My Grass is Greener!

Inspired by a sermon years ago, I realized that the grass is always greener on the other side if you never water your own lawn.  This was, of course, a metaphor for life that has been fairly profound for me.  I can extrapolate on that another time, but for today, I am taking this phrase in its literal sense.  The really awesome part is that I have rarely had to do the actual watering this year!

 I began with a space in front of our house with some green plants that were coming out of the ground.  Pat once told me to stay off his nice grass when I went to get the mail, and I replied that I was.  I am not well acquainted with the Kansas weeds, or wasn't at first, so I cannot tell you what it was that was growing.  Whatever it all was didn't seem to be thriving.   

In light of the fact that we had little with which to work, I proposed that we start over completely.  We began to spray the glyphosate over the greenery and impatiently waited for it to die.  It mostly did die, and that propelled us on to do the rototilling of the now brownest front yard in the neighborhood, which is saying something.  Notice I include the picture of myself yielding the tiller even though I might have done only a fraction of the work.  

 The work I did do, however, did amount to quite a bit.  I was the one who took the hard rake and cleared most of the debris, then the soft rake to smooth it all down before spreading the Buffalo Seed and raking it all in again.  I was exceedingly tired of raking that day.

I planted the seed during the first week of June, which was a bit dryer than now.  I tried a series of different sprinklers, and finally bit the bullet and purchased a tractor.  In the case there was any question on the matter, I did not do any fertilizing prior to seeding, or after, as Buffalo is quite content without it, and weeds seem to thrive when it is applied.  Speaking of weeds, I spent no small amount of time this summer on a knee pad in my front yard pulling the devilish roots from my lawn.  Again, I don't know exactly all that I pulled, but it was enough to know if it wasn't Buffalo grass.  

 Fast forward to today and you can see what a month of timely rain on sandy soil will do for Buffalo seeds!  I am beyond happy!  I am border-line in love with my grass.  That sentence could be so misconstrued!  Anyway, I still go out on occasion to pull the grassy weeds from the slender light green blades, but it is filling in so well I believe it will be thick enough to choke the intruding grasses out on its own!

 Interestingly, in my study on the "Grass is Greener on the Other Side" topic, I did discover that when one looks down on grass from the top, the blades are thin and appear less dense than when viewing them from the side, as you would if you were looking at the proverbial "other side."  As the pictures show, this is absolutely true!  Still, I am tickled to see in the more bare spots, the runners of Buffalo with many more starts on them that will quickly fill those holes!  I am sure my giddiness is coming through!

I have now mowed the front grass several times, and I am so excited each time!  Pat suggested we choose Buffalo because of it's inherent drought tolerance as well as the lack of maintenance with fertilizer and mowing.  Lately I am having to mow once a week, but as I am sadly aware of the anomaly of this years weather pattern, I am sure that this will not be the norm!  I really don't mind mowing.  I sometimes think I really should have been a farmer.

 So now I have a much greener space than before.  If you notice the picture at the beginning, I have added a few other touches to the landscape as well.  The transformation has been so invigorating for me!  I am somehow able to manifest a level of patience out in this space that eludes me most other places, even as close as inside the rust-colored door.  There is just something about preparing a plan, starting something so small, doing the tedious work to protect the vulnerable starts, and seeing the efforts come to various stages of maturity that fills my soul.  So yes, now I feel like my grass is on the side that is greener.

Random Stuff

 Rowdy missed us while we were gone.
Actually, that's probably a lie.  He was taken very good care of in our absence.
I think Pat missed Rowdy though.  They've had some nice cuddle time since we've been home.

 One thing I had forgotten to post, pre-cruise that is, was our fun with the equinox!  We were so amazed at the broom standing up, we had to try it with our kitchen stool, and it worked!!

 Pat had spent the last year, more off than on, coordinating the work for this recognition wall for our local food bank.  We were finally able to get it installed and now are only waiting on the glass that goes in front to protect it.  Pat did a LOT of work on this project and we are glad it's almost completed.

 We also have been back on task to spruce things up to sell the house.  I am hopeful once again.  Surely third time will be the charm?!  We have had fun redoing the bathroom a little.  I had wanted to redo the floor and tub area, but we weren't sure we wanted to invest that much in time or money.

