Almost waited too long!!!

Not warm but lots of grass…..

One of the drawbacks to having the warmer, wetter weather is that all of the long dormant plants are stretching toward the higher sun in the sky and the longer periods of sun.  They embrace the change with vigor and literally are jumping out of the ground.

I did relent the other day and turned the furnace back on.  No sense in coming down with a cold or getting sick because I did not want to use the fuel oil that was delivered this week.  (Over 150 gallons at the hefty cost of close to $700.00 dollars.)  And the temps have not rebounded to the summer-like regions that I enjoyed last week.  The weather people call this ‘normal’ but it is chilly to me and I would like to have it a bit warmer so the furnace can finally go off for the summer.

But there has been enough warm weather and enough rain lately that my yard was greening up nicely and the odd kinds of grasses and weeds that makes up my ‘lawn’ were popping out of the ground.  I knew it was time to mow as poor Miss Molly was having trouble finding grasses that did not tickle her butt when she went outside to use her facilities.

So, I got up this morning… later than usual as I was playing with a new tech toy until 2:00 AM…. Grabbed my coffee and peanut butter toast.  I finally headed outside to see if the riding mower would even start up.  Uncovered the orange monster, put in the key… and for the 3^rd season in a row, the motor turned right over and it was ready to go.  Hooked up to my little red wagon and headed to the garage.  Added air to all of the tires and I was all set.

Took a couple of hours to tow the wagon all around, the side yard in particular, gathering branches and the like that had gathered during the storms of the winter.  Some were small… a couple of them were pretty big.  I would not have wanted to be under the tree when they fell.  But I cleared the way for the next step, which was the first mowing.

Back to the garage and unhooked the little wagon after depositing the wood in my trash pile at the back of my lot.  Put the wagon back in its spot, refueled the mower and back to the side yard.  I probably should have done this earlier last week.  But I am glad I did not wait for another day.  There were sections of the yard where the grass was tall, thick and wet.  It left a row of mowed clippings that will have to dry.  I will head out in a couple of days, weather permitting, and mow again to try to mulch the clippings so the yard looks good.  The back, where Molly pees, is once again flat and I have rows of clumps in the area where my seepage pit is located.  Really healthy grass there.  But, looking out over the yard now, I can smile and I know that my little house looks really nice for the time being.

I may need to work on the big bed on the hill that the Both Hands group put in for me.  Looks like the mulch has slowly started to move to the bottom of the hill.  There is still a great many pine needles from my neighbor’s trees covering the lower part of that bed.  It is so nice not to have to mow that steep hill.  I do not want to lose the advantage that they provided to me.

But for now, I will go about trimming tomorrow and then I will get into a rhythm of mowing so I no longer have clumps, just a lovely lawn…. At least from a distance!