Jun 7, 2020
How To Turn Weeds into Lawn in just 99 Easy Steps
1. Get rid of your old Septic Tank.
2. Chop Down Some Trees.
2. Remove all the Weeds.
2. Remove all the rocks.
3. Remove all the rocks.
4. Remove all the rocks.
5. Plan out your sprinkler system!
6. Dig your trenches.
It made the work easier, but it was still exhausting. And because of poor planning, there were still a couple of trenches we had to dig by hand. I swear, digging will be the death of me.
7. Remove all rocks.
8. Remove all rocks.
9. Remove all rocks.
10. Put in your pipes.
18. Get some Topsoil
I spent ALL DAY with my boys shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow (wheel barrel? I don't know what it is called! I could look it up but I don't care!) and dumping it in piles around the lawn. I made it about a 3rd a way through the pile. So the next day we rented a machine to help us because we wanted to not spend the rest of our lives shoveling dirt.
We wanted to rent a bobcat, but that big thing was the only one we could find on a Saturday. Those stupid tracks tore the crap out of everything. We tried to fill in some holes in the backyard, and it is now a total disaster.
47. Install Curbing.
The lines looks so wiggly from a distance. I wanted them wavy. But do I like the way it turned out? I'm hoping once it is full of plants the wiggly lines won't be as noticeable.
50-95. Remove all rocks.
96. It's Hydroseed time!
98. Sit Around and Watch the Grass Grow.
Look closely. They're there.
99. Take pictures of your brand new baby grass!
WEEK 2
Why are you here, giant mushroom?
WEEK3!
Hot dang, would you look at that? There have been several more mushrooms pushing up from the depths of the soil, but I eat mushrooms for breakfast, so they were no match for me.
During week three, we got to mow the lawn and put down fertilizer. Exciting times!
WEEK 4!
Folks, we have grass. We also have weeds. Lots of weeds. But enough time has passed that we can put down a broad leaf weed killer. And weeds are normal in the first year, but hopefully by next year the grass will be strong enough that it will choke out the weeds. You know what they say: The best defense for weeds is a healthy lawn.
So, that's about it. You too can have grass by following these simple steps.
May 24, 2020
Perfectly Acceptable
Hot dang, they were good. It occurs to me now that I should share the recipe with you. Let me see if I can find it.
Apr 17, 2020
Chillaxin'
"Pretend we like to chillax all day."
It makes sense that his idea of make believe is pretending to"chillax". I've made his life pretty difficult. I make him pick up his toys. I make him clean up his bedroom. I'm like a demented prison warden, just heaping on the torture.
It gets worse. I have recently starting making my kids help clean up after dinner. I know. I know. You would never do this. No sane, loving mother would do it. But I have a mean streak a mile wide and they are gonna help me one way or another.
The other night I laid down the law. Harrison had to clear the table, and Colin had to help me load the dishwasher. Don't report me, okay?
Colin had had enough. The tyranny just got to be too much for him. And he rebelled.
Eventually, I was standing at the sink loading the dishwasher all alone, while Colin rode his electric dirt bike through the house, sobbing, "Why don't I ever get to have any fun? Why don't I ever get to do anything I want to do? Why are you ruining my life?"
And I laughed. As we've already established, I am very heartless. I will have to figure out how to stop ruining his life by allowing him to ride his dirt bike in the house while also NOT doing any work. Really, I've got to make some changes.
I only wish I had a picture of him crying on his motorcycle, but, alas, I do not.
Apr 15, 2020
A Short and Rather Useless Book Review - The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge
The idea is that the pictures kind of contradict the narrative, which is really pretty silly, but helpful to know beforehand, because at first I was a bit confused.
Apr 12, 2020
Something Good - April 12, 2020
The first and best thing of the week was that it was Spring Break, which means no school. And since I am now the teacher, that meant more to me this week than it ever has before. No School! For a whole week! Woohoo!!
Last Sunday we had a game night with my family over Zoom. We played, at my request, Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.
It was fun and awesome and wonderful, because not only could I play with my sisters who live in the same town as me, and my mom and nieces who live within driving distance, but also with my sister who lives in Maine, and my niece who lives in Oregon. We're finally getting the band back together!!
The problem was that we tried to use the board. We had one camera aimed constantly at the board, but it was still too small for most people to see what was going on. We'd roll the dice for them (which in this game means bopping R2D2 on the head, and he randomly generates a number) and then move their peice and then ask them the questions. But there were like 8 of us, so it took forever for everyone to take their turn. (the game only comes with 4 movers, so we had to make some out of LEGO minifigs.)
It would have worked much better to do just ask the questions and let anyone who knew the answer shout it out or something, and just skip the board altogether, but live and learn.
Since it was Spring Break and we were going absolutely bonkers trapped at home, we decided to go camping. We found this little canyon in Fountain Green with some really awesome hiking that we had almost totally to ourselves.
The boys spent a lot of time pretending to be lost in the mountains. It was thrilling for them, and they were always within eyesight and there was a small stream burbling by and it was gorgeous.
We hiked through this cool slot canyon, but the walls were unlike anything I've seen before. It wasn't like the red rock you see in Southern Utah. This was more like naturally occurring cement, with smaller rocks all stuck together forming the canyon walls.
Later in the week we got a drive-by visit from some family!
And yesterday I finished reading Cinder, by Marissa Meyer, a Cinderella retelling, wherein Cinderella is a Cyborg. Yep. It was every bit as awesome as it sounds.
And that's all folk! Tune in next week for more good things!
Apr 6, 2020
Something Good - April 5, 2020
But the world is also full of good things. Some big and huge and wonderful and some small and silly and insignificant. My memory is bad. And what if, ten years from now, I have forgotten all of the small things?
So it is time to write them down. I try to be a diligent journal writer, but it isn't always possible. So here I am, sharing good things with you. Or at at least sharing good things with me, which I appreciate very much. Thanks me. I'm welcome.
GOOD THINGS THIS WEEK
Utah's Current Pandemic Situation is "Stay Home, Stay Safe", (which I think means "We're advising you to stay home, but we aren't going to enforce it.") but I have had my kids under a pretty strict lock down ever since the 12th. We are all pretty bored of staring at each other's faces by this point. We are all pretty bored of never going anywhere.
But the 1st was My Birthday! And one must have fun on one's birthday, even if one is stuck at home with the same silly goobers day after day.
Our tradition is always singing and presents with breakfast. We try to make breakfast kind of big and special, but Richard was feeling overwhelmed so we ordered breakfast from Denny's. They were offering free delivery, and their online ordering system is seriously the best online ordering system I have ever used. 45 minutes later someone left breakfast on our front porch and ran away. Honestly, what else could a girl ask for on her birthday?
And then, Richard gave me The Murderbot Diaries:
I've only read the first one so far. The kindle book is $3.99 I think. But the rest are $10.00, which I just thought was way too much for an e-novella. Turns out the hardbacks are about the same price, which feels better somehow and if my husband wants to give them to me for my birthday, I will happily devour them.
And this kid made me, and I quote: "Something cool, with a hint of Colin."
In other news, yesterday I made THESE cinnamon rolls:
http://tacpaskett.blogspot.com/2014/01/1-hour-cinnamon-rolls.html
They were only supposed to take an hour, but I guess I am slow cuz it took more like 2 1/2 hours.
And the recipe was supposed to make 24 cinnamon rolls, half of which you can see here: