You're Gonna Mow 4 Acres With That?

NO!!!!  HE'S GOING TO MOW 4 ACRES WITH A PUSH-MOWER????  no-o-O-O!  No way!

I'm sitting here looking out the sliding glass doors when this Range Rover pulls in, and out comes a push mower.  This dude mows about 30 feet.  I keep watching thinking a zero turn or something big's magically going to appear somewhere soon.  But no!  That doesn't happen!  

This high school kid thinks he's going to mow these 4 acres with a push mower???  Seriously?

Unt-uh.  Nope.  Not happening.

So, I go out there, he sees me coming, and walks towards me.

"You do know I have 4 acres?  You can't mow 4 acres with a push mower!"

"Hi, I'm Ryan. Yah.   I have a friend coming with a John Deere riding mower."

"I hope his John Deere has a big deck, maybe a 52 or 48 inch?"

"Yah, it's big."

I show him the back yard asking if he's the one I've been talking to.

"No, that's Christian who you've been texting."  About that time Christian shows up, he'd driven a green riding mower a mile up Highway 37 to get here, sheesh.  And, no way is it 52"!  To my dejection, it's a 38 inch deck, sigh.

"Well, you can push-mow the area around the wood pile, and the Roger Run over there."  And I tell him the story behind the Roger Run, a 50 ft. square fenced section of yard,  "But maybe I'd better see if we can start my zero turn for you to use after that."

It doesn't start.  I put a portable charger on it.  He's adding gas.  The spout never makes contact with the opening and he spills gas everywhere.  I couldn't help myself.  At this point I'm very, very wary and I just blurted.

"Do you guys even know how to mow?  Have you mown before?"  

They'd come 2 weeks earlier when I wasn't home to scope out the place but they didn't realize how big was the back yard.  Oh, boy!

These young whipper snappers act so knowledgeable and they don't know a lick; but they sure do exude confidence!  Finally, we get my zero turn started, and would you believe I have to show him how to operate it!  

Oh.  My.  Lands.

"Who's that?" I asked.  In the drive at the mailbox is now a white Dodge Ram with a trailer hauling 2 zero turns. 

Ryan smiles and says, "I called for back up."  

Yay!  In my mind, I gave him points for that call, and I'm thanking the powers that be.

"We have 7 pieces of equipment and 3 more guys," he adds.

ROFL, good deal!

These guys were recommended by Quinn, a high schooler, who'd been at a garage sale of mine and seen how tall was the grass.  He wasn't a part of the group, LOL, just helping friends get work.

"I know some guys that'll do your mowing.  He comes from Westfield.  They're trying to get more business," Quinn had told me, and we exchanged phone numbers. 

So, the newly arrived small John Deere goes round and round the middle yard followed up by a zero turn doing criss-cross paths.  Christian says, "Your grass hasn't been mown in awhile and it's so tall that we have to do it this way." 

"BTW, when would you like us to come back?"  Oh, he's a funny guy!

Eventually, I meet Nick and Brody, the other two mowers.  They all are in high school and all play soccor together and all are trying to establish a mowing business.  They said they have another job up the road.  

With them in a semi-circle around me, I told them I had two rules.

"Always blow the grass in.  I don't want any on the roads, or a rock hitting the wind shield of a passing car who might sue me.  And....look 5 feet ahead.  There could be tree limbs and pop cans and the like."  

"Oh, we know, we got this."  

Yah, you got this!  ROFL, there's that confidence again.

I walked next door to see sis.  She came out and I asked her to follow me.

"Come to the top of the hill, come see this!  You won't believe your eyes."

In my back yard, was 3 zero turns and a riding mower just zip-zip-zipping this way and that and mulching up the tall weeds like a troupe of figure skaters on ice!  It was ridiculously hilarious.  

They got done in under 2 hours!!!

Sis was so impressed that Christian, who I learned is the boss, who takes the money and divvies it out, was hired on the spot.

"From now on, do you want us to do yours and hers on the same day?"  he asked.  

"Yes, in 2 weeks."

For the agreed upon first-cutting, they did her yard on Saturday!  And I wished I'd have been there to see it!

Did they ask how many acres she has?  Or did history repeat itself?

Were there 3 zero turns and a John Deere zip-zip-zipping along?

Like mischievious leprechauns in tall grass, they "got 'er done", again ... while no one was home!