Ready for the baler

This is what you get when you let an Arkansas lawn go too long without mowing, then mow when it’s still wet with dew. It looks like a freshly cut hay field waiting for the baler.

The heat and rain over the past week combined to let the grass get away from me. I donned a CamelBak hydration system and my Parrot ZIK headphones about 10 a.m. and attacked it with our John Deere LA 125 mower in an effort to get as much cut as possible before the day got seriously hot.

Now, at 10:52 a.m. the temperature is up to 89º with a heat index of 98º. The thick wet grass clogged the mower so badly that I had to stop twice and use the hose flush system to clear the underside of the mowing deck.

The flushing procedure is simple: attach a hose to the adapter and secure it to the mower, turn the water on full blast, lower the deck as far as it will go and engage the blades. It takes about two minutes for the blade-driven water to flush out the accumulated grass.

The grass inside the fenced back yard dog area is especially high, mainly because it is where the septic finger system distributes nutrients, augmented by lots of dog poop. It’s in deep shade most of the day, so I’ll have to wait until late afternoon – the blazing heat of the day – to cut the grass there.