Bobcat Kenny

Waking was a little easier than it was Saturday morning. I was up once again before 7:30am. As anticipated, I could see nothing but clear blue skies out the half round bedroom window. That was more than enough to get me motivated for another summery day in the yard. Downstairs, I made coffee, completed my exercises, and took Ykraps on his morning walk. I spent just a little while on the PC before turning my attention to my run. I didn’t want to let the hours get away from me. I knew I’d have Kenny’s help this morning but only until noon. He had a 1pm tee time. He invited me along, but I had too much work to do. I left for my run again around 8:30am. I shortened the day’s run to three miles like many Sunday’s. I also ran along Trabue & Hague. It was a very lovely run. Kenny’s Bobcat was parked out front when I got back. Mindy was busy making cinnamon French Toast with real French bread. Kenny was over ready to get to work a few minutes later. We insisted he eat something first. We ate in a hurry. It took us a couple runs to get our system down, but after that it was smooth sailing. We parked our trailers back to back, which together held a full scoop from his Bobcat. I was certain that we wouldn’t need all the dirt and even asked Kenny if he needed some. He countered that we would likely use it all. Load after load, we kept heaping more dirt to alter the contour from a fairly steep slope to a gentle grade away from the deck to the stream. Soon it was obvious that I would need more dirt to have it turn out like I envisioned. Imagine my surprise. Kenny figured something just less than what we just went through. Kenny left for home and golf while I stayed behind scraping the last of the compressed dirt off the driveway. That was some tough sledding, especially in the hot sun. It was 86 degrees, by the way, and I was sun burned to beat all get out. Mid-afternoon I asked Mindy to bring me a t-shirt, something I should’ve done from the outset. After getting as much of the dirt scrapped off as I could with a shovel I got the hose out and washed what was left away with water. That took nearly an hour. With so much work yet to do, I chose not to relax. Instead, I tamped/compacted the dirt we placed earlier. Then, after a short break, I edged around the deck flower beds in the hot sun. By then Mindy had invited my dad over for dinner – steaks on the grill. I finished my yard work around 5pm and headed up for a shower. I was dirty, hot, and tired. After my shower I asked Mindy to join me walking Ykraps. She did. We talked with the neighbors while we walked. Dad drove by while we were walking. He eventually met us along our trek. Once back home I showed him our grade change. I told him that I planned to get more dirt on Monday. We sat on the deck enjoying the late afternoon sun. It was still well into the 80s and even a bit uncomfortable against my sun burnt skin. I started the grill in short order. Mindy had me grill a variety of meats: two filets, two NY strips, two chicken breasts, and four hot dogs. Inside, the put the finishing touches on a fruit & veggie tray, along with baked potatoes. Last minute we learned neighbor Jake would be dining with us. We had plenty of food. Dad and I had strip steaks while Mindy enjoyed the filet. Jacob & Jake had chicken, and Bella ate a hot dog. Everyone but Bella had a baked potato. Mindy bought a fancy apple pie while at the Anderson’s earlier in the afternoon. We had some of that for dessert. It was good. I warmed mine in the microwave. Dad stayed until about 8pm. During his visit, he shared that he was heading down to Florida once again to visit U.K. in about ten days. I asked if he would keep after Ykraps while we’re off to Mexico. He agreed. Lastly, I gave him three, short 2”X8” treated boards that I needed cut to specification (3” wide by 18” long) for the boat. We checked out my weed infested lawn restoral project from last fall just before he pulled away. That’s another long story. Ugh! Mindy got the kids bathed while I got the trash to the curb. I was still sucking down the ice water trying to cure an insatiable thirst. The house was really too warm for comfort. We debated turning on the AC but didn’t, although we should’ve. Later, when we headed for bed, we both were too hot and uncomfortable. I ended up getting back up and heading to the PC. I was wide awake and it was 11:30pm. Damn! It was much cooler downstairs. I spent about 45 minutes researching Ohio lawn weeds. I was determined to learn what the heck had taken over my new grass out front. It’s so thick that you can hardly see any of the new grass underneath, but it’s only where I restored the lawn. I love Google, and especially Google images. I learned that it is a form of chickweed. While there, I also found the weed that pops up every summer along the edges of my flower beds. It’s spurge. More research pointed out that chickweed is most often introduced by grass seed. Go figure! The good news is that it is manageable with Weed-B-Gone, and that it’s a cold weather weed that will begin to die once the days get and stay hot. I don’t really want to spray any weed killer on the new grass just yet. I’ll probably wait another couple weeks, giving the new grass more time to mature. Back to bed after midnight. I laid there again struggling to get some sleep.