Today we planted grass.  Here’s how much fun we had.  Matt got up at 6 and turned on the water to moisten the tough as clay back yard.  Next, we overslept, which meant doing all of this in the 80 degree sunshine.  After a trip to Home Depot for organic matter (sheep poo and peet moss) and seeding soil, we came home and hand till-ed the backyard and I trowl-ed out some of the weeds.  Now, our back yard is approximately 706 square feet, which isn’t really that big, so hand tilling with a rake, no biggie, right?  WRONG.  Between the incredible denseness of the soil and the weak ability of the rake and rakers it was really hard work and I can still feel the muscle aches all over my hands from such desperate gripping and pushing and prodding.  But, a couple hours later we had tilled in at least a couple inches. We then went to lay down the sheep poo and seeding soil mix only to discover that the Master Gardener (that was her job title, really) was completely misleading in saying we only needed a cubic foot of the mixture.  So, then came trip two to Home Depot.  After sprinkling in six more bags of grass growing goodness, we raked that around and were actually ready to use grass!  We sprinkled on a bag of seed, going over it twice in the multiple directions like good little instruction followers, raking in between each coat.  This was the first fun part of the adventure in gardening, turns out sprinkling grass seed is unbelievably entertaining and zen when all you’ve done all day is attacking dirt with a rake or trowel.  Next came sprinkling the fertilizer – also cool, it looked like little rocks in a whole rainbow of colors.  Teal, Blue, Green, White, Tan(ish).    And, that brought us to twenty minutes of trying to determine how to use one sprinkler to water an L-shaped yard.  But, we are now finished……

EXCEPT to water it three times a day and not walk on it for 3 to 4 mowings.

Are you grateful for your already established lawn yet?

All this is only in the hope that the grass will establish before the first frost, which could be within the next month and that it will further survive the winter with minimal damage so we will only have to repeat parts of the project then.

In all fairness the whole thing was kind of fun, if not painful.  And, if the grass grows you can all bow down and look on in wonder and at the master gardeners that we will have become (in our own heads).  🙂

Stay tuned to discover whether or not either of us can move tomorrow without muscle aches and whimpering (or swearing).

yours,

Alaina

Alright, So here’s how it went.

We drove here in one 9-ish hour day and one 11-ish hour day.  It was long and hot, but there was some really cool scenery and one incredible rainbow.  I think it looked so neat because there was nothing to interfere with the view, all flat lands.  I’ll try to learn to upload a picture.  I listened to my ipod for so long that I actually killed the battery, it was impressive.  I listened an actually unabridged Pride and Prejudice, which was way more fun to listen to than you’d think.

On arriving, it was an entire week and a half of HOT HOT HOT days, and the occassional (thank god) nights.  The city is pretty nifty, there is a swanky downtown area that is somewhat distant from all the strip mall areas.  It’s big but manageable and there are a ton of everything: movie theaters, breweries, restaurants, parks, cutesy stores of crap you cant afford to buy but is fun to look at…

Our apartment sits on the west edge of town and out of my bedroom window we actually have a partial view of the foothills, which is gorgeous.  There is a giant A on the hill, which is apparently a leftover from when CSU used to be the “Aggies” (dont ask me what an “Aggie” is, i dont know, best guess: an agate).  The apartment looks a lot like the one on Conifer (for those of you who saw it), except bigger and with a garage.  We’re currently trying to figure out how to get grass in the backyard.  I’m duke-ing it out with the bed for room to function in the big bedroom and Matt is all set by his lonesome in the little room.  Lucky Punk.  🙂  We’ve painted walls in the living room, hall, and bedroom assorted dusky red/brown/tan colors and it’s really made the place feel less like a generic townhouse.  I’ll write one of these later about our adventures in home decorating/repair – it’ll be so pathetic you’ll die laughing.

We’re both all set with new licenses, ID cards, Matt got new plates, and now we just have to wait till Monday for classes to start.  In the interim I should probably recommence the unpacking – we’re both getting tired of the tripping and toe-stubbing in the hallway. 

More to come, my darlings, and thanks again Brant and Mariko, I love the site.

yours, Alaina