Jann- I am a dial up user, and I have all my updates current. Nothing has affected my connection speed. My connection speed is 46.6 - pretty consistant. I occasionally get a really low connection rate. I disconnect and redial and it will pick up a better rate. If you connection speed is much lower than it has been - it may be a problem with your phone line. Have you installed any new jacks or phones in your house? I have had trouble when the phone company worked on the line that I am on. It wasn't even close to my house. I contacted the actaul service person that worked on it (thank goodness for country living - you know everyone!) and he fixed the issue) I have also noticed many sites that used to load good, are really slow now. The have many more graphics and videos. That just kills my chances of getting on that site. Even eBay is a terrible load anymore. You can call the phone company and have them do a "line test" to start with and see if there is any issue there.

Easy - seriously. Your lawn is in rather good shape compared to mine. I moved to a weed patch with about 10 square feet of real grass in 2014. Now there's upwards of 1,000 square feet of real grass. I'm going to give you the plan to convert this to 100% St Augustine over time. If you want something in a hurry, let us know and we can get you on a different plan. If you want an immediate lawn for a January wedding or something, the best grass is grown on grass farms in Wharton - just a hop, skip, and a jump from you, so it will be as fresh as can be if you want to go that way. Water it deeply about once a month starting now. Put out some cat food or tuna cans and time how long it takes your sprinklers to fill the cans. That's how long you will be watering from now on, so write down that time. My time is 8 hours, but I use extremely slow sprinklers (turbo oscillator). Yours might be as little as 20 minutes, so keep an eye on the cans. I'll put more about watering at the bottom of this reply. Proper watering is the most important part of having a good looking turf, so pay attention to this. If you want to have a St Augustine lawn, then raise your mower all the way to the highest setting. You have it on the lowest now. You can mow the weeds off in March and the St Augustine will catch up in April. For next spring I would not spray any weed control. Just having something green is much better than bare spots where the herbicide killed off the weeds. Some time about late March the grass will awaken. Once that happens it will leap out of the ground like it's on rocket fuel. Let that happen. Keep after the mowing on a weekly basis. After a few weeks it will slow down to normal growth. At that point, I usually back off to mowing St Augustine every 2 weeks. That allows it to get taller than the surrounding grasses. The tall coarse bladed St Aug will provide too much shade for the grassy weeds like bermuda to take hold. By July the parts where the St Aug is doing will will become very dense. St Augustine will spread about 15 feet per year in all directions, and uou have enough now for it to take over in one season. At this point I would use an organic fertilizer. I'm assuming you have not been on an organic program. Call your local feed stores to get their prices on corn meal, corn gluten meal, and alfalfa pellets. If they have corn meal for less than $10, use that. If they have corn gluten meal for less than $20, use that. If they have alfalfa pellets for less than $12, use that. Those come in 50-pound bags. The application rate is 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I would apply by hand rather than a spreader. If you miss some spots you can always add more with organics. You likely won't see anything happen this year no matter what kind of fertilizer you use. This application is for next spring, but do it now. In the spring don't fertilize until Memorial Day. Trust me on this. It will cause more issues if you fertilize early. Really after this fertilizer drop now you don't have to do anything but water and mow in the spring until Memorial Day. On Memorial Day you can use just about any fertilizer you want. I like organic, but it's up to you. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

My 2 cents... First, you need to get rid of the current mouse problem. Things that will keep mice out will not necessarily move them out. Plugging a hole isn't going to help once they are in the house and arguably isn't even effective on the exterior. A mouse only needs a dime sized hole for entry and can create one if need be. So get a humane trap, load it with peanut butter in an area where there is evidence of mice, and then either release the mouse elsewhere or dispose of it another way. Next, remove the attraction. We live on some acreage and if we are not careful we can get mice. Mostly we try not to attract mice by properly sealing food items. E.g. once cereal is opened it goes into a cereal container rather than staying in the box. It is pretty effective. Finally, deter mice from coming in. A cat will typically deter mice from entering an area, but cats aren't for everyone. Sealing exterior holes will help but it is difficult to find and seal all dime sized holes and mice will create more in many structures. Use cinnamon sticks strategically placed around your home. Mice have a strong sense of smell and are often deterred by powerful scents. Cinnamon and peppermint oil are two things that work which are not offensive to most people. You can also spritz your house with vinegar which has the added benefit of also keeping in-laws away, but that is a problem for some. Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the comments. Liasch - yes, I THINK the wood (now rotting) has been exposed like this for 20 years, and there is no water damage in the inside porch below. I got a new roof 2 months ago, and as seen in the closeup photo, the new roofing shingles go under the rotting wood, out of sight toward the brick wall, where the roof-wall juncture is hopefully covered with flashing, assuming the roofers did it right. Flo Mangan and GN Builders - yes, I think I'll hire a siding person to get up there and inspect it to see what's under the siding (like furring strips), and decide how it needs to be cleaned/fixed up.