Yes, after I cleaned the house today, I have the feeling of really liking this house.  I just wish it was about 3800 miles south-east from here.  Since it is not, I will have no problem whatsoever in handing the keys to another owner.  Until then, I'll just have to suffer in a beautiful home in a gorgeous setting while my husband works at his well-paying job and we hang out with great friends.

My Caulk-y Post

No one told me how hard it would be.

I thought it would be easy.

A little scraping, a little picking and it would be ready to go.

Not so, my friends, not so.

Re-caulking a bathroom is tedious.  At least if you have tile.

I started at 10:30 pm to remove the existing caulk.  I really thought it would mostly just peel off.  I had a razor/scraper just in case, but figured I'd just use it to get me started.  My thumb was numb and yet in pain by 11:00 pm when I finished one small area.  Oh my.  It didn't get me excited for my Monday off.

I slept in, had my 3 cups of coffee, then decided to put my "big-girl" pants on and tackle this project.  I looked all over the shop and the house for a utility knife and just when I was giving up, I found it in a random place.  I didn't care.  My thumb needed a break as it still hurt from the night before.  I decided to reward myself with lunch only after I had succeeded in removing all but one line of caulk.  That's 5 out of 6 for those who need the count.  Not knowing exactly how tile should be applied, I found it odd that it was done up the corners as opposed to grout, but I was not going to redo the entire bathroom.  On I scraped and peeled.  After getting the bulk of it off, I had to go back over it all and re-scrape to get the slivers of caulk left behind.  I also took my hair dryer and dried it all down inside the cracks, just in case, and then vacuumed it all out to finish.  Oh, and of course I had to do a bit of cleaning in-between all of that.

This all took me to 5:00 pm.  Sad, I know.  In my defense, I did still have to walk my dogs for at least 45 minutes, eat breakfast & lunch, and probably check my email or something.

I finally ended up with the prep work done and the ready project:

The actual caulking took very little time and I have to say; I did a pretty nice job.  I did mention to Pat that he neglected to inform me of the level of difficulty involved in this project and he simply stated that he meant to do it!  Ah, well.

Now I just need to go find the person(s) responsible for inventing tile and thus grout.  I hate them.  I really do.  I want to subject them to the ever daunting task of keeping mine unstained, constantly re-sealed, and pretty.  I'm thinking of caulking all the grout lines...

Rate my Room #2: Master Bedroom

This is the view when you open the door to our bedroom. (the curtains are not on fire, it just looks like it!) The king size bed fits comfortably in this position with the dresser just on the right outside the above picture. The walls are a chocolate brown, and though it's dark, the carpet is light, the ceiling is light, as is the bedding/window treatments. Below you can see the big dark wall. It is the one wall that has no windows/doors on it and it does seem blank. I have ideas of a large scale artwork piece that we may get around to, but I'm up for suggestions.


This picture shows the wall of mirrored closet doors. Nice, I know. I can sense your jealousy. One thing they do, is make the room feel bigger and lighter. The center cabinets provide nice storage, so I can't complain. Way back here, we had a queen bed positioned along the big blank wall. The dresser would have to be moved to a wall near the closets to fit, but would this look better? My vote is yes, Pat's vote is leave it alone! I don't blame him: this bed is huge and HEAVY! What do you think of this room?

"Rate My Space" sort-of

I've now experienced the phenomenon of pictures not being able to be moved. Never happened to me before. Fortunately, it doesn't matter too much on this post.

As you are aware, we are prepping our home for sale in the NEED LESS PROJECT. Sadly, this is the only room that I can even take a picture of that is almost finished! I want to know (I think) what you think. I may or may not take suggestions based on our time and money restraints.

This is our tiniest spare room in our loft/upstairs. It is extremely small, but I've tried to lay it out in a roomy way. We painted and removed the daybed frame, setting the bed on the frame on the floor. Just so you know, we are planning on replacing the window, and it's trim, so don't think we don't see it! I've thought of painting the dresser, but that is actually a lot of work and I don't want to do it. Yet, anyway. Suggest away and let me know what you think! (If you remember, this was the "for sell" picture earlier!)