I think it’s time

The die is cast: Today, I went out front to put a plastic bottle in the recycling wheelie bin (because it hadn’t been emptied yet), and I saw the guy mowing the nextdoor neighbours’ lawns was there, so I asked him if they could take on mowing my front lawn, too. I think it’s time.

I’ve been thinking more and more that this is the time: Mowing the front is extremely hard on me physically, which I think is mainly because the land gently slopes down from my house to the footpath, and because parts are thick with kikuyu, which is quite difficult to push the mower through. Also, the front lawn is the only one anyone sees, so it’s important it’s always tidy—but making sure it’s tidy puts pressure on me that isn’t helpful.

I’ll still do the back lawn myself for now. It’s is easier on me despite being roughly twice the area, possibly because it’s flat. Also, I plan to make physical changes to the back of the property after the pergola is installed over the patio (after it is, I can actually see the whole space I have to work with), and that’ll affect what routine maintenance I’ll need done. At this point, I expect to keep doing the back until my mower battery stops accepting a charge.

Friends and family will be glad about this news, probably mainly because I’ll finally stop moaning about how hard it is on me to mow the front lawn (LOL. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other things to moan about). I’ll be really glad to no longer have to do a routine job I’ve grown to pretty much loathe, but if I’m truly honest, it’s kind of hard to accept that I need to make allowances for a body that can no longer do all the physical work it once could, and also that this won’t be the last time I have to do that.

Still, given the realities of aging, it makes sense to use my physical energy and strength for things I actually want to do or enjoy (even gardening, sometimes), and not force myself to do things I loathe but must do anyway, and that’s especially true when I can hire people to do it for me.

I got a text this evening that they’ll start this coming Friday (December 12), and it’ll be $30 each time (every week right now, every other week at other times of year). That’s a lower cost than a typical mowing costs because it’s only the front lawm, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me. Sure, I could probably do it “cheaper” if you consider my time as worth minimum wage, hpwever, when one takes into account how much the mowing wrecks me, the price is bot fair and a bargain.

So, progress. But, yeah, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other things to moan about.

The photo up top is from a 2022 post—about mowing, oddly enough.