We overseed with rye for several reasons, but primarily for winter fire protection. We live in a rural area where winter wildfires are fairly common, or at least they have been ever since 2005. Prior to that, we never had them. Our DS is a professional firefighter and also a volunteer firefighter and my DH is the chief of our local VFD, and also is a certified professional firefighter in Texas for the last 32 years. (I have to point out he primarily works as a law enforcement officer but at the time he was hired, they all went through the fire academy and the police academy so that they were cross-trained and had the flexibility to do both jobs.) Because we understand the rate at which wildfire can move and because we often are away from home at wildfires elsewhere in the county and are not at home to protect our own home from wildfire, it is important to us to maintain a green envelope around the house and detached barn-style garage. It isn't that green grass won't burn, because it can and it will....but just that it will not ignite as easily as dormant bermuda grass. Our hope is that when a fast-moving grass fire comes this way, the green rye grass will slow it down and keep it from reaching the structures before a fire truck arrives. Most years, the worst and most fast-moving fires have not been in our specific portion of the county very often, but one year we had 4 separate wildfires within about a quarter-mile of our place in a two-week period and I was pretty much a nervous wreck after that....especially when friends call me on my cell phone when I am gone to a fire somewhere and say "Are you at home? It looks like your place is on fire?" At least having the green grass on the acre around the house and other structures gives us a little peace of mind. Secondly, I hate, hate, hate bermuda grass. I'd rather have bare ground. It is horrifically invasive and will creep and crawl into every garden bed of any type. We did not plant the bermuda grass here. Whoever owned the farmland we purchased likely planted it as pasture grass. When we bought the land, it looked like your typical mix of tall and short prairie grasses mixed with forbs and a bit of invasive brush. Then, after we mowed the grass down short right before the builder started building the house, we saw the bermuda popping up all over in the absence of taller grasses to shade it out. One of our old-rancher/farmer neighbors noticed it one day and said "Oh, great! You have bermuda. You won't even have to plant any." I said something like "yeah, great" but I was thinking something else entirely opposite of that. Part of the deliberate overseeding every fall is to weaken the bermuda so that it will be slower to grow and slower to move into the flower beds, shrub beds, etc. My main weapon in the battle to defeat the bermuda grass is to shade it out. We've been here 14 years, and the trees and shrubs (we have planted many, many, many of them) are shading out the bermuda grass now in some parts of the yard. When they do that, I plant ground covers in the bare spots. I won't be happy until it is all gone though. So my goal is the opposite of yours. I hate it and want to get rid of it, and you want to grow it. We have red clay...the kind of clay that breaks shovels when you try to dig in it. That sort of red clay in combination with bermuda grass is a horrible combination. When the soil is dry, which is most of the time in this state, you cannot dig out or pull out the bermuda grass. Did I mention I hate it? If your soil is red clay, you need a real tiller. A big rear-tine tiller. A really strong, sturdy, rear-tine tiller. We have a Troy-Bilt. Those little cultivators/tillers (we have a Mantis and a Troy-Bilt in that size and the Mantis is far superior in performance) are great for well-enriched and well-amended soil that is not strongly compacted or for native sandy-silty soil that is not overly compacted. We've been breaking ground out back for an additional vegetable garden plot, and I used The Mantis for most of it. It has worked just fine on most of that area. When I hit the red clay at the north end of that future garden plot, Tim rototilled it with the Troy-Bilt rear-tine tiller. Now, in the future, since it has been initially broken and will be well-amended, I will be able to use the Mantis to work organic matter into the soil, but when I tried to rototill the dense red and very compacted clay with it last week, both the Mantis and I were bouncing all over the ground and barely making a dent in it. We normally only use the big tiller the first time we break ground. The cultivator is great for mixing in amendments, but I'm even trying to stop doing that regularly because any sort of tilling (or digging) is not necessarily good for the soil tilth. You don't have to buy a rototiller and, in fact, I wouldn't buy one if I just wanted to use it for one project. I'd rent one for the day. Or, if you check the garden section or the handyman section of your local paper, you may find ads for people who own rototillers and who will come rototill up a spot for someone. Around here, they usually charge a little less than it would cost to rent a big rototiller for the day. If the soil that was dumped into the place where the pool used to be is fairly loose and not heavily compacted, then the smaller cultivator might handle it just fine. I love my Mantis cultivator but it is not up to the task of easily rototilling very dense and very compacted clay. It's great for everything else. Dawn

