Getting A Building Permit

[Timothy]

Boy, from what you describe 6K sounds like a deal!

I have an old HS chum, PGA club pro who retired there.  I know lawns are pretty much non existent so it sounds like you’ve done the property a solid!

[billt]

A few people have grass, but most don't. It takes a lot of water and maintenance to keep it looking good. So most use gravel, or else concrete. I don't have much in the way of shrubs. In the back I've got 3 Palms and an Evergreen, and that's it. It's all on automatic irrigation, so it's easy to take care of.

[Big Frank]

It must be nice to have a project finished that fast.

I wouldn't want to live anywhere without a lawn. The only time I needed to water mine was after I tilled up and reseeded a couple of areas. I fertilized the whole lawn once in the last 27 years, saw no difference, and didn't waste time and money on it again. I don't even worry about weeds anymore, except I have to pop a thistle out of the ground every now and then, because I like to go barefoot when it's warm enough. The weeds stay green better than the grass, and it still looks good enough to me after I mow. None of my neighbors control their weeds anyway. No matter how many weeds I pulled, or burned with a torch, and no matter how much Roundup I sprayed, I still got weeds from the seeds blowing in from every direction. I can't get rid of the dandelions in my front yard because the place across the street is loaded with them. I used to pull all the chicory out too but my neighbors don't and I can't get rid of that either. It still looks better than my concrete driveway, and is a lot nicer to walk on barefoot.

[billt]

I mowed grass and shoveled snow for 38 years. I haven't now for the last 27. I don't miss it, and I'll never do either again. Time in the pool is better spent.

[Big Frank]

I mowed grass and shoveled snow for 38 years. I haven't now for the last 27. I don't miss it, and I'll never do either again. Time in the pool is better spent.

I don't like swimming pools. As a kid I would sometimes swim in a public pool instead of a lake. They had so much chlorine in it that it didn't matter what color you were going in, you came out white. I'd much rather swim in a lake, which we have plenty of. Besides bordering on 4 of the 5 Great Lakes, Michigan has 64,980 inland lakes. 6,537 of them are 10 acres or more. The biggest one is Houghton Lake, home the Tip Up Town USA Winter Festival, at 20,044 acres. There are thousands of visitors from several states every year, and it has it's own temporary post office in the winter. There are only 14 lakes in my county, with the biggest being halfway in another county. They range from a 19 acre lake in a local park to a 1,975 acre reservoir. No place in Michigan is more than six miles from a lake. Google Maps says I could be at one less than 4 miles away in 10 minutes.

Plus there are hundreds of rivers in Michigan totaling approximately 51,438 miles, if I just want to be near the water. Right now I'm about a mile from a 78.3 mile long river that flows through 3 counties. And there are over 300 waterfalls in Michigan, with Tahquamenon Falls' Upper Falls being second only to Niagara Falls as the largest waterfall east of the Mississippi River. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha mentions "the rushing Taquamenaw", where Hiawatha learned how to paddle a birchbark canoe. People still canoe the Tahquamenon River. I don't know of any swimming pools that inspired anyone to write a 22 part poem (actually 23 counting the introduction) that people still read 163 years later.   

[Sponsor]

[billt]

As a kid I would sometimes swim in a public pool instead of a lake. They had so much chlorine in it that it didn't matter what color you were going in, you came out white.

Public pools are over chlorinated. They have to be because kids piss and crap in them. They would rather deal with over chlorination than be shut down due to inner ear infections.

[Big Frank]

I've been in privately owned pools too and still prefer lakes and rivers. I guess living 0.5-0.9 miles away from 169 acres of water for 30 years (minus my time in the army) spoiled me. We need pics of that wall.