Most recent homeowner toys

Most recent new homeowner acquistions: (1) a fire pit, and (2) a saw blade attachement for our weed whacker.

Put into use: Today

Mulch melodrama

Yesterday I felt like a cowboy, due to the smell factor. We have over a half acre of land, which produces at times, a lot of grass clippings when we mow the lawn. So far, we have dumped the extra clippings (or leaves from last fall) into our wooded area in the back yard.


Recently we've been looking into composting, and/or some other way to use/get rid of the grass clippings. Rather than composting, we decided to put those clippings and leaves back on the lawn and turn them into mulch (very fine particles of natural organic matter). We bought a mulching blade for our lawn mower and shoveled all the previously cut grass out of the woods, and strewed it over the lawn, and then ran over it with the mulching blade and let it fall back to the ground (to provide nutrients to the lawn).

Well, it has been a while since we last dumped the grass clippings, and between that and the dead leaves--it was a compost heap without the borders. It was hot, humid, buggy, and it STANK!

We dumped the leaves & grass on the lawn and I was spreading it out. It reminded me of the smell of manure, and I felt a bit like a farm hand-shoveling (crap) around to fertilize the crops or something. But I still felt a bit proud. I hope this helps the lawn out a lot! (and the smell has gone away now that we turned it all into itty bits of mulch and dried out.)

Fun with dandelions

Ok, so as still new home owners, Spousie and I are trying to take care of our large lawn which had been neglected for at least a year. Dandelions are one of the things we are trying to purge from the lawn area. Besides spraying with dandelion weed killer, Spousie has delevoped a keen knack for "popping out" the dandelions.

Spousie uses the dandelion weed tool that is approximately a foot long and looks like a screw driver, except there are 2 nubby prongs instead of the screwdriver head. Spousie can use this tool and poke it into the ground and with a quick flip of the wrist--the dandelion root is snapped and up comes the plant sometimes with a spray of dirt.

I think this is hilarious! Spousie tried to teach me how to do this, but I lack the wrist coordination to snap it up fast enough. I love watching Spousie do this! I laugh so hard. Finally I got a clue and started trying to catch the weeds as they flew up and sometimes across the yard. Sometimes Spousie can get some real height on those things.

So if you happen to have a large crop of dandelions-I suggest this game. See who can master the art of popping them out of the ground, and let the others see who can catch the most!

(It's times like this that make me wish I had a digital camera to take a video!)

Lessons from bird poop

A while back I left my car outside overnight (i.e. not parked in the garage as usual). When I hopped in my car to drive to work the next morning, I noticed a blob of bird poop had splattered on my driver side window. Fortunately it didn't block my view of the rear view mirror, or I might have needed to take care of it immediately. But it posed no immediate hazard.

So I left it there for a while. I let it serve as a reminder of a simple lesson for me: If it's crap-let it go!