A Lot Of Activity Since My Last Post

A lot of things have been going on since my last post 27 days ago. We have survived 3 different tornado warnings with "take shelter now" since then. Twice there were funnel clouds within the 5 mile radius of home. Yet I know unless my "weather dog" Walter shows anxiety we are good. He never did show any signs of anxiety during those tornado warnings, as we watched the local tv weather to keep updated on what was going on and where things were.

Even before the four days of rains and over 5" of rain since just last Wednesday ... we had severe thunder storms weeks before where the yard was getting a good saturation. There will be a surprise photo at the end of this post in response to that rain and flooded backyard. I will explain it then. Otherwise all we could do is hang out inside and listen to it rain and live with it.

Those clumps of green grass are interesting to me. Last December after the last leaves mulch and raking, I wanted to see what would happen with little effort. The only effort I was going to do was to use what was left of a bag of opened grass seed, spread it on the bare hard clay and let mother nature take it's course to see what would happen. I admit I am shocked there is dark green tall fescue grass growing on that hard clay dirt.

The tan grass is zoysia and it will green up in another month. What is disappointing, just last spring all of this side yard was solid grass. 

I thought all the photos are not in order after all, as I uploaded them in the order taken but these last two photos are out of place. They are the "surprise photo" at the end of the post I spoke of. Sunday I was standing on the patio looking at the bare spots in the yard to decide how much topsoil to buy. When I noticed NEW grass coming up on the bare dirt that was once hard clay. I couldn't believe it. So I will not cover it in topsoil but will let it grow and and decide next fall what I need to fill in with topsoil for the low spots. 

I did nothing but spread the seed last December. I didn't water it, just let mother nature take care of it.

This chair was blowing across the patio in the storm on March 20th. You can tell how much rain we were getting by the amount of standing water. The wind was howling and we were under a tornado warning that day too.

The days after the storms are always nice. One day it got up to 79° and by the next afternoon it was in the 30's. Yes, Cletus is still skin and bones. He is eating me out of house and home. I have no doubt he would eat the whole 40# bag of kibble if I were to let him. He also loves to talk to all the neighbors he sees walking their dogs in front of the house or next door. He is a great bloodhound.

One day all the seats were taken during the storms ... I sat and watched Henry smell everything inside that crate and then slowly walked in the crate and went to sleep. It is a community crate I guess for all of those that are not a large bloodhound. That crate sits on a pad to protect the laminate floor. 

Watson gave me a scare a week or so ago. At 6 months old he had emergency surgery on his intestines to pull out about 5" of a mexican blanket he had eaten. He walked out a day later fine and my bank account quite a bit lower in the balance column. So I was a little concerned when I walked into the kitchen one day a few weeks ago and saw that my light blue microfiber rag was missing from the stove handle.

I couldn't find it anywhere inside or even outside in the yard, where Ava likes to drag stuff. I wasn't really looking for it at the time I found the last PIECE of that rag. I had gone into the bedroom to take clean t-shirts from the dryer to the chest when I see Watson laying on the floor in front of the chest. He NEVER lays there so I knew something was up.

He had something between his front paws .... and when I bent over to look this is what I found. So ... more surgery? No, but I kept an eye on him. He looked normal the first and second day but that second night he walked toward the patio door to go outside as his stomach was heaving ... I didn't inspect it in detail but I saw vomit in the shape of a rolled small microfiber rag ... it couldn't have been anything else as I picked it up off the patio with a paper towel to throw it away.

Lucky dog, lucky bank account.

The first severe thunderstorm we had was March 14th, just a couple of days after the last post. White blooms mean only one thing ... a Bradford Pear Tree. I wasn't going to let that sapling grow into a large tree years from now but it was really tall. 

Could I cut it down with my reciprocating saw and make it fall parallel to the fence? It was as tall as those two thin utility lines which are much higher than the thick internet cables. The trunk was probably no more than 4"-5" so I thought I'd give it a shot. I had been staring at that tree for a week when it was blowing around and came up with a plan.

When it fell it fell perfectly. You can see the base of the trunk to the right where the bright wood is. As it fell the top of the sapling hit those two high utility lines and when the top hit those lines, it bounced a little, then the lines changed the direction of the falling tree to parallel of the fence!!  LOL

I cut it into pieces and left it on the berm. By the time the storms were finished with it a few days later, the white blooms were all gone.

