PSoTD

Epix Internet Services purchased by Citizens Communications Company. I've used epix in some form for 12 years. Hopefully the transition will NOT involve a change of the domain epix.net.

Shaping up nicely...

Last year I did a poor job of managing my front lawn at the end of the summer, and thanks to grubs and crabgrass and my late and sloppy action on both, I ended up with dead spots in the lawn. We didn't get much snow this past winter, so I was forced to look at my handmade disaster most of the winter. Before Easter, I took a look at the front, and determined that the dead patches were shaped so that it looked like a squared version of a standing giraffe. Fortunately my yard sits on a slope, so some of the dead patches were practically unnoticeable from the sidewalk, but anyone that came to the door could see my shame.

I seeded before Easter, and watered and provide top soil and cared for the patches. Some patches grew well, some patches did not because of a very thin level of soil in general in those sloped spots. I kept at it. By early summer, most of the patches were covered, although some by thin grass. It didn't look great, but the giraffe was gone.

Unfortunately, this summer came with many weeks of no rain. I watered, intermittently, but by late July the giraffe was back, mocking me. My wife wanted to bring in professionals to resurrect the front yard. I said no - we're remodeling our house, there are going to be trucks in our yard in various places anyways, and some of the lawn is going to die because of it - and that has happened. Just not in the front yard - yet.

The past three weeks, we've had milder temperatures and a decent amount of rain. The grass has awakened from its dormancy and has returned with a vengeance. I've mowed more in September than I did all of July. The giraffe has disappeared again, for now. My yard now blends in with the quality of some of the yards of my neighbors.

Next year, however, I'll be much more aggressive about the yard. I have some soil replenishment to do, and some ridge shaving as well. I'm not a lawn freak, but I don't want the neighbors laughing about "the giraffe", either.

If every town in America can celebrate their 250th birthday as nicely, and look as sharp, as Lititz, Pennsylvania, then our future remains bright.

We spent yesterday afternoon in Lititz. Visited the Wilbur Chocolate Factory and, of course, the Sturgis Pretzel House. After the parade there was a street fair of various artisans, musicians and food and it made for a great afternoon.

A few pics of the afternoon...

Was C-SPAN doing a shoot there? I don't know, but their bus was there...

There were at least three "cakes" on display. This was the smallest of the bunch...

If you find yourself in Lancaster County, Lititz makes for a very relaxing afternoon.

Every year we go through a creative search for birthday party ideas for our son and our daughter in the fall. When we have a good experience, I like to reward them with a blurb here. So thanks to Bumble Bee Hollow West in Mechanicsburg for all their help for our son's birthday party last weekend. They were flexible and allowed us to switch the date to Sunday when rain flooded out any chance of miniature golf for the kids on Saturday. The price is reasonable for 2 hours of fun for kids, and as miniature golf courses go, it was pretty fun.