Our "instant" green lawn

For a long time we have struggled with weeds and big puddles or small lakes when it rains in our back yard. The soil is so poor in our back yard that even the weeds don't flourish. And of course the bermuda grass doesn't want to grow either.

Here in these photos you can see how the water stands and makes small lakes when it rains. We decided this spring to do something about this problem.

We ordered a dump truck load of top soil and hired someone to

spread the dirt in the low places in the back yard. The man came

to spread the dirt last Monday when Jim came to Montgomery to meet me at the airport after my week-end in NC. Fortunately he

spread it in places where Jim had placed some stakes.

Then we decided to buy centipede sod from a local sod farm instead of sowing seed. We didn't want to have to wait all summer for a new lawn.

Today a big truck came to bring us 2 and 1/2 pallets of sod for our

yard. When I came home from a Mental Health Foundation meeting at 4 pm, Jim greeted me at the door with the message that our sod was delivered around noon today. I hurried and changed clothes and the fun began.

We started placing the big rolls of sod on top of the prepared topsoil in the back yard. Our first thoughts were that it would take days to get all the grass planted and where would we get help to do this. Well, one hour into the job we saw a lot of progress and  2 hours later, we had emptied one of the pallets and covered a lot of the yard. We should be able to complete the rest of the yard by noon tomorrow, just before the rains move in.

Our yard is going to be so pretty and green this summer and we will enjoy looking at it when we sit on our back porch. Our flower bed in the middle of the back yard has been enlarged and we are going to use half of it for a vegetable garden. This is the next big project as well as planting more flowers in some of the existing flower beds.

I love working outdoors and planting things and watching them grow. Maybe this is because I grew up on a working farm and watched my daddy plant gardens and crops of peanuts, corn and cotton. We always had fresh garden vegetables in the summer. Maybe we can grow some this summer. We're going to try.

Our Easter trip to Charleston and Florence, SC

On March 31, we traveled to Charleston, SC which is on the bay/ocean. This is a view of the Charleston harbor and the old historic district. On the extreme left you see "The Battery", which is a beautiful park and beautiful old homes.

I took this picture when we were on a boat ride to visit Ft. Sumter, where the Civil War began in 1861, on a small island in the Charleston harbor. 

Here you see a  photo of 350 passengers loading on the boat to go

to Ft. Sumter. It was a beautiful, sunny and clear day. Lots of

school kids were on field trips that day.

In the background of this photo you can see the new Cooper Bridge which connects Charleston to Mt. Pleasant. You can also

cross the Cooper River via water taxi and ferry boats. On our return trip from Ft Sumter, we saw the WWII carrier, "Yorktown" located at Patriot's Point across the river.

We also witnessed a Chinese freighter "Yang Ming" coming in to

unload big cargo containers of goods being shipped to the US.


At the end of our Ft Sumter tour, we went to the SC Aquarium

which was next door to the Ft Sumter docking pier.


A huge tank of fish filled the center of the building, three stories tall. We saw a diver in the tank, feeding the fish. He would look

out the window and talk to us. Very interesting how he feeds

so many varieties and sizes of fish, including a shark.

We took our granddaughter Katie out to eat twice while we were

visiting in Charleston. She is a freshman at College of Charleston.

On Thursday night, we took Katie and 3 friends to dinner at a restaurant they selected on King Street in historic district near the college. We had so much fun getting to know her friends. They all seem like sisters.


Easter weekend we traveled to Florence, SC and took Katie home

for Easter. On the way home Friday afternoon, we stopped in

Santee at the big Santee Cooper Lakes for a cookout and boat ride at Bill's friend Kerry's place on the lake. Afterwards we headed to Florence, about an hour north.


Jim and I are pictured here with our youngest son, Bill. He has been a widower for 13 years and has been both Mom and Dad to his 3 beautiful daughters who were all home for Easter; Nerissa, a Jr at Clemson; Katie, freshman at College of Charleston, and the youngest, Caroline, an 8th grader at St Anthony school.



We had fun shopping on Saturday before Easter. I can't buy them clothes unless they are with me to pick them out and try them on.

Katie bought a new dress and sweater, Nerissa only wanted some new earrings, and Caroline wanted a new dress to wear to her school masquerade ball the end of April. Can you believe it took most of the day Sat. to buy these few items? Maybe you haven't shopped with young girls in awhile! It was so much fun being with them.

We loaded into 2 cars and headed for church at St Anthony's at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. Had to get there early to get a seat for the 11 am mass. Came home afterwards and the girls helped me prepare the Sunday Easter meal and put it on the table.


Then Katie and Nerissa had to leave to go back to college after lunch. We hated to see them leave. They're all grown up now!


The rest of us gathered in the den and watched an old movie that made us laugh. When it was over, we all went to bed early. It had been a busy day - but fun to have everybody together for awhile. We headed back home on Monday, leaving Caroline asleep as she had the day off. Bill had to go back to work.

Uneventful trip back home (almost 9 hrs) except for the yellow fog, which was actually lots of pollen floating about in the air. I started reading a book when we left Florence and almost finished reading it before we reached home.

We had a great road trip to SC. Wish our other son Ronnie and his family in Austin, TX could have been with us. We will get to visit with them in May when we gather in Black Mountain, NC for my niece Beth's wedding on May 29th. Granddaughter Allison will be missing since she will be on a college trip to Italy.