May 15th, 2019

The season of the lawn is upon us. It is in these times when I find myself most appreciative of the dead end gravel road life. I do not have to face the scornful look of passersby as they sadly shake their collective heads at my less than maintained lawn. Last weekend, for the first time this year, I dusted off my trusty 1949 Farmall cub tractor with a six foot belly mower (picture below) and began the slow looping process of mowing our farmstead lawn. However, it wasn’t a project I completed, nor did I think for one minute it would even be possible to see this mowing from start to finish. Let’s just call it a test run. While all the good people of the world are happily tidying up their lawns, or better yet hiring someone to do it for them, I am still working on mow number one. The first problem I have is simply trying to get my little tractor started. Did I mention it was built in 1949? It’s a great little tractor, but like all things on this farm, it has some quirks. However, once it’s up and running, it makes quick work of the open grass patches. This brings us to my next issue, project debris. It seems like we are in perpetual construction mode this spring and like all good projects, there is an amount of chaos which tends to spill out of the construction zone, blurring the smooth straight lines of a regular perimeter. Then there is all the hoses we have been dragging around to the various greenhouses this spring since reworking our waterlines. Let’s see what else impeded my first mow….oh yes family. With less than an hour to accomplish my task before a Mother’s Day gathering, time was not on my side. This is the way the first mow always goes on the farm. Since then, I have finished the waterline, cleaned up the construction sites, and even trimmed the low hanging branches on a number of trees around the farmstead. So my next attempt will be one I could imagine taking to full completion. Not very many people will even see or care. There is maybe only one person who has ever cared, my sister Jessica, Queen of the mowed lawn. 

~Farmer Rufus