The View From the Tractor...

Showed up on work day and there was a lot of work going on at the Sugarloaf house. There was a punch list on a tripod on the deck and everyone was signing up for stuff and most of the guys brought their own tools. Tools as in "let's replace the door and add a new commode" tools.

Noticed that no one signed up for the mow the field -- it's not a lawn in my book -- task.  The grass was high. Fundraising idea alert:  plant cash crop on field... but i digress.

Spoke to David. He gave me a course -- a don't crash course -- on how to drive the tractor. We scheduled it for me to mow sometime the following week.  He described the route to take as concentric rings clockwise around and around the field starting near the sandbox and going up the hill along the fence.

The next Saturday, filled up the tank, start the tractor in the early afternoon to avoid morning activities at the yurt, back it out of the shed, and drive down to the field. Start driving in concentric circles.. My phone is a dumb phone -- crap tech -- with a camera. The butterflies and grasshoppers are jumping out of the way. You have the feeling you're herding butterflies.

The picture: going up the hill is just before I went rouge. On the 3rd and 4th time up the hill the tractor stalled out and the wheels started spinning on the steep part. So I took a hard turn to the right -- physically -- and started mowing in multiple concentric rings across the field to avoid the long uphill drive. Broke the field up into maybe 8 sideways concentric circles. Drove in loopy de loops that might have looked random to the untrained eye. Definitely freaked out more butterflies that way.

Maybe next time try a labyrinth pattern.