Question
We live on 5 acres in Des Moines, Iowa and mowing is a very painful process. The lawn is so bumpy that you just bounce up and down on the lawn tractor. We had a landscaper that said it needed to be aerated so we did that...nothing. Another said we should have it rolled, so we did....nothing. Help! Do we just need to start disking it up and start over? We plan on living here a long time but my husband's back won't last at this rate.

Answer
The area appears to require levelling. This involves scraping some soil off the high spots and using the same soil to fill the low spots. A box blade dragged behind a tractor does this very well but it does require operator competence. Shifting around topsoil can diminish the area's ability to grow crops in the (near) future. A beautiful quote runs, "Mankind despite his....accomplishments..... owes his very existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."