Dallas Venables and his family live at the top of a hill on a farm, between Green Island and Waldronville, and every week over the summer, he mows a half-kilometre-long track across his parents’ farm paddock, from his house to their house at the bottom of the hill.
It is so he and his wife Anna can take their children, Archie and Sebastian, to their grandparents without having to walk along the sometimes dangerously busy Brighton Rd.
"If I can get the ride-on mower going, it only takes about 10 minutes.
"But if I have to use the push mower, it takes more like an hour."
And then he has to do the lawns at his house as well.
Speaking on behalf of her husband, Mrs Venables said it was well worth the effort.
"The kids love it.
"It’s nice to go for wee walks with them down the track, and it’s a great connection with family.
"The grandparents love having regular visits from us.
"It’s good exercise too."
She said the boys loved throwing paper planes down the hill, picking the dandelions and clover flowers, and now they were thinking about putting a small water slide down the hill next to the track.
"It gives the kids a greater sense of being on a farm.
"They’ve got that whole paddock that they can run through and it feels like another area they can play in and belong in safely.
"It’s nice when they come home and smell of grass.
"Fortunately, none of us get hay fever."
The down side was, the boys had lost quite a few toys in the long grass recently. Given that the grass would be turned into hay bales before the end of summer, there was a strong possibility a cow might be seen eating a mixture of hay and plastic toy this winter, she said.
"Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that."
