To Seed or to Sod, That is the Question

My main focus at our house lately has been the darn yard. As I posted earlier I didn't realize how much work it was going to be to get it looking good and in my eyes we are still quite a ways off. I look at our neighbors yards and lust after their lush, thick green grass that is free of weeds, I then look at our brown, thin, grass that is 80% weeds. Now, I do realize that our neighbors take care of their grass and have been taking care of it for 20 plus years, I just don't want to wait that long for a nice looking lawn. I think I am asking for too much.

After all the time I have spent picking out rocks and pulling up weeds and removing garbage I planted some grass seed in both the front and the back. In the front we used a brand that said it was idiot proof, you could plant it on cement and it would grow. Hmmm, what does that say about me when it isn't really growing? Don't get me wrong, there is a few blades of grass, but def not thick and luscious. In the back we tried a different brand and its looking much better and coming in much thicker than in the front, but the work that goes into it. And then there are the weeds that are coming in with the grass, come to find out they love all the water I am putting there for the grass. I feel like I am always outside watering these spots to keep them moist in the heat. This week we "get" to dig up half the front yard because its just weeds or the grass had died and its just dirt and the decision was made to spend the extra money to get sod. After much deliberation we decided it may be worth the extra cost to just get a pallet of sod and not have to worry about keeping it moist, plus we need to replant where we put the seed in the front. I know there will be a big difference in the grass where we put the sod and where we don't, but in time I hope it evens out.

We have also decided to try the zoysia grass next spring. After researching it I think it will pay off. From what I have read zoysia grows slow with deep roots so it only needs to be watered a couple times a month and mowed once a month, which I think both aspects would be good. And on the plus side its a thick grass that will crowd out the weeds and the old grass and have a nice thick grass. And I don't have to worry about seeds or pulling up my old grass. They have plugs that you put in your grass and in 2 growing seasons it takes over the old grass and all the weeds. I am pretty excited to give it a try.

The Zoo!!

Neither Ross nor I have been to the zoo in years and decided it could be fun. We just happened to be doing it the same weekend my brother was in town with his family. So all the little kids were gathered and we went on Friday. It was pretty fun and luckily the weather wasn't so hot, never thought I would be so happy for an over cast day.

Who knew it would be such a big deal to get all 7 kids in one picture and looking at the camera at the same time.


We got to see everything at the zoo, except the wolves. Ross and I were getting an ice cream cone at that time. There was the baby elephant that was born last year and all but Jackson really wanted to see that one. For Jackson his big thing was the snakes. From the moment we walked through the gate he was talking about the snakes and after every animal he asked if we could see the snakes now. It was probably a little more fun with the little kids than it was with just Ross and I.

Best Decision Ever!!

Last week Ross got a message from Havoc's trainer, who also works with an animal rescue, asking if Ross would be willing to foster a 1 year old female great dane named Petunia. Ross, of course, was more than willing and we talked about it and figured it would be a good try to see if we would like getting a great dane, which is Ross' dream dog.

We took Havoc to meet her and make sure she didn't try to eat him and she really was the sweetest thing. She would lean against your legs so you could pet and rub her, I almost fell over a couple times not prepared for her 109 pounds against me. Her and Havoc seemed pretty indifferent to each other and we were told she was potty trained so we decided to give it a try. For the most part she was really good, mellow and quiet. Once she was used to and comfortable in our yard we did run into some problems when she tried to play with Havoc. With them both being puppies they want to play, but with her being 102 pounds heavier than Havoc the math doesn't add up. We had to grab her a couple times as she would playfully swat and try to nibble on Havoc. We took her in the house while we were in there to watch her and she did really good, except that her head was at counter level and she had to sniff everything (needless to say I had to sanitize all of my counter tops and rewash some dishes). Luckily Havoc isn't territorial, as long as you stay out of his bed, so she slept the first night in the kitchen and was really quiet and we thought things were going good, until the alarm went off. Ross got up to go to the bathroom and with the door opened for less than 30 seconds the smell that hit from the kitchen made me gag. I didn't want to see what it looked like. Needless to say she flooded our kitchen and left piles (potty trained my butt). It took over a full roll of paper towels to clean up just the pee and the smell of the poop left my stomach unsettled until well after lunch. Needless to say Ross was loosing his enthusiasm for the great dane. Poor Havoc walked along the wall in the kitchen watching us clean up and gave us a look like "this is what you get." We figured the next night, since its warm, Petunia (name did not fit her at all) could sleep outside and we set up a shelter and a place for her to sleep. She however had different ideas and decided to bark until 1 am when Ross was too frustrated and put her in the garage. Luckily she was adopted the next afternoon and we were very excited for her. Ross decided it wasn't the dog for him, not with all we went through, not to mention the smell in the backyard from the many cow pie sized poops she left us. I think we are more suited to small or medium breed dogs and better to realize that now before going through all the expense of getting a great dane puppy.

I've lost my mind

I can't believe I ever called yard work not so bad, I think I may have gone as far as say that it was enjoyable. I really don't know what I was thinking. No, I do know what I was thinking, I was thinking that the yard "rebuild" would be relatively easy. Since then I have realized nothing is ever as easy as it looks and turns out to be much more time consuming than ever imagined.

