JL

I live in Houston and the front of our house faces west. You can see in the pictures below that all the bushes on the north side of our walkway died while south side survived over the past few freezes and whatever other conditions they were subjected to including getting way more water than the south side of our house because our neighbor to the north has all kinds of stuff in their yard they are constantly watering.

The yard:

I aerated very well and put down weed and feed in the spring. The St. Aug just never spread. Reading online it mentions putting down some sand to give the runners a chance to spread. Our dirt is pretty much rock hard at this point. What should I do now before winter and what should I do again in spring to give it the best chance to regrow? Or is this a dig up and resod the lawn situation?



Prepping the beds:
The boxwoods and gold splash windcreepers on the north side were already dead and pulled out. I've stirred up the dirt, there is clay about 4" below the soil. I was thinking putting some large rocks along the wall to protect the lattice then build up the beds 4-6" with compost?? The boxwoods on the south side survived and we will likely replant boxwoods in the same place on the north side. Any recommendation on what to plant behind the boxwoods? The gold splash windcreepers survived on the south side and I just dug them up, but we want to put something different in, maybe something perennial that flowers.

I know we are coming up on winter. What would be recommendation as to what to do now or what we should wait for spring to do? Wife is in a rush, but I don't want to plant stuff and it not survive winter.

Big Back Billy and Oak Tree. I could just keep rotating between those two and be happy.

I’m surprised by West Virginia. I thought a lot of Appalachia would be on food stamps.

$6 for 4 pounds of delicious pumpkin pie.

I shoot clays maybe twice a year in charity tournaments and am tired of showing up with my semiauto. I was looking at the browning citori, but didn't want to drop that much money unless I was shooting more? Is there another over/under at a lower price point that is good quality? or is it worth it to just spend the money and get something nicer?

That's not the point. You fund your kids college accounts, house down payment, retirement while you are alive. For your grandkids you fund sending them to private school, college, down payments for houses, retirement while you are alive so that you can watch them enjoy life more and not just let them catch millions of dollars when you die.

Basically you pay for your kids and grandkids to be upper class while you are alive vs. after you die.

Prolly gets paid every time he breaks the record so no sense in doing his max when he can get paid in 5 kg incriments.

Well that’s depressing haha. Guess I’ll pass on the sailboat.

It cranks out different scenarios quickly and shows its work (equations it used to calculate). Told it what hobbies I wanted to , trips I wanted to take and it factors it all in. Anybody tried another AI model they like? I’m pretty impressed with what it’s able to show me on savings rates, spend rates, and leaving money for my kids. It prompts good questions to tighten up the model.

Is using a rack for standing shoulder press and bent over rows acceptable? I do it all the time. My gym has 5 racks though and they are almost never all full.