I enjoy mowing.  Maybe because the results are immediately obvious and it stays mowed longer than my house stays clean.  Maybe because I can’t hear anyone and no one bothers me when I am mowing.  I enter my own little world of daydreaming, planning, singing (i.e. frightening the animals) and oblivion.

Admittedly, I have problems when mowing.  For instance, recently I jarred or jostled the mower deck off the bracket that is attached to the under side of the machine.  Luckily, I noticed the deck appeared askew and was rubbing on the front tire.  Hmmmmm.  I investigated.  I saw the problem, but couldn’t fix it.  I pointed out to hubby how he needed to fix it.  We tried together and got oh-so-close, but couldn’t realign and attach it.  He repeatedly asked me, “Where were you mowing?”  I finally told him, “It doesn’t matter how many times you ask me, the answer is the same – the area north of the barn, by the pig barn.  It’s rough out there and it must’ve jarred right off.”  Somehow, by him continuing to ask me the same question, I could only assume he thought I would admit to racing the mower off a ramp while jumping a line of cars or popping a wheelie with it.  Yep, that’s me, Maniacal Mower Marla.

Questioning my mowing ability, I guess, should not surprise me.  I once mowed over an axe handle.  In my defense, it should not have been left in the grass.  I got that chunk of wood wedged into the mower blades so badly we couldn’t remove it.  Imagine how that looked sitting in the lawn mower repair shop?  It was jutted out of the deck’s mouth at a 45 degree angle.  Sort of looked like the mower took up cigar smoking.

I also get stuck on a regular basis.  Everyone in the house warns me not to get the mower stuck when they see me heading out to mow.  Sometimes the kids can push it out.  It has taken the 4-wheeler and even the truck at times to pull the mower out.  I think the boys secretly enjoy coming to my rescue.  I build their self-esteem as they reduce mine.

Baling twine is another nemesis.  I despise the fwwuppp-wup-wupp sound of catching a piece of twine with the mower and knowing that in that nano-second, it wrapped itself around the blades and bearing (or whatever that thing is that lets the blades spin) 593 times.  It is an absolute bear to unwrap and cut free that twine.  Wire can also get pretty twisted up and the horrible sound that it makes will startle me right out of my mowing reverie.  I am adamant about picking up and throwing away discarded twine and wire from the straw and hay bales.  Not everyone on our little farm is as adamant.

Mowing – it’s not for sissies.  But it is better than cleaning house.