Posts Tagged ‘lawn grass’
Grass Babies
A new crop of grass has sprouted on the bank where Cyndie was battling Delilah to get her off the new seed. We have been blessed with some rain in the last few days, which is a big sigh of relief, but far from enough water to end the stress our trees are suffering for the second year in a row. The grass seed is able to drink it up because it is so close to the surface. It is really nice to be growing something other than weeds around here for a change.
Speaking of babies, twenty-five years ago today, our youngest was born on the day of our 7th wedding anniversary. September 19th is a special day for us. Thirty-two years ago, the number had no particular significance beyond being the Saturday far enough in September to hopefully have some fall color, yet early enough to hold a fair chance of being pleasant weather for an outdoor ceremony. It was both. In 1988, our day became doubly special with the arrival of our son, Julian.
Happy Birthday, Julo, our other jwh!
More Rain
This morning, it is raining, …again. But that is okay. We got smart. We figured out a way to appreciate the excessive wetness. Yesterday we planted grass on the two scars left by the recent work in our yards. On the back hill, we are covering the dirt left from the geothermal project, and in the front, it was the septic drain lines that were dug up and repaired.
Let it rain.
It doesn’t seem to make any difference to the area down by the barn, because it has just stayed wet, no matter what. If it is already wet, I am losing my ability to care if it gets any wetter. For as soggy as it remains down there, I’m thinking we won’t be able to have the fence work done until fall. I honestly don’t know what to expect. Yesterday, before the current precipitation moved in, there was still standing water on the driveway in front of the barn.
The fence crew cannot bring in their equipment to do the work without creating a disaster of mud and ruts. We’ve already got enough of those ruts. We will wait. What else can we do?
The only problem with today’s band of precipitation moving across the state is that it is soaking and chilling my friends on the bike ride. This is obviously not the reason I didn’t go on the ride this year, but I will admit that it is one aspect of that adventure that I am very happy to be missing.
My friends have been generous in sharing photos from the trip, giving me the opportunity to see some of the smiling faces of a few of the wonderful people who I only get to see this one time of year. They are looking great, and it gives me good energy to see them, even if only through pictures.
They ride north out of Ashby, MN, this morning, pedaling through the rain to Frazee, which isn’t far from Detroit Lakes, MN, just east of Fargo, ND.
Since the precipitation appears to be moving from south-to-north, maybe the wind is at their backs.
Intermediate States
We have arrived at the U.S. holiday weekend of “Memorial Day.” For us, this usually means a trip to the vacation getaway of Cyndie’s family, in Hayward, WI, for “Work Weekend.” This is the time when the property gets a major cleaning, the beach gets raked, toys and floatation devices pulled from storage, and boats get scrubbed and hauled down to the lake. The work culminates in a spectacular community feast at the main lodge.
We aren’t there this year. It feels strange.
We have our new property to tend to this spring, and have been granted a pass from contributing our labor to the lake place.
It feels as though everything at our place is hanging in an intermediate state right now. The two biggest projects, the hay shed and paddock fencing, have been stuck in limbo for weeks, waiting for conditions to dry.
I think the geothermal furnace installation looks complete, but I don’t know the status of whether or not it is fully operational. Almost all the work of installation occurred while we weren’t home. Each day last week, I would check progress when I arrived home from the day-job, trying to discern what had been done, and why, and how. As of last night, it looks like everything is wired and plumbed, but we found no indication of the status, nor instructions on operation. They did leave manuals out. I suppose I could do some reading.
We finished digging up the drain line from the septic tank. It looks like the distribution box is disintegrating. It also looks like there are a lot of illogical twists and turns in the plumbing. I have no idea why they originally chose to do it the way they did, but it did work fine, as far as we can tell, for almost 25 years, so we won’t redo the whole thing. The septic professional I have been consulting has located a replacement distribution box, and will also replace the section of cast iron pipe originally used. It being a holiday weekend, that work will not happen until next week some time, weather permitting.
We need to do a lot of cutting of grass, as the growth is so rapid this time of year, it gets long on one end of the property before you finish cutting the other. Julian helped us greatly last weekend, by doing the first cut of the season, but he wasn’t able to mow the back hill, due to geothermal installation that was in process. It had time to grow doubly long, and we knew rain was coming, so we jumped on that chore late yesterday, before it could get any worse. I am happy to report that Cyndie was eager to have a lesson on the operation of the tractor, and then looked to be having so much fun, I might get away with doing a lot less of the grass cutting around here than I previously anticipated.
In a classic demonstration of our different modes of operation, Cyndie took off with glee, mowing around a tree and then wheeling off in any direction, haphazardly picking off areas of long grass wherever it appeared in her view. I am inclined to mow in a line, back and forth, very methodically. I am a bit more timid. She boldly devoured areas that deserved to be cut, but that I would have been hesitant to try with that mower. I was thinking it would require the brush hog attached to the large tractor. She demonstrated otherwise.
