This week in the midst of the general carpentry I have been doing, I ended up mowing three lawns for my boss's landlord. I thought to myself, "This shouldn't take too long." Boy was I wrong! 12 1/2 hours and 3 1/2 litres of water later, I had 21 1/2 oversized garbge bags stuffed and crammed with grass and weeds overflowing a small, blue, Mazda pickup. Unbelievable!
I am not a lawn maintenance company, though in a former occupation I was regarded as a "vegetation management specialist". This was more than I had ever seen while mowing oilfield lease roads, sites, and berms however. Who knew that in the middle of Airdrie you could let your grass grow over 4 feet tall in the back yard? Some of the thistle I pulled was taller than I am, and the rocks I met weighed up to 50 pounds.
If this sounds like a "big fish" story to you, you would be sadly mistaken. I ran into re bar, toys, close to 20 pop and beer cans, and had to move a small playground apparatus. And that was all on one yard. At first glance some of the grass looked shorter than four feet, but upon closer inspection I discovered that it was lodged, soaking wet, and yes, over 4 feet tall. I found fescue, brome, kentucky blue, foxtail, and a number of things I couldn't identify. I should have walked away and rented a swather and baler, but there was no way either would fit between the houses.
The other two yards were no picnic either, but they didn't have nearly the debris nor the stature of the other yard. The one had a 6 x 6 flowerbed that was filled with 5 foot tall sow thistle that I pulled by hand. The other lawn was only 2 1/2 feet tall - I discovered the shrubs only after bumping into the first one and lopping off a limb (not mine, the shrub's).
The lawnmower also gave me nothing but problems that day. I had to run out and get oil for it, reattach the spark plug to get it working properly, and fiddle with the throttle every time I pulled the cord to start it. I didn't figure this out until after the 100th pull, of course. Then again, after having to stop and start every two passes or less to empty the bag on the mower, I had to start it over and over and over and over and over. Considering the number of times I stalled the mower out on top of that and mulching four foot grass into pieces the mower could chew and bag, my right arm and pec got a workout. Now I'm all lopsided!
Whatever. It's done. I'm getting paid for it. And yesterday I found out my boss doesn't have enough work for me for the rest of the summer and found me a new job framing for a friend of his. Three weeks to go before returning to school and hopefully replacing a furnace (dramatic pause - yay). I am so grateful my student loan will cover many of our needs. And yesterday I bought a new digital camera to replace the one my children dropped numerous times and lost the pieces to. For everything else, there's Mastercard. Fortunately, I don't have one of those either. They wouldn't approve me anyway. Home Depot wouldn't even give me a card because I don't make enough money to qualify. They're afraid I won't pay them back because I have no income. But that's another story for another time...
Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment