Damaged Palm Repotted

When things are quiet early in the morning and no hounds or dogs are within eyesight sleeping, then something is up. I get up from my desk, quietly walking to the patio to see what is up. Just as I pick up the Nikon, I see these two coming in with looks of "we've been busy". I glance around the room quickly and see nothing out of place. At least the tv is still up on the fireplace so that is good. LOL

Ava has always liked dragging the bones or balls out into the yard but this morning was a total "spring cleaning". You will see she had everything outside, I assume because of the great 60° weather. Excuse the lack of thick green grass, July and August were brutal. A LOT of backyard repair is scheduled this fall.

Walter had walked out with me and was just as confused as I was about the crate that was completely empty. He will never turn his face towards the camera when I call his name, never.

Later I snuck up again with camera and zoom lens in hand to take some photos through the opened screened windows. Her and Watson seemed to be eating things in the yard. That could be anything from dirt, grass, or leaves.

Of coarse Henry was just Henry ... hanging out taking the morning all in. It is going to be a busy day today with the temperatures back to normal averages. At the time I write this I plan a trip to the grocery store, Brita filters, and a stop by Lowes to buy a replacement palm tree. The yard was mowed yesterday just outside the fence so I might fit in a rare afternoon bike ride since the temperatures are much lower and rideable.

I am going to try the 7 day trial of YouTube tv. Plus they charge $50s $68.99 per month for 3 4 months for almost all the channels I get now with Directv for $121. I just need a package of nothing but sports channels but the attempt by ESPN and FOX was shot down a few weeks ago by higher court of law.

I started out strong on my list of things I wanted to do today. I made a run to Walmart for some healthy snacks such as pork rinds, beef jerky, grass fed beef sticks along with some eggs, bacon, cans of tuna and some sourdough bread to make tuna sandwiches. The big thing on that list is I resisted ice cream, candy and cookies. 3 stuffed Walmart plastic bags were $70 as I headed for the car.

Next stop was at Lowes where I picked up the replacement palm tree. It is taller than the previous one so I had to slide the bourbon barrel out a little to give the palm a little ceiling room. I will repot that into the pot holding the black plastic one. I am still thinking of a different place in this room to put it so ie has maximum head space.

The big downfall to my momentum were the Twizzlers that were on sale. I bought a big package of them and couldn't stop eating them. The last time I had these I think ... was when I was working in 2014. I am not sure what is in them since I threw away the package, but soon after eating a few of them I was wanting to take a siesta. 

That spot on the carpet is where I tried to erase the dog dish.

With two hounds and two dogs sleeping after their lunch and Walter in a midnight deep LOUD snore that killed my momentum further. I still want to repot what is left from the fallen palm tree. I still might go for a bike ride, probably not. I might take a nap.

Dogs on the list to be euthanized in the local city shelter came out today. They do not have any available kennels available and had 12 new dogs admitted from August 31 until this morning. I am beginning to wonder if I would get some mental relief if I only rescued one of them. Would that help? These are the times I wish I lived with a 100 acres out in the country with no neighbors ... I would rescue all of them on the list.

This dog was euthanized today. He was picked up by animal control on August 5th, abandoned when his owners moved. I stopped in Friday to check him out but he was barking uncontrollably and in what I thought sounded like an attack type of barking. Granted it is loud in there when you visit because all the dogs are barking needing attention. He would not let me get near his kennel ... so I moved on and out to my car.

I just keep telling myself "you can't save all of them".

By late afternoon the hounds and dogs were up from their siesta yet not really energetic. I tossed the ball and a couple of bones to fetch but after running to them, they were not interested. Instead they wanted to watch and supervise me repotting the damaged palm tree.

This is what I am working with. I am a novice with plants. I use to have a lot of plants in my younger days but can't say I remember much. I am guessing those stems that are bent and broken will not recover. I will cut them off.

It does have some nice new sprouts so that gives me hope something can make this palm looking good again, then I will have two. 

I cannot believe all the dead grass after it looked so good this spring. It is going to take a lot of top soil and seed this fall but it can come back. Remember three winters ago most of this yard would be under water after a heavy rain or heavy snow melt.

This is what is left. Those with the tie strips are only hoping they can survive. I don't think they will because at the base that you will see later, they fall over.

Root bound and like someone commented, probably the reason for the stems dying. 

Quite a mess but an easy cleanup.

Although I watered it earlier I wanted to use the spray on my new nozzle to get it saturated evenly. Notice those larger stems have fallen to the right just like I thought they would. But I will see what happens to them before I cut them off.

A lot of new shoots, so there is hope for this palm tree to make a recovery. Now ... where do I put it. On the front porch is intense sunshine in the morning until around noon. Any winds would possibly damage what is barely hanging. No place inside the fence because Ava roams every inch of that yard multiple times per day. I am thinking the computer room up high. I always close the door to that room whenever I leave so it would not only get a lot a morning sunshine, it would be safe.

Has a weird shape but let's see what it looks like next year on Labor Day. 

Tomorrow morning will be bike riding and after cleaning up and having lunch, the weed burner will be back in action. I have just enough new weeds to burn and it also shows me how many fewer weeds I have after the rains the other day.

All hounds and dogs activity was postponed until later tonight after I water two sections of my backyard.

It was a beautiful day here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana today.