Adopt a Yard

As much as I love Ross, I don't quite understand him some of the time. Part of our front yard was some kind of weed ground cover stuff and then there was a patch where it was just dirt, where the grass had died last summer so after much deliberation we decided to till those parts up and put some sod in, I was done with seed. I had the ground tilled and ready to put the sod in when Ross got home from work. We found it was going to be slightly difficult to match the sod with the current grass and Ross was getting frustrated, he told me that I make things much more difficult than they need to be. After a couple minutes of griping and getting mad at me for making things harder than they need to be, Ross suggested we just replace the whole front yard. I had to take a moment to sit down and laugh. I made it harder and he is the one suggesting ripping out the whole front lawn and replacing it. Granted, it needs it and would look so much better, but its going to take a lot of work and more money.

As you can see there is a big difference in the old and the new grass (one part looks like a toupee and one part looks like hair plugs) and it will look so much better once its all done, but its going to be a lot of work and a bit of money. So, we think we are going to follow the example of the Adopt a Highway program and have an adopt a yard program. We are willing to take donations for time and work and donations of grass and in return the adoptees are welcome to use the yard, they can drive by and see how beautiful it is and take pride in the "ownership". I think its a win win situation. We're anxious to see how well the program goes. I think we can also put up signs posting who adopted certain parts of the yard.

Run Ross Run!!

I am pretty proud of Ross. We ran the 5k on Saturday and they just posted the times and the results. Ross ran it in 28 min, just over 9 min a mile. He came in 150th of over 700 people, which is really good, and he came in 5th in the Clydesdale division. GO ROSS!!

Unfortunately the pictures don't get bigger, these are the proofs I "borrowed" from the website.

On a side note, I came in 348 of over 700 people, I am pretty happy with that.

Go Us!!

Saturday we (Ross and I, my parents and my sister) did our very first 5k.

Our before picture, we look much better than we did when we finished.

We are all talking about doing the 5k or the half marathon in September. Ross and I are going to try for the half marathon, its just another 10 miles and its all down hill.

After the 5k I felt pretty accomplished, I was able to run the whole way, even up the steep hill at the end (whose idea of a sick joke was it to put a hill at the end?) I knew I wouldn't come in first or last but I was pretty excited that I was able to pass people too. I think its a good healthy thing to keep up with and one day I want to be able to run a full marathon.

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.