We have had a good size pack (from the sound) of Coyotes living in our gully here in the Finger Lakes for several years now. They have lots of cover and plenty of rodents/ rabbits to feast on, their primary diet. I have sheep and a horse and electric net fencing, so no trouble so far. The neighbor who has a good size flock of sheep had a sheep guard dog in with the flock. No reports of coyote attacks on any of the local flocks. We do have barn cats disappear, but they do wander into the woods, so possibly cross tracks with the pack. But then we also have raccoon and fox, so maybe they are responsible. The strange thing is that the Coyotes seem to have disappeared this winter. We know there IS rabies in the area - my husband got bitten by a confirmed rabid skunk in Feb., so I am wondering if the pack was taken sick and died out. With the number of rodents and rabbits they eat, they are welcome to live in my gully, and since it is good habitat, I assume they will be back. On another note, I have had Owls living in my woods in the gully since I have lived here - 32 years - but I did not hear a single Owl this winter. I leave old and dying trees in the gully to encourage their nesting, so I know they have shelter, and am wondering what could have happened to them also. -Rosalinda

emg84010, What will you and your family eat? What do you know how to grow? Do you have much sun in your yard or mostly shade? I would recommend taking a Square Foot Gardening class (available locally from me and other instructors). Whether or not you choose to use the Square Foot Gardening method you will learn a lot about what, how, and when to grow vegetables and other edibles. Here is a link that might be useful: Square Foot Gardening Foundation

One thing to check is the overhead of the condo, for insulation. It might not be very good. I believe in the expanding spray foam which they are now spraying beneath the roof, especially in residences with the heat and a/c in the attics. And, if you also have a basement, well, I'm not sure how to deal with them, I've never dealt with homes in really cold climates. However, putting a fireproof glass door on the fireplace might make sure the chimney doesn't draw your heated air up the flue. The present resident in the condo might not know about the damper needing to be closed. They have these gages they use, like heat sensors, or cold sensors, maybe infrared? that they use now to detect hot spots in summer where there is no insulation, as well as cold spots in winter where there is no insulation. If the power cost in that condo are different by much from the power costs in nearby similar condos, then something is terribly wrong. I'd be thinking that the tall ceilings have some windows up high that need recaulking. Sometimes simple things like insulating around electrical outlets on exterior walls, etc, can make a big difference. For just a little cost, they sell those closed cell foam liners for your power receptacles. And my DH went up in our attic and discovered that two of the a/c ducts were not fully wrapped, and it has helped a lot to lower the electrical bill here. Phoggie, I feel for you, because I know it is a difficult thing to make the decisions alone, after all the years the two of you consulted and you came to rely on his expertise in the building trades. But, you can do it. Your DH is not that far away, and I'm sure God has made him your guardian angel. What is the quote: "Be still and know that I am with you." Listen. And look for the signs.

You should see the water flowing down into the grass right away. If you're doing this right, you'll likely get wet. Fortunately it's 115 degrees and you'll be dry before you walk 15 feet. We used to camp at Blythe in the summer, so I've seen your heat and soil conditions. If you can get moisture down through the surface of the grass and soil, you're going to be on your way. There's nothing like water, and deep water, to make grass grow. Do you know why you water 3x per day? Is it because the water doesn't soak in? Simply letting the water sit on top of the grass has some advantage in cooling the grass, but it doesn't help at the root zone. I'm hoping that once the water starts soaking in that you can back off to watering once a day or once every other day. If you can get to that point then I think you should not see the hydrophobic surface again. That's due to multiple watering per day. Morpheuspa, on this forum, has tried overdosing his lawn with his custom blended surfactant and found that he could not do it, so if you don't see an improvement right away, put some more down. Now I'm wondering if scrubbing it in with a push broom would help agitate the soap down and scrub the fungus off?? Nah. Just suds it up. Going back to something you said at first, you should not ever need to reseed bermuda. I don't think there's much more to say about that. It just grows. If you can get the water to penetrate, then I would suggest using the occasional dose of organic fertilizer. That seems to be sacrilege with golf courses. I've never seen a good explanation why other than those coming out of ignorance of what it can do for you. Again this is something to try in a small spot before you even announce to your people that you want to do it. Organics was the key to turning around the golf course I mentioned in Canada. He had a lot of things going for him that you don't have, and he was a skeptic, until he spilled a bag of corn meal on the ground and swept it up. Three weeks later he sent me a picture of the deep green spot with tall grass where he swept up the corn. He was immediately converted and went completely organic with his fertilizer. Three months later he was getting approached from some of the members at his course to come fix their lawns. All he did was stop using herbicide, insecticide, fungicide, and chemical fertilizers. He changed his mowing heights during the week (fewer players to complain) to allow the grass to get taller, and then clipped it down to regulation for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Thursdays his course was covered in white Dutch clover flowers, but when he mowed them off the course was fine for play. Again, you don't and won't have that issue. Knowing where you are I have another concern with your soil. This is something only a Logan Labs soil test (again, $25) would tell. You're 175 miles away from Boron, California. I know you don't have as much boron in your soil as they do (or else boron would be mined in your town and it would be called Boron), but I'll bet you have excess boron or close to it. If you do there are certain limitations as to what you can do with plants and grass.