New sod
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.
Laurie snapped a photo of our new backyard lawn this morning. You can tell a sure fire difference between what we put down last week and what we put down yesterday – but hopefully before too long it will all be just as green as the front yard.
Next project – stain the fence.
In the past I’ve been a big fan of a national sales tax – but now I’m reading The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS and I have to say I’m really a big fan.
Did you know that 22% of the cost for each item you purchase in the U.S. goes towards someone covering the cost they had to pay along the way towards taxes? In other words, if we could cut income taxes, corporate taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicaid Taxes and all the others, retailers could sell products for 22% less than they currently do. Granted you might say like I did, well the manufacturers and such will just keep that 22% profit. But in a free market, with competition the costs will eventually be lowered.
Let’s say MyCar Co. makes a $10,000 car. After the IRS is gone the 22% cost of taxes is eliminated from the cost of making their cars. So MyCar Co. CEO says, “Alright, that’s 22% more profit.”
But YourCar Co. also makes a $10,000 car. And while the CEO realizes he could keep prices the same and make a 22% profit, he also realizes that if he cuts his price by 5% he’ll still make a 17% profit and he’ll be able to take more customers away from MyCar Co.
Suddenly MyCar Co. has to cut prices to compete and then YourCar Co. matches. In the end, your $10,000 only costs $7,800.
Even with a 23% sales tax on your car, the total price would be $9,594.
On top of that, imagine:
Oh my goodness. It’s finally done. We have a full backyard of grass (again?).
Here’s a brief run down.
We moved into our new home Sept. 26th with no grass and ruts worn into the dirt from rainwater washouts.
Our builder comes right after our final walk through and grades the dirt and fills in any missing holes.
As soon as we get the keys we throw down a mixture of bermuda and rye grass. Less than an hour later, it’s pouring down rain and most our our new seed is washed away.
A couple days later we rake, plow and grade the backyard again with hand tools and COVER the backyard with rye grass. We start to see some progress as the rye grass begins to poke up — but its not enough coverage to do the job.
Presley moves in a few days later.
With a muddy dirt yard, we’re forced to take her out in the front whenever she needs to take care of her business.
I begin to wonder, “didn’t we move into a house with a backyard so we wouldn’t have to do this anymore?”
Later that week I stopped by The Greenery in Waxahachie to see about sod prices.
I thought we might need three pallets of grass since I walked the backyard off and I measured it 20×40 feet (or 800 sq feet).
They had two pallets available at half price since they had been sitting there for close to a week. We had it delivered and felt proud of our bargain price.
We spent 4 or 5 hours that night, re-raking, plowing and grading the backyard and installing the two pallets of grass.
As we emptied off the second pallet, we realized that some how the two pallets of grass were not as much as we had thought.
Two days later we get a copy of our survey and realize our backyard is a lot closer to 25×65 feet in size (or 1625 sq feet) – double what we originally thought.
So we placed an order for three more pallets.
In the meantime we kept watering the new sod and the rye grass started taking off. By yesterday afternoon there was rye grass everywhere. Thick 3-6″ tall rye grass everywhere.
We had made plans to go the State Fair last night but just before Laurie got home we got the call that our sod was on it’s way.
So we dug and plowed and raked up the rye grass in half the yard and hopefully got rid of enough that our new sod will take root.
And as of 10:15 last night, Laurie laid the last piece of sod – and I stretched out on our new turf.
It’s been an adventure to say the least – and hopefully it’s something I won’t have to do for a long, long, long time – if ever.
And the moral of the story – if you’ve got the money honey – get someone else to do it. 🙂
Fellow UMHB Crusader, Erin Rigsby has been serving in Jos, Nigeria for over four years now as a nurse for street children.
She was recently interviewed by the Missionary Talks podcast.
Missionary Talks interviews missionaries all over the world about their ministry and how they were led into their particular area and field.
Check out the Missionary Talks blog for more interviews.
Or follow Erin’s journey on her blog.
From the DMN and Steve Blow:
An interesting story in today’s business section says Taco Bell is opening restaurants in Mexico. The menu will be the same as here. But because its version of “Mexican food” is so unrecognizable to Mexicans, it’s being promoted there as American fast food.
That’s rich since the chain advertises here with Spanish guitars and thick Mexican accents to sell how “authentic” it is.
One nice thing: The company’s slogan will work in both countries — “Make a run for the border.”
Here’s more from Dallasblog on Dobson’s threat last week…
Tara Ross writes:
Late last week, evangelical leader James Dobson upped the ante in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. In a New York Times editorial, he confirmed that he and other pro-family leaders will vote for a third-party candidate if the Republican nominee is not pro-life. The threat is aimed directly at Rudy Giuliani, who is pro-choice.
These leaders feel that they can’t support a pro-choice candidate without unacceptably compromising principles in which they strongly believe. Period. End of discussion.
Far be it from me to urge anyone to compromise their principles. Yet I can’t help but note that their position may end up doing far more harm than good. Their votes for a third-party candidate are meant to make a stand for life. Ironically, they could instead set the pro-life cause back for many decades.