Today there were three soccer games and one glorious session in which I got to try out the new riding lawnmower.
This was VERY fun. Also? I am SOOOO awful at it. (Totally predictable, but maybe not to this degree.)
Y’all should see the yard. It doesn’t look like a yard that just got mowed. It looks like someone came and did Grass Vandalism. There are figure 8s. There are paisleys. There are swirls and curves and ovals and almost no straight lines anywhere. The grass is sculpted into various heights and all the shades of brown and green used really highlight the various inappropriate shapes.
The amazing thing is that all of this is purely accidental. I was trying hard to do it right, and just failing that badly. I was TRYING to be all boring and correct and straight lines and professional. Instead it looks like a Vera Bradley print.
Mike was very nice about it. (Mike is actually being VERY nice about everything I do and say and think and write and mow and screw up and I am suddenly brilliant and insightful and perfect in every way and frankly it’s disturbing and maybe he’ll go back to ignoring me soon because all this attention is weird and exhausting.) He didn’t even fix it after I was done. Because it was perfect. I think. His friend, who gave me the mower, came over for another reason and just happened to arrive right after the sculpting was completed and he was very nice also. Totally getting that the fun of it far outweighed that initial result.
And OH, was it fun!
I can’t wait for it to grow and then I can try again.
I bet the neighbors feel the same way.
I love you.
8:41 pm
Kelsey, sounds like you have invented a new gardening genre – grass topiary. I really like the idea of organic paisley. Love, J-mom
10:43 am
Sounds lovely! did you take pictures? I am not allowed to even ride on the John Deere in our back yard–well, he did make an exception when I wanted to go down to the boathouse; he walked along side me all the way, with a steady stream of “don’t do this” and “be sure to do that.”
It was fun, but not as much fun as you had!
Jan recently posted..Wildfires in Texas
6:11 pm
My dad has been mowing our yard for us until just recently. He really wanted me to learn to mow it so he could be free. I’d never been on a mower before and noticed it was kind of nice too–when I didn’t feel I was suffocating from fumes and pollen and dirt flying all around. I wouldn’t say I thought it was fun… But I’m glad you did.
My yard ALSO looked absolutely unprofessional and I wondered how my dad and husband were able to be so nice about it and not scoff or rub it in my face. BUT, my yard didn’t look pretty or artistic. Hearing you say yours did really disappoints me because I feel like I should have done something artsy now too. :S LOL. It’s cute that you got so much satisfaction from it.
10:37 am
Is it a zero turn? Because in my experience, it is pretty much impossible to get nice straight lines without a zero turn mower. Mine has a pretty tight turning radius, but certainly not zero. So I go for the spiral instead of the lines. Of course, the minute you have anything in the way – a funny corner, a tree, etc. – that throws off the nice spiral effect. My one saving grace is that no one really cares what your lawn looks like when you live in the country. But really, there are certainly worse things than looking like a Vera Bradley print. Maybe you should take that idea and run with it.
Geekwif recently posted..European Vacation – Bruges, Belgium
2:00 pm
JMom
looks worse when the grass clippings all blow away, too!
Jan
you are loved dearly by that man. : )
Michele
just have fun, girl! also, it turns out to be a FANTASTIC arm work out!
GW
having a total girl crush moment right now that you even used the phrase zero turn. i have NO idea. but i want to talk like that.
2:25 pm
Zero turn mowers typically look something like this:
http://www.lawn-mowers-review.com/images/cub-cadet-zero-turn-22-hp-riding-mower-21248504.jpg
As opposed to regular riding mowers that look more like this:
http://www.goodsellequipment.com/images/cub-cadet-ltx-1046.jpg
If you have a zero turn, you can sit in one place and turn without moving forward.
Geekwif recently posted..European Vacation – Lissewege, Belgium
10:00 pm
I am so happy that you got your riding mower!!! Practice makes perfect so you will just have to make it grow faster so you can cut it more often. I’m not sure if you know but we have artifical turf, a dry creek bed, and some other rocks and concrete in our backyard. There is nothing alive except the dogs, and sometimes the lost lizards… I don’t think I have ever used a lawn mower in my life, but a leaf blower (we have 2 small trees and a bunch of shedding plants out front) is a lot of fun, and recently when hubby used it he blew a hole in the dirt! Seriously it was freaking hilarious!
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