Sunshine, Glo and Yard Work

Halleluja!  For the first time this year, everything fell into place, and we headed outside to clear out the winter and bring in the spring.  We trimmed bushes, pulled weeds (yes, they are already growing) and started mowing the lawn.

I say "started", because with all the wear and tear it received this winter, our tractor is currently in the shop.

Thankfully, Glo has "the Phoenix", her used lawn tractor in which she joy rides like it's a 4-wheeler!

Little did Glo (and the Phoenix) know how quickly they would be seeing some action.

While I worked on the flower beds, I instructed Glo (aka yelled over the noise) on how to mow the lawn.  There were times when I had to just stand up and watch her mow the lawn.  It was hilarious!  It reminded me of those children who find a pair of scissors and cut their own hair.  Granted, she had more than a head of hair to cut--the area was closer to three acres of green grass.  There were long tufts of grass sticking up at the most random places.  Too, I had to remember that she's not a driver, and moving in a straight line is asking a lot!  The Phoenix isn't a top-rate mower either--there were huge chunks of cut grass everywhere.  Our front lawn was the funniest thing to see.

Even when I tried to go back over it later, there just wasn't any pattern to the madness and I gave up.  We are expecting four straight days of rain, beginning tomorrow, and I'm hoping by then the tractor will be back and lawn life will make sense again.

I actually ended up mowing about an acre of grass down by our mailbox with our old push mower when the belt on the Phoenix gave out (and so did the Phoenix).  The jokes that I made with the boys so many years ago about them actually mowing our large lot with that mower didn't seem quite so funny anymore.  It felt good to be in the sun and working hard.  Seriously, I love it.  But I would be lying if I didn't say that I had a few flashbacks to breaking my ankle in our yard, and I was very nervous.

With all this, I must give kudos to Glo.  Yesterday, while taking out one of her contact lenses, she scratched her cornea and has been in a great deal of pain.  I took her to the optometrist this morning who couldn't do much but say "give it time".  When we got home, she headed out to the Phoenix, loaded to the gills with Kleenex in her sweatshirt pocket.  When I would look out, she would be blinking from the pain in her eye and wiping the one side of her nose that was draining from all the blinking.  She never complained or said that she needed to go in.

Too, it is a relief to finally have a child that loves to help with the yard work.  From draining the pond to fishing the fish out of the pond; from mowing the lawn to weeding the flower beds; from telling me that we need to get our 50 raspberry bushes planted today to picking our berries when they are ripe, Glo never complains.  She loves to be outside with us, and she works.  I imagine in the old days she would have been one of those women that people would say "came from good stock".  Once she masters the Phoenix, she will be unstoppable, I'm sure :-)