This past weekend was spent filled with determination, sweat, and concerns about hydration levels.

I was driven to accomplish a goal I have had all season: seed my horse paddock and back yard.

Now, this may seem a straight forward task, and it is, once the prep work is completed. My father and I spent a weekend back in May raising up the grade in part of the pasture, to stop water pooling there - we did seed that at the time, however, beyond that we left it to neglect. As such, it became a area of tall, green weeds that my horse decided not worthy of eating and instead used that area as an outhouse (her own privacy screen created by the weeds, no doubt).

My back yard is a more complex creature. Our property was once a nursery, and, looking at images of it from back then, it was well maintained and beautiful. Unfortunately, the two property owners in the interim since our purchase allowed things to go a bit wild. We have spent the last two years expanding the backyard, installing fence, and pulling weeds; on top of getting the rest of the farm property up to snuff!

When removing the old chain link my husband discovered that underneath the Stinging Nettle, Mulberry trees, and Goldenrod, Poison Ivy was happily trailing along the base of the fence line. That was a learning curve - he looked like he had been involved in a chemical spill, large red splotches and welts over his arms and upper body. We do not recommend!

So, this past weekend was spent with help from a best friend and father (as fathers are helpful creatures) re-grading dirt, cleaning up weeds and Mulberry trees (anyone need Mulberry trees?) - this took about nine hours total, with a few decent breaks due to the heat.

We were exhausted. My Garmin watch said I had taken over 22,000 steps over the course of the day (2x my daily goal!).

That was day one.

Sunday was just me on my lonesome with an over seeder I had rented from our business neighbours The Equipment Centre, a bag of Sports field Blend Seed from The General Seed Company (not the cheapest blend available, but supposed to be the toughest, and with my population of dogs and a horse, we need something robust!) and a bag of 6-24-24 fertilizer from Underhills. I started at 9am in the horse paddock, walking the machine in both horizontal and vertical lines, then followed up with a round of fertilizer from the push spreader.

My horse watched impassively from her other paddock beside this one.

I then moved on to the back yard, which being a less smooth grade right across was tricky with the machine at time. These over seeders are not made for uneven or soft (sandy) terrain like what we have, so there were some heavy push moments. But, I did manage to get most of it done with the machine, then followed up with the small push spreader. Fertilizer was then applied everywhere!

Next came the less intense but just as important watering mode. Although we have a large property, and although I am sure the pivot sprinklers used in fields would be useful... we are not that advanced yet. So old faithful oscillating sprinkler it was! Every 20 minutes I moved it to a new area, and when it was in the horse paddock I had a bit of a trial chasing the ducks and chickens out of the way ("helping").

It was incredible how green the existing grass went with a little water after our fairly serious drought lately.

After the watering had been completed (not soaking, but the ground was damp, a good start for seed germination) I went inside to crash on the couch.

It was now 4:00pm.

I was very satisfied with what I was able to accomplish, and was further pleased when earlier than fore casted (my weather app had said 3am) at around 11pm it began to rain.

Now as long as the weather forecasts for this week hold true and we get rain every day, I should not need to worry about babysitting the soil - it should stay just damp enough on its own.

I do not think I could manage this type of endeavour every weekend, but such is the life when you want to improve your property - it just never ends!

*AI image to give an idea of the state of my yard prior (not my ideal for what Pyrenees should look like, but the dirt is correct)