Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Ouch

Last weekend really hurt. I hurt myself within 1 hour of starting yard work Saturday morning. I pulled up some steel edging, which I thought was fairly easy. After shoveling faster that I probably should have been, by back started hurting me. Not my lower back, as is common doing car work, but mid-back between the shoulder blades. I took an hour break, could hardly move my back, sometime could hardly breathe. But, I felt I had to get back to work to get the backyard done. Surprisingly it did not hurt my back to use the tiller, but I was dreading loading it in the truck by myself. I worked through the pain, and got the back yard done. I took Monday night off, and finished it Tuesday night. I've been really stiff and sore since Saturday, but today I felt a lot better. I know this because I started fast-walking again. For the past few days I've been slowly hobbling around. Today, I feel stronger than usual. I'm really getting tanned. I used sunscreen all weekend, so I didn't burn, and I didn't.

Next step, design the irrigation system and install. I got two designs going, one uses bigger throw sprinklers, 20', and the other uses 8'~10' sprinklers. I'm not convinced that the 20' plan allows for adequate overlap and I'm concerned that it will leave brown spots, then I'd have to dig up the entire yard to put in more sprinklers. I think the other plan give plenty of overlap, but I'm concerned that it is not using big enough sprinklers for the large area and it is a lot of sprinklers. I am going to use multistream heads because they water slower and use less water. Something about using a stream rather than spray lessens the amount of water that is lost to evaporation. Also, the slower watering allows the ground time to absorb the water rather than it mini-flash flood off the lawn. I am also going to use a - I won't say un-popular because it has a bad conatation, but it is not popular- type of grass called Reveille. It is supposed to use a lot less water than kentucky blue grass and tolerate heat better. It was developed by TAMU. One local shop has said that once established, in my town, it only needs to be watered once per week! Hopefully between the mulitstream heads and the Reveille grass, my lawn won't be such a big water-hog. I had fescue in the front lawn and to keep it green, mow once per week, it doubled by water usage in the summer. It would be a substantial water per sq foot savings to only triple my usage in the summer over winter usage with the new lawn, since it is so much bigger. Time will tell....

Friday, July 10, 2009

Another week later

Took last weekend off from doing yard work. Had some fun instead. We went up to "the Crest" as the locals call it. It is Sandia Peak, 10000 something feet. I had fun driving up. I crawled the grand prix up the mountain at a leisurely 20-25 mph. Everyone passed me, but I enjoyed the cool, fresh air. The view is really cool up there. I think it would be fun next time to hike from the peak to the High Finance Restaurant, have something to eat/drink, then ride the tram back down. Kinda impossible, but sounds like a good idea. You really don't want to hike ~1 mile after eating a meal at 10000 ft.

Before that, on Saturday, we went to Balloon Fiesta Park for the 4th of July fireworks with Pauline and her family. It was a lot of fun. The fireworks lasted 30 minutes, and I didn't have to swat bugs off my face that hit me when I was sprinting from a lighted fuse! It rained on us! But, it's ABQ rain, so it's more like a sprinkle, so it didn't cancel the fireworks and it was fun. I tried cherries for the first time ever, or in a really long time. I really liked them. They are like little red peaches. They are fleshy and they have a little pit, like a peach, but smooth. I got a big bag of them in fridge right now. I like them. I waited 40 minutes in line for some kettle corn, it was crazy. Still have some, it is good.

This weekend we are back to the backyard work. Will be tilling again to loosen the clay, and it should make edging go faster. After that, it is trenching for the sprinkler - may or may not get to it this weekend. I think Lowe's has the sprinkler equipment I need, but I'll check JustSprinklers to see what they have. I would like some smaller throw (six feet) multistream heads, and I would like to see if there is commerical-grade heads that will work for me. I'll also check online to see what's available. I got all next week to find something. If I do get it trenched, I can spend time laying pipe and building the valve box.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Update

It is hard for me find time to update this thing. My wife is pregnant. I am landscaping the front and back yard. And there is so much going on at work, I could work as much overtime as I want. Luckily, it isn't necessary, yet. But the pace could pick up. I suppose it is not a bad thing because I could bank the overtime to get more days off later, which would help when the baby comes.

She is due Dec 30th. I hope the baby comes on time, but it'll come when it comes. Hopefully, we'll know the sex at the 20 week ultrasound. I am anxious to know. We have started to talk about names. No clear winners yet. We'll work harder at it when we know the sex.

For the landscaping, at this point we got the patio poured, yard tilled, composted mulch in, HOA approvals.... Next step is to grade the yard, install edging, install sprinkler system. Then it will be digup front yard, order gravel, order sod. I did reconsider changing the plan to use a mulch raised area around the perimeter of the yard for shrubs or tall rose bushes. Don't know now if I'll mulch or rock. I hate to put rock in, when I would take it out later to do mulch. I could still plant shrubs in the rocks, like I had planned. I am concerned the mulch may be more an ant attractant than the rocks, but I've seen these ants nest in the rocks, too..... The nice thing about a house is you can do whatever you want, the trick is knowing what is the best thing to do. I wouldn't want to be re-doing landscaping every year or repainting the walls every week or year.