It's That Time of Year....Again

First let me preface this post and say that coming from a more tropical region I never had to water my yard...EVER. Frequent afternoon showers did that for me. I never even pulled a hose out to water anything for that matter. I remember once we went 2 weeks without rain and thought it was terrible. Little did I know then that an area could go 2 years without rain!!!

When we first moved into our home in Texas we had a lawn...prickly Bermuda grass no less, but still a lawn. I didn't realize until much later that there was a reason that most people's lawn didn't sport thick, bright green St. Augustine or Centipede grass.

Can you believe I was naive enough to plant azaleas and elephant ear in my yard when I first moved here??!!!

Anyway, about 6 months into our move the historic record breaking drought invaded us. Three years into the drought and I am paying the consequences of my native naivety.

Of course, during the intense triple digit Summer's I wholeheartidly attempted to keep my lawn watered. Every week I had the sprinkler and the hose out. It was exhausting. Fully soaking a large yard takes time.

The drought hovered over us so long that eventually we had water restrictions. Watering your lawn was moved to the bottom of the priority list. I finally gave up the back yard and did my best to at least keep my smaller front lawn from withering away. To this day it is barely surviving.

So every spring for the past 3 years I have the extra chore of pulling weeds. Because the grass is DEAD it's very easy for the weeds to take over. If you pull the weeds eventually the grass will revive itself and you have hope for a lawn until the heat intense, rainless Summer comes again..

I dread it every spring when I see those weeds rearing their ugly head. Most people just mow them down but not me. I force myself to painstakingly pick each and every one out by hand...by myself - because neither one of my other family members wish to spend their free time making the lawn look presentable.

Every year I threaten that I'm not going to do it but every year there I am wallowing in the fire ant and scorpion infested, dog pee and pooped yard picking out weeds. It's a long process that takes me at least a few weeks..an hour or so every day that I find an extra hour.

Last year I finally chose to make lemonade out of lemons. I find the process of weeding very relaxing. I love being outdoors anyway with the sun beating down warming my body. I listen to the birds sing, the cows moo, the jets fly over, the wind blow through the trees. It's amazing the things you can hear when you are STILL.

Here you can see where I am making my weeding path...



I have been pulling weeds so long I'm very experienced at it. I know just where to pull them to have them come up by the root. I also know that most of the weeds here have points on them and I know exactly where to grab them as not to get pricked. These here are the toughest ones. I find the best time to pull these is when the ground is moist otherwise they break off at the base destining them to grow back in only a few short days...



The day was a little cool, but sunny so Summer and Bo came outside with me while I weeded.

Summer built herself a "car".....



And Bo hunted grub worms in the fresh clay...



I still have a long road ahead of me but now you see some of the stuff I do to get that big paycheck at the end of every week!!