And the green grass grows all around....

It is that time of year again. No more slacking on the yard. Spring arrives and slowly the grass begins to grow. Our Kitchen window sits directly across from our neighbors front yard. Little do they know that when I am doing the dishes, if they are outside, I am watching. Not like a weirdo or anything, its just in my direct line of site and there is not much else to look at :) One day, as it is pouring down rain, I notice a landscaping truck pull up. Out hops a couple of guys sporting full rain gear and shovels. A little ambitious, I think to myself being that spring literally just began and although it's suppose to be sunny, it's just above 40 degrees and raining. I'm not worried at this point because our grass is still very short, but the thought occurs to me that we are going to have to get the ball rolling quick this year, being the house on the corner of a main road and all.

Fast forward three weeks; it's sunny, semi warm and  between the constant rain and few days of sunlight we've had, our very short grass isn't so short anymore. I go out to start up the lawnmower and realize after pulling on the string a million times that its not going to start. It occurs to me to check the gas and yes, it is bone dry. A couple of days later my husband brings home some gas. I fill it and pull the string another million times and it doesn't start again. Hmm....it must be broke. A few days later, the grass is now officially long and we are the only house on the street that looks like we don't own a lawnmower. I'm slightly embarrassed. I need a lawnmower and I need one TODAY!

Thus begins my internet research. Trying to find a lawnmower that will last, won't  break us and that we won't break. Mind you, we have owned and somehow managed to break 3 lawnmowers. I came across a reel lawn mower. You know, one of the old fashioned kind you push that doesn't use gas. I wasn't sure if it would be able to tackle our now very overgrown lawn, but after talking to my husband about it and sending him many annoying text messages while he was at work about it, I came home one afternoon to him in the front yard mowing the lawn with our new Fiskars push reel lawnmower. I was pretty excited. Here was a mower, that we didn't need gas for. It was so quite you cold hear the birds chirping. I didn't have to worry about any projectile pine cones hitting one of my children, plus what a nice way to get some much needed exercise.

 For the rest of the day, my husband and I took turns mowing the lawn.  Yes, I said day. Not afternoon, but day. Did I mention our grass was 6 inches long by now? Its not that the push mower didn't do its job, it cut grass wonderfully. It just takes a few run threws to get the grass the height you want it when it is as overgrown as ours was. Plus we have some really mossy areas in the yard that make it a little hard to push in places. We finished the front and got to the back and halfway through my husband decided to give the gas mower one last try. We were tired and it was almost time to start dinner, at this rate, we wouldn't be done till bath time. He managed to get it started after some tweaking to the choke and finished up the back yard in no time. I couldn't help but laugh.

Don't get me wrong, I love the reel mower. It is really great for maintaining your lawn. It works beautifully for it. But if your trying to cut through 6 inches of overgrown weed filled mossy grass, its a little time consuming. What  I love though, is that i can mow anytime now with the kids around. I don't have to worry about them getting hit by anything that the gas mowers can sometimes spit out. They can even get behind it an push with me. Its green. We don't have to spend the money on the gas, pollute the air, or worry about having a fourth broken lawnmower that ends up in some landfill one day. Bring it on grass!