I am anxious to follow this one. That's a beautiful piece of property. :thumbup:

 

Congrats on the purchase! Triplex coming soon?

 

Thanks guys. @The_iHenry, No triplex. I pulled the trigger on a Scag Tiger Cat II with a mulching system. Cuts down to 1 inch in 1/4inch increments.

This machine has cut up the leaves beautifully.

I still need to get to the hang of the turning. My soil is super soft so I am trying to go the K point turn and really exaggerate my turns.

Still trying to mull over my irrigation ideas. I am getting close to where I need to put down some pre-m. I have been trying to figure out if I can get by with just a pull behind sprayer and and not have to worry about irrigation.

There is alot of clover and the grass is scarce. I should be able to get more of my tools this weekend to get some soil samples.

I'm going to be installing a 1000 gallon water reclaimer tank that will catch all the water running off the new shop being built. I will use that water to irrigate the back half as needed. The other half I will use the well pump for irrigation.

My father in law gave me his old four wheeler which needs a carb rebuild. That is what I'm Gunna use for pulling small trailers and items around the property. Gunna put some turf tires on it too.

 

Forgot to add, the wildlife here is awesome. I added a bird feeder to the back of the property. I just got some general wild feed for birds and put it in a regular feeder hanging on a tree.

I have also unofficially adopted (sarcasm) a hawk that comes to the property every Saturday and Sunday for the past 3 weeks. He might be here more but those are the days I'm typically here. He isn't bashful at all. I am Gunna be focused on making sure this environment doesn't change too much for him and keep him coming back. I am worried about the shop because I know they like natural land and a quite environment.

 

I have one that hangs out in my front yard and does a fly-over several times per day as his normal hunting route. I can't let my chickens free range because of him. Last weekend I also saw a bald eagle chasing an osprey over my neighbor's house. I think they were fighting over a nest or territory. It's nice seeing the wild life for sure! You have a beautiful and peaceful place there.

 

Definitely want to follow this. Congrats on the fantastic looking property.

 

I think the lawn is going to pretty tough to manage when the house is getting remodeled. We are adding to the house on the back side of the property which means that most of the irrigation already installed is Gunna have to be pulled out.

So I started working on other things. Installed my first fence over the past couple of weeks. I forgot to take a picture of the final product but it was a fun job.

This was a 300ft run....the other sides are 900 feet deep. Should be pretty fun though

 

One thing I believe people who manage turf should be an expert at is being able to interpret the weather forecast on your own. Here in houston, during this transition between fall and spring, the sign of overcast along with a steady and strong wind to the south is obvious. Rain is coming soon and one should not be caught with their pants down.

The previous owner of the house has 3 x 50 lb bags of 16-6-12.

Because I didn't have time to think, and I arrived at the property just shortly before I realized the rain is coming sooner than I thought, I threw a bag of fertilizer in my wall behind spreader and started walking.

I put down an extreme light rate down maybe somewhere between .10 or .15 lb of N per 1000 sqft. I must have spread that 50 lb bag over 2-3 acres.

Until the time I have the finances to start putting in a proper irrigation system, I do believe trying to be a weather man and dropping fertilizer before a mid-light rain will be the best path forward for the time being.

Now with spreading an extremely light rate down obviously green up is not going to happen for awhile or it won't make a difference because it's too light. My logic says if I keep spreading an extremely light rate before a rain event. Eventually the lasting effect of slow release fertilizer will show itself. I would much rather be the tortoise than the hair here because 1, putting a high rate down is $$. And two, I lower the chances of burning with a light rate.

Right now my lawn is probably 50% clover, poa anna, and some weird st augustine looking in the very back quarter of property.

The previous owner did put various bermuda seeds down at some point.

My first plan of attack is to simply feed the yard whenever I get the chance, be patient and see what grows.

First cut of the season will be this weekend

 

Welcome from the West side of Houston. I'm interested to follow along. Its a great looking property you've got there.

 

@Deltahedge hey neighbor. Thank you for the kind words.

