So where have we been, you ask?

Well, I just posted today about our "lawn" adventures, but I realize I haven't added much to this blog in the last couple of months.  The house is mostly finished, but we've been working on little projects here and there.  Jas finished the downstairs, and now we have a large storage room with built-in shelves, a classroom for the kids and I to use for our homeschool, a room for Jas to have all his r/c stuff in, and the rest of the basement is a big open playroom.  It's divided up into an arts and crafts area (with easels, storage bins full of supplies, and a big craft table), a train area (with the kids' train table and massive Geotrax train set laid out), and plenty of room for all their other big toys.  As the saying goes, there's a place for everything, and everything in its place, and I am LOVING that! :)

Jas has also been busy caulking the crown moulding that he and Matt put up, so now there's no gaps and it looks finished and perfect.  What a difference crown moulding makes in a house.  About a month ago we added gutters to the house, and that was a nice day-long project.  Jas also installed storm doors on the front and back doors, which has definitely come in handy with all the storms and rain we've had lately. 

As soon as the grass comes in, we'll be installing a patio out back, redoing the stairs to the back door (the ones pictured above are temporary), and adding a landing and more permanent steps to the front door as well.  We also have to build a storage building for all the outdoor toys, bikes, and the lawnmower.  And we have plenty of landscaping to do:  adding flower beds, planting, mulching, you name it. :)

I apologize for the lack of step-by-step photos and descriptions, but since I've been the one helping Jason do the projects, I couldn't take pictures and help him at the same time.  And he really didn't want me just sitting there with the camera instead of helping out. :) 

However, as soon as the grass comes in enough so that we can start working outside, I promise to have more step-by-step photos.  Until then . . .

Little Sprouts

**I posted this on the family blog as well, so if you've seen it there you can skip this post! :)

About three weeks ago, we planted grass.  Our yard was in desperate need, as you know, of a lawn.  And after deciding on a type of grass seed (good old Kentucky 31), and a place to purchase it (Buchheit's in Jackson had it at the best price), we devoted a weekend to gettin' it done.

First up was to make many thousands of trips through the yard with various tractors and implements.  Jason spent the better part of two weeks (in the evenings after supper) working the ground up.  There was dirt to push up around the house, and then blade the yard so that everything sloped nicely.  Then he "fluffed" the dirt, so that it had lots of air in it and wasn't compacted. 

On Friday (April 16, for those of you keeping score), we purchased 300 lbs. of grass seed from  Buchheit's.  Yes, that's a lot of seed, but we had almost an acre to plant.  All the info we were given said that was how much to purchase, so we loaded the Explorer down with 6 50lb. bags and headed home.

Saturday morning's first order of business was to go to Rental Land and pick up a straw blower.  We decided to rent it for "a day", instead of four hours, because we could keep it for the whole weekend (as long as Jas had it back by 8 a.m. Monday).  It was less than $100, and definitely worth the money, especially with a yard the size of ours.  We stopped by Doug Gosche's on the way home to get some straw bales (14 of them, to be exact). 

Jason's dad had a pull-behind fertilizer/grass seed spreader which we hooked up to the four wheeler.  Jas had me drive it across the yard, while he followed along beside, making sure we were getting proper coverage.  We weren't.  So he set the spreader to "wide open", and I made quite a few passes across the front, but it seemed like we were hardly dropping any seed.  Eventually Jason took over, and went back and forth across the yard for another hour, but we still hadn't used half a bag of seed!  I suggested getting the walk-behind spreader, and Jas agreed.  He tried it out, and ended up seeding the entire yard (front, back, and side) in under half an hour!  So much for the pull-behind spreader being faster. :)  After that, we had to cover everything with straw.  I drove the truck, Connor rode with me, and Jas operated the blower.  He broke the straw bales into chunks, and then fed those chunks into the blower, which shot them out at a high rate of speed.  It was an awesome sight!  I made one pass through the front yard, and then another through the back yard after supper. 

On Sunday, I snapped these shots of the newly-strawed yard. 

We started watering Sunday, and it took almost an entire day to get the yard watered once!  Fortunately, by the end of the week it was raining, so we were lucky.

And in less than a week, we had little sprouts popping up!  Every day, we had more and more.  And every day, our yard looks a little greener.

Pretty awesome, isn't it?  And that's only three weeks worth.  Just think what it will look like in another three weeks!