Mow, Mow, Mow the lawn

Josh and I met while we were both working for a lawn landscape company. After we were married, we continued working together in the same industry until we moved to Salmon in 2001. Shortly after the move, he began thinking about purchasing a lawn-mowing company. I actually never thought it would happen...but after 11 years of thinking and talking about it, he finally followed through with it: this spring, he bought a lawn-mowing business. A man in our ward had his own small mowing business, and wanted to sell it. He approached Josh about it, and that was pretty much the end of that (or the beginning, I guess I should say)!

My husband is the Superintendent (aka Greenskeeper) for the Salmon Valley Golf Course, and has been since moving to Salmon in 2001. His job entails fertilizing, mowing, fixing mowers, mowing, trimming trees and ditchbanks, and mowing. I thought he was crazy for wanting to buy a business that essentially just elongated his day of mowing! For the most part, he has enjoyed his new business and meeting his clients and taking care of their lawns. He is truly talented at making things grow and creating beauty outdoors!

Our oldest son Ammon also has a small mowing business, and has for 2 years now. He began mowing our lawn and Grandma & Grandpa's lawn when he was 8. Then when he was 10, he started mowing for 3 other people as well. This year, he's added 2 more lawns to that. Ammon and Josh help each other do the trimming for each other's clients, and they pay each other as their employee, too.

Since Jonah and Micah are now 8, they mow our lawn (so Ammon no longer has to). They use a push-mower and they each have to mow half of the lawn. Josh has a riding lawnmower for his business, Ammon has a push-mower for his business, and we own a push-mower, too. So the twins each use one of the push-mowers, and they mow the lawn at the same time, essentially cutting the mowing time in half! They've done a pretty good job for their first year!

Josh anticipates that his business will become a family business, and as the other boys grow, they will be able to go with him and help, too. We both think it's important for the boys to learn the value of hard work, and his new business not only creates a little extra money for our family, but it will also be instrumental in teaching the boys how to work alongside their father.