Jewells of Thought

Do you have any usual routines when you mow? Are there certain areas you tackle first? Or after a recent rain? How many times have you gotten stuck?

For years mom and I mowed my Grandma Betty’s and Aunt Dorothy’s yards. These ladies houses were adjacent to each other and on opposite sides of a highway. We had to be extremely careful going back and forth. People are fast; I could start out having looked before taking off and someone would instantly be behind me. I wasn’t exactly slow myself.

While mowing our 5 acres I still like beginning with an outline. There are big sections here and an outline helps me to orient my mind with how much there is to cut and shows me what’s left to cut. It’s one of my little fetishes.

Another big fetish is the fact that my brother likes to mow in the road whether our road of rock or the highway. I find it irritating, since I try explicitly to not get grass on any road. The look of grass in the road just looks messy and when we are paid to mow I don’t like the messy look. Even when we aren’t paid at home keeping the grass out of the road looks better.

The day before Easter, a neighbor of Grandma’s flagged me and mom down. He said he had seen us mowing here before from our years of mowing both yards. His mower was down and asked if we would help him out. I don’t remember the price, but he did pay us for it. There were two houses on the same side of the road just south of Aunt Dorothy’s house. The yard he wanted us to mow was the northern one. I remember thinking I need to make sure not one piece of grass gets on the other side of their lane. Sure enough I don’t remember if she came out or if he told me later. I just have the memory of her comment in my mind. Something about she saw me working fancy handiwork on that mower and that we did a good job. That compliment meant a lot and validated my keep my grass in the grass mowing ethic.

We only mowed this yard the one time, but it just worked out being able to do it and getting an extra pay from the day. Having standards does pay literally. Plus it was Easter and it was good to be able to help a fellow neighbor out that weekend.

Do you get comments from your work ethics? Have others asked for your particular skills with mowing?