Hawesome Hugh

Zoysia update 5

2009-08-31T17:07:00.000-07:00

Wow it looks like a "cha cha cha chia pet." I think container #6 will be ready to plant in a few more weeks. The others are behind, but they may get planted too.

P.S.

We have killed 3 out of the 4 rattlers we saw on the place this summer. The last one we killed yesterday evening. We were walking down to the pond after watering "the Oaks". I turned off the electric fence and Lin and I were stepping over it when I spotted it about 5 ft from my feet. It didn't make a noise. It was straight out on the "road" to the pond. I had Lin keep an eye on it while I went back to the house pad to get the only weapon I could think of.... rebar!!

I came back and it was still in the same position. I then saw the better weapon... unused T-post. Armed with both I walked behind to get better angle to move in for the kill. When I "unknowingly" cast a shadow on it, the little bugger turned and started looking for me. OK that isn't true at all... maybe I was acting like I was sitting on it with my shadow, and then making obscene gestures with the rebar... I'll give you a sec... ... ... ...

Okay you with me... so at any rate I pissed it off. So as you know using the rebar meant I needed laser guided precise targeting, which I don't have.. So I set the rebar down and opted for the bigger T-post option. The T-post has a "spade" on the bottom to help it stand up. This spade was my machete. I made some barbaric sound ... Lin can probably remember how it sounded... and chopped at the head. Well I missed bigger than sh!t. The snake struck two times at the T-post... MAN DOWN!!! I picked up the rebar, then I heard the MATRIX sound in my head, went into slow-mo "bullet time" and came down on it... BAM right in the middle of the head. The snake turned 90 degrees away from me and struck again. Battleship sunk. Two more hits and he was done.

Here are a few pics. 4 rattlers and a button about 2 ft long.

Zoysia update 4

2009-08-04T16:41:00.000-07:00

Wow what a drought!!

I have been watering these grass seeds about twice or three times a week.

This is still container #6.

Why are "plugs" far better than seed?

2009-07-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is a C&P from :
http://www1.zoysiafarms.com/notseeds.jsp

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Amazoy, the first cultivar to be released by the US Department of Agriculture is still the superior standard. Vegetatively propagated zoysia grass will provide a higher quality lawn than any of the seeded varieties.Historically, it has been extremely difficult to create a fine zoysia grass lawn from seed. It is hard to grow because only a small percentage of zoysia seed will successfully germinate and it is extremely sensitive to light. Consequently, areas to be established by seed need to be covered with erosion cloth to reduce surface disruption caused by rain or irrigation and irrigation is most important. Zoysia seed requires copious and frequent watering until the lawn is completely established. That's a lot of water!All the zoysia grass seed we have seen and tested resulted in lower quality turf stands. Seeded varieties produce medium to coarse textured turf. Overall growth is somewhat uneven and tends to form mounds.Winter-hardy zoysia grass seed does not yet exist. Attempts to produce zoysia grass seed that spreads quickly and stays green longer do so by sacrificing winter hardiness. What good is a seeded zoysia grass lawn if the first cold frost will wipe it out?

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Oh well, I guess I'll still try to grow them from seed :(

Zoysia update 3?

2009-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

1.5 months since the seeds were planted... (container #6)

Zoysia growing!

2009-06-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is still container #6.

The other 6 containers are about the same in growth.

Zoysia update for real.. :)

2009-06-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

Life !! Container #6 has blades of Zoysia starting. This picture is from yesterday.
The real story for yesterday is HAIL. Yeah!! I know!! I was out looking at those tender blades of life when the clouds that had threatened all day finally unleashed some rain. I noticed that the drops were large and then all of the sudden it looked like the neighbors were throwing cubes of ice on our lawn. Thank God that no windows broke!! That is a helpless feeling when all you can do is watch ice pummel your vehicles and house.

Here is a handful of the hail. The one in the upper right portion of my palm is about the size if a quarter!!

Zoysia Seed Non-Update

2009-06-01T17:44:00.001-07:00

June 1st --> HAPPY HURRICANE SEASON :(

Ok nothing to update yet :( It looks about the same as last Saturday. But today while I was out watering the plants I found this little guy...

He looks Okay in this pic above but I can see something is wrong with it in this pic...

Last I saw it was walking down the street.... survival of the fittest right?

Zoysia seeds planted today!!

2009-05-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, I bought Zoysia Amazoy plugs last year (about September '08) and put them out on the land. I really took care of them for the first 3 weeks or so. I watered them almost every other day. This was before we had electricity or a water well too. I had to bucket water from the pond to the little planting zone.

The planting zone soil is actually a road that the "Pond digger" built up to drive on from the pond to our "Dream home's" house pad. This area is packed hard. No top soil just mostly clay and sand. I was expecting the grass plugs to just die... but to my surpise they are still kicking. About 80 % lived and have spread across with runners to open areas between the plugs. They have also shot the stalks with seeds on them.

so here is my idea...

I went to the land this morning to water the trees we planted and I saw all those seed stalks. I picked as many as my attention span would allow and brought them back to the house here in the big city. Now I have a bunch of these things here...

They are all about 4 inches tall and the tops are covered in seeds like this...

So I stripped the seeds from the stalks and put them into 7 - 1 gallon pots filled to the brim with potting soil. Then I put just a touch of potting soil on the top to cover the seeds. I then numbered the pots for no reason other than to make it seem like a science experiment.

I will now wait.. and wait.. to see if I can grow this tough grass from its seed. If it works I think it would make it much easier to put in the front yard of the dream house that we want to build :p

Fishtank Wallpaper

2009-05-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is my current wallpaper. I made it from scratch with my ever growing photoshop skilz :P

Most of these fish are ones that I had in my 125 gallon tank :( ... the one that broke in the living room.

Photoshop Camo

2009-03-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Learned how to make camo today from scratch... check the background... add jealousy, and a scoop of I'm cooler than you. Just kidding!

2009-02-04T18:47:00.000-08:00

this is Grandma!