Every spring when the grass recovers from winter, my husband gets excited about mowing.
And not just any mowing.
Tandem mowing.
We have two riding lawnmowers going at the same time to whittle down the work. He thinks it’s hilarious; it’s definitely in my top ten of things I rather not be doing. Mowing is so monotonous.
Back when my grandfather was alive he gifted us his lawnmower and we used that for a few years. Sometimes my husband would mow; other times I would strap on my earbuds and give it a go. I would drive over the land feeling very bored, wishing my time was spent elsewhere.
So naturally when I complained to my husband he started thinking. Then he came across a social media ad for a non-starting riding lawnmower. “I can fix it up and we can mow together!”
I looked at the ad. The owner didn’t know what was wrong with it. “You won’t be able to get that running,” I said.
He grinned and off we went with the trailer in a race to get this free mower before anyone else did. We were second at the scene and the first taker didn’t have a way to load it up. So my husband got his mower.
While tinkering on the mower back at our place it was discovered the previous owner had left the key on and drained the battery, which was why the mower didn’t start. He grinned again while jumpstarting it. “Who was right?”
Thus began the era of tandem mowing. I would take the smaller side and the front of the lawn while my husband took the larger part of the property. What used to take about an hour and a half went down to about thirty minutes.
While it’s still mowing, and it’s still one of my least favorite things to do, at least it doesn’t eat up a lot of time anymore. For that I’m grateful.
Sometimes an unwelcome task can seem so daunting you just don’t want to do it. But perhaps a little outside-the-box thinking is in order to help you persevere with a manageable solution. The answer is out there—it just might be in a form you haven’t considered yet.