Thoughts on mowing

Apologies for the delayed post.

The big news is that the two younger children are off visiting.  The daughter is in the UP (Upper Peninsula) camping with some friends.  The son is visiting cousins in Frankenmuth. 

Yesterday I mowed grass.  I also beat back another three hundred square feet of encroachment.  Two slightly different views.

An unbelievable amount of trash can accumulate in 300 square feet if it is not visible.

Burn pile.  This pile is over 6 feet high.

The dogs will appreciate the improved breeze. 

I also disassembled an old sand box in another part of the lawn.  My youngest son is 14 so the sand box is not used.  I got permission from the beautiful and talented Mrs ERJ to disassemble it beforehand.  She opined that we can always build another if we are so lucky as to have local grand kids.

Mowing in straight lines is productive.  Turning tight corners is not.  I figure that I can push a mower at about 6-to-8 feet per second when things are going well.  It takes almost two seconds to turn a 90 degree corner.  Every path around an obstruction requires four 90 degree turns.

I use the "shadow" method of mowing.  I go back and forth and make only 180 degree turns.  That means there is a "shadow" of unmowed lawn behind every object I can not move and is more than 24 inches wide.

After mowing the entire width of the lawn, I make a second pass to clear up the shadows.

For shadows shorter than 40 feet I don't even turn the mower around.  I simple drag the mower backwards.

One of my goals is to remove an item that creates a "shadow" every time I mow the lawn.

One of my other goals is to push back the encroachment which will offset my productivity improvements by giving me more square feet to mow.