Mowing the Lawn

I've had to adapt just a little to the way that lawn care is handled inside the Village of Shepherd. Growing up, I always lived in a rural area so I was pretty casual about mowing the lawn. Some weeks, I'd mow a different section of the lawn on a different day so that the whole thing would be done in two or three days.

Of course, our lawn here in Shepherd is about 1/5 the size of my parents' property, so it takes less time to get done. But, I've learned to be far more self-conscious--and less casual--about getting the lawn mowed now that we are surrounded on all sides by neighbors. Grass length is relative, so the last lawn to be mowed ends up looking really bad if everyone else has already mowed theirs.

My wife has been very helpful with my "re-education" on how often the lawn should be mowed. She is very in tune with how short everyone else's lawn is, so the moment she hears a lawn mower running she will make sure to remind me that our lawn will look like crap unless I get it mowed right now.

Another different is the equipment that I use. When I was younger and mowed my parents' yard we always had lawn tractors, and then a push mower for trimming. I don't know what I would have done if they had asked me to mow their whole yard with only a push mower. Even when I mowed my Grandfather's yard, which was smaller by comparison, I used his riding mower.

A lawn mower would be nice for our yard now, but slightly overkill. We rely on the push mower our landlord loaned us; we don't have any mowers of our own. I'm certainly aware that a ride mower would be a lot easier and faster, but the push mower saves us both money and maintenance time.