Years ago, on a Saturday, my lawn was again in need of liquid sustenance and I was in watering mode, repositioning sprinklers in half-hour increments. During one mid-morning trek, there were two birds on my deck railing. I walked by them slowly, wondering how close I could get before they flew off in fear. They […]
Years ago, the squirrel population around our home seems to be on the increase. One of their favorite pastimes was gathering nuts from my neighbor’s trees and relocating them to my yard. For years this has been happening with acorns, resulting in me pulling up tiny oak trees each spring. Now they’ve added hickory nuts […]
I pride myself in having the discernment of knowing when to not take shortcuts, those times when doing so would likely end up costing more work or taking more time. Conversely, I also know which shortcuts are actually worthwhile. This applies to travel, repairing things, performing work, and so forth. Although I don’t believe in […]
A few years ago lightning struck our house. It seems most of the energy was safely dissipated via a ground wire, as intended. Yet some took a variant path, following along the eave trough and blowing the downspout away from the house, before jumping to an unused underground cable and heading towards our prized maple […]
Last week I shared my quandary about my lawn (“The Pursuit of the Perfect Lawn”). Although my goal is to find a balance between my lawn’s appearance and the corresponding work required, I yet discover precisely how to achieve that. Part of the issue is watering. The “use” of water is not a concern. Irrigating […]
Over the years my attitude towards lawns has changed. I must have spent too many hours mowing lawn as a teen because when we bought our first house I was ambivalent about the condition and appearance of our grass. As long as it was mowed, I was fine. It could be weedy and brown, but […]
Here are the most popular posts from “The Musings of Peter DeHaan” for 2012. Some are quite recent while others are still being read now even though they were posted years ago. Thank you for reading my posts.
Last night while mowing my lawn, I saw three frogs in my yard. In 24 years of living here and mowing the grass, this was a first. Where did the frogs come from? I know the biological answer and the evolutionary answer and the creation answer, but those are the wrong answers to my question. […]
Technically, the first day of spring will not be for a couple more weeks (this year on March 20—unless you live south of the Equator, then you have a much longer wait). However, the seasons seldom line up with the calendar. For me, the best sign of spring is when I see a robin for […]
Leaves Be Gone