Cutting, Trmming, & Blowing

I didn’t sleep all that well and forgot to remove my contacts before calling it a night. I accidentally left the sprinkler system on despite not planning to water. However, that proved to be a blessing in that it woke me around 2am. Once awake I remembered my contacts were still in and promptly went downstairs to remove them. Ahh! That felt terrific. I also shut down the sprinkler system after watering zones #1 & 2, both of which have newly seeded areas. 

I went back to bed but woke at least once an hour until finally getting up & heading downstairs around 7:15am. Even though I was up, I didn’t feel so swift.  Honestly, I felt as though I’d drunk too many beers. But the truth is, I had only four, and none of them were double IPAs. Not sure then why I felt so poorly. To combat the feeling, I chose to plop my rear onto the sofa and get some additional sleep. In addition, I took two Advil.

Ykraps whined the entire time, but I managed to ignore his cries. He wanted to go out. I slept for another hour, or until l8:15am. I woke feeling hugely better. 

While exercising, Bella crept downstairs and his behind the large chair in the family room. After spotting her, she requested that I make her some waffles. I did. She was originally planning to walk Ykraps along with me but changed her mind last minute. She stayed in. Just as well.

 Mindy showed up downstairs a little earlier than I thought that she might. All of us went out on the deck to enjoy the brilliant sunshine. I took my camera. I got lots of cool macro shots. I took my time sipping coffee and relaxing in the sunshine. After all, it was the weekend and there won’t be too many more nice ones like this. I need to relax more anyhow. 

I eventually dressed and left for a run. It must’ve been 1030am. I ran along Trabue & Hague, and even made a brief pit stop at my dad’s, although he wasn’t home. I checked out the lawn restoral project he’s working on. It’s coming along nicely. After a very brief stop, I finished my run. At the very back of our subdivision, there’s a guy who purposefully killed his entire lawn, had it slit seeded, and has been nurturing it along since late August. He did the slit seed thing at the same time last year but didn’t kill the existing. That netted only marginal results – obviously. Anyway, his project is about 3 weeks ahead of mine. And just like mine, I’m guessing that he used pure blue grass since his too took a few weeks to germinate just like mine. But now, his is beginning to look like a normal lawn and ready for a first cut. I hope that my newly seeded areas look as nice in three more weeks. I’ll bet that it does. I waited a few extra weeks on purpose. We had lots of hot & dry weather in late August and early September, which doesn’t bode well for growing new grass. 

Mindy was busy cleaning Bella’s closet when I got back home. Mindy & the kids were heading to her friend Teri’s in Westerville for the afternoon. They were excited to see the new baby, Giana (Masimo’s little sister). My plan was to get lots of yard work done. I started out with the whacking and edging. I realized while edging that five or six sprinkler heads are right up against the sidewalk or driveway which greatly inhibits my ability to edge in a carefree fashion. This time I simply moved the edger away as I passed each one, but once the marking flags are history, that’ll be much harder. I should probably move them back a few inches. Perhaps another day. 

I got out the push mower and cut about 2/3’s of the entire yard, including the entire front. I didn’t want to run over the sprinkler heads with my tractor even though I’m told it won’t hurt them in the least. Plus, with the newly seeded area quarantined off, it’s hard to turn the tractor around out front. I cut the top half of the back yard with the push mower too. I did that because it’s still a bit over saturated. The lawn looked good by the time I was finished. Thanks to all the sprinkling and heaving rain last Tuesday night, the lawn is healing quite nicely from the unavoidable irrigation system damage. The only area still noticeably tattered is the difficult western slope of my back/side yard that’s also in close proximity to the newly built-up area. But over the coming weeks, it’ll only improve. 

After finishing all the cutting, trimming, and blowing I pulled all the dead petunias from the front flower beds. For some reason they died back early this year. Not sure why. Last year I left the bones in the beds all winter. But the beds look much neater with the petunia carcasses removed.  After tidying up the beds, I watered zones #1 & 2 again. While the sprinklers worked, I moved the large rocks I pulled from along the ponds bank to the small area out front that routinely erodes with heavy rain. One of the rocks weighed between 80-100lbs. I used the tractor and trailer to get it out front, but carried it the last 40 feet down the slope right to the waters edge. After moving rocks I took a break. I was tuckered. In the day’s mail was a birth announcement from my friend Jill announcing the birth of their new daughter Evie.  Save for an email passed along by a common work friend, I didn’t even know that she was pregnant. I’m really out of touch. Before moving inside for good, I fertilized the entire lawn. 

After a break and some food, I tuned into the Buckeye pregame while also working in the garage. My goal in there was to get all the do-it-yourself furniture boxes broken down for bulk pick-up. I addition, I had the new gas grill box to contend with. That didn’t take too long at all. First, I filled two large trash bags with nothing but Styrofoam. Then, I cut up the boxes and taped them tightly with duct tape. The garage looked so much more organized when I finished.  Those boxes were taking up a lot of space. 

I hadn’t heard from Mindy all afternoon, and wasn’t sure what time she’d be home. Still, I expected her earlier. I wasn’t disappointed, though. Instead, I enjoyed my solitude. I got a shower around halftime of the Buckeye game, and then took Ykraps on his evening walk. I knew that Mindy was planning on stopping at the Anderson’s on her way home from Teri’s. There, she was picking up steaks for grilling out. She & the kids got home between 5-6pm when I was outside watering the pots and hanging baskets on the deck. It was closer to 6pm if memory serves. 

Meanwhile, the Buckeye game was growing more difficult to watch by the moment. We couldn’t get out of our own way. We won 16-3, but that’s not saying much. We were a very heavy favorite against a down Purdue team. Could’ve been worse, however. Case and point, Michigan lost once again, this time to lowly Toledo.  

Mindy left the steaks prepped on the counter while I did who knows what. We never discussed who was grilling. Eventually I asked. She expected me to do it. I did. The steaks were done to perfection a short time later even as darkness quickly fell upon us. Jacob had boneless chicken breast while Bella had cereal. Neither of the two are huge steak fans like Mindy & I. After dinner, Mindy got the children bathed and ready for bed. We were looking forward to the big football game – Penn State versus Wisconsin. The kids were in bed soon after the game began, Mindy and I watched football from the sofa. She gave me a massage early on. I was pretty stiff from a day’s worth of grueling yard work. Afterwards I poured myself a Jack & Coke. We watched the football game half way through the third quarter. We headed to bed around 10:30pm