Cyndie and I are a great combination. She spotted some mushrooms growing under a dead pine tree in our front yard. I told her they tasted funny and she got all riled up, exclaiming that I shouldn’t eat them until I know what they are. I was teasing her, of course. Comparing images we found online, we are very confident that these are the very popular and definitely edible morel mushrooms.
We started tending to our little landscape pond with waterfall, but finally came to the full realization that they didn’t leave a pump behind when they moved out, so that project is awaiting a purchase. One more thing hanging in limbo. We also may try to test drive a pickup truck this weekend, a task we have been talking about accomplishing for months.
One last thing that has us feeling unsettled is how much we miss our friends, Alane, Dunia, and Marco. Cyndie has been working with Alane and Dunia for much of her Epona apprenticeship training. I met them and Marco last weekend, and in that short time, developed a deep feeling of connection with all of them. We feel a deep longing to have them here with us, and, in turn, they have indicated a desire to have us visit them in Guatemala and Australia. Long distance relationships can be hard, but we truly hope to make these connections flourish.
Our projects may hang in an intermediate state, but our friendships are definitely established.
Matched Set
It feels a little odd to be so pleased with my back yard being torn up, but it has me just tickled to see. The loop field is actually out to the left of this image, underneath the trees of that front section of forest. It is the ideal location, I have learned, as the tree roots draw moisture up, enhancing the effectiveness of the geothermal transfer.
Everything that grows green is bursting forth with gusto right now. I took a short walk in our woods, searching to see if we have any trillium growing, and hardly recognized our trail. I need to be careful about getting lost in there! Unfortunately, I spotted no trillium.
What I did find was, standing water in the ruts of the trail. I don’t think I’ll be driving through the woods for quite a while around here. It is wet, wet, wet.
Inside the house, they got the old furnace ripped out, and already replaced by the backup unit that will function for our new system. Today, they plan to pour the concrete to patch the floor where the lines come up from the loop manifold out in the back yard, and then set the heat pump and other unit side by side on top of that spot.
Meanwhile, I have received counsel on my septic situation that has me pondering doing the digging, myself, to expose the suspected problem area. If I can get it dug up, the guy that pumps it out told me he could make the repairs. The target zone is about 10 feet from the tank, along the pipe that leads to the drain field.
I’m not sure my back will be all that happy with me taking on that chore, but I won’t know until I try. I’ll be working slow, since there is a propane line buried in the area, so I don’t think over-exertion will be a problem.
When that gets completed, we should end up having matching dug-up front and back yards!
Costly Changes?
We have entered the 4th calendar month with our house on the market. The house has received a fair amount of interest, and the majority of feedback has been positive, but there is one feature that has been repeatedly panned: lack of yard. It’s ironic that it ends up being the lack of a yard that has kept people from wanting our house. I have worked to progressively replace the grass on our lot for virtually the entire time we have been here.
To be fair, it isn’t just the changes I have made. A large part of it is that we are on a corner lot, where the back of our property is very short, and abuts the side of our neighbor’s garage. Add to that, the fact I have largely eliminated what little grass there was, and the young families that might be interested in our property don’t see any space for their little ones to play. Space like we had for our kids to crawl, picnic, and play in a sandbox and swing set.
The changes I have made over the years, could turn out to be more costly than I imagined, when I was focusing on burning less gasoline, creating less noise pollution, and reducing the need to water and fertilize in order to keep grass healthy.
That little grass patch is what is left in the front yard by the driveway today.
Not much grass to mow here.
I feel that the landscape around our house is one of the finest features, and not a flaw. I recently pointed this out to our realtor and asked that we market it this way, to let buyers better know, in advance, what they will find, hoping to avoid disappointment. It appears my yearnings to have a different kind of yard have narrowed the field of potential buyers.
I am left with the challenge of needing to find people who sees things the way I do. Uh oh. Is that possible?
Lawn Averse
With all my attention of the last few weeks focused on the walls and furniture in our house, the yard has been mostly ignored. Last night, I squeezed in a couple of hours outside, and what I found was rather ugly, especially in light of our plan to be showing the place to buyers. There are a lot of things growing in our yard, and most of them aren’t grass.
Now, if you know me, you are probably thinking this is a good thing. I have spent most of the 25 years we have lived in the present location, reducing the areas of our lot that were lawn grass. But there are still spots that are supposed to be grass, and they seem to be giving in to the momentum I created to transition away from lawn and over to perennial ground cover.
In the areas that I let go natural, I lay down a lot of leaves as ground cover, which helps control weed growth. The grass areas don’t have that bed of leaves, and have become fertile ground for a wide variety of weeds that have infested.
As the month of April wound down, we enjoyed the blessing of plenty of rain showers here, and those April showers have brought May weeds (not flowers) on my lot. When Cyndie was last in town, we picked up some grass food with weed control to spread on the lawn, but it requires a forecast of at least 24 hours without rain. I haven’t been able to apply it yet.
