Glad to hear 

Mad Mema wrote:

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AAAANNNNNDDDD... checked out the home A/C.... everything seems to work, but it does not blow cold air. Bummer....

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 Time to recharge/refill the freon. Been there. Done that.

Well, I hope you have that newer freon the government demads the units and HVAC guys use now. The older type, which most of us have, is so expensive now. I was told the cost runs about 4x what it use to. That was the bulk of my cost. That and it was Saturday. Oh well. Good thing I got that extra little bonus check. That paid for it. Although, the bulk of it was supposed to go towards paying for new front brakes on the car. Oh well, such is the life of being a homeowner.

Took me a week and a half to get mine looked at and I was ignored by two guys. Hence another reason I ended up paying a little more for the local guy I finally used. 5th generation family business guy. Good, but unfortunately more expensive.

We did the liquid lawn service thing for a few years (about 13 years ago). It looked nice but that came with a cost.

The financial cost was high. It was $75 per application which was about once/month. When the boy came along, we had to cut budget somewhere and the grass service is one thing that got cut.

The mowing cost was high. I literally had to mow every 3 days or it would get too tall to mulch. A rain caused mowing delay made for a headache once it dried out again.

One week of the month, it smelled like toxic waste. Until that stuff got watered in, it smelled horrible and would even make your shoes smell bad if you walked across it. (Like while mowing every 3 days.)

It did look good though. It was dark green, thick, and not a weed to be found.

Yeah, the watering is part of it too. It makes you think "I'm paying all this money for the service, I better not let it go to waste by not watering enough".

When we had the service, water here was cheap. A few years ago, we had to build a new multi-million dollar waste treatment facility. Since then, our water charges have gone WAY up to pay for that new facility.

My problem is that I want the lawn to look nice, but I get no satisfaction from the "hobby" of working on it. My only reason for putting in the work is the end result . . . I hate every minute of doing it . . . but I can't justify paying someone else to do what I can do myself. I just really have to push myself to keep up on it and not procrastinate on what should be done when.

Mad Mema wrote:

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The thing that concerns me is what my water bill will be like when it hits the dry part of the summer. Technically I probably should water the yard tomorrow morning, but I'm not positive that will really happen. I know I have to do it to make the rest of it worth while. I'm just not looking forward to having to get up all extra early to do that.

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You shouldn't be doing your watering in the morning. Try to get it done in the evening. That allows it to soak into the ground better and for growing a longer, stronger root base. If you water in the morning, you will lose alot to evaporation and the heat of the day. If you have that issue or tease your grass with water, the roots will be shallow and you will lose your lawn more easily. It has been said that a lawn needs about an inch of water a week to remain healthy.

The water bill can be a little rough.

Oh yeah . . . I did get a new tractor sprinkler this year so we'd have two, to run one in the front and one in the back at the same time. I knew that keeping two running would be the only way I could keep up with getting the new seeds started.

The new version of the "Nelson" tractor sprinkler has a shutoff feature on it. As you probably know, the tractor follows route of the hose. There is then a little ramp that snaps on the hose where you want it to stop. When the tractor runs over it, it triggers a shut-off valve on the bottom of the tractor. The new one worked so well, I then bought the new gearbox/replacement part to upgrade the old one so it would have the shut-off too. Now if necessary, I can start them and leave feeling pretty confident that they will shut off and not be motoring down the street when I get home.

Those darn things are not cheap though . . . they are about $75 . . . but that's still WAY cheaper than underground sprinklers.

WebGuy wrote:

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That's funny, Fuzzy. I've heard the exact opposite. I've heard you're supposed to water early in the morning so the grass doesn't stay wet all night which promotes more disease and fungus.

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With new seed and young, let's call them grasslings, you don't want to water at night for those reasons plus the rot factor. The ideal time to water is probably about 4:30-5am. But I aks you, who is going to get up and water at that time of the morning to water? You know when I win the lottery and have my new house built I am having automatic sprinklers installed.  

I have always watered at night and have not had any issues. Perhaps it also depends upon your grass type. It may also matter how often you are watering and the temperatures. Watering at night when it has been cool or will be cool for consistent periods probably isn't a good idea.

So I'm feeling all work depressed again. It has been this way for the last two weeks. Today we hit a new level. On the other side of the building the have reorganized the shared services and AP groups and have also handed out some promotions. I don't have anything against these people as several of them have been here a long time, but someone still has to explain to me why I still can't get mine.

That is just not right, Fuzzy. They are jerks for not doing right by you.

I was just sitting here, reading an organizational announcement e-mail. We get like 2 or 3 of those a week around here. Yep... pretty happy right now that my mom didn't decide to name me Kuntal.

Mad Mema wrote:

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That is just not right, Fuzzy. They are jerks for not doing right by you.

I was just sitting here, reading an organizational announcement e-mail. We get like 2 or 3 of those a week around here. Yep... pretty happy right now that my mom didn't decide to name me Kuntal.

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 Can I start calling you Kuntal?

I know a gal here who's first name is "Erica".

She married a guy with the last name of "Hunt".

If it were me, I don't think I would have taken his last name.

I guess it's probably good her name isn't Harrica.