Saturday  dawned foggy and cool. If I had any illusions about using the day for a long, comforting, therapeutic motorcycle ride, those fantasies disappeared under the reality of the need to mow out long-neglected lawn — aka “the south 40.”

If our lawn were a kid, I’d be in jail for child abuse. It’s overgrown, clogged by weeds and sadly in need of tender loving care.

So instead of firing up the Harley, I cranked up the John Deere and tackled the wildnerness.

It wasn’t easy. The fog — on top of the rains that soaked our area during the week — left a mat of thick, wet grass that constantly clogged the mower. I found myself stopping every few minutes to clear our the blade-stopping mats of grass so the laboring mower could attempt to slade away the undergrowth masquerading as a yard.

On a good day, it takes about three hours to mow our three-acre plus yard that slopes not so gently from the top of the hill down to the road.

This wasn’t a good day. I finished up in the dark, trying to finishing the remaining strips with the mower’s headlights showing the way.

Even that didn’t complete the job. Even with sharpened blades, the cutting was uneven. The yard is not yet the smooth, lush that it once was in the photo above.

So the battle to restore our yard to the glory it once was must continue.

Nature won the first round…but I shall return.