After living in my house for nearly two months the yard has finally been chopped. Let me tell you, what a satisfying feeling too! I've got quite an expansive lawn, really a ridiculous space for little me but the kitty sure does love the yard. Ideally this yard business should be tended to once a month. However with a visitor in town, Christmas, New Year's, and lots more rain than anyone anticipated, the job kept being pushed back. That and I was waiting for Roger, who has a weed whacker to help me in using it. The grasses were growing high though and people were starting to comment. "Your yards growing big, miss." or "Do you want to give me the job to chop your yard miss?" or "Necesito trabajo, quieres ayuda con su yarda?" ... I politely turned down offers and shamefully apologized for the state of my space, feeling like a bad neighbor. But with a machine at my disposal it seemed worth a try to save myself about $30 per month and chop the yard myself. So yesterday was the day.
Roger came over around 3:00pm with the weed whacker, some extra gas and some extra line. I went and changed into some grungy clothes ready to get dirty and get the job done. He started the machine, which requires moving levers and pulling strings and such. It looked tricky. Once it was off to a deafening roar and a brilliantly fast spin he began chopping, experimenting with his technique (neither of us really know what we're doing.. chopping a whole lawn with a weed whacker) and letting me observe. After a few minutes I took the whacker from his hands, keeping my hand on the lever so I wouldn't have to restart it, and I was whacking away. Or rather, swinging a heavy and awkward machine that whipped my grass down to different levels, depending on how I managed to swing it around. I worked for a while and then Roger took over again. We worked like this, back and forth, sharing the task at hand. And man, did I appreciate the help! I must say, if he wasn't around, I wouldn't have made it more than five minutes without giving up and going to find someone to pay to do the job. It was a liberating feeling though to be taking control of the situation, managing my yard and probably blowing people's minds as a female was doing a man's job. I didn't bother looking up though to see if the neighbors were watching as I was busy and concentrated on the task at hand.
What turns out to be a really, really difficult task too! This machine looks small but after a few minutes of swinging it around in my little arms, they literally felt dead when I handed it off to Roger. I couldn't even function to open a water bottle or take off my glasses to flick the grass particles from the lenses. Really now, I do yoga (sometimes) and situps and pushups on nearly a daily basis. Am I really this weak? I felt ridiculous! Roger and I finished it off though. The yard is low and it looks lovely. Sort of. I need to rake now too though.
And after all this work, with sore arms and raking yet to be done, I think it might actually be worth it to pay someone $30 once a month to do it in their own beautiful way. And by someone, probably some male, because clearly its a man's job. I was ready to break stereotypes and gender roles, but I may have broken my arms in the process.
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