A New Week

I am finding every day that my new family members have qualities I didn't know about. For instance, this morning Max expressed his fine taste in teas when he helped himself to my cup of Earl Grey, complete with some sugar and cream. How classy is that!! His good taste in tea, not the stealing part!




But, with a face like this, I should have know his taste would be refined, elegant, on a level with my own.

Would you look at those eyes!







Max has also discovered the fun of the game called "follow the cursor"! Both he and Sam are bad about jumping on the couch to be next to me. If I have the computer on my lap, they often push a bunch of keys before I can stop them. Last night I sat down on the couch with my dinner plate in my lap, something I don't usually do, but I wanted to watch AFV, and I thought "just this once" ..... Sam did his usual leaping onto the couch thing, half-way on my lap, and had his front paw in the plate!

Back to the computer game, Max has noticed that the cursor moves around the screen. At first it was cute because he would cock his head and watch it with puzzlement, sometimes making his little noise that reminds me of a canine version of Tim Allen's weird vocalizations as The Tool Man (do you remember the sitcom "Home Improvement"?). As of this morning, he began trying to catch it! I now have "doggie tongue smears" on my screen!! Iyyy Yiiiiieee Yiiiieee!!

This morning when I took The Boys out I had a nice surprise in the back yard. I discovered that less of the grass seed washed away than I thought. I truly thought I had lost 3/4 or more but perhaps not. I have little tender green babies what apparently did take root before the onslaught. A few more days will show me what is actually there.


You might need to click to actually see it, but the green "haze" is actually baby grass.








The nasty looking black stuff is the left overs of the peat moss/top soil mixture. I couldn't rototill this into the ground as I would have liked to because of the heavy rock content that is just barely under the thin layer of sandy soil. My goal in this is to gradually keep adding top soil, peat moss, and a compost over several years to build a good turf. And I'll be mulching the grass cuttings. Just bought the mower last week.



I can't afford to have top soil hauled in. I also don't have the energy to move and spread it. So I decided to "build my own," taking time, and spreading the cost out over a long period.





You can see in this one how badly the soil additives were washed away. Another section of the yard that I planted three weeks earlier, where the grass was well rooted, was able to hold onto the build-up materials. I didn't think to take a picture of that, but I assume you'll take my word for it!



It appears that the grass may be reasonably well spread, certainly more evenly than I had any hope for. There will certainly be some reseeding necessary, but not as much as I feared. I will have to fill in the gaps with my soil building mixture, but I can't do much on that until the grass is strong enough to stand up to the weight. Another week or two, I would guess.

A sad note about the rain over the weekend: they just announced moments ago that a body was found. It is believed to be the person who was missing in the rapid waters, a 20 year old, no details. They also said that a second person is missing, a child, again no details. Last night on the news it was reported that at one place where they were filming the Rio Ruidoso is normally about 12 feet wide. As they filmed, it was estimated to be 100 feet wide. Unbelievable. We are still under a flood watch as the water continues to come down the mountains.

Water was running through my back yard until late yesterday afternoon. I suppose it was coming from somewhere up the mountain. It wasn't rushing, but a steady flow all day long. This morning the soil is so saturated it is like a mud pit. Even the dogs' paws, under their weight between 12-14 lbs were sinking. I had to wash their muddy little feet as we came in. BTW, the new boys really hated walking in the water that was standing to about their "ankles" all day yesterday! LOL! Yeah, they are too classy for that!! Later in the day, however, Sam just went splashing into it and seemed to have no problem. By this evening, it should be much better, providing we don't get more rain. The chances are just 20%, down from 70-90% over the last five days. Great improvement! Let's hope it is going to level out now.

OK, I gotta get busy. Have to get my thoughts together for making food for the potluck tonight. Then I will need to get to the store for at least a couple things. I'm hoping the arroyo that my access road runs through isn't a problem. It should be OK, because it is on a rock bed. Unless a lot of stuff has washed there, it'll be fine.

Have a good day and a good start to your week, everyone!!