Unfortunately, you will not have much success planting a lawn this time a year in Illinois. A suggestion: In the fall, around September 1, plant an acre or less around your house, especially in front. A slit seeder is good for this. Use the best blend of Kentucky blue grass seed you can afford. Fertilize with starter fertilizer immediately after you plant and again in November. This is important: Do not skimp on the fertilizer. Your results will show in the spring, next year. Water, Water, Water, three times a day, but just enough to keep the soil damp. KBG germinates slowly. Takes about 3 weeks. Did I say to water ? You have a big job on your hands. Do it correctly and you will not have to do it again. Expand your lawn every year thereafter by dormant seeding (assuming you will not be able to irrigate 3 acres). Stay involved with your lawn. Become addicted to this forum. Read everything you can and decide whats appropriate for you. Cultural practices: Cut long, Water deeply. Good luck with your lawn and your home. Next year you may be posting pictures of your sucessful creation. Good luck

"BTW - history completely contradicts your belief in soil testing. Almost nobody gets soil tests now and they weren't even available to homeowners until recently. Like a lot of modern technology, it can be a useful tool. However, people got along just fine without them in the not to distant past." What does that even mean? History contradicts your belief in soil testing? How does history contradict a belief in soil testing? That sentence is an example of making up something that sounds intelligent but has no basis in fact. Soil testing is an extremely important part of all the crops growing in this country. If we had a better understanding of soil science earlier in the 20th century then the dust bowl probably wouldn't have happened, or at least it wouldn't have been so bad. Turfgrass, like any crop, has its ideal soil conditions. The closer you can get to the ideal, the healthier the grass. How would you know if you need lime? Let's say you need lime, which one would you use? What about a phosphorus deficiency. Most fertilizers have little P, so are you supposed to guess if you have deficiencies? Andy's plan is the right way to do it. Sure you can do a renovation by omitting steps, but if you want the best results you will do it the right way. Rushing it will usually result in doing it again next fall.

Maybe, if it needs moisture, you should mix up some "Bug Juice" and pour it into some holes in the compost or just on the compost. Use some the "sheer neglect" compost as part of the starter in the BJ. For matters of experimentation, why not make a small pile (from the big pile), add more nitrogen in the form of some alfalfa pellets or other greens that are easy to obtain, and some of the compost that "happened" and see if you can't get a smaller steaming pile. Then you could gradually add stuff from the big pile. Also, use the bug juice to moisten that as you are building it. Here is a link that might be useful: Bug Juice Recipe

If it turns out that you do not have a hard drive or other hardware problem, there is something else to consider. Taking the machine to someone and paying them to figure out and fix your problem may not be cheap or quick. If your machine is capable of running Win 7, maybe your $ would be better spent to upgrade to that...unless you are trying to save files that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. Even if you fix the machine without doing this, you have to identify how and why this infection occurred in the first place. If you do not do this, then all your time-effort-money will be wasted because you will repeat the same errors and will certainly become infected again. Do you have any idea how this happened? Did you download any free toolbars-games-screensavers? Did you open an email attachment without scanning it? Do you normally click on unfamiliar links (especially on Facebook or MySpace) without checking them out first? If you did any such thing, you have to STOP until you learn more about how to keep yourself and your machine safe.