Graham Sedam Writes

If you'd like to catch up in this series, please read the following posts. Kiss My Grass, Part 1: The Beginning Kiss My Grass, Part 2: Speak To The Trees Kiss My Grass, Part 3: The Trees Have Eyes When we gutted our newly purchased back yard in the spring/summer of 2013, we also tore down and got rid of a broken, tetanus-giving, rickety old swing set. (I think that's a sufficient amount of adjectives.) Our back yard is mostly sloped, although a mostly gradual slope, and the swing set was positioned at the top of said slope, so it leaned as well. If one were to swing or use the slide, the direction of travel would be downhill. Nothing about this swing set gave us any sense of safety for our children. The kids, numbering only two at the time, weren't happy about us removing the swing set, but they also didn't know we were planning on putting a new one in at some point. We knew the replacement swing set would get a lot of use, and if we took care of it, the swin

Read Part 1: The Beginning Read Part 2: Speak To The Trees Picking up where I left off in Part Two, we were on a self-described and self-directed three-year tree plan. The business of removing and trimming trees is not cheap. I didn't want it to take ten years to accomplish. I wanted to move on to other improvements and expenses. Three years worked out for us and kept the expense pretty consistent from year to year. Plus, I wanted to have it done before I started modifying the yard with landscaping or structures. I DO have a plan even if the plan gets changed a bit over time. Our remaining five trees were in need of some attention. They weren't unhealthy, but our reasoning went beyond aesthetics. It's never a bad idea to remove dead or damaged limbs before they remove themselves. When trees are in close proximity, they can crowd each other and cause parts of the tree to become a dead-zone or cause the tree to lean as it grows. There are many reasons to trim a tre

Read Part 1: The Beginning   The second summer that we lived in our house saw us maintaining the grass, but also beginning to tend to the trees. I'm a big believer in taking care of the trees you own. We live in suburbia, and the trees don't respect property lines. Also, they can be a safety hazard to those present in the yard and a structural hazard for buildings nearby. We have had plenty of power outages in the neighborhood because people haven't done their part. Sure, some instances are unavoidable, but people usually don't take care of their trees because it's an expense that isn't "fun." One thing I didn't mention in Part 1 was that the grass being sunburned wasn't the only issue we came home to the July of that first summer. Before we could see the grass in the backyard, we saw a stick laying on our garage roof. The stick came from a cottonwood tree near our garage and was about two feet long and about two inches wide. It pro

The Beginning I've never been the type of person to put too much effort into a lawn. But then again, it wasn't until we bought our house in 2013 that I actually owned a yard. And to raise the stakes a little higher, we had sod laid in our backyard two months after we moved in. We essentially gutted the backyard because it was in a bad state of being. I still wish to this day that we had taken more pictures. So, after the time, money, and effort to get to that point, I didn't really want to see that investment go, um, bad. Before we had laid the sod, the backyard was just dirt, literally. A lot of work went into getting it to the point of being just dirt. We had to disassemble and remove an old and rickety swingset. We removed random bushes that had no rhyme or reason to their placement. We dug out a cement footing that, because of Google Earth, we believe supported what looked like a light pole. The neighbor behind us had and has a mostly forested backyard, and it had

For a while, I had considered trying my hand at constructing a fire pit and a surrounding patio in my backyard. The idea of being able to look out upon and use something I created is appealing, especially considering it should be cheaper to do than hiring someone or some company. Despite this, I decided to go with Option B and hire it out. Two weeks ago, we had no fire pit and patio. Last week, a crew spent a couple of days doing the work. This week, we were able to use it for the first time. The main reasons or conclusions I came to for deciding to hire it out are as follows: One, I didn't want it to turn into a summer-long project. I have other projects I want to work on and would never hire out. Two, the quality of the end product is pretty safely guaranteed when a company who constructs many of these over a summer is involved. I have never attempted this type of project. Three, I want to enjoy the end result this summer, throughout the summer. Fortunately, there was an op

Last week, I bought a used Craftsman tractor, mowing deck, bagger attachment, and snow blower attachment that a neighbor was selling for his son. I got it all for $800. Considering how much it would cost for everything brand new, I figured that putting some money into any repairs forthcoming would be worth the investment. It seems to run well and was taken care of over the years. All of the items purchased are certainly not in perfect​ condition, but they don't need to be. I've been wanting to get a tractor since we moved into our house in May of 2013. Our lot is almost a half-acre and the yard is mostly wide open grassland. While I have enjoyed the exercise and time to myself when mowing for two hours with the push mower, I know that cutting down mowing time will help me accomplish more, faster and thus give me more time in general for other things. It's hard to complain about that. More time is worth $800. The irony, though, is the time spent earning the money to in

I'm still not sure, but I'm about as sure as I'll probably ever be. I've thought about it for many years, and I've had many design ideas as a result. In fact, last year alone, I had a few ideas I had thought through pretty far into the process. And, in the end, it all came down to the idea that I've executed. It's been a balancing act of going too far and not going far enough. Although it comes down to an opinion based on perspective, I think I made a pretty good decision. Last week, I constructed a basic sound-treated booth for recording. Though the primary inspiration for building it is for use in recording vocals, it can be used for anything that fits within it. I've known that I wanted something to use for recording this winter and delaying the building of a sound-treated booth would only kick the can further down the road. I'm good at that. You'll notice that I wrote "sound-treated booth" and not soundproof booth. Sound c