Wednesday, August 12, 2009

A very light Wednesday

We’re told that before this day is over, the humidity may have begun to be washed out of our area albeit for a brief period. That would be nice. Once today’s weather, along with the humidity, is over, there’s a chance we’re going to return to honest summer weather once again. My favorite summer weather includes sunny skies with, perhaps, a passing white cloud or two, temperatures in the mid, perhaps upper, seventies, and a nice gentle sea breeze.

Tomorrow could be a return to the lawn. If not, it’ll wait until the weekend. It seems to me that this year those twice a week mowing are lasting long into the summer. Usually by mid-July the chore is down to once a week. Here it is approaching mid-August and my darn lawn continues to require attention every five or six days or so.

Gator Wife is outside and being followed very carfully.
That's where Gator Golden thinks she should be, too.

The job isn’t too bad when we have nice weather. My machine does a reasonably nice job, but it is time consuming. It does require relatively dry weather in order to use the bagging attachment. Every year I threaten to buy a set of mulching blades so that most of the clippings are returned to the earth. But it isn’t an easy chore to swap blades on a lawn tractor deck so I continue to just vacuum the clippings.

I will point out, though, that the clippings don’t get thrown away. We have a rather good size chunk of unusable property in one corner. We use the area as a compost area for the grass. A good portion of that area has now turned to dirt and we can easily move around on it. I think Wife Gator plans to use it as a garden in another couple of years.

Fourteen or fifteen years ago when we first moved to our current home, we bought a super machine to handle trimming and general brush cutting around our yard, including that in the compost area. The brand is DR Trimmer and Mower. We bought it for its string trimming feature because we have some hills and gullies that my limited mobility makes difficult to walk with a gas trimmer. The yard is too large for an electric one.

The DR with the mowing ball on the front.

We later added some more components to the DR, including a tiller attachment, a small tree/brush circular blade with teeth like a chain saw, and an edger. It is a super machine and we use all the attachments which are easily changed. Gator Wife and Gator Daughter take full advantage of the tiller attachment and that is what they use in our vegetable gardens.

I’ll bet you haven’t guessed I don’t have a whole lot for you this Wednesday. It’s simply too darn humid for this getting older brain to work through. On the positive side, at least it still works a little as it moves through its seventies, and I think these little missives help.

GiM

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