I did my first cut of the season this year. Took 4 hours....and 5 gallons of gas. I am probably Gunna have to invest in a gas powered leaf blower. 1 battery pack on my milwaukee won't cut it anymore.

There is different kinds of bermuda scattered around the property but the best kind as I can tell is actually right next to the burn pile.

I would be crazy if I said I thought about plugging. But I might actually attempt to do that considering areas in my front yard are pretty much just straight dirt. And if I plug, it will be easier to water starting off since it's contained to a small area.

I cut the front yard at 1"


The back yard got 1.5inch.

 

Progress is being made on the house....getting itchier to live here more and more as the days go by. Also realized the yard is getting overcome by grass burrs and right now there is nothing I can do about it. I am trying to find a selective post emergent solution but its just not in the cards right now.

I did order a 17 cu. ft pull behind trailer for my 4-wheeler. Once that comes in, I am going to start leveling quite a few areas around the yard. I am going to order around around 10 yards of masonry sand and get at it. I might even consider clay, I know it sounds crazy, but my soil is more sand that clay. It absorbs water super fast, and when dry it is soft, when wet, its mushy lol

 

Got myself a new tow. 101 Gallon pull behind sprayer.


I had to make an internal decision here, now quite a few areas the grass is growing pretty well with some weak spots. And obviously, the best weed management is a solid fertilization plan and grow your grass.

However, I am jumping the proverbial gun because of how bad the infestation of sandburs are. I have a new born coming in July and I'm going to try my best to irradiate them by the end of the year.

I am going to spray probably 75% of the area. I paid 250 smackers for Dithiopyr L. The bottle I got is only good for for 4 acres at label rate which is 2 pints per acre. I am probably going to drop 1 pint per acre then in another 6 weeks I'll drop another app.

My biggest concern is not being able to water it in. I'm just going to wing it and see what happens.

 

Nice. Looks like that thing can take flight with those boom arms!

 

How's that sprayer working out for you?

Any other new toys to add to the fleet yet?

 

Are you looking into a tow behind gang reel mower for such a large acreage?

 

I'm interested in that sprayer.... Boom arms are long. Do you plan on modifying the sprayer in anyway??

 

To be honest guys, I have yet to fire up the sprayer yet. Along with trying to manage the lawn on weekends, I am rebuilding my father-in-laws 2002 F250 7.3L Powerstroke. I am about 2 weeks away from completing that project.

I need to turn the sprayer on and make sure it matches the calibration table I got in the manual. In regards to modifications, I won't know till I turn it on and start using it. I am sure there are going to be some things I want to change. The nice thing about this pump is that if my regulator is set below 60PSI the pump will continue to run and when not spraying.

I am holding off on spraying anything until I level out some ruts in the yard which I plan on starting in July. Going to get a full truck load (about 12 yards) and I am going to have to take time off work for that one because once I get that masonry sand delivered I ain't stopping till its out.

I am going to be using an AgFab 17 Cu. Ft. pull behind trailer to haul some sand around. Then I am going to just knock the sand down with a leveling rake I have. I do not need anything massive to spray the sand because these ruts are rather isolated to themselves. Whenever I had the trees trimmed, the Arborist did what he could to minimize the impact on the yard from the equipment.


After the ruts are filled, I am going to start using some MSMA and Dithiopyr L. But I really want to pick up a smaller sprayer of some sort first and try out a really small localized area to test the MSMA out and get comfortable with it.

As of right now, I am feeding portions of my lawn some slow release fertilizer. I am taking my 50lb spreader and just walking around the 5 acres with it. lol I am just trying to make sure the grass is getting its good before I start targeting these weeds and filling the ruts.

 

Are you looking into a tow behind gang reel mower for such a large acreage?

Not at the moment. I think those gang reels are like a mob of reel mowers arent they? I was looking at them at first, but I can only imagine how often I would have to sharpen those blades considering all the crap on my lawn. It is not worthy of anything reel mower related.....yet lol Maybe one day.

