I'd like to make a couple suggestions. One is never to take the advice of someone who neither explains nor proves what they tell you. Another is not to run the gamut of lawn services in search of a good one. Because you complain of several diagnosis from different people, it's a little difficult to know where to begin in helping you here. So, let me try to put things into perspective. 1. To diagnose lawn disease, I need characteristics of the dead/brown patches. Do they look wet or greasy? Are the patches circular or irregular? Do the patches seem to be spreading/growing? Is the grass matted? Any pinkish or grayish color? Does there appear to be fuzzy growths on the grass? I'm asking for details of specific diseases that might be present at this time of year. I don't think any others will have revealed themselves since temperatures have not been warm enough yet. 2. Chinch bugs suck the juices from grass blades. If the brown patches in your complaint do not have roots, you do not have a chinch bug problem. If there is chinch bug damage, you should reseed those areas. 3. Grubs do eat the roots. If you can fold back the top layer of soil like the image below, there was a grubs problem. Right now, you likely won't see many if any, but that is the type of damage they cause. You will have to reseed those patches. Treat for grubs in early June with an insecticide like Grubex or similar product. Liek Morpheus stated, it will also kill the earth worms, and earth worms are valuable to the soil. So beneficial nematodes might be a better idea though I'm not sure they will work quickly enough to prevent grubs this summer. Maintaining your lawn is not difficult though I can understand it may seem daunting to think of it. You don't tell us how much lawn area you have but if it's too much to irrigate, then perhaps you and hubby should consider reducing the actual-maintained lawn area for manageability. Either way, it is less expensive than a service. As you can see, the cost doesn't end with paying their weekly or monthly rates. In the very least, hire a service to do the mowing only. Become familiar with what must be done, how it should be done, and when it should be done so that you can instruct them, and thereby minimize damage and costs. You'll find a good maintenance schedule in this thread. It is the 10th response from the top. Pay particular attention to the paragraphs on watering and mowing.

First of all, you do not need to learn how to work with Camera Raw format. That format offers you abilities to do work on an image that a JPG doesn't, but if you mostly want to publish photos on the Web, then working with good quality JPGs is going to be quite sufficient. And yes, digital cameras all produce some degree of "noise" in images. It works pretty much the same way as film does: the higher the light sensitivity (ASA) the more visible the grain or "noise" becomes. So if you are setting your camera with a very high light sensitivity, 1600 ASA for example, the noise ("graininess") in the photos will go way up. Setting the sensitivity as low as you can is always advisable as long as it doesn't compromise your getting a sharp, clear image. Getting a good image depends on three basic factors: 1) shutter speed - the duration of the opening of the shutter must be as short as possible, within reason, to eliminate any motion of the subject or shaking of the camera operator's hands. Generally you want to use a shutter speed of at least 1/125 of a second or less. 2) depth of field - this controls how sharp the photo is by determining how much of the subject from closest-to-camera to furthest-from-camera is within the range of focus of the lens. Depth of field is determined by how small a lens opening (aperture) you set. It is usually a balancing act between shutter speed and aperture to get lots of depth of field and still use a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate any motion. Most inexpensive digital cameras don't allow you much (or any) control over these settings and simply make a decision for you. This isn't always ideal, but you may not get a full range of features from a camera in your affordability range. If possible, look for a camera that does allow you some manual control. 3) image quality settings - set the ISO/ASA ("film speed" or light sensitivity) as low as lighting conditions will allow. I personally enjoy shooting under overcast conditions which I feel best displays the full range of color of flowers and eliminates hard shadows and highlights. On a cloudy day you can often get a much more painterly look than a bright day. This means you may have to set the camera's light sensitivity to a higher setting, like 400 ASA/ISO or even higher, in order to get both a fast shutter speed and reasonable depth of field. (Keep in mind that depth of field is optional for some kinds of photos: sometimes you don't want everything to be sharply in focus from front to back, and so you may want to shoot with the lens wide open = very little depth of field) Under cloudy conditions I will often set the camera sensitivity to 400 or even 800 if necessary. If you are very lucky and the air is very still, you can use a tripod and leave the ASA/ISO setting way down at 100 (or however low your camera allows) and when you do that, you are reducing the "noise" in the image to minimum. I work exclusively with a Nikon D80 and I find that at its lowest ASA/ISO (which is 100) I can get a very large image that shows next to no noise. Even when I turn up the sensitivity to 800, I can still get a very good image with very little image noise. Its only when I turn sensitivity up to 1600 or more that image noise becomes very noticeable. A few other points: Jeri mentioned image editing software. Your needs are probably going to be very basic at the start and so perhaps Photoshop Elements might be all you need. I'm not sure what other tools might be available in the cheap-to-free range. I gather that Google's Picasa offers the basic photo editing tools. See link below. If you are up to grappling with a fairly steep learning curve, there is a free Photoshop type editing suite called The Gimp and it is almost as powerful as the full Photoshop suite, minus a few of the tools and filters. There are plenty of tutorials online to help you learn how to use it. Also, as Cass mentioned, if you are working on an OS X iMac (as I do) then you can do many image manipulations using the built in iPhoto tools. I can't tell you much about iPhoto though, since I use Photoshop CS4 as my tool of choice. If you can get your head around the idea of buying a used camera, you will undoubtedly get a lot more camera for your money. You might be lucky enough to get a DSLR for what you have to spend. I sold my Nikon D70 two years ago for less than half what I paid for it and the person who bought it got a really good deal. It was an excellent camera and I'm sure it still has years of service in it. So, you may want to consider buying second hand. People often sell their current camera to upgrade to a newer, more capable one (as I did) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the camera they are selling, they just want to move up a level. Finally, if you already have an understanding of the basics of film camera photography, then you already know most of what is important in digital photography. All of the same basic principles apply to both, its just a matter of learning how to use the specific camera controls to get what you need from a digital. No need to be intimidated by digital imaging, especially if you have a friend who cam teach you along the way. Regards, Paul B. Here is a link that might be useful: Picasa

