Overseeding 101

On Sunday, T and I overseeded our lawn (no need to do anything with the backyard since we don't have any grass back there...yet!).  Again, I think it's necessary for another brief tutorial/info session for the non-Phoenicians (as well as those Phoenicians without yards!).  Many people with yards in AZ put in two different lawns for the drastically different seasons.  This is also what all the golf courses in the Valley do and how they keep the greens/fairways so green and beautiful year-round.  Hearty bermuda grass is always on the lawn (it just goes dormant during the winter) and can be left as is throughout the winter (usually turns slightly brown though).  But if you so choose (as we did), rye grass can be put in over the bermuda to last through early Spring.  Rye grass has soft, long blades with a deep green color.  Rye can be put down after the risk of 100+ degree days are mostly past, but before it gets too cold (risk of early frost).  The ideal timing for this weather is during the first 2 weeks of October -- clearly, we're running a little bit behind, but we're still ok.

The first step in the process is to mow the bermuda down to almost nothing.  T is the mower in the family, so I followed him with the second step (and arguably the worst step in the whole thing): thatching.  

This is the act of raking up the loose grass with a heavy metal rake while aerating the dirt a bit.  We especially had trouble thatching the areas of our lawn that have hardened stucco/concrete on it -- it appears that when work was done on the house, before we owned it, the stucco and concrete was disposed of in the front yard!  I may not have looked like the most serious landscaper because as T will tell you, "C is the only person I know who does lawn work in flip-flops."  What can I say?  It was hot and I left my nasty sneaks in MA.  But I have to note that I was wearing my "Just Married" flips, so I think it was very apra poe.

After thatching, rye seed is laid using a spreader (borrowed from my dad).  Then mulch/fertilizer is spread over the most bare spots (at a minimum).  The final step is to water.  This is more difficult for us since we don't have our flood irrigation activated yet, nor do we have sprinklers, so we have to water the lawn with the hose.  Stay tuned to see if we actually get any new blades...

Our Citrus Grove

T and I planted a 5-year old naval orange tree in our front yard earlier this week (a wonderful housewarming gift from my parents)!  It now joins our 80+ year old grapefruit tree in the yard.  To reflect what an additionally significant event this is for us, I think this post also deserves a quick, historical background to the city of Phoenix and our neighborhood...

The economy in early Phoenix was mostly agriculturally-based -- dependent on citrus and cotton farming.  As the city developed, the economy changed to rely less on these agricultural industries.  More than 60 years ago, our neighborhood was the site of a huge citrus orchard.  When it was sold to developers, they removed most, but not all of the trees in order to build the houses.  These remaining trees are still found throughout our neighborhood including the beautiful grapefruit tree in our front yard.  Since citrus trees do have a limited life span, we thought we'd do our part to continue planting citrus (as most of our neighbors have also done) -- not to mention the shade and aesthetics it will provide to the front of our house.

Now, we won't get any oranges this season (the transplant is too much of a shock for the tree), but we should get fruit by next season!  Here (above and below) are a couple of pics of our new, little friend!

Dunks in AZ

So, as many of you know, T and I are totally and completely addicted to coffee, specifically, Dunkin' Donuts coffee.  In New England, a Dunks can pretty much be found on any corner, literally.  The people who worked in the Dunks by our former home in Medford knew us by name (and of course knew our orders by heart) -- they would even get concerned when they hadn't seen us in a few days (often during a feeble attempt to save money and make coffee at home or work).  We were spoiled rotten by having a Dunks on every corner in New England.

T and I were ecstatic to learn a year ago that the Dunkin Donuts corporation was planning a massive expansion in the Phoenix market.  The Phoenix area would go from having about 12 stores in the Valley to 1,200 (ok, ok, I'm exaggerating, but a girl can dream, right?!)!  There is a Dunks that is currently under construction/renovation less than 2 miles from our Phoenix home.  We plan on being some of the first in line on the day it opens.  No joke.  

This brings me to one of our latest adventures...on an afternoon drive to go shopping in

 Scottsdale, T came up with the brilliant idea to search our GPS to find the nearest Dunks to our location.  We drove 10, yes 10, miles out of our way to find that Dunks and enjoy a tasty doughnut and two glorious iced coffees!!  It was totally worth the detour!

I found my camera cord!

In the second-to-last box unpacked, T found the cord that connects the camera to the computer!  Woohoo!  Check out my old posts --  I have added pics to give some visuals of our adventures.  Stay tuned for future posts about our new adventures in Phoenix, our new house, and other mayhem!

Valley of the Sun...at last!

So sorry for delay in posting!  T and I have been very, very busy unpacking...  

Last Thursday, we headed out of Denver in the morning and stopped at the US Air Force Academy -- the setting is absolutely beautiful!  The Academy is situated against the Rocky Mountains and has amazing views throughout the campus.  The chapel seemed to be the focal point, and you can see why:

We then cruised down through the the rest of Southern Colorado.  T and I stopped for lunch in a wonderful, little town in Colorado on the border of New Mexico called Trinidad.  It has a quaint downtown with brick streets, cafes, and antique shops -- a definite must see if you're ever in the area!  We went through Santa Fe and Albuquerque on Thursday and made it to Gallup, NM to stay the night (I won't comment on Gallup because I want to keep this blog on a positive note).  I will only say one thing about Gallup:  I asked T when we left, "was it all I described and more?"  His response was simply, "yes" as he peeled out of town.  ;)

Being less than an hour from the Arizona border, it wasn't long before we had crossed into our new home state!  Our plan was to surprise my family by arriving more than a day early into Phoenix, but Sally (my '97 Mustang) had other plans...

T was eager to drive straight on through to Phoenix, but I suggested that we should stop in Flagstaff so that he could see the Northern Arizona University campus.  As we exited the highway, we heard the most horrendous noise coming from our back, passenger-side wheel (a grinding metal-on-metal sound).  We quickly found the nearest Ford dealership on our GPS and drove the car there.  As it turned out, we threw our rear passenger break pad while we were on the highway!!  Luckily, Flag is an awesome city and we were within walking distance of their historic downtown.  After brunch and hanging out for several hours with one of the Ford salesmen, we were finally back on the road.  Let me add to that.  Given that cars aren't exactly flying off of the lots these days, the salesmen weren't very busy.  This one guy started talking to us and, come to find out, he was an old car nut.  We talked about the 1960's Mustangs that he, my dad and uncle have (several).  The best part was when he showed us the brand new Shelby GT 500 Mustang they had on the lot, and let us start it up.  Dream car.  

Anyway, we got back on the road and arrived at our new home just before 6pm on Friday night and immediately started unpacking our 100+ (literally) boxes.  Luckily, we found the sheets for the bed and passed out by 9pm, since we were still on East coast time.  More to come as we settle into our new home and city!!

On to Mt. Rushmore

After a stop at the world-famous Wall Drug in western South Dakota, T and I visited Mt. Rushmore on Wednesday morning. It was even cooler than I remembered! The drive through the Black Hills was amazing! We stopped in a little town called Custer, SD where T had his first buffalo burger! We loved the area so much we were looking at plots of land for sale as we were driving! LOL! The drive through Wyoming was beautiful too. We saw grazing bison and wild antelope! We ended the night at a sports bar in Denver with Alls - we even caught some of the Red Sox game! Headed to New Mexico next!