Today’s Nils History question:
Did you have a lawn? Have to mow it? Did you have gardens of flowers, vegetables or herbs? Did you help care for them?
Assuming that this is referring to our lawn growing up, we did have a lawn. As I recall, our house sat on either a third or half acre of land. Probably one third. Our lot was a rectangle in the middle of the bock so we accessed our house via a very long driveway. I think it was about 360 feet long (we had to shovel it every winter – bleh!). Our lawn had a rectangle that was a foot or two lower than the rest, with a slight hill all around it where you would step down into the lower rectangle. Yes, I had to mow a lot.
I remember one year trying to get the lawn mower to start and it just wouldn’t. I decided to try my hand at diagnosing and fixing it. I had the motor cover off and had disassembled the fly wheel to make sure it was engaging the motor shaft. I figured there might be an obstruction or something. I decided to try starting it after putting the flywheel loosely back on, but while the motor cover was still off. Bad idea. I pulled the pull-chord as hard as I could and when I did, the flywheel came off and smacked me in the top of the head. It dazed me and definitely broke the skin. I still have the scar today.
Gardens? Not that I remember. Herbs? Nope. Just grass.
Here are some pictures of the house we grew up in, taken in 2013. I moved out in 1996 but lived there with Katrina for a month or so in 2000 or 2001 – that was probably the last time I saw it as our house. Since then it has kind of gone to crap. The new tenants drive through the yard, don’t do much by way of maintenance and generally let the place go. Kinda sad. But hey, there’s the lawn! We used to have a large rectangular trampoline – the kind with stretch fabric strips in a woven pattern with little 1cm holes in between each one. Good memories on that trampoline. We also had a wooden swing set and, for a long time, a five car, two-story barn. Then a tree fell on it one day and we got a new, two car, one-story garage with a cement pad and a basketball hoop. Just as good, right?
Today we have .19 acre yard and it’s pretty easy to mow, so I pay Anders to mow it. It takes him an eternity but I suspect he’ll get much faster at it once he learns the art of not stopping for a drink every 48 seconds. We have had fruits and vegetables in our garden but this year and last year, our main goal is to keep weeds out whilst growing nothing in the garden. I guess we have other priorities.