Lessons in yard work.

I bought this awesome mower last month. Every male within shouting distance of my house (about 5 of them) think I got a steal and did great in purchasing it. I agree! So...with such pride I took off mowing my "Green/Red Acres". I started with the front at about 1:20. It was a pretty wild ride the first round....I had NO idea how to drive that thing, and it was in high gear. I am certain "passerbyers" thought I was hysterical. After that, I moved to the "bar ditch" and then to the east side of the house. That is where I made the startling conclusion....there is not enough money in the world to pay someone to mow from the east back to the rest of the 5 acres. Oh my stars! If your child is asking to go to Six Flags and you have no money....send them to my house. They can mow the law and get the same bone cracking, teeth jarring ride as they would on the roller coaster; and you saved money. Or, if you are wanting to loose weight bring it on. Do you remember the little machine that ladies used to use where they stood up, put this belt around their rear end, turned the button to on, and the belt started shaking their butt? I now own that machine, except that you are seated. And you don't want to stop the mower to take a break because you feel like a pilot starting up or shutting down the airplane. Then there are so many buttons and levers that you have to move just to stop the thing...you keep mowing for 4 1/2 hours straight so all you have is water to drink (a bottle in the cup holder which is deep enough to keep it from bouncing out). Finally, I was majorly concerned that my boobs would be hanging to my ankles by the time I finished bouncing around. Did you know that IF a large object gets stuck in red clay mud, you can't just sit there and rock it out? So...lesson learned. Eat, drink and pee before getting on the machine, and slow down when you see the ripples in the upcoming area. And for the mud...well, let's call it a science experiment.
The next lesson...... I have a beautiful view and am working on having a beautiful front yard. This morning I assigned each child a job to help me with the yard before it began to rain. The son was to rake the rocks out of the yard and the daughter was to hoe the weeds out of the front bed. I was busy raking dirt to put in grass seed, and fertilizing. They both lasted a whole 20 minutes or so. Hello? Who is the old person here? (The same one that by herself climbed to the 1/2 way point at the falls in Colorado....) I also ended up finishing the rocks and had to go fill the culverts that my daughter created. I must say that I taught her to use the hoe correctly, but I think she thought I said "hole".
As for the final lesson in yard work, we experienced it tonight. We sat in the back enjoyed the smell of rain as we admired the green grass and trees and smell of flowers. Then we sat on the front porch, swathed in a cool rainy breeze, looking at the freshly mowed beautiful green weeds and the distant blue hills blanketed in clouds while our three humming birds played at the feeder just two feet from us. Even better.......I sat there tonight in my jammies, drinking coffee and two precious children on either side. Hmmmmm love me some yard work!