Trip to renew my Driver's License

Well, today it was raining in the morning, so I decided to come to work a bit late because I had to renew my drivers license. Not a fun thing to do here in Massachusetts's, but I needed to get it done before my birthday this month. I tried to do it online, but I received a message, from the RMV, that my pic was taken more than 9 years ago and needed to have a new one taken at their office.

The Registry of Motor Vehicle's used to send out a letter informing you that it was time to renew but the state no longer does this. Why? So they can charge you a fine, for not doing so. The also do not notify you any longer when your plate registration is in need of renewing.

I am finding out more and more about how the state of Massachusetts is taxing it's residents to death, raising taxes, not notifying you, going after small businesses (like landscapers) every day. I guess we are back to being TAXACHUSETTS, but now they are being very sneaky about it. The police are out in force stopping everyone, so that they can have more money for the cities and towns in Massachusetts.

The trip to the RMV, was a lot more enjoyable than my last trip. New technology has sped up the process and I was in and out in 20 minutes. I also was able to sign up to Vote, what a great trip.

First Application of lawn fertilizer, for the season.

Today, I am at Olin College in Needham, Massachusetts, applying the first fertilizer application of the year. This is a large campus and I will be using forty, 50 pound bags of fertilizer to cover all of the lawn area's around the campus.

The fertilizer I am using is from LESCO and it is a Pre-Emergent herbicide, called Dimension. It contains 19% Nitrogen, 0 % Potash and 6% Sulphur along with 0.10% DIMENSION.

We use this to control new weeds from germinating, like, Dandelions, crabgrass and broad leaf weeds. This fertilizer forms a protective layer over the ground, to prevent germination, of the undesired weeds. After this application we have to wait about 10 weeks before we reseed those areas.

This will take Rich and I all day to finish. We will be fertilizing approximately 640,000 sg feet of turf. I will be using a "power spreader"made by PERMAGREEN and Rich will be doing the smaller area's with a walk behind spreader, made by LESCO.

Health Care Mess in Massachusetts

Well today, I have to vent about health care in Massachusetts. I have to go to the Doctor and I was sent a letter saying my coverage was not enough, so I would have make a co-payment of $250.00, I grumbled but accepted that and was going to pay the day of my visit. This morning my health care provider calls and says there is a mistake and it will cost me $2000.00.

Well, this mad me really mad, so I told the guy on the phone, to cancell my appointment and hung up. He called back later and told me to not hang up this time, and that he would "wave" the $2000 fee, becuase of the mistake.

In Massachusetts, we are required to have health care insurance by law. This is all thanks to our former Govenor Mitt Romney, you all know him as the guy who ran for president last year. Well he made a complete mess out of the health care system here in Massachusetts, so he could promote this as he was campaigning. Now, that it is a mess, he doesn't even live here anymore. The problem is that Health Care, in the whole country, is in a complete mess because of politicians and the Health Insurance Industry (lobbyist's) and it is only going to get worse.

A quick melting

After having a week of 50F degree days and a weekend of 60F degrees, the 6-7 inches of snow from last weeks storm melted away. Spring fever hit and everyone was out walking around, without jackets, jogging, walking, riding bikes and skateboarding. The kids were all out running around, playing and having a great time, getting rid of that energy, that they have been storing all winter. I also saw quite a few bugs, fly by. Spring was in the air and everyone was out enjoying it.

Can the start of landscape season, be far away? Spring time in Massachusetts is always "tricky", so we just have to wait and see. Its time to get ready for the busiest part of the Landscape season. This is a time when I get my boots ready by spraying them with a silicon spray to waterproof them. Having wet cold feet when you are out working is not fun. I also lift some weights and go for some walks so that my body is in better shape. Time to get ready....

It was also time to set the clocks back. I don't understand why we continue doing this and it takes me awhile to readjust to the new time.

Landscape Pictures

The forecast is for continued warm temps for this week. I spoke with my boss, Rob and I will be going down to the shop, on Monday morning, want to chat with him to see, what is going on with any new projects for this spring and to get some pictures to add to this blog. Rob, is a very creative guy and has a good eye and talent for taking "Landscape Pictures". Last year, he bought a really good Nikon digital camera and I want to send the pictures from his computer to mine.

I want to use those pictures here, when needed, to spice up the blog. It will show my viewers, some of our completed projects, so I can talk about them and the customer interaction with us on the projects. It will also show how landscapes are done here in rocky, Massachusetts.

Let's begin

This is my first attempt at blogging and I am very excited about it. This blog will be about what goes on in my daily activities as a Landscaper in Massachusetts, USA. I have always loved doing landscaping. I will share with you what I am doing and the reason for it in a fun way, not technical, you can find that elsewhere on the internet. I will share secretes and tips on how to do landscaping.

Landscaping is a seasonal job in this part of the world and during this past winter, I needed something to do, that would bring in another stream of income. So along with my daily adventures in Landscaping, I will also be talking about my new home based networking business as that progresses daily. Yes, Landscaping and networking are very much the same as you will see.

See you tomorrow.