I didn't see it happen but Ava started limping again last weekend. Same leg as she cut last July. Same leg she was limping on a couple of months ago. She was allowed to go out under my leash to pee but was crate restricted from Thursday until this Monday. I gave her 325mg of baby aspirin while she rested ... but today while feeling that leg and not getting any kind of response from her ... I found out it wasn't her leg that was causing her to limp but her paw. When I touched her paw she cried out. So tonight while she is sleeping I will get a closer view of that paw with my flash light. I did not feel anything protruding from the paw, it was all smooth. 

Believe it or not, the yard still continues to fill in with that new grass. 

Last Wednesday we were forecasted with tornados and up to 10" of rain by Sunday. It had that eerily look by 6pm on Wednesday but nothing going on. I had a feeling the night was going to get real interesting. 

By 2:30am that night when the storm woke me up, I reached outside with my camera and took this photo just to see how much water was in my backyard. The neighbor had her security light replaced with a new LED light a few weeks ago. She has that because in 1995 they caught a stranger in their barn shed ... 

I would have to say after 5" of rain my yard drains pretty fast. 

There are a few plants growing on the berm ... it's good to see some color. 

Saturday night Watson went to the door to go outside. It was lightly raining at the time but usually he will make it a short trip out and back in. Not on Saturday though. I am watching the college basketball game in the Final 4 and he won't even come to the patio when I call him. It is raining harder ... but he isn't moving. He is surveying the yard with his nose. He is always so proud when he comes inside only when he wants not when I want. He did let me dry him off with a towel though.

As I watched basketball games ... they did their usual ... they slept.

Getting that limping leg better.

Lowe's has a sale on black and brown mulch. I needed 10 bags for the long south side flowerbed. All the bags were wet from the storm but I loaded them anyway on Monday. By the time I got them unloaded I had a cargo liner full of water. It was easy to dump out and wipe with a towel.

Today I went back and bought 10 more bags at $2 each because I had used some on the north flowerbed and knew I needed 10 bags for sure on the south side. Plus their sale was ending soon.

With no weed barrier under that small rock in the front flowerbeds I put the new mulch right over the rock, which I would like to replace or change. I cut that daffodil to the ground last fall. 

I pulled weeds and used three bags of mulch here. I will add some potted plants in this open area on this end. For the first time since living here I will be washing the green film off the vinyl siding. I will probably use a bucket of dawn dish soap and a sponge then rinse with a soft stream of water from the hose instead of using my high pressure washer. 

This is the landscaping rock I would like to replace. There is no weed barrier below it and too time consuming to rake up every last little stone. So after pulling the weeds I'd like to cover it with mulch. 

Any lawn experts out there that can advise me on this?

Just this week I was reading that the only time you should use the plastic weed barrier is when you are using rock as your ground cover NOT mulch. Two to three inches of mulch should prevent the growth of weeds. Surprising to see these weeds come back after I burned them with my flame thrower last summer and fall. There is nothing but dirt under this landscaping rock put in years ago. 

With all the rain it keeps settling the new topsoil I added, so today more topsoil and new grass seed. When I cut the tree down in the front yard a few years ago, or had it cut down, a limb fell into the ground gouging a hole a little bigger than my foot, and deep. So it is filled now. 

It was 44° today while working. At times my fingers were so cold I couldn't feel the weeds I was pulling. I will be back at it tomorrow on the front and south side. I want to pull all the weeds and put in the new mulch before it rains tomorrow night late and/or Thursday. 

I mowed the front and north side yard but the south side is still over saturated with water coming up over my shoes as I picked up tree limbs. The new sump pump is working much better than the older one. I am beginning to think the one I replaced was not working that well when I bought the house in 2021.

I almost forgot. With he storm last Wednesday I woke up to two walls of outlets in the great room that don't work. I am thinking I need to replace just the circuit breaker for that. Yet the wall behind the couch has outlets that do work. Same thing happened last summer when we had the severe storms, the front wall next to the porch, the outlets and the light switch for the porch light stopped working.

Any ideas? Has anyone experienced this?

So that is the latest and the greatest from "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.