A giant destroyer, and fire!

Good morning.
Another nice day yesterday.
I got going early, heading to the south side of town to get a new key for the Kia. I figured it's been about 4 weeks since the other one disappeared so it wasn't coming back.   :-) It took just over an hour to get there and back with the morning traffic. But they had one in stock, and cut it while I waited. Cost...$29.87. Of course, that was just for the key. If I wanted the transmitter thingy to lock and unlock the doors, that would be $160, plus $40 for the service dept. to reprogram it. I passed on another transmitter. I have one now and shouldn't need two.
Back home, after Craig got up, I made us coffee, and we were off. First to a garden center for grass seed, then the bank, P.O. and groceries.
Back home, I got working on my garden reducing project. With the area cleared, I now needed to fill,level and smooth the area for grass seed.

It took about 8 wheel barrel loads of compost to do the job. I have various compost piles way at the back of the yard, behind some arborvitaes in various stages of decomposition. . And while back at my compost piles, I discovered a woodchuck hole. We'd seen a young woodchuck in the yard. and I figured I'd trap him later this fall. But upon seeing the hole dug underneath one of my compost piles, I decided to get him now.

They have this product called the giant destroyer. They are basically little sticks that you insert a fuse into, light, and throw in the hole. You need a rock to cover the hole so the woodchuck can't get out, and then I used a shovel to add dirt around the hole to keep the fumes in. Upon ignition, the stick produces copious amounts of sulfur gas. It becomes basically a gas chamber. That little bastard won't eat any more of my yard.    }:-)

But something happened I didn't anticipate.
This compost pile is a fairly newer one, which means I've put a lot of dead grasses on this pile last fall.
The woodchuck apparently burrowed just under the bottom of the pile instead of into the ground. Smoke was coming up through the pile in various places as the gas was slowly escaping. I figured he'd still get enough gas to do him in and went about hauling more compost to the garden area. I decide to take a break and went inside the house. Very proud of myself, I told Craig to look out the window, that I gassed a woodchuck and he could see the smoke wafting across the back yard. He went and looked and yelled to me that there was fire. I ran out, grabbed the hose and dashed to the back of the yard. The heat of the combustion had caught the dead grasses on the top of the pile on fire! Flames were already 6ft high. I pressed the handle of the nozzle and aimed it at the fire. All of a sudden the pressure dropped, I yelled to Craig "I've got no pressure, there's a kink in the hose!" He frantically looked for a kink and I yelled again, "there's still a kink in the hose!" He then realizes what he'd done. Trying to help me, as I grabbed the hose and ran, he went and turned on the water, not knowing I already had the water on. So you guessed it, he had actually turned the water off. He quickly turned it back on, and I was able to get the fire out. He came back and held the hose while I pulled apart the pile extinguishing any hot spots we found. Once all the smoke had cleared completely, I attached the sprinkler head and sat it there to soak the pile real good.
And after all that, it was definitely time for a cocktail break.
 I then finished up the new to be grass area. Smoothed the soil, and spread the grass seed. Now I'll need to keep it moist until the grass germinates.

I still haven't received the new acrylic handle for the mo-ho. It's been a week today that I ordered it. But I've been checking online and it took 2 days to charge my credit card, and I finally got an e-mail yesterday that it's been shipped. I've also been checking my credit card online daily to make sure of no hanky-panky. I do this when I order from a company I've never dealt with before. You never really know if they're legit. There's really only so many things to check about a company. I always make sure they have a physical address listed and a phone number. And I cross check with a couple of search engines for verification.
You can't be too safe.  :-)
And I think after 2 days lugging around dirt, plants and patio blocks, I'm going to try and take it easy today. I'm still doing wet, warm compresses in the morning for my back, although it doesn't seem as achy in the morning as it's been, even despite all the work I've been doing. I am doing back exercises and also some yoga positions a friend e-mailed me to try.
And with that, time to get going.