The Back 40

Here's part of my back yard, which kind of grew into a meadow this spring. This is after 1 pass with the lawn mower; I have to rake up the grass and mow again. I did use the bag on the lawn mower, but it would fill up really fast and then the grass would push the bag off from the mower, and then the mower shuts down. So I stopped using it because it was too annoying.

The reason the lawn got so over-grown in the back in the first place is that I am apparently not smart enough to operate my lawn mower. I bought it last year, and it worked great until late in the summer when all of a sudden it stopped working. I couldn't figure out why; I guess I hoped it would correct it self in time, so I didn't do anything about it. It wouldn't start this spring, and when my dad came down he couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. So off the the small-engine repair shop it went.

About 2 weeks later, a guy from the shop called and said I was going to be mad, because there was nothing wrong with the mower. Turns out the mulch plug or bag wasn't pushed down enough into it's slot, and there is a safety mechanism that stops the motor from working if the plug or bag is not SECURELY in place, so you don't get grass and things shooting back at your feet. I wasn't mad - all I could do was laugh. So since I had already paid the deposit, they did a yearly cleaning and tune-up. It reminded me of the time I thought my computer was malfunctioning, and after talking to my sister on the phone about it for a while learned the "L" key was stuck down, and that's why it wasn't working. See, I'm not as smart as some people think.