Arum, I don't bath my 6 cats. They groom themselves all the time and smell so nice. But they are not huge cats so they can get to those places that would be hard for an over sized cat. I found cat wipes at Petco that are deodorized and helps the cleaning process. I used them on my kittens when they punged into their food or their eyes may drained a little. The wipes have a nice fresh fragrant smell but also moist vera aloe/soft treatment to the cat's coat while cleaning their hair and other parts. I think you will be pleased with this product. Also the cat won't be all that upset with wiping him down. At least it is better then trying to bath him with his claws out. Most vets will be glad to trim cat's nails for around $7.00. I trim most of my cats except for 2 of them that are impossible for me to try. Theresa

Before you develop a poor(er) reputation with your HOA, I would suggest you personally visit with a couple of the officers individually and privately. Remind them of the history of the property (the foreclosure part) and explain to them what your situation was last year that prevented you from fixing the appearance. Tell them the current bare spots resulted from the dense infestation of weeds and you are as concerned as they are over the appearance. Finally tell them that you are now working hard to make your lawn the lawn of the month. You might even tell them you are working with lawn consultants (us, heh, heh) to help you perfect the lawn. St Augustine grows perfectly well in salty sand. In fact I've seen it escape into the wild in the dunes along the Texas coast. In the tropics I've seen it growing down from the dunes, across the beach toward the surf. Whatever your soil is, St Aug is up to the challenge. The soil test is going to tell you that you have sand and to add organic matter and fertilize. You already know that so let's get going. Actually you are already going so all you have to do is keep after it. I have not tried this but it is my belief (only) that if you use any one of the grains you have already used at a rate of 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet on a monthly basis, you should be able to keep the HOA off your back. Even if you have bare spots, your grass will be darker green than ANY of theirs is. Florida's sand can be a bugger. Watering once every week or two might not be enough, especially if you are in full sun. St Aug does not like to spread into really dry areas. If you have a mulch budget, use it in the bare spots. It needs to be very fine mulch. Grass clippings are pretty good. If your neighbors put them out on the sidewalk, pick them up. Once your grass grows up to 4 inches high, you will probably be able to back off on watering toward that once per week rate. There are a couple of other sandy minerals that you can supplement your current sand with and you should see some benefit. Greensand is one. It is chock full of a variety of minerals. Another is anything with granite in it. Look for deals on those types of materials and get some when you can. Now that I think about it I remember reading that there are different kinds of clay, and one of them was compatible with Florida sand. I remember Bentonite clay was mentioned in the article, but I don't remember if it was the good one or one of the bad ones. Sorry but maybe someone else will remember reading that. Finally I'm getting around to organic matter in the soil. The best there is is the microbes. They need food and one of the best is dead grass roots. Grass sheds its roots continually to the point where the roots you have now will be gone in a year or two. Microbes will decompose those as they are sloughed off. Feeding from the surface has to continue with the grains and that should be enough. In a year your white sand will appear to be black (gray) when you dig into it. Don't be fooled into thinking it has changed into a better soil, it has not. It is still sand but the black stuff you see is the organic matter they are looking for in the soil test. If you put a cup of that stuff into a jar of water, the white sand falls to the bottom immediately and the black stuff floats on top. The idea of spraying a lawn, even a small lawn, with compost tea quickly leads you to the sprayer problem. I ended up using a wide open watering can and finally gave up on tea as being too much hassle for my lazy approach to lawns. In your sand, compost is what you want. Anything that forms a layer on top of your soil is good. Mulch mowing the grass is by far the easiest thing you can do towards that. The weeds that are going to be a problem are the broadleaf weeds. They will shade out St Aug. Sea grape is one you've probably seen. If you have that it has to come out. Clover, henbit, oxalis, and dichondra are others that have to come out. Grassy weeds will get choked out by the tall St Augustine so don't worry about those. Same with dandelions. I wanna see the before pictures so when you come back in August we can see the Lawn of the Month results.

We got another 1.5 and then .5 inch again yesterday. I think we may have had hail too. I need to call my neighbor today to check. We were gone most of yesterday and missed that excitement. There were lots of green leaves on the ground which is a good sign of hail. I don't think anything was damaged though. Today is supposed to be end of this weather pattern and I sure hope so! I squish in certain areas of the yard (where mole runs are....maybe this eliminated some of them!).

You guys are all too nice! Thanks for all the kind words - we've really been enjoying the pool and landscaping since it's been completed. Now that the weather is cooling off I'm looking forward to getting some nice outdoor furniture and spending more time outside learning how to use the rotisserie and smoker on my grill!