The Grass

Little bit of a rant.  There is no deeper meaning.

We do not consider what we have to be a lawn - it is more of a field.  2.5 acres give or take, (thank heavens part of our property is wooded) of sometimes very steep sloping grass that really should be mowed.  It will get away from you quick, if you don't. 

Here's the problem.  Almost all of the lower 48 states are experiencing a drought.  North Carolina is one of 2 or 3 states among these 48 that have no counties in a drought situation.  In fact, it pretty much won't stop raining.  It rained for hours early Sunday morning, then rained for hours - hard - late Sunday evening.  As I type this, it is getting dark again, and looks like rain.   I think it has rained everyday expect one for the last week. 

I managed to mow a large section of grass Saturday afternoon.  It was a struggle.  I know you are supposed to mow when the grass is dry - but it never gets dry.  It hasn't been dry since sometime in early July, I think.  It is saturated with dew in the mornings, and in the afternoon, it rains.  So the ol' John Deere kept getting clogged up, I'd shut off the blade, back up, and there would be tons of wet clumpy grass on the ground.  Awhile later I'd have to repeat the process.  I tried to do this in out of the way places - near the "grape vine" or the Mulberry tree, but for the most part I couldn't.   When I was done and surveyed the field, instead of seeing neatly trimmed grass, I saw disgusting rows of wet clumpy grass clippings, the type that will eventually kill everything underneath it. 

We cleaned the mower - me first then my wife took over - and pulled out a ton more grass, as much as we could get.  I'm sure there's a lot left there.

And of course, later that evening, it began to rain.

So this afternoon I did something I vowed I would never do on this property.  We raked.   Or gathered.  We raked the grass into piles, then picked the grass up and put into a trash can (20 gallon I think), then carried it to where where the weeds and briers live and dumped it out.  All told I think we had around 40 piles of grass, maybe more, because I didnt start counting 'till there were less than 20 left, and that didn't even represent half of our little field. 

It wasn't terribly hot, low to mid-80's, (about 28-29 Celsius for the rest of the world) but it was extremely humid, and wet grass is rather heavy, and I had to carry it uphill,  so I was huffing and puffing and sweating like a pig on Thanksgiving day before I was done.  

I don't know that it made any difference.  Next time I mow I'll put the blade at the highest setting, maybe that will help.

In the mean time, if it would just stop raining for a week or two, that would be nice.

End of rant.