Thursday Night Mowing League 2024: Week 8 -- Suns Out, Guns Out

PublishedJune 14, 2024 3:44 PM EDT|UpdatedJune 14, 2024 3:44 PM EDT

The all-star break is over & now it's time to head into the dog days of summer

Technically, summer doesn't start until next Thursday night, June 20, but the prevailing conversation around the league is that the dog days are here and with 90s and 100s expected across most of the United States, we're about to separate the pretenders from the contenders.

Are you physically able to handle the grind coming your way? Are you going to succumb to the air conditioner gods or are you going to push on? Will you quit when pushed to the limit?

It was the great poet Dusty Rhodes who once said, "Hard times don't last, but tough people do."

As Dusty once told another great poet, Ric Flair, "You don't know what hard times are, daddy.

"Hard times are when the textile workers around this country are out of work, they got 4 or 5 kids and can't pay their wages, can't buy their food. Hard times are when the autoworkers are out of work, and they tell 'em to go home."

Hard times are coming, folks.

Those who stay will be champions, but only one of you can climb to the top of the mountain in September when a champion is crowned.

The TNML national rankings

In no particular order:

(The Thursday Night Mowing League top five for Week 8. / TNML Graphics Team)

Voters were a little concerned that Fink mowed on Wednesday, but he's been so consistent week in and week out that it can't be overlooked. The guy refuses to mow on Saturdays and never complains about tough times.
Diesel celebrates a birthday this week and the debut of his striping kit. The guy has raised his game this year. He's no longer just about his world-class edges, which he takes great pride in. Now he's about his striping kit and he just finished a new deck for Mrs. Diesel. And he joined the TNML No Shirt club.
Shirtless Mike Freshwater is back into the national rankings after several weeks off. Speaking of tough times, keep in mind that Mike mows a golf course, gets home, rips off his shirt and then mows on Thursdays. At his age, he could farm this out to some contractor, but he refuses to go out like a little bitch. Freshwater mans up and go full-speed into tough times – shirtless, of course.
Brad D.! This guy has been toying with the top 5 for several weeks. This time voters had no choice but to move Brad up a couple of spots thanks to his suns out, guns out content.
Coach Colt Bradford. The Dusty Rhodes of the TNML. This guy will be out there mowing in the Texas heat in the middle of July because he doesn't know the word quit or "call a mowing company, I'm done for the season."

BUY! BUY! BUY!

Buy this look, minus the shorts!

Buy the TNML polo here!

Mowing Reports From Across The United States and Beyond!

- Adam in Nebraska writes :

Showed not for points or top 10s. Todays goal taking the

Flag,

, and

the trophy girl.

2/3 isn’t bad. My 6 kids and I are gonna let tonights mow sink in for a while. I hope this gets us qualified for The Winston.

Shout out to my Wife on her girls trip. Craftsman, Stihl, Toro, and Bill Luhman who is mowing, grilling, and brewing for Nebraska.

2024 TNML Phillip Rivers Award Watch List.

– Benny in Yukon, OK checks in:

League night was quick and efficient this week. The temp was a toasty 94 degrees, but an extra Summer shandy or two got me through it.

RECAP:

-94 degrees

-Sunny

-Light winds

-Hair Nation from Sirius XM provided this week's soundtrack.

-Several Leinenkugels to keep me hydrated.

-The crew chief took note of the increased temps and decided to raise the deck on the #31

-Leinenkugel Summer Shandy Ego mower this week to 5". We'll see how the lawn reacts and make any necessary adjustments for next week.

-Scott's Summerguard heat, drought, and insect control fertilizer was put down post-mow and watered in.

All in all, a successful League night to get the weekend started off right! I hope everyone has a safe and successful League night!

– David C. writes:

Just rewards for a tough league game tonight here in Murfreesboro, TN. 90 degrees at game time. Let’s just say I kicked the yard’s grass.

- Sean C. in Granger, IN writes:

I worked from home today, partly because we were forcasted to get some big thunderstorms tonight, and I wanted to get ahead of things. And boy did we get some storms.

I was able to get a good mow and edge in before the storms hit. The grass has been slow to grow because of the heat and lack of rain, even with a pretty aggressive watering schedule. But the storms helped put some color to the grass tonight.

Check out the pic of the post-mow at around noon. Then the next pic taken at 6pm. Luckily that wasn’t my tree.

I was videoing the storm when it happened. It was all wind. No lighting or anything. Let me know if you want to see the video. I’ll send it to you.

– My 2-club Invitational partner Tim G. in the 419 says:

Got a nice 4.25" mow in Thursday night just ahead of the rain in Allen County, Ohio. It’s starting to get hot and dry and the grass is not growing as fast now. Supposed to be dry and in the 90s the next week or so - it will be interesting what the yard will look like next Thursday.