Trees And Other Things

Is it bare because of conditions? Too wet or too dry? Something to consider.
I often wonder why a place is at it is. Like a totally bare spot when campers are doing a tv show. They say, There's a nice flat place to put the tent. It is all cleaned off. And I am yelling at the tv, The next rain and your air mattresses will wash down the hill!!!!
Your pasture looks lovely. I wonder how much postage a couple of sheep would need to send them down.
I'll stop picking on you now.

 

Yes, it's a little low there. Sod will bring it up a half inch. The landscapers didn't put enough straw down over the seeds in that spot either. I reseeded all the bare spots, but by that time leaves were falling, and they blew into that spot. Too lazy to rake and dispose of leaves.

Inventory of the 25 little cedar trees hauled in from the woods:

Doing well: 13
New growth on the tips, but might be stunted: 9
Dead: 3

I just stuck them in the ground with some water. They were on their own from there. There are 100's more where they came from.

 

We either have newly hatched chickadees, or they are furiously adding onto their nest. Most likely the former. They have been going in and out of their house all morning. The bluebirds are still incubating.

The male bluebird must be bored with nothing to do. He decided to harass the chickadees all morning, and most of the day yesterday. He hangs at the opening of their house and sticks his head inside the box. Who knows what he is doing, but it can't be good. If he can reach the little ones, he might peck them to death.

These two boxes are too close together, but they were fine last year. The male bluebird had a job to do at the same time last year. I couldn't stand it any longer and draped a piece of that green plastic garden fence over the house. It seems to have stopped him, and the chickadees don't mind at all.



The bluebird house will be moved to the front side of the property. There is more shade up there, and I don't care to watch them anymore. It's too nerve-racking.

 

"What a revolting development this is." - Chester A. Riley .

I string trimmed only half the fence each day for two days last week, instead of doing it all in one day, precisely to avoid overuse injuries after a winter of doing nothing. Still out of commission going on 10 days. Whatever it is, it gets worse when you sit and worse overnight. Fortunately only the cat has seen me hobble out of bed in the morning. At first it scared her. Now she just seems amused.

Unfortunately it was imprinted on my brain, that continued use of Ibuprofen was a bad thing. Maybe TMI from anti-science folks? Wasted 7 days just hoping to turn a corner by itself. Two 200 mg of Ibuprofen nails it, but only for 2 hours.

This is nothing serious compared to what other folks are experiencing. It's been like whack-a-mole dealing with this kind of stuff for the last two years, so I'm used to it. It's the bad timing that's the problem. The sod is confirmed coming Wednesday evening. For sure there will be no shoveling or sprigging. So a backup plan was needed.

Dope up on 2 or 3 Ibuprofen when the sod arrives. Lay all the pieces of sod from ALL 3 pallets out around the bare spot as if it's to be permanent. Should be able to do that in 4 hours — approx. 165 pieces of sod per pallet, each piece weighing 2-3 lbs. Wait 'til this injury goes away and cut sprigs from around the big patch and spread those out. I sprayed an additional 900 sq. ft. yesterday. That may be the best way anyhow.

In the meantime I read that 3200 mg of Ibuprofen/day is acceptable, broken down into 4 doses. I'll do that until Wednesday and see how it goes. Maybe a miracle will happen.

The bright side? It's not the end of the world if all the sod is lost. They said they have more shipments coming in May.

 

Yes, I've been following your story. I'm sorry you're having so much trouble, John.

I happen to have acetaminophen (exp date 2009 ). Will find out what the combination is and try it.

I was always one to let nature take it's course but a similar incident happened last year, which made it difficult to get down on the floor or up on a ladder. The door people called and said they were coming with the new front door in a week.
I had promised to have the framing ready.

Did the Ibuprofen 400 mg/day once or twice a day and was good to go. Then one day I forgot to take it and everything was back to normal after that. So I've done a turnaround on Mother Nature. She doesn't always know what's best.

 

(4/25/24) Thursday 7:30 am

The sod was supposed to come between 4pm Wednesday and 8am today, possibly in the stealth of night. I thought they were kidding. Woke up at 4 am, and there they were. You could just barely see their outline. Kind of spooky. Like some kind of illegal drug transfer.

I made 3 big X's on the driveway, hoping they would end up there. Unfortunately they were right up at the street in the middle of the driveway. The worst possible place because of the afternoon sun. Luckily there was a full moon, so I was able to get 3/4 of one pallet unloaded and spread out by sunrise.

Cocktail of 3 Ibuprofen and 2 Tylenol is working. It will take 2 hours to transfer a pallet. I need to get them all out of the driveway before the afternoon sun hits. I'm on a break now. Will start back when the 8 am traffic calms down. This is rather exciting.

Btw, the sod is beautiful and in great shape.

 

Wow. I'm amazed at your stamina. Things keep interrupting me. I need to clean out the sheep pen for the sheep shearer to be able to open and close the stall gate. My fault for being lazy and feeding indoors this winter. But the weather would have blown all the hay away or buried it under the snow. I have plans for the manure as it is not hot. But I also told my daughter I would take UP the sod around the garden to use to repair some spots. Not sure I am up to all the spring tasks. I need @Nancy Hart in a bottle.

 

You have to get someone to show you how to upload pictures of those sheep and your barn house.

My stamina is running thin. The sod pieces in the second pallet are a lot heavier than those in the first. And I'll bet the ones in the 3rd pallet will be too heavy to lift. Had to stop and give the cat her pill just now. Thankful for the interruption.

I've run out of places to throw the sod out so it can breathe, due to poor planning on my part. Will have to stop unloading and start using up some in "the bare spot".

 

Wait! Wait! Here's a good idea!

​

 

I "dispersed" almost half of each of the remaining two pallets yesterday. Nearly halfway through.



Who knew the biggest job is just moving the stuff from up at the street to the back yard. The ground is dry, so I used the back of the truck and the tailgate. This is where things stand.



Not expecting much success with the patch on the bare spot because I wasn't able to prepare the soil even as much as I wanted to (minimal). If 50% survives I'll be happy.

All I need is one more day like yesterday, and it would be a good stopping point. No new sore muscles, but this old one is worse this morning. If this St. Augustine sod is like what I have already, it's not as fragile as they say it is. I think it will be OK if I have to let it sit on the pallets one more day. We'll see how it goes.

ps. I found some pills (HYDROcodone-acetaminophen 5-325) the dental surgeon prescribed for pain that I never took, and just took one. Mixed with Ibuprofen. I won't ever do that again. Did anyone ever take that stuff?

 

No upset stomach. Dizzy, nauseous, nervous & fidgety. Ruined a couple of hours. And did nothing as a pain killer that I could tell. No better than Ibuprofen alone.

 

Nancy, your pallets should be fine for a few days. I know that the local garden centers have pallets of St. Augustine that they sell by the individual piece, so those pallets sit for several days. You probably know that the most critical thing for the newly sown sod is plenty of water. It needs to be watered daily for the first couple of weeks unless it's rainy weather. The edges of the new sod will dry out first, so I usually walk around and "press" them into the wet soil with my foot. I salute you... I know how heavy that stuff is. Hope the medicine helps and please make sure to drink plenty of water.