Relative Something

Between the days when it has been raining lately, the mowing hasn’t been simple. The saturated ground makes navigating the heavy riding mower on the many slopes around our property a rather inelegant science. The hardest part is not knowing I’ve driven myself into trouble until I’m already in it.

A glance behind me reveals muddy tracks and then forward momentum slows as the tires start to spin. Even though there are areas where I know there is standing water to be avoided, it’s not always obvious how much of a buffer around them I need to maintain.

The bottom line becomes getting the tall grass knocked down as a priority and accepting there will be a few sacrifices made to the turf in the process. The final result is a much less satisfying mowing experience than the days later in summer when the ground isn’t so wet.

Yesterday, I decided to use the string trimmer to clean up some areas where the tractor didn’t dare go. Then I trimmed around culverts, under fence lines, around downspouts, and along walls. Having those areas cleaned up provided a visual reward that compensated for the ugly skid marks and muddy tire tracks that resulted from needing to control the growth happening at its fastest while the ground was still extremely wet.

I’m coming to terms with the reality that early-season mowing often won’t look pretty around here but the fast-growing grass will be knocked down often enough that it never gets completely out of control.

Heck, even the horses can’t keep up with grazing their pastures this time of year.

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