Lawns to mow

I thought I had posted about this, but apparently it slipped my mind. The fact of the matter is, YES, I HAVE been mowing the lawn!

I have always thought of mowing the lawn as - please forgive me for saying this even though I am for women's rights and hate being told what I can or can't do - a MAN'S JOB. Not just because it's hot and sweaty, but because mowing our lawn involved the LAWN MOWER, and in our case it's a RIDER MOWER, not the one in the photo above, but one that looks an awful lot like it. And since Steve is the car guru in these parts, and since the second time he mowed our lawn EVER he practically took off a finger, and since he often comes in sunburned and dirty... well, what's the harm in making this particular chore a man's chore?

Except that, I realized, he had started to go mow the lawn with a beer in his hand, whistling to himself, and left me with the kids. Which was fine, only... well, I started thinking... how hard could it BE? He's DRIVING AROUND. On something the size of a golf cart. I could do that.

So a couple of weeks ago I sat down on it, got Steve to go over the finer points (how to turn the mower on and off, how to start the darn thing, etc.) and took off. After a couple of seconds of practice I headed down to mow with Steve helpfully shouting "OK, But you're going to fail!" I made my way around the already-mowed-once section of our lower property, and when I made it back to point A I turned the mower off. "Why did you say I was going to fail?" I asked, only slightly upset because, after all, there was nothing to it. "It's nothing!" said Steve. You're doing a great job! It's just... you're going a whole lot slower than I ever thought you would."

Yesterday I had my second shot at mowing. This time, more comfortable on the machine, I stalled out several times. I also realized that I was bouncing up and down like a mad woman. "It's like being on a horse!" I thought. And then I started to worry, because I am NOT supposed to be riding horses right now. Although no one has mentioned rider mowers as a danger to pregnant women.

At any rate, I did an awful job mowing the lawn yesterday (while Steve watched the kids - it's still like a little break for me.) And when I finished I told Steve that that was it for me. At least until the baby was born. In December. Prime mowing season, as you know. But seriously - next spring, I'll be back mowing, because I like it, and I can now put gas in the mower myself!