Thanks joepyeweed and soccer dad, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I didn't want to add too much information in the first post and overwhelm. Cultural Practices: Yes, I mow at the highest setting and water deeply and infrequently. I am still learning how to measure fertilizer in #/1000sqft instead of using Scott's rotary spreader and throwing it on the lawn, but I think the lawn has plenty of Nitrogen. Using the Scott's 4 step program in the past, I've started with step 1 in late April/early June when the ground temp is 50-55F and I see Forsythia bloom. Other Scott's steps have followed 6-8 weeks after the previous one. As I read more on this site I find steps 2 and 3 are not so good and my constant use of fungicide in the past has probably killed the good fungus too. After reading up on healthy soil I'm betting mine is lacking at this time. While I know it is great to mulch I have bagged since my fungal problems started and, very unfortunately, mulching simply spreads the lawn diseases. I may mulch my leaves this fall. I pull weeds by hand or use weed-B-gon to spot treat. pH: The pH has been a long issue and I'm not sure why. I've had several tests from the local Coop Ext as well as my own solution tester. The back yard has been between 5 and 5.6 for the last 5 years and the front has dropped from 6.8 to 6.2. I do test before I apply lime but I don't know why I can't keep the pH up. This is one reason that the organic method appeals to me - less pH testing and liming. Fungus: I agree with your assessment that N is too high. I should go test that with my solution tester. This is another reason to not follow Scott's program to the letter and go with organic or something hybrid for my lawn. In the past I was uneducated regarding NPK/ compost/ microbes/ bacteria/ good fungus/ and simply followed the steps not knowing if I was putting down a 30-2-4 or a 4-15-10 (just throwing out numbers). Grubs: In year 3 when I applied 24hr control I did have a problem and the grass came up like a carpet. Since then I have used the 3month control (July/Aug/Sep) every year. I don't want to go through that issue again. My area is notorious for grubs and moles and I'm reluctant to skip grub treatment for fear that they will return and I will be unaware until it is too late. Overseeding: Aside from re-seeding small and large(30'x40') patches I haven't overseeded the lawn. I've seeded over some thin areas with some luck by hand and am considering renting a slit-seeder this fall to try and fill out the thin areas. I may wait until next year for this if it takes some time to amend the soil before seeding. Organic: I've been reading lots of posts here about organics and the FAQ is great too. I am going to search my local big box stores and feed stores for corn gluten meal, soybean meal, corn meal and alfalfa meal. And maybe even Scott's organic lawn food (I have lots of gift cards to Lowe's). I understand corn meal is for disease and I'd like to apply it now. How will it affect my current year schedule: Late April: Scott's step 1 Mid June: Scott's step 2 I don't want to over N the lawn again. I don't know much about compost and will read more. 1td/1000sqft sounds like a lot. I have a bad back, is there any way to spread compost other than by hand? A drop spreader? I've read how great compost is but I haven't seen it in any annual schedule. Is that because composting is a one time shot to get microbes and bacteria back in to the soil? How often should one apply a layer of compost? I definitely realize this isn't a quick fix but I'm looking to take the lawn in the proper direction. As long as my practices are good, I'm confident the lawn will respond in time.

Poochella, This $3.00 charge sounds like a scam. Ebay has no way of getting your credit card number unless you give it to them. Neither does anyone else...UNLESS someone put spyware on your computer. I would invest in an anti-virus program to check for that ASAP. Also, if you have some kind of auto-fill program that remembers your personal information, like Gator, get rid of it by going to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs. It's not safe to have ANY program remembering your personal information, even IE. Go into IE's preferences and disable AutoFill. Good luck. I would call your credit card company and have them check to see if that charge really came from Ebay. I doubt it did. There are hundreds of scammers that mirror Ebay and other sites, in the hope that you will stumble onto their site through a fake email or a web search. Don't trust ANY site unless YOU typed it into your browser. Links can be disguised and are not to be trusted. Contact Ebay too. If they charged you, they will be able to tell you, and if they didn't they will want to know that someone is scamming you in their name. Christine

The concept of a "winterizer" fertilizer is really a misnomer because not very long ago the synthetic fertilizer manufacturers and sellers were advising people that used them to not fertilize later than Labor Day. What feeding the Soil food Web now will do is give the plants a food to store so those plants are ready to grow when spring soil temperatures tell them it is time. About now you should be feeding your lawn with a good source of organic plant food. keeping in mind that soil temperatures lag behind air temperatures by quite a bit and the Soil Food Web will still be busy in a good, healthy lawn long after the air temperatures drop below freezing.

