My good friend Houston got a boat earlier this year. Who is Houston? He is on the blog a few places on here, but we go way back. Though it would be a great blog post, this isn’t the time to go into the details of Houston and I’d friendship.

Coordinating a date to get all three families with small kids together was also a challenge, but we got a date (thanks Tay) to go out on Houston’s shiny green boat. And it was awesome.

The kids just pick up where they left off, and had a lot of fun laughing about peeing in the lake. They are big enough now to do a lot of the “big kid” things, like go on a tube, or try to get on a kid-friendly wake board.

Captain Houston was a great motivator- he had patience to help guide all the little kids so that they could be successful on that wake board.

The most important thing to remember about this day? It was surprisingly normal. Of all the times together, there have been some pretty outlandish moments. But this day on the lake- there were no injuries, not wild tricks, no bizarre jokes, or moments with kids (except one moment).

Thanks Cle for the fun day on the boat- I hope we behaved well enough to be invited back!

Mercy’s first Movie.

Rosie’s first movie was called “The Star”, a Christmas movie about the star over the stable in Jerusalem that the three wise men followed.

On Saturday, we had plans to do the Cardboard Regatta at our pool. What in the world is a cardboard regatta? It is a boat race, and the boat has to follow specific, homemade guidelines and regulations. It ends up being a really good time, but then this happened:

So, the options for the remainder of the night were to go home and do another movie night, where Mercy would likely be all over Taylor’s lap. We could get good takeout food though.

OR, pivot and go to the movies; after all, Rosie did really want to see Inside Out 2. The movie? It will not win an Academy Award for anything, but it was a sweet little movie about a teenage girl and how emotions change through puberty. Yikes, that seems a bit scary to think about…

Green Grass Growing

Here are some pictures of my yard.

It’s not the worst yard on the block, but it might be the second or third worst on the block.

Why is it so ugly?

A couple of years ago my father in law, Ted (who has an amazing yard and garden), helped us in a few ways. Him and his friend did a ton of work, and got some pretty good grass growing in the fall. But, we had our trees trimmed that year as well, and that killed most of the front lawn when the workers had to drag the branches across the new grass.

The back yard fought a valiant fight that year as well, but lost out due to a fungus and dog urine.

Last year, we tried to get our friend’s yard guy to come out and aerate and seed out lawn, but I waited too long in the season to reach out for his help, and his son got married which delayed another few weeks, and the window of opportunity for planting also passed.

This is the year though. Im gonna have a beautiful, lush lawn this year. People way less smart then me do it all the time, right?

I need the right kind of help. Here is the struggle I face: There is plenty of information on the internet about growing grass, and most of those resources go something like this: blah blah blah, fertilize, blah blah look at this map, plant grass, presto!

That’s not how it works. I am in North Carolina, and need to plan for growing there. And not just anywhere in NC: in the Piedmont, which is way different than the coast or the mountains. The people at Lowe’s home improvement- they might help with home improvement, but not lawns.

And then I found this amazing resource, from NC State University:

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/9-lawns

After reading WAY too much about lawns, I finally have a plan and I can say with confidence, the grass and the soil will be so healthy, the weeds will be crowded out, and the lawn will be amazing next year at this time.

Here is the plan:

• Sharpen mower blades. It is best to have sharp blades for the first few mows.
• Get soil tested. This is a free service in North Carolina.
• Mow the lawn short. This reduces competition for the grass seeds.
• Fertilize/lime. Apply based on the results of the soil test.
• Aerate. Rent a tool from Home Depot, and go up and down and side-to-side across the yard.
• Dethatch. This will help pulverize the cores from Aerating, but you have to wait until the cores are dry first. Also, this helps with grass seed contact with the soil for the new grass.
• Seed between 9/1 and 9/15. A combination of Bermudagrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, and tall fescue. Use the appropriate proportions recommended on the link above.
• Water. For Prime Day, I took advantage and ensured my watering timers, hoses, and everything else were sufficient.
• Straw? I am not sold on whether I need to add straw, but it may help protect the grass by keeping the critters away. Last time birds and squirrels were out there getting a bit of seed.
• Keep the leaves off. This is a challenge. Getting the new grass to germinate while also fighting against the many, many trees we have is an uphill battle.

And Voila!