Trees And Other Things

That's good to know. Maybe I should put a sign out front, St. Augustine sod, $3 a piece.

If you lay something down on top of this type grass for a day or 2 it turns yellow and looks like it's dead, but it perks back up almost overnight. Maybe people are mistaking that for being ruined.

I should get 2 more pairs of 100' hoses and another sprinkler. There is sod now on 3 sides of the house. It's hard work dragging a hose around over obstacles. You can never have too many hoses. The squirrels may decide to chew them up any day.

 

The oscillating sprinkler quit oscillating Saturday night, so I have a new one now, plus two more 100' hoses. One of them is a new-fangled no-tangle hose. It has a mind of its own. Whenever you drop it on the ground with the pistol spray on the end, the hose always twists around so the spray handle hits the ground first and sprays you. How does it know to do that every time? At least watering is not so much work now.

As of this morning, only a little over half of the 3rd pallet remains stacked.



It's been there 6 days. Heat is generating inside the pile now, and turning the sod yellow, so some of this last bunch may be lost. Any pieces laid out single file seem to be surviving well, but for how much longer? Ten years ago, with no injuries, I could have unloaded all this in 3 days. Depressing.

Meanwhile the chickadees are ready to leave the nest. I saw one peeking out the door yesterday.

The bluebird eggs have hatched. The singleton from the first nest in 2023 was a male. He liked to sit in the doorway of the next 2 bluebird nests and watch the little ones. I wonder if the male in this nest is that one. It would explain why he peeks in the chickadee house so much. The chickadees don't seem too worried. They don't try to chase him away anymore.

 

If I don't bend the right leg at the knee while walking it doesn't hurt as much, so outdoors I've been moving like Chester in Gunsmoke, but much smaller steps than he took. I have done just about everything wrong with this sod you could do because of time constraints and lack of experience.

This is the sod at the bottom half of the 3rd pallet yesterday. I've seen pieces of this kind of grass dried completely up and recover as sprigs, but this is better described as "cooked." I think you could go 4 days, but not 6. Will remember that "next" time I do this.



They were all laid out yesterday to cool off. Then I started moving some to the back where it doesn't matter if they die. Today I hope to finish moving all of them.



Then only one job left---a little project in the front/side yard, using only the remaining healthy pieces.

 

Progress (?) yesterday. This little patch has grown in size to 6 times what was originally planned. There are only about 70 pieces of sod left now (out of approx 560 total). About 40 of those are laying in the grass at the bottom left corner of the picture. The rest are laid out to breathe up near the driveway.



The last project is in the front yard right up near the house, continuing around the side down a steep bank. It can only be accessed by wheelbarrow. I can barely push one with only 3 pieces of sod if they are wet.



I had planned to sprig this area, but laying sod down on a bank will be better, like a blanket to stop erosion, even if it mostly dies. The plan is to move those 40 pieces up front with the truck first, so I won't have to push the wheelbarrow uphill.

I'm putting this in writing ahead of time for motivation. I really have to get this over with today if it takes all day. It's only been one week. Seems much longer.

 

Finished everything by 8:00 pm Thursday night. There are just enough pieces of sod left to cut some odd shapes to fill in gaps. It got ugly trying to lay rectangles down and turn the corner at the front of the house to go down the bank.

Can't take much wheelbarrowing. Even though I said you couldn't drive the Ranger to the side of the house, I found a way. Just finished in time. Light rain Friday morning, more predicted Sat and Sunday. I hate to think what would have happened if it had rained enough that the truck couldn't be used in the yard. I'd have to give up.

This project was not well thought out. Didn't anticipate all the possible problems. According to the experts, the way I did this should cause all the grass to die a horrible death. The original plan was just to sprig the whole yard. I think enough grass will survive to do at least better than that. But who knows. We'll see...


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Nancy, the St. Augustine sod is a lot more resilient that we are led to believe. I have done my share of "sod-busting" over the years in various places we've lived, and it seemed like even if I laid new sod rectangles over existing grass it would survive with enough water. It's perfect that you are getting a weekend of rain!!

