This post was originally written in August of 2009. Eleven years later in the summer of 2020, I have finally given up mowing the yard because of age and back problems.
I do not miss getting so hot that I could take advantage of the less than cool water that we have in the summertime by taking a shower without any hot water.
The only heat worse than mowing a yard is riding astride a hot tractor and cutting a field of hay on a really hot day. I still remember being so hot on the farm after a day haying that I would go lie down on the basement floor. It was the only cool place in our house with no air conditioning.
Enjoy the memories of heat!
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While some might want to turn this group into a political organization, that probably is inappropriate. This is not a group hoping that the South will rise again.
The group that I honor today happens to be those Southerners who through pure stubbornness manage to mow their lawns in the heat and humidity of the South.
Everyone including myself advises you to mow early and avoid the heat of the day, that is great in theory. However, sometimes circumstances corner you, and there is no choice but to mow when the heat is building to its peak.
That happened to me today here on North Carolina's coast. It is summer in the South. When you get up in the morning, you know there will be heat and humidity. In fact, if it is late August, there will likely be more of both than some people can endure.
Except for early morning, heat comes at you from all directions. The ground by August is warm. Even the water comes to your home already warm. You learn that if you want cold water, get it before you use up the chilled water from inside your walls.
Today would not have been bad to mow the yard if I had been able to start at 8:30 AM as is my normal custom this time year. Attention to some real estate business kept me inside until after 11 AM with the result that I was in our front yard mowing when the sun was high in the sky.
I could feel the sun cooking me through my straw hat and the heat creeping up from my sneakers. All this was happening as my internal body temperature was creeping up. It was a perfect Southern storm of heat. Fortunately, I have been mowing all summer so I am used to the heat and went out with a full load of fluids.
As the sweat started to bead up on my arms as it does when I get really hot, I knew that I was approaching my limit. Only then did Mother Nature step in and send some cooling water breezes from tropical storm Danny. Those great breezes gave me a second wind and allowed me to finish the yard without any difficulties.
As I sat down in my cooling chair which I keep in the back doorway of our garage where cool air is sucked through by the open larger door at the front, I knew that I had renewed my credentials as a true Southerner, someone who has looked heat in the face and stared it down.
It can be a deadly game, but if you listen to your body and stay hydrated, you can handle it.
Once again I have lived through a July and August of mowing. I have seen really hot days this year, and I will likely see some more. My trusty walk behind Toro mower and I have almost gotten through another season. On the coast, the centipede grass will start to slow soon. We will be done mowing by the first week in November at least a month before the bluegrass and fescue of Roanoke slow down.
There is pride in mowing your yard especially when you get over sixty. I am just glad that I no longer deal with any of those Roanoke hills in this heat.
More shots of the house and yard where I spill all my sweat.
