One day, after Carolyn and I had been married a few months, the yardman, Randy, after a days work on the premises, presented his bill for payment. He had mowed, weedeated, picked up limbs and stuff from the yard, and anything else that he had noticed that needed attention.
Now you need to know that my charming wife had lived alone in this house, with its three acres of property, for nearly 18 years, and needed help on this large lot to keep it up.
Another factor in this story, is that, since Randy had done the work for a few years, all of the equipment that had been used over the years, fell into disrepair. Time had rendered most of it unusable as Mr. Randy used his own. (It still took all of one day to get that 3 acres under control)
Back to the lawn service bill. A check for 200+ dollars got the place in shape for another 10 days or two weeks depending on the season, the rainfall, and the temperatures.
Shucks, I need something to do around here, I could take care of all that. After all I had done it for years out in Apison where we had 25 acres, and here we have only 3. I was also a bit younger then, but I still felt pretty good.
Let's do it.
We bought some new equipment, a Cub Cadet mower with a 46" cut.
Mowing was the easy part. Getting ready to mow, somewhat tougher. Moving fallen limbs and debris takes time, and then there is the disposal thereof. Burning permits, certain parts of the year when the risk of setting the world on fire is minimal, like October to April, are needed.
Notice what we call the burning pile, piling up in in the south part of the back yard at the top of the hill. We just keep building it up until we can set it ablaze later. That will be fun.
Seriously, I have enjoyed the working outdoors, just being useful. After all with my only time commitments being 2 hours of Pickleball on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am available.
One day, a few weeks back, my sweet wife asked if there was anything else I would like to have to facilitate my new jobs.
I mentioned something that every man needs in order to get things done, a pickup, right?
Not one of these new monster pickups with the high price tag, but maybe just a smaller one, used, that could be used to scoot around in, haul some pine straw maybe, run to the station for some gas for the mower and weedeater, and just move other stuff as needed.
We did not need two cars here, and we use hers to travel, we could get by with very little outlay of cash. We looked around casually while we pondered what to do.
Then Wednesday we found a 2007 Ford Ranger, regular two seater cab, long bed, 67,000 miles, and it fits in the garage, too.
The rear window had a lot of hunting and fishing stickers, and we had them remove all but 3. A small apple logo, and a one from the Ford assembly plant, plus the big Superman emblem at the top.
Perfect for a Gentleman Farmer
Now to find the cape that goes with it.
