My Home Golf Course

About 9 days ago we had 18 trees removed from our yard, and I've been diligently seeding and watering to grow grass where the holes were. A friend pointed out that I could make a golf course with 18 holes! Well, that's NOT my plan.

Here's the story so far.

We contracted with a company to remove 18 trees from our yard. Some were too originally planted too close to the house, some were dying. It was an amazing process over 6 hours -- 10 guys, chain saws, chipper, two trucks to haul away the chips, stump grinder -- and a lot of hustle.

So now I need to fill in 18 holes and plant grass. First step is to pull out more of the roots. The stump grinder does a great job, but there are still loads of roots around the edges, and I needed to pull them out. I worked over two holes in the front yard with a mattock and yanked out a nice pile of roots.

Next I needed to fill in the holes with dirt.

I picked up ten 40lb bags of dirt at our local Ace hardware (because I like to support the local hardware store) and brought them home in the back of our 1987 Saab. I expected I'd get 3 or holes filled, then repeat the process a few times.

Wrong.

I emptied all ten on 1 hole in the front yard. One. 400 lbs of dirt for that hole! I'm sure there is a Sunday School teaching illustration in here somewhere :-) It takes a LOT of dirt!

New tactic needed -- my wife arranged for 6000 lbs of topsoil to be delivered to our driveway. Made a nice big pile! My son moved half and filled in the main holes. I used the rest to spread in the areas around the holes where the grass was thin or non-existent. [It is amazing how grass and even weeds don't grow in areas where the pines drop their needles.]

Then I raked and cleaned up the surface, scattered starter fertilizer and grass seed. I only underestimated how much grass seed I needed three times. (Four more opportunities to support the local Ace hardware store :-)

And now I've been watering. And watering. And...more watering. I drag a long hose around the front and back yard 3 or 4 times a day to keep the soil moist. No green growth yet. It's amazing how much faithful watering this process requires. (Another Sunday School lesson!)

It is a good time to pray. I'm doing everything I know to do -- prep the soil, plant good seed the right way, and water like crazy. But God causes the growth (see 1 Cor 3:6)

I'm hopeful that we'll see some green sprouts soon, which will encourage my faith.

We're still getting used to the different view, without the trees. I just want to see continuous grass out to the edges of the yard!