Spring Dreams

December 24, 2023

Howdy folks,

Well, I've been tasked with a new project this week.  After installing sod in the backyard of the new house last summer, I now need to dig it all out and replace it.  With what, I'm not quite sure yet, but we're talking about native grasses like we seeded around the house last year or just planting roses and perennials everywhere.  The sod didn't fare to well as the summer progressed, although I think I know the reason why...or, at least, I have a theory.  After the old foreman, my friend, Valentin, and I installed the sod out back, I then took the remnant pieces and put a tiny, little lawn in on the front side of the house by myself about a week or two later.  Construction was finally done, the foreman moved up to Colorado, where his fiancee was waiting for him, and Valentin went to another job in Santa Fe with the same architect.  We hurried to put the sod in on literally the last day of construction and somehow, someone had ordered compost to lay underneath the sod, and everything that I had been reading said to use top soil.  Now, I understand the difference between those two things, but I still don't quite understand the different effects that they both had.  Out back, the compost stunk to high heaven and had the consistency of month-old poop in an outhouse when it was watered and seemed to just slither underneath the sections of sod that we put above them.  Once in a while, if you stepped just so, you almost could surf on a piece for a few inches.  When I did the other side, and used top soil, not only did it not stink, but it didn't seem as slippery and slimy.  I'm still not sure who talked whom into getting the compost, but I think the idea was that if soil was what was needed, composted soil would be even better.  In any event, some eight months later, the little section that I did with top soil looks perfect and has almost blended into the still-maturing native grasses.  Out back, however, there are just parched little sections of sod that have browned out to the point of looking like old straw(or dirt) and you can even see the cracks in-between all of the pieces of sod that we laid together.  I attempted to reseed this with bluegrass and perennial ryegrass later in the summer, but the boss pretty quickly pulled the plug on the whole thing and wouldn't let me continue to waste water and fertilizer on it.  It was quickly decided that this was not an appropriate planting for the desert Southwest and just left to dry up and whither away.  Still, I can't help but wondering why the little section that I did with top soil continues to look so nice...I think the sod wasn't the problem, but it was all about the soil that was used underneath of it!

So, now comes the task of dismantling it and figuring out what to do with the yard now.  It shouldn't be too hard to peel the pieces off, probably not being able to roll them up like they were when delivered, but still with there being sizeable chunks to handle.  This all came on a big, flatbed truck, and while the boss thinks that I'll have this all pulled up in one day, I'm thinking that it could take the better part of a week for me to finish it all.  Then, the hard part is that there is piping carrying the water from the downspouts just a few inches below the surface...some being as wide as 8".  There is also irrigation set up underneath the sod, so that it wouldn't be visible except at the points where it needs to be on the surface.  I did surround this whole area with metal landscape edging, but had to subsequently rip it all back out once the boss's dogs cut their feet on it a few times and a friend's grandchild fell on it and split their skin open pretty badly.  I'm going to have to move some of the other irrigation lines that have already been laid on top of the surface so that I can get the tractor into the backyard to haul all the old sod out.  On top of that, I've now been told that the boss wants more boulders installed in and around the backyard, which the foreman was busy doing during the last week or two that he was here.  They look really cool when dug into the ground a little bit with the tractor or backhoe, but the backyard was pretty much buttoned up as of about eight months ago so that no more equipment could be driven around back there...let's just say that it will be quite the task to pull this off.  The dogs have already ripped apart quite a few of the irrigation lines by running through them and tripping on them, so, I guess, in the end, a total rebuild shouldn't be too hard to wrap my mind around.  Still, with thoughts of spring quickly approaching, I worry that I'll tear all the sod out just in time for a big winter storm to dump about a foot of snow on top of it all!  We shall see...

So, here's another batch of pictures from the week before Christmas.  First, a shot of some of my old moccasins that I made decades ago, digitally altered.  Then, a picture of Misty with a big chunk of skin missing from the back of his neck...coyote?  Dog?  Cat?  Next, two shots of Monkey, hanging on the couch and lounging with his crazy monkeylegs.  Then, a shot of a bird that hit the window and stunned itself one day while I was filling the feeders.  Next, the aftermath from the scene of my weekly combing of the boss's big, white German Shepherd.  Then, two shots of the two groups of horses munching away on their breakfast one snowy morning.  Next, a closeup of my moccasins, which a Delaware Indian taught me how to make when I was in my teens.  These are called pucker-toed moccasins.  Then, two shots of a little screen that I made to shield some of the standing irrigation piping from the boss's view.  Next, the view behind me when I was cleaning windows at the boss's house one day, with her really cool, old camp bell hanging there.  Then, our very own outhouse that we brought with us from home, which is made out of old, PA barnwood...Erin calls it her shitter, but it is actually only big enough to hold our garden tools, should we ever need it.  Next, a beautiful view one morning of the mesa frosted with overnight snow.  Then, descending the hill from the barn to the house one night after it got dark.  And, finally, a shot looking up at the windmill one night as I went down to check how the leak I fixed was faring.

Take care.