We had a lot of damage and bare spots to our front lawn from last summer's drought and heat, but it has almost repaired itself with runners due to all the rain we've had this spring. The biggest annoyance we have with St. Aug is that grub worms (June bug larvae) just LOOOOOOVE the roots.

 

I hope so. The chinch bugs took out most of the front yard at the end of summer 3 (?) years ago, but it came back even better looking by the end of the next season. Probably too much thatch underneath before and it actually helped. The grass was there when I bought the house, at least 40 years old.

 

John, in case you're interested, a side effect I can verify with Ibuprofen is water retention. I gained about 5 lbs almost overnight when I started taking the stuff seriously (8 tabs a day). I thought it was real weight and started on a diet immediately. (It was good motivation to lose winter weight.) The 5 lbs went away as soon as I quit taking it. Then I looked it up and it is listed as a side effect. Probably not good for kidneys.

 

Chickadees fledged April 30th, I believe. I was working in the front yard all day and missed it. The bluebirds will leave any day now. From the activity at their house, compared to the last 2 years, I'd guess 3 or 4 little ones.

Yesterday a robin was gathering rotten leaves and mud from around the edge of the new sod. She looked like this from a distance.

 

Blecccch!
Give her a mirror!
We have a new mom robin in the fir tree out our living room window. I know she is new (although hubby might be old) because she has a nervous breakdown every time I walk by, either inside or outside. If she keeps freaking out and leaving the nest, I don't know how any babies will hatch. I tried to explain that I need to weed, vacuum, mow the lawn etc and it never seemed to bother her predecessor , who stuck to the nest like glue.
I bought a small incubator years ago. I think I will try it out this year. Put three eggs in it. Hope I don't freak out!

 

But then you'll have to feed them and teach them to fly. Don't forget to chop up the earthworms into bite size pieces first.

 

Bluebirds left the nest Saturday morning (5/11/24). I missed it. Using binoculars, spotted one baby on the neighbor's fence Sunday. Male bluebird already scouting out the birdhouse for nest #2. Took it down today. No unhatched eggs! Cleaned and modified it for hot weather, ready to put back as soon as it dries out.

 

After the last stitches came out of her mouth, the cat did really well for about 2 months. A very happy little Kitty. I haven't mentioned it, because I didn't want to jinx things.



About a month ago she began begging for food all the time. Gained 2 pounds, developed the "steroid pot belly." Seemed miserable. Just wanted to sleep. After that she started being a picky eater again.

Two days now she just nibbles around at the dry food, maybe eating a tablespoon or 2. So far, I can get her to take an extra one of those squeezable tubes if I feed her by hand, but not 2, and not if it's in a dish. Is this the beginning of the downturn, or maybe just one of those upper respiratory viruses? She is sneezing a lot more lately.

 

Update on the cat. Got her to take 2 tubes of cat treats during the pill session yesterday morning (only 5 calories each). I don't know what they put in that stuff, but it has a very strong (good) smell she can't seem to resist. I believe that jump-started the day.

Six tbsps of dry cat food (165 calories), and about 3 ounces of the juice from the raw liver. That's almost enough. I told her she can't be sick because I need her to help me make the bed. She always helps. More sneezing, and squinting like sinus congestion, makes me think it's that virus again.

(5/14/24) Tuesday

Trial run of grass sprigging. I don't have a hatchet, but the flat end of the mattock works OK to chop up sprigs. Did a 2 foot strip around the side and back of the big plot in the back yard, because it needed watered anyway. There is about 3000 sq ft to do. If I do a 10-foot square (100 sq ft) section every day, it will take 30 days. It would be good to finish by July 4th. The hard part is telling where you've been.

I wonder if left-handed people shovel left-footed? I always use the right foot to push the shovel in the ground. It's awkward using the left. The sprigs stuck to the shovel and pulled back out when you pull out the shovel. Requires too much bending over. Last night I cleaned all the rust off the shovel and sharpened the edge.

The front lawn (old St. Augustine) is really beautiful this spring. The section of new sod up there is where St. Augustine won't grow well. The 3 dogwoods shade it too much and keep all but heavy rains from the lawn below. I think I'll cut all 3 down. They aren't pretty in the spring like the wild ones. One is too close to the house, the other is too close to the road, and the middle one looks sick anyway.