Okay, this may not sound like an exciting topic to you, but for me, it is. You see, mowing the yard is usually Rick’s job. He dons his headphones and heads off for some peaceful alone time while doing a chore he really likes. It’s never been my thing. I think I may have mowed our other yard about twice. We have a riding mower, a John Deere. It takes a while to get used to driving it around. Their slogan may well be “nothing runs like a Deere,” but they never mentioned that while it may run like a deer (Deere), it has about the turning radius of our Suburban. You need to think ahead when making u-turns.

Our yard in our new home has only been mowed once, by Rick. Our yard is a country yard. No pristinely kept, plush carpet is this yard. We have rocks, boulders, the ground over the septic system sticks up too high, and it is also on a pretty steep incline in spots. The back is thankfully free of trees. The front yard takes some creativity because of the trees. Since Rick had to travel this week on business and the grass was getting too tall, I promised him that I would do the mowing. [If only I can remember how to work the dang thing.]

I remembered how to start it, but I had forgotten how to make it “go.” Ah, right, I have to release the thingy at the bottom because it’s in the locked position. Old Johnny was left in third gear from the last mowing. WHOA, Johnny! A bit too fast for this old girl; second gear will do us for now. No need to go careening nearly out of control down this hill. That’s better, now I have some time to look around as I mow. Going down the slope was easy, coming back up I was starting to feel like I should get out and help push. But, it really wasn’t necessary, just a different feeling than flat old Colorado. Now across the yard. Hey, wait a minute, this feels like I’m going to tip over. Jeez, that was kind of a nasty little steep spot. Don’t like that much. Up and down I went, around the boulders and just skirting the septic, and as I mowed I got more confident that I wasn’t going to tip the thing over on myself. It was really not too bad!

When I started out I was only going to mow the back, but I was having so much fun being outside on this gorgeous day that I decided to do the front as well. The front does not have the same steep slope as the back, so as I’m mowing along second gear seems way too pokey. Better bump it up to third. A quick burst of speed and I’m off again. It seems fast. The neighbor walking his dogs goes by and waves. I wave back, but only for a second. Going too fast to take my hands off the wheel for long, especially since I need to make a turn. Pretty soon I’m ripping around the trees and done in no time. Get outta my way squirrels!!!!!!!  I think it looks pretty good.