Jewells of Thought

My mom and I both love to mow as I have mentioned. I don’t know how we started our duo only that Jared my brother had garnered up to 20 yards himself when he was able to drive and do so during his last couple of years of high school.

Once he got his job at the Jasonville nursing home things somewhat turned around. Mom and I enjoyed mowing and in 2006, I had to quit college for the second time. I had to refrain from returning to Walmart as a cashier for a while.

A health problem, not drinking enough good stuff, and taking some medicine gave me the hives. Thank goodness for Nicole, one of my roommates and a fellow choir member, told me my bites were actually hives. That was a very rough weekend. It was at that moment in time I knew I had to make a change. Since Grandpa Alsmans death the year before I guess I was a little vulnerable and perhaps a bit on the depressed side. Even though I loved my college life. I just needed to somehow recharge myself. Working at Walmart as a cashier was a good experience for me, but I realized I was inside a lot and didn’t spend as much time outside.

Once that decision was made we didn’t have nearly as many as my brother did, but we did have 5. He still found time to help out on occasion. There were times within 10 years where all hands were on deck.

Sometimes we started our day walking some years it also depended on my feet. For the majority of the time it took us time to fill up the tanks on our two zero turn mowers our push mower and weed-eater. There was a special way that it all fit into our trailer. If we tried to change it just a little bit they wouldn’t fit well.

We had a routine and some jobs came and went for the last few years we just had two yards beside our own 5 acres. Grandma Betty’s and Aunt Dorothy’s. With both of us doing our respective areas and with a break for dinner it still took us to sometimes 4 or 5 pm. It just always depends on the little things or big things like if we spray the weeds this week or next week. Or how long did we socialize? The biggest 2nd priority of the day was if our farmers were working how long will it take us to feed them and get back?

Grandma Betty was always wanting to feed us. Grandma is hard to say no to. So we hardly ever did. We came to understand that we needed to walk in early before we got onto the mowers to say we have to leave early. The guys did feed themselves whenever they could. Those were some amazing times I will always cherish. We tried to help her clean up the table before we got back to work and put the leftovers in the fridge.

There were times when I thought this was it for me. It was nice to have this time with Grandma and do what I loved doing. I was content being the farmer’s daughter going to college and working yards during the summers. Mom and I kept in shape and tanned to some extent. Unfortunately, I would either forget the sun-tan lotion or I wore shirts with sleeves and literally got the farmers tan. I loved what I was doing and I felt healthier than I did in early 2006. Life was good as farmers, mowers and as a family. Still we were healing after a loss of the patriarch on mom’s side of the family; but we were healing.