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snoozefestaudio
Above is the latest forecast, as of 8:30PM. We are possibly in for FIVE rainy days in a row!
I really wanted to move the whole topsoil mound after work, if possible... so that I could put down grass mat in the side yard and have the rain water it.
But it's TOO MUCH!
I moved four wheel barrow loads tonight, and there has to be SIXTEEN more loads worth left!
And I was sweating my ass off too!.. even though I waited until the sun was low.
However I did do some seeding, and started up a proof of concept for the ridge...
This is the hackberry I pruned up, a few weeks back, and decided to let stand. And here, I'm prettying up the bottom of it.
This little landscape project gets rid of; 1) extra topsoil, 2) extra wood chips, and 3) useless curved brick edging that was laying around.
I also seeded the mound and put a bit of topsoil over it.
So hopefully grass will grow on the mound, but not inside the little half circle of mulch!
I also seeded and put topsoil on this dead spot where the juniper, and the north end of the jungle gym had been.
So, fingers crossed, both these areas will be growing grass by next week... with all the rain we'll be getting.
And, of course I will be needing to mow, after all the rain, so... today I finally located the proper blades for my mower, at the Naperville Home Depot, and picked up two of them on the way home.
Yes, I did order one online, but that company... MTD Lawn Supply, sent me an email saying, "Because of the overwhelming demand combined with the situation we're all experiencing, delivery delays may occur. We are working hard to process your order and deliver your parts and equipment to you, in as timely a manner as possible."
This was the first I'd heard of, "overwhelming demand," and I still don't know what this, "situation," is, that we're all experiencing, but it did NOT sound good for getting that blade in time for the next mow!
An I only went to MTD, because Amazon had ZERO of the DeWalt blades.
Indeed... the Naperville Home Depot only had THREE!
And, as I found out the hard way... the blades for that DeWalt mower are NOT just standard 21" blades for any old mower.
They are lighter weight, and cut specifically to work with this one mower.
I said the other day, I could just get an adapter for the other blades I bought... but it turns out they're too heavy, and would probably burn out the electric motor as it struggled to spin them at the proper RPM.
I mean... that motor struggles as soon as the light weight blade gets deformed in any way, because the system depends on everything being perfectly aerodynamic, to function right.
You may think, Well, that sounds like the DeWalt mower is just more trouble than it's worth!
But I would disagree!.. This is my third summer with it, and it's a damn good mower!
If the blade is straight, then the only drawback is that thick wet grass will kill the batteries faster. But it has to be SUPER thick and wet!
And even then... it still chops through it no problem... until it's out of juice.
Normally, that only happens on the first mow of the spring.
It's happening to me more now, because I've planted so much new grass, and I've been watering the hell out of it, so... it's growing as if it were spring!
But the advantage of having your mower be from the same line as all your other power tools is that you CAN... just grab more DeWalt batteries from your stockpile, and keep going.
It comes with two 10 Amp Hour batteries, but it'll run on two 5AH no problem!
I've got a bank of chargers plugged into a power strip in the basement that's on a timer, which kicks on for three hours every morning, around 2AM, when electricity is the cheepest.
So I always have plenty of fully charged batteries on hand.
Indeed, when I was at Home Depot, the bins were overflowing with Ryobi lawn mower blades, and other electric brands.
Yet they only had 3 DeWalts... which tells me it's likely the most popular... if not the only popular battery powered mower.
So, that's why I grabbed two!
Like I said, the mower works great when the blade's straight, but... the drawback to the lightweight blade is that it IS a lot easier to deform after a good whack!
Now you know why I went to so much trouble to get rid of the ruins of my grandfather's barbecue, back there!
I don't like having anything in the ground that threatens to wack my precious blade!
But it does take something massive and immovable, like a huge rock, a huge stump, a metal stake, or an iron, city water head, to do that.
It's fine with even big sticks and small rocks.
It's designed to kill the motor within a microsecond after it detects it's hit something that's not allowing the blade to move... in order to save the blade. And that does work most of the time.
But if you set the carriage too low, and you get cocky... you'll regret it!
Okay, enough with the sales pitch for my lawn mower!..
A few other things happened today worth noting.
Firstly, I went on YouTube and learned how to bend notes in FL Studio... just using the mouse, not the pitch-bend wheel on the midi keyboard.
So, I love that!.. because you do need to be able to do that for certain instruments in order for them to sound realistic.
But I also did find out that I CAN monitor my vocals, as I record them in Audacity... while listening in headphones to the music.
And that was my final obstacle to recording vocals with my current setup.
It means I'll be able to stay on pitch, and be more nuanced with the singing... using Audacity... which is freeware.
And that'll save me several hundred dollars in equipment and upgrades, in order to do the same in FL Studio.
Okay, so the last thing worth mentioning is that today, Yvette and I went for our longest walk since before Dad died.
This is a big deal, because ever since Snoop & Prowly became outdoor cats, in February, they've been following us on the walks.
And that's meant that I couldn't let Yvette go too far away, or cross the streets or anything, like she's used to doing.
And She's been a good sport about it, the past four months... very aware of the cats' presence on the walks, and voluntarily turning back before we got into any danger.
And she's been a good sport about hanging out in the back yard where it's safe for everybody.
But... lately she has been pushing the boundaries, and... long story short, we're to a point now where the cats only follow so far, and then just turn back, and let us go.
We went for a fairly long walk on Saturday... all the way around our own block, without crossing streets.
But tonight after work, we went over to a different block, and walked around that one... and it's a much longer block.
It's one we've both walked around many times... but not since Dad was still alive, and the cats were kittens, still confined to the upstairs.
And when we got home tonight... both cats were inside the house, waiting for us!
So, this is a very good development for Yvette!
Because she does need her exercise, and depends on these walks to get it.
And I'm sure she has missed sniffing around our old stomping grounds, out in the greater surrounding neighborhoods.
Okay!.. that's the update for the start of what's looking to be a very rainy week of July!
Talk to you tomorrow.
°¦}
