good non-gas mowers

I use a 100 year old scythe with a wood snath that is the same age as the blade. This one is a fairly new purchase and it is an American forged blade (Keen) with a curved snath made of hickory, with two straight handles.

I peened it on my anvil to straighten the blade since it was rather wavy and then filed and used a blue stone hone to bring it to sharpness. When I'm cutting I dress hone about every 10 swaths, which only takes about a minute. I can cut 1 acre, around trees and rocks in about 3 hours. It took me all of one day to really have the scythe swing and sharpening down to where I didn't have any problems, my grandfather taught me how by working along side me. Worst part of it was having to hear how I was doing it wrong, then being shown how it was supposed to be done, over and over till I got it. No pre teen wants to be shown up by their grandparent.

I've been thinking about getting a new, Austrian type, grass cutting blade and snath just to come into the modern era, which would also require me to learn the peening sharpening process. But I probably will just use this one since my wife has expressed a desire to hang it on a wall when I stop using it.
I oil/ wax the snath every spring with a lemon oil/tung oil/bees wax blend. It rubs in nicely and will last an entire year.
It did take three applications when I first got this one from my antique tool dealer, the blade was in rough shape and rusty but now it looks as it should and cuts everything from fine grass to wheat straw.

I timed my using the scythe against my using a weed eater and since I move the weed eater the same way I move the scythe, the times were about the same, but the cut grass was in neat rows off the scythe instead of thrown all over the place. And I didn't hammer my legs with rocks while using the scythe. Overall, I much prefer my "old timey scythe" to the weed eater.

*our resident guru of the scythe, Benjamin Bouchard, is a wonderful person to have available here. I have learned a lot from his posts.

This sickle bar mower that I made from my E-go cordless hedge cutter, works great on tall grass.

E-go makes the best cordless lawnmower that I have seen. Home Depot sells them, but for some reason they push the lightly built Ryobi, which is inferior in every way that I can think of.

I used to have a black and deck electric mower but thick Bermuda burned out the motor. Which supports Pauls previously stated opinions. So i wont be trying anymore traditional style electric mowers ever.

I have a Fiskars reel mower that cuts up to 4 or so inches. I used it pretty extensively while renting a place that had significant lawn and liked it. It does have some plastic parts though.
I have an Austrian scythe as well that i am only decently skilled with. It is a brush blade so it excels at thick stalked plants.
My new house came with a whopping 1/3 of an acre lawn.. Its terrible. I had to maintain it throughout the summer while i let the weed killers and chemicals wear off. Once the weather broke i lost all interest in maintaining the useless crap. So i let it go to the legal limit and its really only crab grass stalks that get over 12 inches. The scythe is difficult for them because i am trying to cut them off pretty high and they kind of get whipped around and don't all get cut. String trimming is ridiculous for that much ground. Im starting to think dales sickle bar hedge trimmer attachment would be ideal for this scenario, cutting loose stalks and shoots at about 10 inches off the ground.
Obviously the plan is to end up converting everything except the easements to forest gardens, ponds or veggie plots, but these will need to be fenced in from puritan eyes. Easements will be polycultures maintained at 10 inches height( for legal reasons)

I second your thought of the sickle bar mower idea for your situation, that would be the best choice I believe.

After my 42" riding mower stuck the piston, I was forced to do something with spring approaching.

I purchased a Greenworx Digipro 19" cordless walk behind, mostly because it will cut 4" high (approx.)

I am a believer in longer grass. I even have to manage my goats in the pasture with zones, as they do not believe in leaving grass more than about 1/2" high! Plus in the front yard, they eat all the shrubs first: no, no.

The Greenworx is functioning quite well and the whole ordeal for my 1/3 acre of front lawn is about 15 minutes longer than with the riding mower. It helps me reach my daily step count.

I am not certain about what the mulching will produce as the grass has yet to evenly fill in this spring to 4 inches. I also am not sure what it will doo for sucking up leaves in the fall, my real love of the riding mower.

The mower is of good quality and came with two rechargeable batteries of different operational times. I like the extra control and detail of this mower versus what I was able to do with the riding mower. The digipro feature has been able to handle the sticks and thick clumps well.

So far, so good.

