Its officially spring based on the color of the pasture… Its finally turning green! What a relief! Its been a long time coming!
We went to the Renewable Expo in Chillicothe on Saturday. It was a very small expo for companies that were promoting alternative energy and energy saving techniques for existing homes. I have to believe that this kind of show could be a big draw… But what do I know??? It was pretty minimal as far as the attendance I witnessed.
We met some guys from Midwest Green Energy… They are a Peoria company that work with Solar and Wind energy on a consumer level. We are gonna have these guys come out to the house and give us some ideas for adding one of these techs to the farmstead. Promises to be exciting! Updates as those happen.
While at the Expo… The Chillicothe Optimist club was handing out free kites for people to fly at 3 sisters park. They also had coupons for free ice cream cones at McDonald’s. Very cool! We flew the kites and went to McDonalds afterwards for cones. So, the kids said declared that “3 sisters park was the greatest park ever”. It doesn’t take much huh?
The yard… Well… A couple of years of draught have really messed this sucker up. Ang wanted to thatch the lawn this weekend. We rented a “Thatcher” from A to Z Rental for the weekend at a low-low cost of $50.00. I think that’s low??? Never really went out and priced them!
The thing about a thatcher… The easy part is running the machine… The hard part that no-one ever talks about is raking up after it!
Heres what it does. The thatcher has these “beater bars” (Any Kirby salesman out there?) that knock out all the dead grass and leaves that are impacted into the lawn… These are keeping grass from growing naturally, and promoting weed growth. So, running the thatcher kicks all this stuff out, and leaves you will exposed dirt underneath the layer of “pulled up” junk.
We have a lot of yard… So, it ends up being a lot of raking! And its not like raking leaves… No, this is ultra fine stuff.
I raked for about an hour on Saturday afternoon… Then my hip (countering the bad leg pressure) started grinding like I needed a replacement! So, I had to sit! Ang loved that!!! But then again… I think she knew that was coming! Sunday morning I ran the machine for about 45 minutes… Its slightly self propelled, so it was not that bad for me to hop along behind.
Ang added the first treatment of granules in our first attempt to medicate our lawn with a 5 seasonal plan. Normally we just call True Green! We shall see if its worth the money savings. I can tell you that 3 bags of the first step did not seem that cheap!
Right now… The yard is patchy green and brown… And we have high expectations!
Less that 2 weeks and I am back to work!!! So, enjoy these updates!
Thought of the day: My toes are like cicadas… They are developing shells and shedding them after a long dormency period!!! (Even Robyn Hitchcock could not write that weirdness!)
Health Rider update…. Have not riden it over the weekend… Going for 5 days this week though!