Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Rains Came


I think I may have told you that we  purchased nearly 5 acres of land that adjoins us a few months ago.  At the time it was one of those things that I was for and upon which Mac dragged his feet.  I had already made an offer a year ago on one parcel and was turned down.  Then the land didn't sell and didn't sell and the owners came back with an offer on both parcels that I felt we couldn't or shouldn't turn down.  Still Mac looked over the acreage and only saw grass that would need cutting.  Since the bushhog had been through it, it didn't look all that bad to me.  So I began to harangue and cajole and plead.  He of course had a different name for what I was doing and after we bought both parcels, he began calling it my hissy fit land.  Therefore, it is now Hissy Fit Acres.  At the time, as I mentioned, the bushhog had been through and the place looked pretty good.  We immediately began caring for the plum trees and peach trees, hired a young man to clear out the trash and pure garbage that the renters had left and prepared for a proper mowing.

 

And then the rains came.  They came for days.  They came for weeks.  Our one mower could not keep up with mowing nearly 6 acres of grass.  I thanked God for the three acres in woods.  We didn't need to mow that.  As soon as we had two dry days forecast, we would begin mowing.  Or should I say Mac began mowing.  Our big mower would absolutely not start with me perched atop the seat.  Not even if I bounced up and down to try to trigger it, it just refused.  Mac got on and off it went.  So we had (yes we, not just me) this brilliant idea to buy a bigger mower.  We found a 52 inch cut Cub Cadet and had it delivered to the house.  While the rain that lasted six days was going on, Mac read the handbook for the lawn tractor.  It even has cruise control.  Now, Mac will not use cruise control on the truck so I have no reason to believe he will use it on the Cub.  Finally able to actually mow grass with it (it stopped raining for a few minutes) off he set.  He got more than half of the highway frontage land mowed but back where we are at the house...well  those three acres of grass continued to grow as it  didn't get a look in before the rain started again.  Now we had time to read the instructions for the tripple bag grass catcher that we had bought for the machine.   What fresh hell was this?

 

So Mac has the book on the bagging system in hand and off he goes.  After about an hour I hadn't heard anything out of him and went to check on him.  He was sitting on the ground with the instruction manual in hand and a look of exasperation on his face.  They don't send instructions for these things in Greek...it just seems like Greek   I went to Catholic schools most of my life until we moved to Ruby, and had taken over  two years of Latin.  The instructions for putting this thing onto the mower was every bit as difficult as trying to take a second year Latin exam with only two weeks of classroom exposure.  The pictures of the parts and where they go looked as though they had been drawn by a not terribly bright five year old, and slots a b and c was not part of the equation.   We have been working on it for over a week.  We are nearly there.  I figure that as long as it doesn't rain for a bit we may have the thing assembled and put on the back of the mower by the end of the month...all we have to do now is get the mower deck back on.  And perhaps salute it with a stiff drink.

17 comments:

Vee said...

My parents once had the opportunity to buy the lot next door and my father refused the offer of a loan to make it happen. A used car lot moved in and has been a thorn in his side for forty years. I think you is smart! Hope that the mower issues are all soon resolved.

Sally said...

HISSY FIT ACRES!!!

LOL, I love it!

xoxo

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

So it is a grand experience being a big land owner, looks like a great place.

ancient one said...

Most of the extra land we bought was woodsland, but the paths have to be mowed regularly... I'll be glad when it cools off so we can get fence up and the goats can move on in there. LOL Smart move I think that you got the extra land. Like Vee said!!

SandyCarlson said...

Ah, land...and mowers. Thanks for making me smile, friend.

Akelamalu said...

Hey how did you get Mac to read instructions? In my experience men only read instructions as a very last resort! Hope you get it sorted and it stops raining. x

Penny from Enjoying The Simple Things said...

I love the name Hissy Fit Acres!! How fun! I really, truly dislike how to manuals....Hope you get it all worked out and the rains stay away.

Carver said...

Looks like a great spread of land. Sorry about the mower issues.

imbeingheldhostage said...

oh bless, the image of him sitting there reading it was priceless! It does look beautiful and I love the Hissy Fit name :)

Vagabonde said...

I saw your comment on a blog and came for a visit. The title of your post sounds like the one I wrote last week. We had rain here in Georgia from the end of May till the day after I published my post – I published it 8/22 and called it “Rain in Georgia” but you are not too far I think, so your weather sounds like ours. It has been sunny now for a week. We bought some land next to our house but it is covered with pine trees – so no mowing. That must take a long time for you to go over so much land.

Brian Miller said...

oh i feel for you...the tractor broke 2 weeks back and i have been push mowing just a little over an acre that grows fast enough to have to start again when done it seems...i cant imagine 6.....

Judy said...

I love the name of your newly acquired property! We bought an adjoining property two years ago...not so much because we had to have, but just to have some control over what happened next door. Good luck with the new mower!

Donna said...

Yep!! Hissy Fit is a great name!Hahahaa...
We use to have 5 acres to keep up with...I feel your pain!!
hughugs

Jay at The Depp Effect said...

Ahahaha!! We've been thinking about moving house, and both of us would like a bit of acreage. Nothing to enormous, but a couple or three would be nice.

This post is a Dreadful Warning. I guess we'd just have to buy a couple of sheep!

SandyCarlson said...

Thanks for stopping by, lovely lady.

Lee said...

Happy Sunday Sandi! Sorry I'm late to this post...classes had me sort of distracted. Hope you an Mac have the thing figured out by now. I hadn't been aware that you'd bought new acres so Congratulations! I hope you'll plant flowers. :-) I miss our Scrabble time!
Love,
Lee

Hilary said...

Oh boy.. I feel for you. With our new place, comes a lot of things we've never encountered before.. a riding mower among them. I do think you were wise to snap up that land. You might just need to let some of it grow wild.