Front yard as of Saturday May 22, 2010.

I've more or less completed the mulching from the front door to the North-west corner. It needs a couple more bags of mulch as the landscaping fabric is showing through. I also forgot something on the list I made yesterday. I need to stain or paint the deck in back.

No Tech in this post, Just Yard Work, Lots and Lots of Yard Work.

At least it's a lot of yard work for me. I've got new grass coming up in the south-west corner of the front yard. I'd raked it thoroughly a couple of weeks ago and spread grass seed. I admit I've been a little haphazard on the watering, but it seems to be coming up fine. I spread some of that seed/feed/watering combo stuff in the backyard where they dug the trench to run electricity to the garage I've been watering it and the front this last week.

Wednesday and Thursday of this week I've spent about 5 hours either mowing or raking or weed-whacking. I've also spent over an hour raking up the red mulch in front of the house on the north side of the front stairs. The ground under the mulch was full of tunnels. I'm assuming mole tunnels as I know I have moles, it was also swarming with ants and other creepy-crawlies.

And speaking of moles, Did you hear about the family of moles living next to the sorghum factory? When Spring came and they woke-up the daddy and mommy mole started up the tunnel to the surface, followed by the baby mole. When they reached the top the daddy mole said "smell the fresh grass" mommy mole said "smell the flowers" and baby mole said "All I can smell is molasses."

After raking up all the mulch I took a shower and then decided to enjoy the outdoors. I picked up my eReader (there's the tech part of the blog) and went to the deck, sat down in my new lounger and started reading. After a couple of minutes I said "Rain, I finally a few minutes to enjoy the yard and it starts to rain, figures."

I have Tuesday and Wednesday of next week off so I hope to do more next week. I'm off at 5pm today so I might be able to do a little this evening and/or a little tomorrow morning or Sunday morning, but I'm not counting on it. Currently my yard work priorities are:
1. Put in the edging in front and then the landscaping fabric and new mulch. << Done <<
2. Finish raking the North side of the front yard and re-mow it shorter
3. Spread grass seed on North side of the front yard.
4. Spread grass seed in spotty areas.
5. Spread old mulch along North side of parking area. (also West side?) Or along South side of garage?
6. Rake rock from South side of house from side door to front of house. Replace landscaping fabric and put back rock.
7. Rake, clear, dig, whatever the area between the South side of the house and the sidewalk from the side door back to the South-East corner of the house. Put down fabric and top with rock or mulch.
8. Remove the edging around the South side of the deck and rake out the rock, leaves and what-not. Put down new edging and fabric, put the rock back in and possibly add some new rock or the rock from the North side of the deck.
9. Remove the edging from the North side of the deck and rake out the rock, leaves, et cetera. Put down new edging (extend out to the North edge of house?), fabric and either rock or mulch.
10. Decide what to do about the fence on the North side of yard.
11. Paint or stain the deck.

Well that's all I have time for now.

Rosie in the middle

Here's Rosie taking the lion's share of the bed. Again.

Too Late and Too Sleepy

Image via CrunchBase

Yes, I'm seriously considering getting a iPad. This came about because I was thinking about getting a new eBook Reader. One that I can download books to online. This means either the Kindle (Amazon) or the Nook (Barnes and Noble). Yes, there are others, but these two have the broadest support base. If I do decide to get an iPad it will be instead of upgrading my eReader. Not to replace my eReader.

I am puzzled by comments that the iPad will make the current crop of eReaders obsolete. The iPad is not an eReader, its display is color and back lit. These are both things that will cause additional eyestrain during long reading sessions. As most books are B&W I don't see any advantage to having a color display and as I typically read for long periods I much prefer the reflective light displays as they cause less strain.

The only advantage a color display has is with a limited number of book categories (mostly non-fiction subjects like the Arts, Travel, How-Tos, et cetera) and with periodical literature (Magazines, Comics, et cetera). Personally I seldom read comics or magazines (Archaeology and the occasional cooking magazine being the exceptions to the rule). I do read non-fiction books, but again these seldom have pictures and if they do they're usually B&W.

So why am I thinking of getting the iPad since I'll be keeping my eReader for reading?

I like new toys.

Well, It's way past my bedtime and I'm tired and cranky so Good Night All.

Blu-Ray Live

The retail Christmas season is finally over. I finally got the Blu-Ray Live function to work on one of my Blu-Ray discs (Dark Knight). Don't really know what the big deal is, at least as far as that disc is concerned. I'll try some of the others and see if they are more interesting. 

I've also signed up for NetFlix. I belonged years ago and cancelled because it took me so long to send the discs back. With the streaming they offer now it doesn't matter so much. With my Sony Bravia TV I can stream directly to it and watch the movies on the big screen. I'm currently catching up on classic movies and TV episodes I've missed.