Lawn Care Chapter 2, A.K.A. Sunburns & Soreness

Now that we have covered the installation and watering of the lawn. Also now that it is quite clear that purchasing a puppy instead of a lawnmower does nothing to trim the grass; we will proceed to the propper way to cut the grass. First, you must go and actually purchase a lawnmower. A rotatry blade manual push mower works well. So purchase one of those and save the hassle of repairs & purchasing gas for it. Attention: Using a manual mower is not easy when you haven't mowed the lawn in three weeks and the grass is 4" tall. Then it is just darned hard to push and will take you 4 hours to mow your lawn. Now that a mower has been purchased and assembeled, you need to mow the lawn. See advisory above about difficulties attributed to procrastination of step one. Another thing to pay attention to is while you are mowing the lawn for 4 hours, be sure to wear sunblock! Forgetting this improtant step will lead to painful burns on legs that haven't seen the sun in what seems like years. Also the leg burns will be aggrivated by jumping, clawing puppies, and a toddler that graps your legs constantly. Also, be prepared not to sleep the following night due to legs that ache from pushing the mower through dense jungle like grass that should have been mowed 2 weeks prior. Now that your lawn is a lovely 1.25" high, you will notice that it is easier to spot the dog poop.(until you get him to go in the right place and you no longer have to watch your step). And you now do not have to worry about your toddler getting lost in the jungle of fronds and sprouting grass that almost tickled her chin when crawling. Chapter Summary: Mow lawn frequently with lawn mower (don't leave it to rampaging puppy to chew that to bits too). Wear Sunblock (anyone remember that talking song that came out around '99? "trust me on the sunblock") If you fail to heed the wearnings, be prepared to be stiff & sore for a few days. Chapter Questions: 1. What should you buy instead of a puppy to mow the lawn? 2. Who grabs at your legs when they are bright red with a sunburn? 3. Do you really need to mow the lawn every week, or what are the consequences if you wait?

Puppy Parade Day 4

Now I have two teething animals (Kit & Comet). Too much fun. Anyway, having a puupy is sucking out all my "me" time on the days that Brent is at work. Which is fine, I'm still rearranging things in my schedule to fit them both in. This is a great experience for Kit. She is learning that mom & Dad can pay attention to someone (something) else, and it doesn't mean that we don't love her. He also gets some interaction with the dog. That way when she & he are ready to actually play they will know how to act around each other. Don't get me wrong. it's HARD having a puppy & a baby. I need to make sure they are both being taught & not being neglected. I guess it's good training for when I have two kids. Too bad I can't just leave a kid tied up outside for a while. :) Kidding. Anyway. So, we picked Comet up on Tuesday at about 10am. By then it was already 70 degrees. the day was beautiful. That night at least 50mph guts came up and dropped the temperature 40 degrees. So it was around freezing that night. then the rain came. It rained all Wednesday & yesterday. Poor puppy. He's an outside dog but I brought him into the garage so he wouldn't get soaked. I bet he's wondering how this could be better than the warm, dry dog shelter he was in for the last month or so. Oh, but he's such a good dog. We don't have our yard fenced yet, so we got him a dog Kennel that's about 4' by 6'. not much fun, so during the day I tie him up to a rope in the backyard and let him romp. Well, I guess i need to work on my rope tying skills. I looked out to check on him & saw him wandering around the backyard, but without the rope! He was heading to the neighbor's yard. (they have a black Lab puppy) I went out & called him. He came straight to me (good dog) & I tied him up, better this time, hopefully, but he was chewing on someone else's raw hide. In the 10 minutes since I last saw him he had wandered to one of the many neighbor's yards & stole their chewy. I threw it into the Lab's yard, thinking it was probably his, but I'm not sure now. Oh well. that was an adventure. I'm just glad he's such a lovey, clingy puppy that he didn't just run off. Kit is getting so big! she's probably about 30 inches now, and over 17 pounds. Before: After: Yea, that's her reaching things on the edge of the table! Kit wants so bad to be walking. She's doing everything she can to stay on her feet and get around by holding on to mom, dad, or anything she can get her hands on. Well, Kit's sleeping & the puupy needs training, so I'm off. Ciao!

The Newest Member of our Family

Nope, it's not pictures of an ultrasound, but it is a Boy!!

Brent, Kit, & I got a puppy. Yea, it actually a puppy, the little scamp is about three months old. I named him Comet. Not because he's orange and runs around a lot, but because I thought of naming him Prancer (for that puppy energy he's got) but that was way too Reindeer. So I kept going down the line. Let's see... Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen (naw that wont work) Comet. Hey that's cute! Plus that's the reindeer we liked off the Santa Clause 2 Movie. (him and Chet, but that's the name of the truck, plus it didn't seem to fit).