Welcome to Colorado!!!! I second the Colo Spgs Utils Xeriscape Garden - it's wonderful!!! Also, Harding Nursery is good as already stated, but Paulino's Nursery up in Denver is WELL worth the drive. That place is absolutely amazing. as far as books, there is the "Xeriscape Plant Guide" and several others by the same folks. Lauren Springer's books are good as far as information but can be tough to read...in her first book, her writing skills weren't yet perfected ;) Her second one with Rob Proctor is also good and more readable. I live on the north/east end of town, up by Monument. I'm growing: blue grama/sideoats grama grasses in a "pseudo-prairie", many many varieties of penstemon, many varieties of very tough roses (no Hybrid Teas though - not tough enough to thrive here), rabbitbrush, big sagebrush (Artemesia tridentata), New Mexico Privet, Apache Plume, a couple of peonies and clematis in near the house, Agastaches (a wonderful flower), Maximillian Sunflower, several types of yarrow, iris and daylilies (surprisingly xeric), gaillardias, ornamental grasses, and a heckuva lot more. I grow veges in a "hoophouse" (small greenhouse) and tomatoes in clear "tents"...protects from weather and cool nights. My biggest challenges here are not the dry conditions or cold winter, it's the clay soil (actually a benefit because it holds water) and HAIL!!! Holy Cow, this area can have some whopper hailstorms! I've learned that plants with fern-type leaves or narrow, flexible foliage do very well, while stuff like hostas get absolutely shredded. Maximillian's Sunflower, Agastache, Artemesias, and penstemons survived 19 hailstorms at my home last summer unscathed, and we had a couple of absolute whopper storms. Roses did surprisingly well too. Gaillardia got pummeled but bounced back very quickly. good luck with your new home and garden!!! Enjoy!! Nancy

Depending from where to where you are flying your dog, happy2beme, you may or may not need a pet shipping company. If it's a straight-forward flight but you will not be accompanying your dog, but can arrange to get him to the airport and have him reliably met at the other end, you might try to find a passenger on a suitable flight who can take him as if he were their dog, as excess baggage rather than cargo. Works out cheaper and makes for less crated waiting / hanging around time for the dog. I have flown many dogs many places, both nationally and internationally. It is very nerve-wracking ... for the human! The dogs do just fine! A few tips if not using a shipping company: - check and check again with the airline re min and max temps for flying an animal. - book as far ahead as possible and check and check again. Some short-haul planes can only carry X number of animals as excess baggage or cargo due to oxygen-ventilation issues (they calculate the flying time and the weight of your dog and how much oxygen they will require etc. First time I was faced with that I about had a fit but it all worked out okay. I had 3 big dogs on one flight, one in one baggage compartment, two in another, and a cat on an entirely different plane, all going to the same place). - make sure your crate is the right size for your dog. Airlines can and will refuse to fly your dog if the crate is too big or too small. If you're not sure, take your dog and crate to the airport days ahead of time and have them "tested". This gives you time to get a bigger or smaller crate if necessary. - put water in the crate water dish ahead of time and freeze it. Much better than having water sloshing out and gone before your dog even gets on the plane. - write a note to tape on the top of the crate - something like "Hi, my name is Kane. I'm moving to Kansas with my family. I'm a really nice boy but I might be a bit out of sorts with all this travel", or something relevant for your dog. Helps make your dog more personal to the people who will be moving him to and from the terminal and anywhere in between. - your dog won't need a collar or leash on him while in the crate. When you put your dog in the crate at the terminal, take them off and tape them securely to the top of the crate, so you or whoever is meeting him at the other end has easy access to them. - no sedatives or tranquilizers. Good luck to you and Kane.