Some say that a life as a lawn care operator isn’t very glamorous, and they’re probably right. However, Hero Winnipeg provides lawn services that people want, and they voluntarily choose us to complete those services. Combine this with the tangible view of fresh mowed grass or a cleanly scraped driveway and you get an honest line of work that the client appreciates. Hero clients are the best customers and they are more appreciative than we could ever imagine. Here’s a timeline of a typical day’s grass mowing routine.
5:30am: Alarm goes off it’s time to get up and ready. Check the Winnipeg forecast to make sure there’s no rain coming and fuel up on a good breakfast. Pack enough cold food to last until 10am or so and at least 5L of water on ice in the cooler. Double check we have our phone, wallet, music and the cooler we just packed, and we’re off to the vehicle. Unlock all equipment and make sure it wasn’t ravaged by thieves.
6:00am: We’re off for a nice quiet ride to Brady Landfill with low traffic, to dump the previous day’s grass clippings. Once we do that it’s off to the first house of the day to gather our bearings and get psyched for the day.
7:00am: Fire up the mowers and make sure everything is running properly. Fuel up mowers and trimmers so they can last as long as possible on our first mowing push of the day.
7:03am: First lawn of the day begins and we waste no time. We start by mowing the grass first and using the larger machine to do as much of the cutting as possible. We then carefully trim so that no clippings land on the walkways. We enjoy the nice cool temperature of the morning as it allows us to work harder with less fatigue. The downside to the cool temperature is that there is usually dew on the grass which can lead to clogs of our mowers. We clean up any clogs and knock the rust off of our mowing and weed whacking skills. Then we fire the mowers into the trailer and move on to the next lawn. The entire list of Winnipeg properties is memorized but in case of a mental lapse, we have a hard copy readily available.
7:20am: Arrive at second lawn and repeat the process. We’re finally starting to find a groove and if the first lawn went without a hitch we know it’s going to be a good day with lots of completed lawns.
7:35am: The first lawns are going at amazing pace. The body is warming up and so is the temperature so it’s time to shed a layer. Our music in our headphones is keeping the morale high and the thought crosses our mind “are we on record pace?”. It’s far too early to tell and a million things could go wrong. Today is a marathon, not a sprint.
9:30am: Pace is good we’re just starting our 10th lawn of the day before most people have even finished their morning coffee! The temperature is starting to rise so it’s time to blast the air conditioning in between lawns and guzzle that water. A full liter of water is gone and snacks are being depleted by the second. We running low and it’s time to line up a place to eat because we’re getting hungry. Zip by the drive-thru, down the food in less than 10 minutes and get back to grass cutting. We have no time to waste.
1:00pm: Lawn number 20 is just finished. Phew! Starving again! Time to get another huge meal of food and get it into our system. By this point about 2L of water is gone and our calorie intake is likely over 2,000. Total walking distance is just below 20km as of 1pm. It’s getting hot out, did we stop to eat or did we stop so we could be blasted by 10 minutes of air conditioning? Who knows, they both help. Pour some water on our heads and get back at it. No time to waste.
5:00pm: The fatigue is setting in a bit, time for another meal. The more grease the better to replenish the calories we’re burning off like an oil refinery fire. We just completed lawn number 32. We’re still on record pace! Wolf that food back, guzzle some water and keep the feet moving.
8:00pm: Final stretch now only an hour to go. The legs are getting a little tired but that’s 41 lawns down on the day so far. We’ve covered a quarter of Winnipeg already. Keep up the 3 lawns per hour pace and we’ll hit a record of 44 in no time.
9:00pm: 44 lawns complete! New record for the day and the only cheering crowd awaiting that accomplishment are the two legs beneath us screaming “put us to bed!”. The pedometer reads 42km of walking on the day, a full marathon. Not bad. Time to head home, and load up on another meal and recover from the 14 hours of grinding.
10:30pm: A big steak, 3 potatoes and fresh garden veggies to bring the calorie count over 5,000. If only we had bigger stomach’s to store more food because after 5,000 calories we’re still feeling depleted. Lights out can’t come soon enough. It’s time to recover so we can do another day. The earlier we get our work done, the more of the week we get to ourselves.
That’s just a day in the life of Hero Winnipeg’s grass cutting operations.
