Here are the words no subsistence farmer wants to hear about something he’s already done: “Youdonwannadothat.” That’s what I heard from the nice guy who often helps me at Verbena Farm Supply.

You may remember that Amanda and I spread fescue seed and ammonium nitrate together on a couple of the fields two weeks ago. Afterward I decided to spread some fescue at our house in Vestavia Hills, so I stopped in at Verbena Farm Supply on the way back to town from the farm. I asked him for a 50 lb. bag of fescue seed, and I asked, should I get a couple of bags of ammonium nitrate to put down with it? “Youdonwannadothat. That’d burn it up.” The polite word for what I said to myself at that point was “Oh, shoot.” How did I decide it made sense to put fertilizer down with Kentucky 31?

The bad news is the fescue seed we put down probably won’t make it. The good news is that the ammonium nitrate really gave a goose to the rye grass that was already growing there, and it’s now dissolved by all the rain we’ve had recently and should help the soil be receptive to fescue now. So this weekend we replanted fescue.

Saturday Amanda and I first picked up a little topsoil to fill in some ruts that had formed in the soil from all the rain. You can see Amanda pulling the topsoil out of the bucket with her hoe while I looked on from my shaded viewing station on Tractor.

One of the things we’ve figured out is that too much time on Tractor keeps me from getting the exercise I know I need, so even though Tractor is invaluable and can help us accomplish all manner of tasks, we need to work to get me down and walking on the ground whenever we can.

Once we finished filling in the ruts, we did a final raking to smooth the soil, and I walked the area between the house site and the barn, spreading fescue seed. We sure hope it takes this time.