Spring Has Sprung

Spring is in full swing over here, and if anything, it’s warmer than usual, which does not bode well for summer, but real men don’t whine, right? Either way, it’s been strangely warm for April, not to mention bone dry, so much so that as strange as it may seem coming from my lips, I really think we could use some rain. There is even some rain in the forecast, so it’s a good time to spread some seeds.

A couple of years back I had this brilliant plan to salvage our front yard, and I think it’s working. The problem was that I didn’t do much in the way of lawn care when we first moved into this house. Truth be told, I had no clue what to do, so the weeds really took over. The kids had fun with the big plants, but at some point they destroy any semblance of a lawn, as my Mentor so astutely pointed out. The usual response to these sort of events is to spread weed killer and turf builder. We even have an unopened bag of it in the barn, but I don’t want to use toxic chemicals just to get a suburban lawn. As I’ve been told, if it’s green and can be mowed, live with it.

That doesn’t mean I can’t try. My plan was to try to encourage the grass to overtake the weeds, naturally. I got grass seeds, which for the record are not cheap, spread them over the lawn in spring and fall, and just waited. Sure enough, the grass is looking better. This translates into more maintenance, but nothing a real man in training can’t handle.

With that in mind, it’s time to tune up the lawnmower and chainsaw. I changed the blade in the mower late last year, so it’s fine, at least for now. I got a new blade that I can install later in the season after I’ve mowed a few rocks and branches. I put in fresh oil, changed the filter, and I’m good to go. Now all I need is gas.

On the chainsaw front, I got a new air filter and I realized that the old filter isn’t irreparably caked with dust, it actually looks that way, brand new. Silly me. I think it’s good to have a replacement/backup filter, so all is not lost, but ignorance can really come back and bite you in the you know what.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to promanex for the pic.