Wistful Wednesday: Pine Springs and Mowing

Years ago 1986 to 1995 we owned a small fishing resort.  It had eight cottages and a campground.  Far Guy worked in Fargo and commuted 92 miles one way 184 miles everyday.  I ran the resort. The girls were in 9th grade and 6th grade when we moved them out of the city to the boonies.

Mowing was a big deal.  The grounds had to be well groomed.  The girls spent a fair amount of time on the mower..as did I.

We had an old Toro riding mower that was almost worthless.  Sometimes it ran and sometimes it didn’t.  Of course we had a push mower too.   The hillside was a bugger and was best mowed by making downhill  attacks and then circling around to the top of the hill again and again.  Far Guy would mow it sitting half on and half off the tractor seat.

Mowing was best done on turnover day which was Saturday or when everyone was out fishing or off to town.  I was known for trying to drive up power poles.  I tried to drive up trees too…especially the two times I was in a cast..once from a surgery and once for broken bones in my foot.  Sometimes I would take off to mow without my crutches…one time I ran out of gas and crawled to one of the docks.  The girls never noticed that I was missing, the dogs kept me company until Far Guy came home and asked “Where is your Mother?”

One year I had it with old junky mowers.  I called Far Guy and said I was going to drive that Toro off the dock into the lake.  He said “You better not, someone will fine you for polluting the lake.”

I went to the bank and got a loan for a new riding mower.  I think I needed $1,200 to purchase it.  I had to see the loan officer ( he and I graduated from high school together).  He asked me what I had for collateral other than projected income from the resort.  I said “I have a 1985 Ford Bronco II and two registered Shetland Sheepdogs.”  He wanted to know what Far Guy had too.. I said “Wait a minute, I am the one that wants the loan. Whatever his income is doesn’t count.”  I got the loan, and paid it off in three months.   Cash flow is sometimes a problem with a summer business. 

Mulching blades, electric start…it was a real honey of a mower.  It had a leaf bagger attachment and every fall I would spend at least 7 days picking up leaves.

The resort is private property now, one fellow lives there.  The cottages have all been sold and moved elsewhere.  Now we live just a half a mile down the road.