I love the smell of freshly cut lawn in the morning. It’s a smell I haven’t enjoyed for four years, until this past Tuesday morning after I mowed my lawn at my new house for the first time ever the previous evening.
When my wife, Jenny, and I sold our home in Wautoma four years ago, we rented an apartment in Plover while we decided whether to buy another home or build a new one. We went with the second option, and last summer moved into it after three years of apartment life.
Because the house wasn’t ready until June, we waited on installing a lawn, figuring the summer sun would bake any attempts to do so. Initially, we were going to wait until the fall, but the fall became spring because that’s what happens when you don’t plan right.
In April, a lawn guy installed one for us, and after some early downpours in the days after it was planted, the weather decided it didn’t want to cooperate. The sprinkler system, set to twice a day, didn’t provide enough water to make it grow as quickly as we wanted. So last week Jenny called the lawn guy and asked if there was anything we could do.
He showed up, changed the sprinkler system settings, and poked a bunch of holes in our yard. I’m not sure what the holes were for, but it worked wonders. Within a week, we went from having a yard with more dirt patches than grass patches to one primarily covered in grass.
It grew so quickly that I realized my four years of lawn-mowing freedom was about to come to an end. I wasn’t all that sad to see it end, though, as I’ve always enjoyed the exercise that comes with pushing a lawnmower around and around a yard. Unlike a treadmill, this exercise seems to serve a purpose and have an end goal.
After firing up the mower, I hoped to find some snakes in the grass as I was cutting it. I had found one the night before, and capturing one could make for a nice pet for our son, Braden. He got a gerbil over the weekend, and with the two cats we already have, a snake would help make for the start of the Steuck Zoo.
Jenny told me she would not appreciate a pet snake, though, and I know his grandmother would probably never visit if we had one. I’m not sure what the aversion is to such a harmless creature, but I’m not going to risk putting myself in the doghouse with both Jenny and my mother-in-law over a reptile that would rather be outdoors anyway.
We’ve got a big lawn, and I expected it to take a couple of hours to finish with a push mower. To my surprise, it only took an hour. The only trouble I had occurred after a break in which I restarted the mower. In pulling the drawstring back, I started the mower but also pulled the string right off the mower. I was able to finish the lawn, but I’ll need to fix this problem before I mow a second time, probably early next week.
I have no clue how to fix it, but that’s what YouTube is for. Google a question, “How to put drawstring back on lawnmower,” and you’ll find dozens of videos showing you how to do it. It’s nice living in an age where everyone can be a handyman.
Learning to solve this problem will enable me to fix another problem. The same thing happened to me with my snow blower during the final snowfall this winter.
I should probably try to keep my strength in check. Or else I won’t be able to enjoy the smell of freshly cut lawn in the morning, afternoon or evening.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, June 29, 2012.
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