Body Sculpting

I haven't been to the gym in ages.  I've got this new, hopefully effective, and definitely time consuming body sculpting routine.  Its called yard work.

Don't misunderstand me, I prefer yard work over house work, and work work.  But, judging by the state of my bathroom at the moment, you would understand that saying I prefer something over housework is like saying I prefer being healthy over being sick.  Still, I purchased a property with a lot of land because I was looking forward to yard work.

I did not plan on mowing the 1.5 acre lawn with a non-motorized push mower.  That, my friends, was an agonizing, back breaking, and incredibly long endeavor that left stubborn long stalks of grass and dandelions sticking out sporadically.  The longer sections of grass required not a second, or a third pass, but as many as six passes to cut before I would bend down in disgust and just pull the dang thing out.

After two weeks of this, and riding mower still in Pennsylvania waiting on a new part, we caved and bought a gasoline powered push mower.  This was an extreme improvement over the other mower since it took only one pass to cut even the longest blades of grass.  We didn't even mind that it took four hours and three gas refills to finish the lawn - at first.  This is fine if you actually have four hours to devote to one chore - weekly.  But as soon as you have, you know, other stuff to do, well, mowing the lawn becomes a bit of a nuisance.

The house was built in 1967, so we thought, wouldn't it be neat-o to have a lawn mower that was as old as the house?  We got our wish.  I really should scan some of the original 1967 lawn tractor operating instructions.  But lets just say that beehives are a-plenty, and women's lib was in full swing because they are careful to show each family member (mom, dad, brother, and sister) on the tractor having a grand ole' time.

So, last week, my father finally drove the lawn mower down on a rickety rented trailer.  And it started, sort of.  He managed to coax the ignition, and the VERY LOUD engine ran....but we were not able to keep it running with the blades attached.  We were proud owners of a VERY LOUD four wheeler, and some VERY HEAVY attachments.

And then yesterday, after a week of tinkering by Adam, and my contribution of occasionally lifting the other end of things, traveling to stores with lists of unknown parts for purchase, and all important light holding, we got the thing started - with the blades attached.

And then, it mowed!

Yeah, sorry.  The excitement ends there. Would it help if I add a second exclamation point!!?