To date we have removed 13 trees (and have possibly 2 more to remove, but only if they are plum trees), picked up hundreds of pounds of decorative rocks,tore down and removed a play house/mice nest/garbage dump, removed over 4 garbage cans of weeds, spent over 10 hours behind the tiller and we are still not finished. Yesterday I had a section of the back yard that I wanted to finish cleaning out and put grass seed down and then the back yard would almost be finished this year. Unfortunately we came across more piles of decorative rocks and then between the piles the rocks were spread out and we are out of room to put them along the driveway and our garbage can was getting too heavy with the rocks, this set us back and we are hoping to be able to finish today. Then my back yard will be almost finished. We did plant one shade tree in the front and I want to plant a peach tree somewhere in my yard and I did find out one of my trees in the back is a cherry tree, so in a little while if anyone wants cherries they are welcome to them because I can't eat them all.

On the bright note my garden is doing really well. Even with the snow my tomato plants are flourishing and have blossoms and my peas and pumpkin plants are getting quite big. I think I lost all of my peppers and artichoke plants though. However, I am fighting birds for my strawberries. I got pretty excited cause the first couple were almost ripe and when I went to pick them they were gone. Greedy birds.

The weekend that sucked

I have such a funny husband. We had talked about and planned on going camping with my parents for Memorial Day weekend for a couple months but every time it was brought up Ross would tell me how bad its going to suck and that he won't have any fun and it would be just miserable, but he was still willing to go. He took a book and his ipod so that he would have something to do, cause it was going to be such a boring weekend. The weather was nice but due to a wind it was quite cold and the fishing was not good at all due to the lake never being filled this season, however, a few times I found Ross smiling and he even laughed a little. He did put down his book and took off his head phones and actually joined in some of the games we were playing. I think he even made some jokes too. He wanted to leave right after breakfast Sunday morning but come Sunday morning and he was willing to leave later than planned so I could fish a little and he could finish his game of horseshoes. He and my mother also got into a heated canasta game and wanted a rematch when my mother won. The funniest thing happened between Friday and Sunday, Ross enjoyed himself and actually said he would do it again.

On a side note, this was Havocs first time camping and we were interested to see how he would do. We were a little concerned cause he is a barker and I didn't want to deal with a dog barking all weekend and we were afraid he would be up all night barking at every sound. But he didn't bark that much and he slept through the night without a peep. The only downfall was there was so many new things to smell and taste and he didn't want to sit still, he wanted to explore everything and I pulled so many things out of his mouth that he should probably not eat. When we got home we put him in the yard and he ran around, seemingly happy to be off the leash, and just barked at nothing in particular, just ran and barked.

Spin

I have had people ask me what spin class is and then I was watching The Office and Dwight put the whole class into perspective. Ok, so not really, I just love the spot and wanted to share. Usually when I jump the cliffs I make it.

Garden

I think my ambition has burned me out. For those of you that have not seen my yard, there is A LOT to do and at first it didn't seem so bad. But, as with the inside of the house, the more work is done the more I realize its quite the daunting task. My first big project was to remove the small "decorative" rocks from my flower beds so I can plant grass. It def took a lot longer than I had planned, but what doesn't? It took me many days and one afternoon my friend brought her 4 kids over to help with the rocks. Finally I was able to get the two front beds empty of rocks and got my grass planted, which I hope the grass grows and the snow didn't kill the seeds. When the grass finally comes in it will mean less weeding for me and since I don't care for weeding it will be nice. I still have the planters boxes in the front and the side to de-rock but since I don't know what I am planting there yet I am not pushing to get it done fast.

My other big project is my garden. I grew up having a garden every year and I love being able to go out back and get fresh veggies and I plan to bottle some of the fruits of my labor, which will be nice this winter and help in the grocery budget. But, again, I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I tend to jump in with both feet instead of starting small. I have many tomato plants, I am trying peppers and my husband wanted some jalapeno plants, I already planted my peas and strawberries and have started some cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin, cantaloupe, squash and artichoke plants in the house so when its finally warm I can plant them outside and hopefully have a jump start. But, then again there is all the weeding involved and judging by the rocks and trash I am pulling out my new garden area, I don't think they ever had anything planted in the space. I have even found buried bricks (some days I am afraid of finding a dead body). I am sure I will be pulling rocks out of the garden area for many years. But I am pretty excited for the end result, if it ever gets here. I usually get home from work and spend at least a couple hours out there working on something, which is nice after the winter of being indoors, but I am ready for some progress, I want my yard to look as nice as my neighbors which have very green, nice lush grass instead of how my front lawn is mostly dandelions. I do want to try to grow some asparagus in one of my front planters boxes but I'm not sure how it will do in the area. I haven't decided if I want to put flowers in my boxes because a lot of them you have to replant every year and that can be expensive and most ground covers end up in the grass and become a nuisance. But if I use flowering veggies and stuff then I can eat them too. Come fall I will probably be biting off more than I can chew with bottling too. I hope I can get some good fruit off my trees that I can use this winter. I guess I just hope that I have some good fruit trees, the apple is the only one I am sure of what it is, the other 7 are a mystery.