I use a Ryobi cordless string trimmer and Ryobi 21 inch self propelled push mower. I was 'sold' on Ryobi products 15 plus years ago. Most of my hand tools are Ryobi. The batteries are the same for the hand tools and string trimmer- 18 volt 4 Ah. I know the batteries are indeed expensive but they last a very long time. I've accumulated 10 batteries over the years and I number and date them so I can keep track of them better. They are cycled through in order so they all get used. The first two are from 2016 and still going strong. They last 30 to 40 minutes on the string trimmer just like the newer ones do. I live on 60 acres so only control the natural grasses and brush 100 feet out around all structures for fire control because of local ordinances requiring residents in my area to do so.
The Ryobi push mower uses 40 volt batteries but the 2 batteries that came with the mower will mow 2 acres on one charge. It will mow down 2 foot high grass/brush efficiently in 1 pass.  Height is adjustable from 2 to 4 inches. Only use the push mower on the flat areas around the house. The rest needs the string trimmer because of rough terrain. It's slow work but an hour a day gets it done over late spring early summer. Here in California things dry out fast.

About 1.5 - 2 acres of our 8+ is mowed lawn around the house and garage.  For every bit of lawn I claim for plantings, my guy manages to claim just as much somewhere else with the riding mower, LOL!  An enlarged pathway, another "trail" through the wooded area, an "oops" re-mowing an area he "forgot" I took out of mowing, just one more pass into the edge of my food forest area which he keeps asking if he can mow down "around the fruit trees to make it easier for you to get to them"... his cheerful motto is "if it's green, mow it down!"  (Obviously the things we have in common do not extend to growies 😒.)

Our riding ZTR mower is gas powered and makes quick work of the large areas.  I've at least got him on board with mowing high.  I can still harvest dandelions and other things that grow among the grass since we use no chemicals.  I use a battery powered string trimmer, which works but I hate using it.  The connector between the trimmer and the neck strap broke off, so I have to carry the whole weight with my arms alone, which limits how long I can work with it at one time.  I also have trouble playing out new line.  This year maybe I'll get around to rigging a neck strap on it somehow that keeps it at the right height without requiring constant adjustment.  

After my sweetie rolled the riding mower over into our drainage ditch along the road, requiring a vehicle with a tow strap to pull it upright and out, I bought a battery-powered push mower to do the steeper areas and a few other places the rider won't fit into.  It works great, and came with two batteries so one can charge while the other is in use.  He won't even think about pushing it around the whole yard due to his extremely bad back, which I understand.  I'm lucky he's able to mow with the rider and spare me that chore.  But that battery push mower makes it easy enough for me to do the awkward spots every few weeks.  It is an Atlas brand brushless mower, and was on sale bundled with an electric chain saw that uses the same batteries.  That was good for me since I'm not so good at pull-starting things!  If I recall correctly, it was a cheap-o Harbor Freight brand, but that mower works well and has been quite dependable for my use, and the batteries still last through my tasks.  (I tend to be more careful and easy on my tools than most folks, though.)

Years ago I bought an old reel push mower for $25, but I couldn't manage to get out to mow often enough, especially in the spring, to keep the grass from growing beyond what that mower could cut rather than just pushing it over temporarily.  I still have it as a backup, but it's not being used.

To reduce string trimmer time, I try to design plantings so that the riding mower can mow up to and over some kind of edging (instead of up to a raised edging, leaving a thin row of tall grasses to whack down.)  Unfortunately what works best is digging a little trench and pouring quikcrete into it.  I've tried pavers and natural stone, but within a couple years the grass has engulfed them and you can't even tell they were ever there.  It works at engulfing the quikcrete as well, but that takes more time.  I'm going to try metal edging and mulch around a couple trees in the lawn area and see how that goes.   At least it'll keep grass from spreading into those areas via roots.

Our grass here is so invasive, it grows in mulch, through landscape fabric, in gravel, and pretty much everywhere we don't want it to go.  I even get sprouts in my potted tropical fruit trees when they are outside on the deck for the summer.  Weeding is more of a chore here than other areas I've lived, mainly due to the different types of grasses that make themselves at home.  Other ground covers/living mulches don't stand a chance against the grass either.  Even putting down cardboard over lawn to build a raised bed only seems to fertilize the grass and bring it back stronger than ever after a couple years!  Shade has to be deep and total to discourage it.  At least mowing keeps it from going to seed and spreading further.

I'd love to be able to use a scythe, let the grass grow tall then cut it down to dry for chicken bedding.  For someone short like me I'd have to get one custom made, and that is not in the budget.  I'd also love to have a milk cow to convert all that grass into food for us and the chickens, dogs and cats, but we don't have the infrastructure for that nor is that in the budget.  We have no desire to have goats or sheep.  Our laying hens free range, but that doesn't even put a dent in the grass.   Only hens confined to a too-small area eat and scratch enough to keep grass from growing tall.

We are using an Ego brand push mower. Self propelled! It charges for free with sunshine. Got it cheap off marketplace. Battery life good. So good we now use an ego chainsaw for our winter wood supply. It cuts like our old stihl only quieter and cheaper.