The Meandering Mind of REMullins: Curse of the lawn mower

I picked this gif because I thought it was cute, and then I started feeling a little resentful...How does she make it look so easy?

I have two riding lawn tractors. An old, 42" cut, green one that plows through the rough like a little brush hog. The other is a newer 48" cut. Yet, one (or both) is always in some stage of repair. I've mower repair on speed dial. The local mower shop yells, "Robin," whenever I walk through the door ala Cheers style.

At this moment, I'm waiting for the repairman to come fix a busted grease gasket on the large back tire of my red mower. It also has lost the bolt to one of the tiny, forward deck wheels. Hopefully, this time, he'll have everything he needs on his truck to do the job the first time.

The older, green tractor has a bent mower blade from hitting a large root. I've mowed over that stupid root for the last three summers but this time I forgot to raise the blades. My bad.

A few shots of the acreage I keep mowed. The Baltimore Oriole was added for fun.

I mow close to six hours a week. So, you can imagine what a serious business this is for me and why I have to have a working mower. There are other benefits than keeping a well manicured front lawn. By mowing the back field and under the trees by the creek, I keep the number of ticks down and poison ivy at bay. It's pretty to look at.

And, because it pleases me, I help out the bees by mowing around patches of clover. Further in the field, there are also sections of yellow and purple clover.

Last but not least, as I've mentioned before, I use mowing as an enforced time to think. The engines are too loud to hear music through headphones (I've tried). So, I'm without extraneous distractions and it allows me to work through writer's block and plot problems.

In fact, I suspect it's the rough terrain that bounces and bumps those ideas, buried deep inside my brain, up where I can get them.