Keep Working or Retire? THAT IS THE QUESTION

This is for the men who might be thinking about retiring. You never know what your wife might have in store for you. KNOW THE FACTS BEFORE MAKING A DECISION!!

CENTIPEDE GRASS -- The Devils Gift to Man

For the first 40 years of my life I lived in Asheville, NC and Greenville, SC, and I must say that I always had a good looking yard. The secret to having a nice looking lawn in those two areas was having fescue grass, fertilizing it and keeping it mowed and that it.

We moved to Lexington, SC late in 1984 and purchased a new house that had not been landscaped in anyway. When spring of 1985 arrives we are told by neighbors that it is a must to have centipede grass due to the heat and soil conditions in the Lexington area. To make a long story short we put in centipede grass and have been struggling with it ever since. First of all we found out that there was not a sufficient amount of rainfall to keep the grass green and living during the hot humid summers that we experience here in Lexington. So it was drag the garden hose and water the grass --- drag the hose and water some more. After a couple of years of this we installed a sprinkle system and now we are all set to have one of the best looking yards in the subdivision. However, there were a few things that we were yet to learn about centipede grass as there are a couple of things that will make you wish you had never seen a lawn of centipede grass, such as: brown patch, dollar spot, large patch, fairy rings, nematodes, ground pearls, moles, voles, gophers, chinch bugs, fungi, grubs, chlorosis, yellowing, iron deficiencies, excessive nitrogen, not enough nitrogen, high soil pH, low soil pH, excessive thatch & etc. Or course we have had all of these at one time or another.

The good news is that information is available on how to take care of centipede grass. You can find it all over the internet, ask a neighbor, or check with one of your local lawn maintenance companies such as Trugreen, Lawn Doctor or Lawn-O-Green. The following is some of the advice we have received concerning this subject: bag your clippings, don't bag your clippings, water often, don't water until you see it dying, cut it short, cut it long, don't use lime, put lime on twice a year, use a general fertilizer with a 3-1-2 nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium such as 12-4-8, use only 16-4-8 fertilizer. The list goes on, but I am getting tired just thinking about it.

The biggest problem that I have encountered is not with the centipede grass, but getting it mowed when it needed to be mowed.

A Relationship with God

This morning I was reading an article in the April 2008 issue of Homelife magazine. The article was by Tullian Tchividjian (Grandson of Billy Graham) telling about his life. At the age of 16 Tullian dropped out of high school and his lifestyle became so radically disruptive that his parents had to kick him out of the house. He was escorted off his parents property by the police. With his newfound freedom he begin chasing worldly pleasure harder than most others of his age. He was living his life on edge, trying desperately to find himself through promiscuity, drugs, and alcohol, but the harder he pursued these things, the more lost he felt. One night, at the age of 21, he returned to his apartment after a night out, feeling emptier that he had ever felt. That night Tullian fell to his knees telling God that he simply could not do it anymore on his own and that he desperately needed God to rescue him. Tullian said that his life did not change overnight, but slowly and surely he begin to change from the inside out. He no longer wanted to be with the same people in the same places doing the same things, but he wanted to be with Christians; wanting to pray; wanting to read his Bible; and wanting to resist temptation. In this article Tullian said that "The problem between knowing about God and knowing God is a massive as the Grand Canyon. And that distance, that separateness, is something that must be resolved."
When I read Tullian's story I could not help but think how similar our stories were. We both were raised in Christian homes, we both knew about God, but we did not know God or have a relationship with Him. Thank God for His Amazing Grace!

Cooper River Bridge Walk or Not?

Kathy & I have been going to Charleston for the last several years particapating in the Cooper River Bridge Walk. This year we went with our good friends Bob, Jane, Hennie & Bonnie, and stayed at a Villa on Wild Dunes. We had some good seafood, played cards until we saw spots in front of our eyes, and needless to say had a wonderful time.

Saturday afternoon after the big event we were sitting around playing cards again and Hennie made the comment that he was not near as tired as he expected to be. Like Forest Gump that is all that I have got to say about that.

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God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.