The Yard Crew

As I mentioned this past spring my husband loves working in the yard. But not so much that he won’t share in the tasks. Tradition has developed that when our sons are in 5^th grade they are taught how to mow the lawn. And then in 6^th grade you get taught how to edge the lawn. When I say "you get taught" I mean that the Hubs provides the lessons because I have never mowed a lawn in my life. The two oldest boys are now in 8^th and 6^th grade so now we have two lawn-mowing yard boys.

Hubs says he really enjoys the yard work but teaching the boys to do the lawn mowing frees him up for flowers and projects. He says he would have taught our daughters the same chore if we had girls. And we don't have tall or beefy boys--in 5th grade they are 4'8" or less. My now 8th grader is still under 5 feet.

In his summer before 6^th grade we suggested to my oldest son that since he had many months experience in mowing our front and back lawn and since he would love to have money for new video games, that he should go door-to-door and talk to the neighbors about his providing lawn services for them. Our neighbors within “walking-with-the-lawnmower distance” consist of a variety of ages and include older professionals with no kids at home. At the time, we lived in the neighborhood for 18 months and didn’t know many of the neighbors. My husband helped him make up some large sized business cards and I set him up with a clipboard and paper. He put on a Polo shirt and went door to door and I stood back a yard or two inconspicuously as he talked to the neighbors at their door. He probably only talked to less than 10 neighbors and proceeded to gain two customers. One is a couple about age 50 who are busy professionals, and the other is a single lady also about age 50.

He “mows and blows” at one visit and then edges at alternates visits. He has finished his third summer since then and still has these same two customers. It is pretty tough juggling school (gets home at 5:00 p.m. off school bus), sports and lawn work (and responsibilities at home!) and frankly sometimes we are compelled to remind him how to manage his time with his customers’ expectations.

One morning a few months ago I was in the yard and another neighbor approached me asking about the boys. She had a college son home for the summer but would need yard help starting in August. Our oldest son is pretty much at his limit and what has worked out is oldest son and middle son work on this yard together two times a month. Sometimes the oldest son will ask the youngest son (3^rd grade) to help blow off a driveway or pick up pine cones—and pays him a few dollars. Around here the grass needs cutting through October and then starts again in April.

So the two oldest boys have both been making money since we pay $10 to mow our front and back lawn (that’s less than the rate on the street but it’s the family rate!), which has been the middle son’s “job” for over a year now .

It's a fairly common event that when the Hubs and I have to run somewhere and need cash we ask if we can take a loan from the “Bank of the Boys”.