May Monthly Moos {Smelling Freshly Cut Grass}

Thursday, May 29, 2014



Do you remember a couple months ago in the March Monthly Moos post I told you about my husband's John Deere tractors and I mentioned that I have a John Deere too?  Well this is mine.   Pretty much anyway.  Eldon has to work on it, change the belts when I break them, and remind me to buy fuel for it.  But it is my mowing machine.  

It is a called a Zero Turn.  I think that has to do with the fact that you can turn it on a dime - like you have to be careful (or I do anyway) because you can really spin it around and mow over things you shouldn't!  


This is our highway frontage.  It goes all the way to where the tiny road comes off the main road and then curves on to the right...  and then goes on for a bit more.  So I have a lot of frontage that I mow.    Before we moved here we had leased our farm to a man that was caring for it.  He "forgot" to maintain this frontage and when we moved we spent a solid two weeks the first winter cutting vines out of the fences.  It grows fast and the vines actually can quickly become a "hedge" on the fence.   I made it my job to do all the "easy" mowing on the farm.  


Here is the same frontage after I mowed (and string trimmed - more on that in a minute).  My mower makes a five foot wide cut and it takes me four passes to mow on this side of the fence - and two passes on the other side.  It's a lot wider than it looks in this picture.  


I also mow along the gravel road that goes into our farm and all the way up the hill to our house.   Parts of the road I mow all the way to fence line (like in this picture above) and it is about 15 passes.  


This is how it looks after I mow - however, this angle shows all the way to the highway. 


This is our lower pasture, our hay pasture.  I mow along our gravel road and along the fence lines leaving the hay to grow, obviously.  This is how the grass looks after a week of not mowing!  


This is the same spot, just a little further back.  It is mowed as well as string trimmed.  (Our hay should be cut next week.  If you haven't read my post about that you can read it here.)



So now about the string trimming.  If we do not string trim under the fence we end up with this mess you see in the picture above.  Eventually the grass and vines take over and climb the fence posts.  It doesn't take long.  This is only 3 weeks of no string trimming.  Luckily I don't have to do it weekly when I mow, but it does have to be done about every 3 weeks.  


There's also places that I can't get to with my mower.  Around these guide wires, the mail box, utility poles, etc..  I have a great string trimmer that my son in law gave me.  It is really powerful, starts easy and is really easy to change out the string.  It used to be so heavy I would have to stop every few minutes and take a break... this is the third year that I've used it and by some miracle it has gotten a little lighter each summer!   I've gotten pretty good at it and actually I really enjoy it.   It is a lot of walking but I use our Polaris Ranger too and so it isn't as bad as it could be!  This is the main frontage road and I trim as fas as you can see up the road in this picture.  


You can see in the above picture that the mower actually gets a lot under the fence, it is just around the t-posts that I have to trim.  So it isn't terribly hard.  Just hot.  And humid.  (Smile!)

We could spray weed control under our fences, a lot of people do.  But since our cows eat the grass and the hay from our pasture and we sell the cows for meat... we are not willing to take the risk of spraying the grass.  I'd rather run the string trimmer!


See how much nicer that looks?

A few things I love about mowing:  I like to get on the mower, put my ear plugs in and just zone out.  I have a pretty good system now so for about 4 hours of mowing I don't have to think about much except the beautiful grass, the sunshine, and the instant gratification of manicured grass!  I love that immediately you see an improvement!  I like that it requires a little bit of skill to keep from turning it upside down in the steep ditch (which I haven't done, thank goodness), getting stuck in the culvert (which I have done), and throwing a rock into the window of your newly built home (which I unfortunately have also done).  I love that people pay a lawn company hundreds of dollars a month to do what I can do.  

I did tell my grand-daughter Jillian that I love to mow.  Then I made the mistake of complaining about it once and she said, "But Gram, you love to mow"!

And I do.  But mostly, I just plain love summer and green grass.



This wraps up the month of May.  Can you believe it?  I'm trying to hold on tight with both hands as I know summer is going to fly like the wind.  And I just want to smile through the sweat!

I would love to hear about some of your mowing mishaps!  

10 comments:

  1. I had to smile reading this post! I lived in town all my life before moving to the country. When you have acreage..ha ha...= ALOT of mowing, tree/brush removing,gardens, cow panels for fencing ( no cute little fences) Steel fence posts, large heavy equipment...the list goes on and on! A zero turn is all we can use here when mowing this much. It does take about 3 hours just to mow, but I get on and ride like the wind on that thing! LOTS of time to day dream and enjoy the land around you. I have big ideas while looking around, thinking when I am done mowing, I am going to do this or that. Ha- they usually have to wait until another day! Summer does go too fast, but I do think winter is for weary gardeners and the mowers! Love the picture of the shorts and boots! Just what I look like!! Did you get your garden all back in? Happy summer days!
    Patty

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  2. I also love to mow! We have about 2 acres that are cleared on our 6 acres. The sheep take care of 1 of the acres so that leaves me with the rest! We DO NOT have a zero turn lawn mower but we do have a ride on. Only takes about 1 to 2 hours to mow what is left. One day we will get a zero turn, one day. :-)

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  3. Looks like a lot of work but such a beautiful place. I would have never thought I'd enjoy reading about mowing so much! I love the smell of fresh cut grass too and I've always dreamed of having a long private road going up to my house like that. You are very blessed indeed!

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  4. I also LOVE mowing! I do most of our mowing. However, our land is not flat. We have 5 acres but most are hills and you have to use the weed eater. We are from West Virginia! It's funny to me that you call it a string trimmer. We just say weed eater :) HAHA! I too love to see instant improvement. I also like to mow during the week and have my boys stay close. It's sometimes hard to do it, but I would rather do it while my husband works so he can enjoy his days off with the boys instead of mowing the whole time he's off. I too love summer, but sweat most of it!

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    1. Stacy! I used to call it a Weed Eater too. Then we moved here and our son-in-law told me it is really a String Trimmer!!! :-) I do still think of it as a Weed Eater though! I love that you mow so your husband doesn't have to waste his weekends - time with the kids is so valuable isn't it? Did you make your strawberry pie yet? - Dori -

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  5. Interesting that you mentioned the humidity, Dori. I was wondering how you feel about the hot and humid vs. the hot and dry of Az??

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  6. I love love love all of your blog posts! And I love your beautiful farm. I have not had any mowing disasters, but I did used to have a riding mower that I enjoyed mowing with! I did not have anywhere near as much to mow as you do, however! Now I barely even have a yard, and I can never get the push mower to start, so generally Savanna does the mowing!

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  7. 15 years ago, the first time I mowed the yard at our new home, I also hit a rock, and sent it into the French Doors, shattering one....I never even knew until I was done...,.good luck, and have fun....I also love the riding mower...weed eating....not so much!

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  8. we call them weed wackers! :) I {secretly} like cutting grass. Not to mention I LOVE the smell and look of freshly cut grass.

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  9. This post is really great dear!! You know I love mowing the lawn in my free time. Some days back I purchased a powerful Lawn Mower from a store of Lawn Mower Sales Alpharetta. Its features are great. It is the best mower I have ever used.

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