 

These blades only have 6 hours on them....these are standard blades with the "optimum" amount of lift. Per Scag, optimum lift is one that offers the best balance in cutting whenever it's wet or dry.

I ordered a set of low lifts blade which are 1/4inch thick. They also have a cutting edge on both sides of the blade. And no swoop. Hopefully I can get more life out of these blades. Because that divot in the blade was so bad I could not get them in that area unless I removed material from the rest of the blade.



Scag Lo-Lift Blade

 

Had a alittle critter with me on the lawn today. Nice little fawn. I have some lumber and dirt over here and it had some tall thick grass. These fawns come around June July. I think I'm Gunna start leaving this area untouched for awhile to keep them safe.

I live a couple hundred feet next to a state forest.

 

What a disappointing year it has been. The house still isn't ready. Was supposed to be ready beginning of September and the house still doesn't have brick on it and HVAC is 50%. The inside of the house is still just sticks.

It's been a grueling battle with the contractor but I am hoping we finally got them lined out to finish this house.

The lawn has been neglected. I have had no ability to water the grass. I was going to get irrigation installed in the front half of the property but we actually had to buy nicer items for the house because cheaper stuff had no ETA on coming back in stock.

I have not had a chance to even fire up my pull behind sprayer. I have changed the blades on my scag mower to low lift blades. Sharpening after 6 hours (2 cuts) I have been able to extend the life of the blade much better. I have less blowout. And these things cut more grass without bogging.

There is one downside to low lift blades, they cant discharge the grass clippings very well or far when cutting tall grass down, pretty much a scalp cut. However, if you stick to the 1/3rd cut rule you will be fine. The blade by design doesn't generate the necessary lift to throw the clippings out nicely

I am installing a operator controlled discharge chute on the scag this weekend. I can essentially mulch the grass instead of discharging it to the side, this will help me prevent the cut grass from laying on top of the fresh grass.

Living here is a dream at this point. I am betting we will be in the house some time early next year.

 

I feel your pain with the construction delays. Our property has been sitting idle until this last week when the concrete guy finally showed up after having his equipment there for 3 weeks. Did his work in a day and then had to wait for the inspection. Once he pours the footers and finishes the foundation for the addition, we can wait for the framers to get in there to start the main part of the work. We have had roof trusses sitting in the driveway since May.

 

Well, long story short, if you want the job done right, do it yourself. I ended up being my own GC on the house and finished it May31st. I was finally able to get my wife and baby in the house on April 1st. I got alot of carpentry tools now table saw, miter saw, levels, nailers all sorts of stuff. I did all the trim work myself. At the same time I subbed out the MEP's, painting and drywall etc.

It was a hell of a battle. The last 3 weeks before May 31st, I did my worky work job from the house on a fold out table, and slept on a air mattress. I worked on the house in the evenings. The last week i was going to bed around 3am-4am and getting up at 8am to work.

This was a defining moment in my life and i never wish anyone has to go through this. But I had to do it because I didn't want my wife to compromise on everything she wanted. With me doing the work, I got her everything she wanted.

Here is small glimpse of the living area. its a 40'deep x 35' wide.

 

Now on to the yard. I am getting 85sqft of the lawn covered with irrigation. 40 zones. 2 controllers.

Install will start in June. Next thing will be checking out fertilizer prices. I have not even glanced at them with all the craziness going on. Might be getting some celebration bermuda brought in and im just going to light it up with fertilizer.

I think im going to need to till or aerate some areas around trees. The soil a double feet down is like concrete clay, but some of these desolate areas are just compacted to death for whatever reason. I need to break it up and get it to spread.

 

Got irrigation installed on a good chunk of the lawn. I have 38 zones and operating it with the Hunter HCC metal enclosure.

Doing a baseline 20 minute run over the front. Going to bring in celebration Bermuda sod over the next few months and just keep soaking it.

I can't sod the entire yard because I couldn't water it all fast enough to keep it damp. Will be slow and steady