The (mis)Adventures of a SFH: My First Time...

Mowing the lawn!

Last night I figured it was time to bust out the lawn mower for the first time this spring - and EVER for me. My dad was always very particular about his lawn, so I'd never even touched a lawn mower before, much less used one.

Hello, lover

Lucky for me, one of my friends gave me his mom's lawnmower after she didn't need it anymore (thanks B!) and it's been sitting in my garage since last fall waiting for just the right moment. I rolled the bad boy out last night and looked at it. And thought. And thought some more. Looked for directions. Poked at the caps. Tried pulling the start cord (whatever the heck that thing is called).

Recalling how I used the snow blower this winter, I thought, hey, maybe there's a button I have to push to PRIME it (whatever the heck that means). I found it, pushed it 3 times like the button told me to, and pulled the heck out of the cord. Nothing. Not even a whir. I pushed it 3 more times and pulled the heck out of the cord again. Nada. And boy, was that cord ever hard to pull. Then I thought, well, what about this bar thing on the handle. So I grabbed the bar and pulled it up to the handle and let her rip again. CHUG CHUG VROOOOM. Woot! Success. Turns out that bar is what makes the engine go...when I let go, it stops. Some kind of safety feature.

And, I was off!

Look at those beautiful lines - I should work at a ballpark!

About an hour later, some extra time spent picking up sticks and tired hands (my grip strength is going to be out of this world by the time fall rolls around) I was done! Lawn mowing success!

Lawn Mower - 0

Debbie - 1

Preview for tomorrow:

What should I do about my sad looking lawn and giant empty space in front of my house that is desperatly in need of plants? Search the internet, read up on wikipedia and get ready to give me some expert advice.