Keep copies of school records showing the son has residency with dad. He can petition the court on his own to modify the support order as well as the custody order. If he did that, would the BM run to scoop up her son & resume being CP? If she is busy & really can't take him back, she is stuck with it. The courts generally want a support order as both parents are obligated to support the child. Or as in CA, it says the child is entitled to be supported by both parents. Either way, BM may end up having to pay something. Dad can't "waive" child support but he can say he makes enough money to provide well for his child and that he does not need the money and putting mom under an order could cause undue hardship on her and that would adversely affect the parent-child relationship between mom & son... and it could affect her ability to afford frequent & continuing visitation, which he doesn't want to upset. He can make a case for not putting mom under an order if he wants to just remove HIS obligation while the child lives with him. At the same time, a court may be inclined to put in the order that dad has custody based on the living arrangements, if dad wants. When BM did the same thing.. moved away & told DH in an email that he can have custody. I, right away, drafted a judicial council form that is used for agreements in family law, stating that DH has custody & BM has visitation... specified the days/times as well as holidays. BM signed it, DH signed it. Legally, it meant nothing until it was submitted to the court & a Judge reviewed it & signed it. That happened a few months later. However it did not address the issue of child support. DH left the child support order alone for 9 long months where I worried that BM would drag him in to collect on 9 months worth of support and make DH look like a deadbeat when he was the one that actually had the child. So, he filed a modification... and poof, BM wanted custody back but after 9 months of SD living with us & the agreement she signed & had been converted to a court order by the Judge, she could not instantly ask for custody back without showing a significant change in circumstance, which is required in CA. Of course by then, it had gotten nasty between DH & BM so they were not in agreement on anything. The court then modified the support order & issued a judgment against BM & made sure it included wording to keep her from claiming any back support for periods when SD lived with us. If the son is going to live with dad, then I would suggest that he first address the issue of getting it in writing for legal purposes. He can say he needs it for medical care or school, which is true. If the school were to find out BM actually has custody... they might feel at risk of some sort of liability & have a problem with it. Once he has something in writing (notarized is good, submitted to the court is better), then he has a better leg to stand on when he asks to modify support... and less worry that mom will come back at him to take custody back. The courts do not want children being used as pawns or meal tickets. IF mom sends child to live with dad for whatever reasons, the court will assume that mom had good reason & felt dad was the appropriate place. If they suddenly want to change it during a support proceeding, it becomes suspect that mom is more concerned about the money than what is best for the child. In my DH's case, BM making accusations that I am abusing SD in her response to being served with support papers was as transparent as can be. The court was not very sympathetic with her at all. It's hard to say who the better parent would be. Raising kids is frustrating at times and yelling at kids or getting frustrated is not a reason to change custody... if it were I could say that I see kids every day that would be going to live with someone else. It is very sad to me that children are shuffled around because the parents want to do their own thing, want some convenience, have their own agendas. When you have children, the child becomes the main priority in life but I see that is not always the case. I would suggest parenting classes for the parents that are frustrated. I've found it helpful for myself. AS for your original concerns... why you feel this way? I think it may be because you really have no control over what is going on. You are on the outside looking in & dad tells you what he doesn't like about mom, then does the same thing. But him having his son is also going to change his schedule, his finances, his whole life which you are a part of and YOU have no control over it... or much say in the decisions, if any. That would be very hard to take for anyone. And they may not be raising their child the way you would if it were YOUR child. That is one thing I know is true in my situation & why I get frustrated when I'm expected to contribute (financially, emotionally, or physically) to the raising of a child that my input is very limited. (or even when I am allowed greater latitude with my input, it is disregarded by the child or her mother)