Contractors Affected by High Gas Prices

Everyone is feeling the pinch at the pump. Perhaps no one more so than Ronald Brown, owner of Brown's Lawn Care and Bushhogging.

"I have quite a few lawns to mow, we do a lot of churches things like that," Brown says.

To keep up with demand, Brown fills his truck and both lawn mowers once a day. His equipment runs on diesel fuel, a grade that cost him $2.06 on Tuesday, $2.13 on Wednesday, a trend that may force him to hang it up.

"Just keep going up and up and up," he says. "If it goes up very much more, I'm going out of business. I'd hate to go out of business."

Don Sanger is another one of a dying breed of independent, one-man operation, lawn care services. He too notices the higher prices.

"Weed Eater chord, two-cycle oil for lawn mowers is twice what it was a year and a half ago," Sanger says.

While his livelihood is not in danger of collapsing, it is cutting back.

"Now if someone wants some extra work done someplace, I may turn it down if I'm going to spend $50 on gas, it's not really worth the effort."