Losh's New House Build

[losh1971]

Don’t worry about weeds. They are easily used to your advantage.

I’ve discussed this before.

Seed will be going in this weekend, providing it doesn't rain, as I need the dirt to dry out a little. I want a lawn not a meadow. I'm over spraying weeds to keep it ready to seed. Plus if I wait until November when the weather is warm enough I will be pumping 1000s of litres of water into it just to keep the seed wet. I want it established before the dry hits in late November right through to pretty much Easter.

I wanted this to happen a few months ago but just didn't have the finances. Then there was other hold ups. My time which I don't have enough of pushed everything out as well.

Plus if it gets full of meadow grass, I'll never be able to rake it ready to seed.

No money to be saved now as I ordered the seed over a month ago. Only thing I will be buying is a few rolls of plastic $300 tops.

 

[losh1971]

Just come in from using the compactor I borrowed from the brother in law. He inherited it and has never used it. No instruction manual and no YouTube clips that tell you how to get it vibrating. I played with it for 25mins trying to figure out what needs to be engaged to make it vibrate. Diagram on the side for the throttle and choke was a bit ridiculous. It said turn full for petrol on and the turn the other lever full opposite. Well after a lot of messing around and not lever to engage the clutch I tried turning the lever back the other way. Bang, it revved up a lot more and it started to vibrate...... Had I known that previously I would have probably finished before noise curfew kicked in.

 

[losh1971]

So I have been furrowing for the last 1.5hrs and I'm about 1/4 of the way through. Had a pretty big downpour last night (13mm), so everything is pretty water logged. I was hoping for less than 5mm, which was predicted.

I now have large patches of pebbles pushing through the dirt, which makes it a nightmare when it comes to mowing. I'm hoping I can get the whole lot furrowed today and get some plastic over it as we are expecting more rain in the coming days.

Ideally I will get the seed down too, but that's unlikely as I'm not fit enough to furrow non-stop for three hours, then seed and then rake and finally roll out the plastic.

Unfortunately I picked a bad week to try and seed the lawn. We had rain most of the week leading up to yesterday with the positrack and rain last night meaning raking is twice as hard.

Ideally turf would have been laid but at around $7.5k compared to $2.5k to seed I had not a lot of choice. Although seed alone for this patch is $705, and that was with my $150 trade discount.

Looking forward to it being done and then I can sit back and mow 800-900m of lawn once a week in the growing season....... Anyone know of a cheap ride-on for sale? And please no sheep with saddle memes, hahahaha.

 

[Skylarking]

Just have good insurance that covers owner induced accidental glass breakage on house and car….. pebbles in your grass are a bugger to deal with

 

[losh1971]

Just have good insurance that covers owner induced accidental glass breakage on house and car….. pebbles in your grass are a bugger to deal with

We have good cover, issue is double glazed toughened glass is up to three months wait to have it made.

I will have to hire a lawn roller to push them back down. I had to do that last time. I was hoping to avoid it this time though. The hire fee is minor but two trips to Bunnings adds $60 in petrol for a $25 lawn roller hire. It might be a night time job with people holding spotlights so I can see. That way I could grab it after work one day and take it back the next night after work.

Going to ask the wife to post and add on Legana Connect and see if anyone closer to home has one I could hire, to save on the ridiculous fuel costs, or having to struggle in the dark.

 

[losh1971]

Just finished, we'll not quite finished, more so just knocked off. I managed to get about 400m seeded. I have about another 100m in total left to go. I've wrapped everything in plastic but have all but run out of plastic. Glad I only bought two rolls as I only need another 30-40m to finish everything except where there is two piles of dirt that need to be hand spread. I'm probably going to leave the last 50m now until this main area gets growing.

 

[losh1971]

Just got back from going out and just now had to chuck bricks, wood and car parts all over the plastic I laid out to stop blowing away.
It has been a massive two days and I have 3-4hrs tomorrow to finish everything off.
I really hope my experiment with the plastic works.

I run into a bit of trouble already when it started to rain at a 4.30 tonight, right when I was waiting for the seed to arrive and wanting to rake it back over. I tried for a bit but it just git too slushy and wouldn't spread with the leveller, so just had to cover it all up and hopefully it sprouts ok not raked in.

This last 36hrs has been a test of my patience and it hasn't ended well. I just needed a decent break in the weather this weekend and I didn't get it.
Unfortunately I have had to do it best I can. Machine operators book out four weeks, so it's not like you can plan ahead and know you have three days of fine weather. The day before he gets here the 30m of dirt I had delivered gets a drenching, so poor operator had a bastard of a time spreading it out. Landscape supplies will only deliver so many loads in a day as they don't want to tie the truck up with 10 deliveries over two days for the one customer. They forecast 4-5mm and you get nearly 14mmm, right on the night before you need to rake. Dirt starts washing away, stones all come to the surface. And when you need help from the teenagers they suddenly have plans and can't possibly help out, yet everyone in tbe house is more than happy to cheer from the sidelines saying how good it looks, yet won't get there feet muddy and hands dirty.. I'm getting too old for this ****.....

 

[M#ick2183]

Just got back from going out and just now had to chuck bricks, wood and car parts all over the plastic I laid out to stop blowing away.
It has been a massive two days and I have 3-4hrs tomorrow to finish everything off.
I really hope my experiment with the plastic works.

I run into a bit of trouble already when it started to rain at a 4.30 tonight, right when I was waiting for the seed to arrive and wanting to rake it back over. I tried for a bit but it just git too slushy and wouldn't spread with the leveller, so just had to cover it all up and hopefully it sprouts ok not raked in.

This last 36hrs has been a test of my patience and it hasn't ended well. I just needed a decent break in the weather this weekend and I didn't get it.
Unfortunately I have had to do it best I can. Machine operators book out four weeks, so it's not like you can plan ahead and know you have three days of fine weather. The day before he gets here the 30m of dirt I had delivered gets a drenching, so poor operator had a bastard of a time spreading it out. Landscape supplies will only deliver so many loads in a day as they don't want to tie the truck up with 10 deliveries over two days for the one customer. They forecast 4-5mm and you get nearly 14mmm, right on the night before you need to rake. Dirt starts washing away, stones all come to the surface. And when you need help from the teenagers they suddenly have plans and can't possibly help out, yet everyone in tbe house is more than happy to cheer from the sidelines saying how good it looks, yet won't get there feet muddy and hands dirty.. I'm getting too old for this ****.....

If your not feeding animals, and with all that effort synthetic grass may have been the go!pops up straight away stays green all year round with no water, won't die off in winter and never have to mow it!! just a thought as I always wanted it as a young fella on the 100 acres as we are always cutting grass on tractors,ride- ons,push mowers and brush cutters and that's with cows, wouldn't bother me if I never had to mow again!!!

 

[M#ick2183]

If your not feeding animals, and with all that effort synthetic grass may have been the go!pops up straight away stays green all year round with no water, won't die off in winter and never have to mow it!! just a thought as I always wanted it as a young fella on the 100 acres as we are always cutting grass on tractors,ride- ons,push mowers and brush cutters and that's with cows, wouldn't bother me if I never had to mow again!!!

A job I did a few years ago at a highschool still looks the goods to this day and only gets a slight tease with a a blower for looks!!

 

[hademall]

vibrating. I played with it for 25mins

Yeah we all get the picture.