Green green grass of home

It is finished. It took me about twelve hours over the last week, dozens of garbage bags, 1200 pound of dirt, 400 square feet of the grass patch stuff and about $85, but it’s done. Our front yard, that is. Since the blue spruce came down a week and a half ago, I’ve been working on clearing out the debris and preparing the ground for new grass. Today I dumped all the dirt (four trips to Lowe’s) and spread lime and then sprinkled the patch stuff over half the lawn. Now I just have to keep it watered for the next couple of weeks and we’ll have new grass just like that.

Next door neighbor Joe kept bringing me helpful tools while I was working, including a couple of picks that were very handy for chopping the giant roots left behind, and a seventeen pound pry bar to encourage them to let go and pop out of the ground. He has also been thinking about ways to “improve” my new snow blower, including cutting the cables on the safety controls. I graciously declined, but then he came back with an idea that might actually be helpful—tying down the auger control so I use that hand to direct the chute. Promises to be a very interesting winter season.

Max popped out of his father’s car the other day when I was working on the yard and announced that he wanted to help. He went into the house for dinner and an hour later he came out as I was putting my tools away. He and Shane went right to it though and did a nice job cleaning up the rest of the mess. Kathy gave him a dollar for his help and he was all excited saying, “Now I can buy a lottery ticket!”