Friday, June 3, 2022

Welcome To The Weekend!

 And I have yard work out the gazoo to do. Glad my son is here to help, as some of this stuff is getting hard for me to do.

We're doing hand-to-hand combat on the weeds this year, and are attempting to reseed and regrow the backyard ourselves. Our "Landscaping Service", basically a lawn care service, came and reseeded it, and then a few days later, a different guy came and sprayed Preemergent weed killer, which kills the weed seeds before they can germinate.

And gee, guess what? It killed the new grass seed, too.

So, profuse apologies were offered, and they took the cost of seeding and the weedkiller off our bill.

We've spent the last week getting rid of the last of the dead junipers (stuff cuts like it's steel!), and raking out the HUGE pile of sawdust the tree carver left. We figured it would decompose and make some decent mulch, but Mother Nature had different ideas, as in a mushroom infestation. I've NEVER seen as many mushrooms come up, repeatedly, as that pile of sawdust produced this year. HUNDREDS of the little bastiges at a crack, in several clumps. I bought some 30% "Vinegar" and cut it back and sprayed everywhere they came up, but now I know how Michael Caine felt in Zulu. "They Just Kept Coming...." SO....we raked and dug the pile of sawdust out of there and bagged it. I'm still spraying vinegar almost daily, but I think we broke it's back. For now....

Got another 100' hose, and put it on the rear faucet with a "Y" connector. This lets me leave one hose in place, running to our "South Forty" (the large front yard to the South of the garage) to water it, and one hose for the backyard that has a sprinkler we move about. We looked into getting a sprinkler system "Pre-Covid", and they wanted $5k~$6k to install a system. I'll bet it'd double that these days.

The front yard I can nicely cover with one sprinkler head and a hose thanks to SLW's garden area in the front. I have soaker hoses for the plants now, but I'm gathering up the stuff to install a drip system. Looks pretty easy, as it all snaps together.

Meanwhile, down in the basement, I've been reorganizing things, and (finally!) getting rid of the two-sawhorses-and-a-door "workbenches" I've been using. Really bugs me that a hollow-core door would sage when supported by the ends, and loaded up with 100 pounds of test gear!

I went and ordered two eight foot, folding leg, utility tables and one four foot version of the table. I've got the "mechanical" bench replaced, and I'm surprised how much floor space getting rid of the two sawhorses made. Geez....now I can store things under the benches, and not have to worry about tripping over a box of electrolytic capacitors.

These tables are also 6" deeper than the doors, so large pieces of equipment fit nicely, and leave 6" of table sticking out so I have some maneuvering room for what I'm working on.

The four foot "side table" will be great to keep my hand tools, soldering gear, and variac readily at hand.

That's it here. Have a great weekend, and be safe out there!

10 comments:

  1. Off tomorrow to Hugo, CO on an assignment and more in Nebraska next week. Turned down one on the Western Slope. Looked it up on Goggle Earth Pro and saw a steep narrow dirt road. 4WD country is no place for a Buick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We don't have any real grass here, but weeds seem to like us. They grow between the landscape rocks and in the courtyard through the quarter minus covering. It's a constant chore outdoors, just like dusting indoors.

    Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We have curbed-in gravel beds between the fence and the yard. The weeds go NUTZ in there, so I clobber all the gravel twice a year with RoundUp.

      Delete
  3. You are so ambitious that it makes me look bad.

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    Replies
    1. SLW has a way of motivating me......-OR ELSE-

      Delete
  4. Good luck with the grass... sigh...

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, it's a pain. Gotta be water daily, or twice daily in the dry areas.
      Just got back from the dump. We had the Colorado's bed FULL, and still have another load to drag out of here.

      Delete
  5. Dunno, Jim. I might have made the "lawn care provider" re seed the yard himself.

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    Replies
    1. They offered to redo it for free, and then never got back to us. They're like that, and not the most reliable place to have work for you.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

 At 1700 local it's as described in the headline; 30*F, 88% RH, completely overcast, snowing like crazy (small flakes, but lots of them)...