So Comet it is. and Kit LOVES HIM!!! Which is good because when we were spending time with him at the Kennel he jumped and got Kit with his claws. It wasn't bad, but it sure scared her. That and it was close to nap time, so she was on edge anyway. Plus there was a lot of noise with all the other dogs barking. Luckily Comet (then called Duke) was quiet and not a barker. So, long story short, Kit got a nap, and we got a dog. For now he's in a dog run, but we're hoping to put in a fenced area for him by fall when he is bigger.

They weren't sure what kind of dog he was a stray that was brought in, but they are thinking that he's some sort of australian heeler mix (kinda like what Misha was) His face reminds me of her, especially those big eyes. Ok, so Kit's not the only one who's in love with him, but Hey! I'm the one who's going to have to take the time to train him & stuff, so I'd better like him huh?

So, He & Kit are forming a fast friendship through the chainlink until their both older, and better behaved. Oh, and of couse this is the first night we have him, and it's supposed to be a nice storm tonight. The wind is blowing pretty well. Yes mom, we have a tarp up and we have a dry place for him to sleep that has some of our spare carpet from the house in it. :)

Here's to the start of the completed typical American household! (house, kid & dog).

The House is Finished! for now...

What do you mean I haven't blogged in 19 days? Wow! Time has flown this month. Kit now has 4 teeth with two more top teeth not far behind. I know I promised pictures of the lawn with grass in it, and I have some, but I ended up just taking pictures of Kit (like I always do- she is my cutest kid). :) Anyway here are some pictures. Enjoy! OK, so the sod showed up at 3 P.M. on Thursday (Brent took a 1/2 day so he could work on it). The sod only lives about 2 days in the stacks. The stuff on the bottom chockes itself with oxygen, and can't get the CO2 it needs. So we get 10 giant stacks of sod on palletts. The guy was nice enough to spread them around the lot so we didn't have to haul it from the front to the back. (And when I say "we" I mean Brent & our neighbor who helped). ( I would put his name, but I am having the darndest time trying to spell Shawun, Sean, Shaun, Shawn.... Whatever it is, the right way. So here's Brent lifting the sod. It was cut in 1' by 2' rectangles. (isn't it odd, I was going to put "squares," but seeing as how they weren't square I had to change my word choice). First you pick it up, put it on the ground, Bump Bump... Any yes, it was that cold that morning, Brent had on gloves and a ski cap. 2 days & 20 man hours later it looks good! We mowed it for the first time last week. We borrowed our neightbor's push mower, to see if we wanted to get one ourselves, it took about 1.75 hours to mow trhe whole thing, but that grass got LONG in 2 weeks. The seams are pretty much gone now, so it really looks nice.

Our House (not in the middle of our street)

Well, We moved into our house in December, and since then we have not stopped *tweaking* it to our liking.

First it was decorating Kit's Room, The sprinkler system came next, but we paid someone who knew what they were doing for that.

Then Brent put in a patio, He adding edging around the house. The trees came next, then he added the front planter,

Kit is especially fond of the water fixture

and today (hopefully) comes the grass! Although Kit does love to play in the dirt, dig her fingers into the mud, and eat the rocks, mulch, dirt, leaves, flowers, and anything else she can get her hands on when we're working in the yard. Let me say that "get that out of your mouth," and "Don't eat that" are very common phrases. :) Kit loves it outside. recently we have been blessed with wonderful weather with slight wind and low 70's for a high. But not lately, we have had up to 20 mph winds, heavy cloud cover, wind chill of 37, and it was trying to snow at Brent's work today! (great day to put in grass right?!) The colder nasty weather has made it so we have been inside for the last few days. Kit just crawls over to the sliding glass door, and whines to be let out. Well tomorrow it's supposed to be in the high 50's so hold on baby, summer's comming!

Hello Bandwagon!

After a failed attempt 4 years ago to start blogging, I have decided to try again. Why? You ask. Well perhaps it has something to do with both my brother's families have blogs, or that I am still emailing people about my life, weither they want to know about it or not. But emailing makes it hard to send photos with comments that are set up how I want it. Perhaps I am just bored and so I am trying to have a hobby. Maybe I just need a place to vent, or perhaps a place to get my thoughts out there and seen. Maybe I'm starting this just so I can pretend to be part of the wide world. But NO! Albeit those are all wonderful reasons, but the real reason why I am re-entering the world of blogging is... Well, actually those are all my reasons, and there are perhaps more along the way that I'm going to find. Well... Here goes! Look out world here I come! Oh along with the rest of my family. :)