While I was out mowing the lawn, and weeds, with my human powered reel mower, I contemplated the impression our yard will give to couples checking this place out. It occurred to me that the people who will find our house appealing will very likely be similar-minded enough that they will see the existing landscape as an attractive asset, not a negative.
I can hope.
Trimmin’ Underbrush
Did some yard work yesterday. I went out planning to mow grass, but it was too wet.
A few months ago, our tree service newsletter warned that our mature trees were under such stress from repeated dry seasons that they would need extra attention and watering or they might not survive. This summer has been anything but dry. It makes my grass grow much too fast for my liking. With my little reel mower, I get better results if the grass doesn’t get too long between mowings. I need the blades of grass to stand up so the reel will be able to clip them as it passes over them. The long blades just lay down and my mower does nothing to pick them up for the scissor action of the mower.
Most people who know me are aware that over the years I’ve lived in my current house, I have mown less of the yard each summer and allow more of my little suburban lot transform to a natural wooded landscape. I figured it would reduce my need to do yard work. What I discovered is that my hours mowing have been replaced with hours doing the work of a lumberjack.
When I first hatched the idea of allowing my yard to go natural, it just looked like I was neglecting to care for it. That is not an impression that I want to give my neighbors. I was very anxious for things other than weeds to begin growing in the areas I stopped mowing. I was happy to find a great number of volunteer trees begin to appear when allowed. It was a shocking number, actually.
Not long after my property was becoming filled with finger-size to wrist-size trees, I learned about a pesky invasive tree, Common Buckthorn. It makes a great hedge, but left to its own, it crowds out everything around. I had Buckthorn growing everywhere. It became a major project to eradicate. My lumberjacking days had begun.
Over the years I have witnessed the onslaught of two other species that grow like weeds: Boxelder and Chokecherry. This is what I found in a query for information on the two trees:
Boxelder grows commonly along the banks of streams and rivers, and may occur as a weedy species in urban areas where its seeds are able to germinate. Boxelder has a soft wood that has no commercial value, but is important for wildlife and the stabilization of stream banks where it grows. Boxelder is not recommended for horticultural plantings.
Chokecherry
Urban/Recreational
Very limited use due to its suckering habit. Useful in screen or mass plantings
We have these two tree species sprouting everywhere. Seems to me, we need to manage these with the same focus that the invasive Buckthorn has attracted.
Yesterday, when I realized that the area where I was planning to remove trees would become a little too barren for my tastes, I devised a plan. Initially, I was considering just leaving stalks of the trunk, on which birds or squirrels could perch. It morphed to become a sculpture in homage to my fascination with rock balancing.
It was a far reach from the work I had planned to do when I walked out into the yard at the start of the day.
Perfect Enough
If ever there was a device appropriate for use in treating individuals suffering from extremes of perfectionism, I believe the reel mower admirably qualifies. It’s that time of year again: time to mow lawn grass. Even though there is NHL playoff hockey on television, the grass demands attention. The timing of the effort was precise. I waited just long enough that the strange hot spell that blew in with 40 mile-per-hour gusts of wind and temperatures in the mid 90° (F) range, has moved on and left us in the comfortable 70s, and got it done before the arrival of our early Memorial Day weekend.
As much as I value the aesthetic attraction of cleanly cut grass, my priorities fall more along the lines of scorn for the whole idea of lawn grass. In my mind, it is an environmental atrocity. Since we cut the blades of the plant, it never gets a full opportunity to live a normal life and we need to feed it and water it. It ends up requiring more energy than it is able to give back. That imbalance is exacerbated by the polluting machines that are used to mow.
As much as I would like to claim that my decision to switch to using an entirely human-powered reel mower to do our cutting was all about saving the planet, that would be a deviation from my normal brutal honesty. There was definitely some problem solving behind it, but it had more to do with a resistance toward having to buy and store fuel, and my shortcomings relating to small gas engines. The reel mower was my solution. I fell in love right away. Most of all, I enjoyed the immediate reward of the general quiet of mowing, as compared to using a power mower, and the total silence whenever I just stop pushing. What a pleasant experience the chore becomes in comparison.
But it comes with a sacrifice. It is nearly impossible to cut every last blade. I’ve tried a lot of variations of technique and no matter what I have done, the result continues to best be compared with the look of a bad haircut. However, in an ongoing lesson for my strong tendency toward perfectionism, I find that it pretty much always looks just fine from a distance. Given that I didn’t burn any fossil fuels and got some healthy exercise while doing it, I’d say it looks GREAT! What I’ve come to call, “perfect enough.”
And in a stroke of perfect timing, I was done in time to get in and witness the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin perform his no-look backhand shot for a goal and for a hat-trick, too! The scene, with his parents in the crowd, teary eyed dad grabbing and kissing his mom’s cheek as the image was displayed on the big screen at the rink, causing the crowd to roar with even more energy, …it was special. More than perfect enough.
Relative Something 