do care about their stepkids and want to do the right thing by them There are a few stepmoms who post here that have made it obvious they dislike their stepchild, and have ever since the first time they met the child. They consider the problems in their home to be the stepchilds behaviour and although they are quick to point the finger at the bio mom for causing the child to act that way, they are clear that the child p*sses them off. THeir reactions are obviously annoyed at the child, and then peripherally at the biomom. They are incapable of separating the childs actions from the actions of the biomom. A very few of these posters are regular posters. I see nothing but trouble ahead for the marriages and/or family relationships of these posters. In my opinion, either their marriage will fail down the road because of the blatant dislike they show toward their stepchild, or the stepchild will at some point become alienated from their father and refuse to visit or talk to the father, because the child cant stand the stepparent. There are also a few posters who seem to see only the bad in their stepchild, and only the good in their own child. I think that it is more or less common in life to hold other peoples children to a higher standard than our own. Think of the relatives and neighbours around you. Most of us can easily see the problems with their kids, right? But love tints our vision of our own children. This is also a problem with bio dads who see only the good in their children, and stepmom sees the problems, and cant get dad to accept that the problem exists - also a reoccuring theme in the posts on this forum You cant force love, and you cant force good feelings. If they arent there, its hard to achieve harmony in a home. But adults should be the ones biting their tongue and giving the most. Expecting the kid to be the bridge builder isnt going to solve anything.