Highway Mowing Season

You may have noticed Mowing Season is underway on the highways all over this part of Virginia.  I am a nut for lawn care.  I love buzzing around my yard with my John Deere lawn tractor and running the weed-whacker around the parts the mower can’t reach.  That to me is FUN.

But when I see the people on the mowing crew tackling the grass in the median, I think the shine would wear off of that in a hurry.  The odd part is that round here, you and I will see some of these guys hanging on for dear life as they ride a mower on a hill that would hard to walk on.  Yowie!  I have a few places in my yard and part of the ditch I have to mow in the common area of my neighborhood that require some “fancy trick riding” on my tractor.  I can’t imagine what it’s like to be on one of these mowers by the highway.

Today was one of those days where you and I might decide it’s not a good mowing day because it’s raining, again.  But the mowing crew was underway as I was driving in about 8:00 this morning.  My father-in-law tipped over a mower and actually put his hands up as the mower was coming down on him.  He nearly cut all of his fingers off but miraculously, all healed up.

There are some other hazards for the mowing crew.  Now and then, we’ll see people picking up trash along the sides of the road.  Sometimes they come from the prison.  Sometimes I guess it’s the highway crew.  In some states it’s people who’ve gotten a DUI.   But I don’t know that they schedule those duties around the mowing crew.  Mowers then hit whatever people have thrown from their car or even lost from their truck.  The part of mowing that I like best is looking back over my property and seeing that well groomed look.  I don’t think you get that thrill when you’re doing moving miles of highway median.

Keep and eye out for these guys.