Biggest dogs we ever had were our 10 lb. mini Dachshunds - especially our 2 special guys - seriously Alpha - but benevolent. We had as many as 4 at one time, with the Alpha I "supervising" at the beginning and Alpha II, at the end - although I am sure the 2 of them would have been the best of friends. As others have pointed out, there are safety considerations in the car - not to mention finding your Dachshund straddling the head rests in the car. Re the leash issue - when your friend has her Dachshund on her lap, the leash should be held tight because if her Dachshund sees ANYTHING that he will consider prey - squirrel, etc. - he will be off - they are hard-wired that way. Then of course there are certain people they do not like. And other dogs that they might want to take on. There was once a calendar that pitted a Dachshund against a Rotti - and it was so true - because every Rotti we ever met wanted to eat our guys for lunch - and vice versa (but they got along famously with Dobes). It used to scare me because our Alphas - while realizing that danger might exist - were not about to shirk their duty to protect Mommy, the adored one (they loved Daddy, but Mommy was "it"). Dachshunds of course have back/neck issues - and yes, our special guys had worst case back/neck problems and each had full body surgery. A leap from your friend's lap could easily be the "event" that triggers a disc rupture (especially when it can happen just walking down the hall). Hopefully your friend's Dachshund falls into the mild temperament variety - our others did - so they were a happy family with a leader - but even they would try and dive bomb from our laps if they saw something. Personally, I prefer the super Alphas. I went to Woofstock in Toronto a couple of years ago and met a whole group of Dachshunds and the parents were all discussing how nervous their dogs were and there sensitive tummies???? Not my guys - the gourmets of gourmands - but then there is so much mucking about these days with dogs. I really hope your friend's Dachshund is not one of the toy dogs - I saw one in the U.S. that weighed less than 2 lbs. - a Dapple like my last guy - and he was on an extendable leash - full length - on a patterned marble floor. He blended right in and was almost stepped on. He was so small I felt sick - and the health issues this dog will have. All Dachshunds love me - with the most aggressive being the first to hug me when I see on on the street - love it! I think your friend needs to have a serious talk with someone who has lived with Dachshunds for some time and knows a lot about them. Personally, I am in favour of stopping breeding of the angels due to the back issues - the pain and heartbreak of the surgery is horrible. For this reason we now have an American Eskimo - I will never get over those long legs - and he worries when we meet a Dachshund because he senses the bond. Best of luck, but I am concerned. My Dachshunds were the dogs of my life. By the way, if nothing else, tell your friend that in Canada, Dachshund back surgery costs about $8,000 - that might scare her.

Sethramesh, oh I'm happy you saw my post. :-) Most dogs don't like the halter kind of "collar." I've heard this time and again and it was true for my dogs too. I think they except the Easy Walker much better and folks I've heard from who've tried it loved it... but I haven't tried it myself but intend to get one. The method of training I described should work well with any type of collar... but I remember my daughter's Lab/Boxer as a puppy and man oh man what energy! Had those been out then I'd have definitely gotten my daughter one. Please keep us posted and let us know how this works for you. I teach dog and parrot training and I love feedback. Cutter, thanks! Yes it's very important to set ourselves and our dogs up to succeed, and training is so much more fun that way. I'm with you on not liking jerking... it's not good for me and it's not good for my dog. I end up at the chiropractor's office... and eventually, so does my dog. Shelties are really sweet little dogs. I used to have a pair of them. The only thing I didn't like was the shedding. Wow can they shed. Have fun training your little girl that way. Have you gotten her yet?

I would never put pea gravel in an area where kids play, falling, swinging, sliding, running as that make for a much harder fall than simply landing on grass. It would be even worse than falling on the ground as the gravel can and will burrow into the skin, can cause rashes, burns, bleeds and besides, children like to put it in their ears and noses. They will also strew it in the grass and lawn mowers are likely to hit it and furl it in unwanted areas. Sand is a haven not only for sand fleas and cat pees but any wildlife that might like to play there in off hours. Keep the area well composted during the off season and the ground will be soft. This is not brain surgery. Keep the area composted and/or mulched for safe play. If you do, however, use mulch, be sure none of the children has allergies to the mulch which, same as grass, will serve up swelling, runny nose and hives for some. If you use compost, make sure it is well composted and there is no smell to it. Well-composted vegetable material from your kitchen and garden and/or animal manure should have no offensive odor. If you smell it, you either used too many greens and not even browns, or it is not well cooked/composted. Throw your coffee and tea grounds in the area. Worms will work the area, make the ground soft. Soil's best friends are worms. Throw coffee and tea grounds and they will come. As far as that plastic mulch, I would never use that. It gets very hot in summer and is cold in winter. It would not be very pliable in cold weather and it would steam in summertime. I also do not like the recycled rubber tire mulch. How hideous. That was designed for huge cars and trucks, not for child performance. Besides, just the smell would trigger asthma for some. Children seem to be allergic to more things in their environments now because they do not have all the allergens in order to reach desensitization as we once had. With less supervision from older siblings and/or other older children as there was years ago assisting in monitoring their play, children are more likely to be left on their own while mothers are tending to other business. I know many mothers who work from home and who just stick their kids outside while they work. It is impossible to properly tend to children if properly doing a job inside. We are not omniscient beings.