Hot summer weather is here and so are the challenges of working outside in the heat of the day.
We’ve put together a series of articles about people whose jobs have them sweating in the sun.
This week it’s Marvin Holmes.
On the corner of 15th Street and Iowa Avenue, Marvin Holmes trimmed the grass in a sweaty white t-shirt and grass covered blue jeans.
The 59-year-old Holmes is a lifetime Chandler resident and no stranger to manual labor.
It’s all he’s ever known, he said, as he formerly worked construction and currently is in charge of the Lincoln County News distribution, while also doing lawn care often.
Holmes’s personal lawn care work dates back to his junior high days in the late ‘70s. Times have changed, but one thing remains: Holmes mowing lawns in the summer heat.
“It’s just hard work,” Holmes said. “It’s just all I’ve ever been doing and all I know. And, like I say, just as far as heat-wise, I tell people, try to get up as early as possible. Drink plenty of fluids and if you get hot, sit down.
“Just take a break because this heat will get you if you let it.”
Holmes is responsible for taking care of several family properties, while also doing work for any connections and freelance mowing. With the frequency of lawns he maintains biweekly, he’s got to calculate when he’s working in the summer heat.
“You’ve got to know how to adjust to the heat because the next few days, they’re talking 100-and-something degrees,” Holmes said. “It all goes back to where you wait ‘til one or two o’clock in the afternoon and then try to run out and get into it, even the best person it’ll knock them down. But if you get up early in the mornings and try to do whatever you can do, you can basically just float the rest of the day. So it’s all about you knowing what to do.”
In the peak temperatures, the specific time of when Holmes works is crucial, especially with the time commitment of each lawn. Depending on lawn size and grass length, each lawn requires anywhere from two to three hours in the summer sun.
Sometimes it takes even longer if it takes multiple runovers, as Holmes can find himself mowing down more than a foot of grass at times. He shared what devices and strategies he uses doing lawn work.
“I try to mow with the push mower, mostly because you get a better cut with the push,” Holmes said. “As you can see with the rider, you know, you can track it up. You can see where my rider only goes so low. If it’s a flat ground, I try to push mow most of it because it’s a better cut. You’ll get a better look out of it and everything. Weed eating, try to do the same as much as you can.”
Even in the heat, when Holmes does work on his yards, he does it right and maximizes each tool to provide the best cut. He doesn’t downplay the difficulty of his lawn work in the high temperatures, but believes construction is the hardest job to work in the conditions. Not only due to the manual labor obligation, but also the fact that there are minimal breaks.
Nevertheless, Holmes’s hands are plenty full with his lawn care work in the heat, but he lives by this statement. “Hard work is hard, but it’ll benefit you, Holmes said.”