This Is How Long It Takes to Mow a Montana Lawn

Everyone has their own religious beliefs and what they think the afterlife will look like.

One of my personal beliefs is that on your judgment day, you will finally get your statistics from your life. You'll be told how many miles that you've driven, how much money you spent in bars in your lifetime, and for me, the big one will be how many hours I spent mowing. And it's gonna be a big number.

My first source of income was mowing. We lived across the street from one of the more successful realtors in Great Falls. I would take my grampa's Lawn-Boy over and mow this guy's mammoth place once a week. It took me four hours each time.

This taught me a couple of things. One, the value of working to earn. And two, when I grew up, I knew that whatever I did for a living would be done in air conditioning.

That realtor would pay me five bucks each week and I would immediately hop on my Aerobee Stingray (the fastest bike in the neighborhood) and ride to the west side K-Mart and buy a golf club. Yep. Golf clubs were once only five dollars apiece. And, yep, I'm old.

Fast forward to today where I mow about every five days. Each round takes about ninety minutes. Most years I start by the first week of April at the latest and then mow through the end of November. Unless it hasn't snowed in November, then I'll drive around the yard picking up leaves. So I mow somewhere between forty and forty-five times each summer. Sixty-nine hours a summer.

But the yard stays looking nice PLUS you're putting pressure on your neighbors to get off their couches and try to keep up.

My secret for mowing a lot is having a cup holder.