Not quite ready to give up yet, Tex. Dianna, you sound just like me when I first came to the Lawn Care Forum. I found this site looking for help with a new lawn I unknowingly drowned with water and was blaming my contractor because he told me to water every day. "Around here, folks water every day" is exactly what I told these guys, too. Because so many of them said much the same in the way of advice, I decided to try it and couldn't believe the results. What they were trying to explain finally clicked, so I began doing more research on the subject and found the professional turf sites, turfgrass research universities, the seed producers, advice columnists, everything and everywhere were saying the same things, which are the bottomline basics of lawn care. That all compelled me to do more research as well as conduct a few experiments of my own. I learned there is nothing more important to the health of your grass than proper watering and proper mowing. Believe me, I've studied a lot but that is little compared to some of these other folks on the forum. No one here would steer you wrong and if there is even the slightest information imparted incorrectly, someone will chime in to correct them and make sure you are provided enough information to work your lawn into the healthiest and most beautiful it can possibly be. I want to explain a little more of what Billl is saying. While your grass in the back may seem to be okay, trust that it is not thriving and it is not healthy if being watered every day. Frequent watering does not allow the roots to grow as deeply as they are supposed to. The life and health of the plant is totally dependent on the root system, and fescue grass has an extensive root system. When watered properly (deeply), the roots are allowed to grow as deep as they should. Shallow roots are weak, thin, and flimsy. Green grass is not equal to healthy grass. Unless the grass is healthy, it cannot thrive and tiller as it should, it cannot fight off disease it inherently is normally able to resist or tolerate, it cannot knit and form a thick, lush sod to help prevent weeds, and it cannot even produce its true genetic green color. What I neglected to suggest earlier, as Bill so aptly did, is to gradually back off watering rather than all at once. At this point, the grass is dependent on receiving it very often because you trained it to expect that. It doesn't need it though, and you can train the grass to be much less dependent on you for moisture and nutrients and to tell you when it wants water as I mentioned in the drought examples. Back off frequency while increasing the amount as Bill explained to work your way to just one inch just once a week. One inch of water will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. Rather than sitting there in the upper layers of soil waiting to be fed, the roots will begin to grow downward looking for the moisture that one inch provided. See how it works? They will reach it and continue to grow beyond that point to receive the earth's water supply and natural nutrients for fertilizer. Then, you'll have a healthy root system. Just imagine yourself never being able to yawn or stretch out. Because you are located in a region of high temps, it may be necessary to irrigate more often as I mentioned earlier. That one inch can be stretched out over two or three days through the week to relieve heat stress. About the only thing we cannot tell you is exactly what species of grass you have. Without the advantage of sight to examine the parts of the plant, we're just trying to guess based on the clues you give us. Based on those clues, the only thing we know for relatively certain is it is a cool season type. You can find out for sure though by taking samples to the extension service I linked you to above. They are the real experts and will tell you the exact same as we tell you here. For starters, you can take advantage of their many publications. Type "lawn care" in the search box.

From the strange but true file... I had a customer bring her Buick Riviera in for a bad odor inside the car, dang I just realized this was almost twenty years ago... VBG.... Anyway, it was such a foul odor, and so strong it would make everyone that got into the car start to get sick. The only solution since the odor was everywhere was to quickly pull out the back seat, and the deck tray to improve air flow all the way through the interior of car. This allowed first of all me to even be in the car investigating the problem, and of course it thinned the odor down enough that we could start to isolate it's source. Turns out the amplifier for the LR speaker was failing, and the potting material was "cooking" but had not yet as yet started to burn. Which brings me to what kim needs to do. Get the car siting open, with fans blowing air through the car to cut the smell down, then stop the airflow and you should be able to narrow down where the odor is coming from.

hmmm.. very strange. In many years as an electrician I have rarely seen a defective GFCI, and never a defective new one. Keep us posted, this may not be the end of the story. That being said, There is a certain brand of GFCIs with a red and a black button sold at a certain store with orange on the front of the building that tend not to be so easy to reset when they get old, sometimes they will reset on the hot side but not the neutral. A good firm push on the test button and another on the reset button using a pencil eraser does the trick.

Some years ago I had a Chinese pistache tree that had been growing beautifully and one spring after leafing out all the leaves drooped. Upon close inspection I could see tiny holes around the trunk below where the branches came out. It was infested with some sort of beetle. I cut the tree below the holes and treated the tree around the ground with a systemic product to target the pests. There was one branch unaffected as it was below the infestation. The tree rapidly grew more branches. Don't give up...look for suspicious damage.