Well last weekend I put down about 200 pounds of topsoil. Last night I bought another 10 bags of soil, roughly 400 pounds of soil. Put 8 of the bags down last night and seeds a bit more. I have 2 more I want to put down, I will probably go get another 10 bags tonight, on my way home from work. That should be plenty for the front and side yards. Then seed a bit and try to water them for the next 20 or so days, every morning. I want to get the sprinkler system patched up and hooked into the main water this weekend. Not hooked in by the hose. We shall see far I can get though. MIght be to much to do for this weekend. I think I have all the parts I need though. MIght try to put one more sprinkler head out in the front yard also. Have to dig roughly 20 feet to where I want it to be. WIll take a min. of 2 hours I think. Maybe tomorrow morning.

Well, last night I was able to sweat a few joints for the copper line I am going to run from the main water connection in the basement, to the sprinkler system. Have the long run and the 90 degree elbow that goes down to a hose connection so I can empty out the line in the winter, then on to a shutoff valve so I can shut all the water off to that branch of the plumbing. I have one piece left on this portion that will hook to a T connector I have to sweat into the main line. That is the only connection I am worried about. The other end of the long section has a 90 degree elbow that needs to be sweated into position and then will be attached to a small tube and then another 90 degree elbow that will connect to a tube that will go outside. The two hardest spots are left. I have to figure out where I want it to go out of the house, hopefully just out the wood area on the house, not out the cement area. Then getting the correct parts to attach to a backflow valve and from there I think I have all the parts to connect to the sprinkler system. I have the parts to connect to the main house line also. Just don’t really want to cut that one quite yet. Thinking about hooking a hose to the line I am putting in right now just for testing purposes and then, after I know it is all working I will plumb it into the house plumbing. Just want to be careful. Then after this is accomplished I will work on plumbing in the shower and the toilet and the sink in the bathroom. Probably about 50 bucks in parts for the pipes and then have to figure out what water facets I want to put into the shower and sink. toilet will just be a valve to turn the water off in an emergency. The last plumbing project I hope, will be moving two short lines in the basement that I want to put up in the joice so I can dry wall where they use to be. Looked at them last night and I think it is doable. Will have to get a small pipe cutter, the one I have it a bit big for the area I have to get into the cut and then a pad that is fire resistant, so I can get the torch up in the small are I have to sweat the pipes together in. Will protect wood and insulation and plastic waste piping.

Well saturday I mowed the lawn and then started to fix some of the areas that were messed up when I put the sprinkler system in and spots that have not filled in when we seeded last year. Put down 5 bags of topsoil and seeded a bunch of other areas in the front yard. Put down about 15 pounds of seed. Watered it in and hopefully in another month, most of it will be coming in. We shall see. I want to try to put in part of the plumbing for the sprinkler system today. In a bit we are going to head to the gym and after that I hope to work on the plumbing. We shall see what gets done.

Well, last night right after I got home, put the lasanga in the oven and let taylor out to play in the backyard. I started to put the last application of fertilizer down. Man it seems like it takes so long. I like to put it down thin and then do 2 to 5 passes to make sure it is getting spread as evenly as possible. Plus my broadcaster is only a year old but really sucks. I think I will spend the extra money and get a better one. Maybe I can find one on sale at the end of the season this year. So anyway. Taylor thought it was a game. Follow me and kind of bump into me while I am spreading and then when I turn the corner she thought I was coming after her so she would dart off the other way. That kept her really busy. Kind of funny. So when I was finished. The lasanga was almost finished and taylor didn’t even go down to eat. She went and took a long drink of water and then just laid down and took a nap. Gave me some time to play Need for speEd 2 on the new xbox. So anyway. Went to bed last night and about 5 mins later it just came down. Watered the ferilizer in very nicely. So I am going to need to mow the lawn friday or sat. so it doesn’t get to out of control to quick.

Well, thought i would write a bit about this system. For the most part it is working great. I have all plumbing so I can plumb it into the house permanently. Just have not gotten around to it. I still have 3 leaks, all at different valves that will need to be fixed before I plumb into the house though. I have one more head I want to add to the front yard. That will probably wait until the spring when the ground is softer generally. The system is working great so far though. Just have the leaks to fix and then I will be ready to plumb into the house. That will probably be it for the year. Will have to hook the air compressor up to the backflow preventor to winterize sometime this fall though.

Well, this rain the past few days has done wonders for the lawn. I plan to fertilize tonight. Last night I was going around and spraying roundup on all the areas I plan to put some top soil down and plant some grass. They mostly are areas that we had put the sprinkler system vales at and what not. Just worrying about side yards and front yard area. Hopefully will put the soil down tonight and work some seed in. Then water a few times this week. Hoping to have the front and side yards under control this fall. Then next spring I might work to get the back going. It is a bit hard and really not something I will probably work at to hard. Taylor really likes to dig things up and causes problems normally. So will probably just work on front and side yards until Taylor stops messing up the backyard

Just got back from a weekend in chicago. Went to visit jenny’s sister and the went to great america and then sunday went to see my brother. Had a good time a great america. Was able to ride the superman ride in the front. That is really a very unique ride. It was a short ride but very good. Was good to get back though. Man traffic in chicago is horrible. They actually brought the skyway down to one lane. Luckily they had a sign at the beginning of the skyway that said there were going to be some congestion, so many people didn’t get on it. Wasn’t that bad of a trip back.

Ended up going to my old roomates place over near jackson. Spend the weekend there. He lives on a lake and has a very nice ski boat. The thing has cruise control and a few other bells and whistles. Finally got to go biking also. That was a blast, it has been way to long since I have gotten out on the trails. Not to many bugs out there either. Anyway, I am dead tired now. Won’t be able to hit the gym tonight like I planned. Need to go home and work in the yard a bit, get the lawn mowed and watered. Probably will relax and get to bed early tonight also. Try to stay awake a little better tomorrow I hope. This weekend we are going to be dog sitting. Should keep taylor very busy. I hope both of them are dead tired every night. Will be working at a local office part of the weekend doing some side work also. Setting up a second office for this guy in town. Moving stuff and putting in a brand new sever for him also. That will be nice to get some extra money.

Well last night I spent about one hour and finished up the side edging and put the day lilies in and then topped it off with mulch. The area looks pretty good. When I put the bricks down for edging, it makes it so much easier to mow. Have put bricks down for every area I mulched so far. Thinking about edging and mulching the other side of the house also. Then I won’t have to mow and edge around the air conditioner and utilities. Will wait to do that until I finish up hooking the sprinkler system into the house. Have to dig that area up anyway. Might try to do that this week and then hook to main line later this week or next week. That is the only part I am afraid of. Cutting the main line and hooking into it. Probably nothing to worry about, but we shall see. So now I have one more sprinkler head I want to put it, and that is a manual dig. Then I would like to try to get two areas in the front landscaped. Put some tall decorative grass’ and some day lilies and shrubs out there. That will take care of one area that gets brown because there is not sprinkler head hitting it and will help out with mowing the front area.