We’ve lived in our house for a little over a year now and the back yard was a complete mess. There was hardly any grass, although the developers did “seed” it, most of the seed did not take. We basically had a mud pit for the past year. Mud pits are all fine and good, if you don’t have 9 animals tracking it in all the time. So, we spent some time doing some research and figuring out what our best options where. We decided to sod our back yard with 419 Bermuda. It’s the same type of sod in our front yard and we wanted it to match.

We talked to some people and I decided to sod it myself. We needed 16 pallets of sod, which was a pretty hefty goal – I just didn’t know it yet. We also have a hill that leads up into a clearing in the woods. This too was a big mud pit, which we decided to plant a shady mix of Fescue. Here is what our backyard looked like before we did any work:

One of my neighbors knows a guy who does some landscape work on the side, so we paid him to come and grade the backyard and the clearing. It took him about two hours total to grade everything, he did a really good job. We had a lot of issue with washout when it was just mud, but luckily he was able to fill it in and level it off a lot. Here’s what it looked like right after being graded:

Almost immediately after he finished grading the first sod truck came to deliver 10 pallets of sod. We had 16 coming, but they said each pallet weighs so much that they’d be breaking some laws to transport all 16 in one haul. I asked them to scatter the pallets in the back yard. This was a big help in the sodding process. For the most part I only had to walk 10 or so feet from the pallet to where I was dropping the sod. When you order your sod, you can usually choose it to be delivered in two forms — rolls or slabs. Rolls are basically three slabs in a roll, so three times as much weight. The sod vendor recommended that I get slabs, because “after a day of laying it, you’ll appreciate only having to lift one slab.” I took a picture of a single pallet of sod and what the yard looked like after 10, then 16 pallets were delivered:

It was around noon on Saturday when all the sod was delivered. I did some research before laying the sod to find proper methods. The only real thing that I found was that you should lay the sod in a brickwork pattern. Although laying sod is relatively easy, it is an extremely tedious task. You do a lot of walking, bending, lifting, kicking, stomping. I also noticed that I had these weird reoccurring patterns when trying to keep the “brickwork” pattern. Eventually it would become more and more uneven and I’d have to cut a piece in half to start the brickwork pattern over again.

The only real tool I used was a machete for cutting the pieces in half, or for cutting pieces to fill in any gaps that propped up. It worked really well for my purposes and I found that I could use the blunt side of the blade to whack things into place. I also wore some knee pads (which I saw someone online doing) but those became a nuisance. I ended up getting dirt between the knee pad and my knee and it just started to get uncomfortable. So I stopped wearing them and decided if I needed to kneel down, I’d just kneel on some sod. Lastly, I purchased some gloves to protect my hands. I was pretty happy with that purchase, the gloves I got gave me some extra grip and really helped my hands from being stained red by Georgia mud. Other than that, the only thing you’ll be doing is lifting, walking, dropping, kicking, stomping; lifting, walking, dropping, kicking, stomping.

It took me 3 days to do all 16 pallets by myself. After the sod was delivered at noon on Saturday, I worked until 6PM and had finished 5 pallets. Sunday, I was able to do 7 more pallets. I probably could have done more, but I spent some time filling in gaps and stuff which probably should have waited until the end. Monday, I finished off the last 4 pallets and spent the rest of the day filling in the rest of the gaps and setting up a watering system. Here are some pictures of my progress during these three days:

Technically you’re suppose to “roll” the sod when you’re done. They have a tool called a “sod rollers” that you use to roll over the sod with. Basically it’s nothing more than an empty barrel with a handle to pull/push it. You fill the barrel with water and just roll over the sod. The reason you do this is to press the roots into the existing soil to help the sod take. I was advised to get the sod nice and wet before rolling it. That way it sticks in the existing soil better. Hurricane Ida was on her way, so I let her soak the sod real good for me. Then I rented a sod roller from Sunbelt, the rental place at Lowe’s. It was 14$ to rent the roller for the day and took me about an hour to do the whole yard.

All things considered, I feel like it was a good experience and I saved over 1500$ by doing it myself. Plus because I bought the sod during an off season I got a really good price per pallet. The only labor I paid for was the guy who graded my yard. Kati helped by spreading the seed in the clearing. She did a great job, basically she needed to spread the seed with our seed spreader, lightly rake it, and throw some hay on top. The hay is to help prevent birds from eating the seed. I bought four bails of hay to cover 2,000 sq. ft. because the guy at Lowe’s said one bail covered 300-400 sq. ft. As it turns out, one bail covers about 2,000 sq. ft. So now I have three bails of hay just sitting there. Oh and I’m now accepting donations for a riding lawn mower :). Anyways, here are the pictures of the final results:

The second parable given is the Parable of the Mustard Seed. This parable is smaller and easier to manage than the previous parable because it has fewer elements involved.

He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” – Matthew 13:31-32

Jesus is using similar terminology in this parable (compared to the previous parable). If this terminology can be compared on a 1:1 ratio the mustard seed would represent the sons of the kingdom, the man would represent the Son of Man, and the field would represent the world.

The fact that the Kingdom of Heaven (KoH) is compared to a smaller set of elements is evidence in favor of the view that the KoH is being represented by the seeds that the farmer is planting. This helps support Alan’s comments in the previous post concerning the Parable of the Tares. Which I now lean towards as the correct interpretation.

This parable is actually retold in Mark and Luke. They are almost identical except for one major point. Mark and Luke both say the Kingdom of God, rather than the Kingdom of Heaven.

And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.” – Mark 4:30-32

So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and THE BIRDS OF THE AIR NESTED IN ITS BRANCHES.” – Luke 13:18-19

This leads me to believe that the two phrases are somewhat synonymous. I have heard people say that the KoH represents one thing while the KoG represents another, but this does not allow the distinction to exist. The only argument that might be made is that Matthew uses the two phrases to represent different things. He uses KoG four times (Matthew 12:28, 19:24, 21:31, & 21:43). I do not think you can make a strong case that these are different from the uses in Mark, Luke, or his own uses of KoH.

Now, let me subtly turn the discussion to the “birds of the air.” This is quoted in the NASB as an Old Testament reference from Ezekiel 17:23, Psalms 104:12, Ezekiel 31:6, and Daniel 4:12. These OT verses seem to indicate that the birds being able to nest in this tree is a sign of greatness and power.

What do you think?

God Bless.

P.S. I wrote another blog about this parable, comparing it to the parable in Mark as a better solution to the “smallest seed” issue brought up by many skeptics. Check it out if you are interested.

The first parable given is the Parable of the Tares (or the Parable of the Tares among the Wheat). This parable should be discussed first because it is the only “Kingdom of Heaven” (KoH) parable in Matthew that Jesus explains. This explanation can be used to understand the other KoH parables.

When I first read these parables I thought they were saying the KoH is like “a man” (or the Son of Man). However, I ran into some theological issue when looking at the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Parable of the Costly Pearl. I will discuss these issue at a later time, but for now my interpretation of this is that the KoH is being compared to the whole scenario. In other words the KoH is compared to the set: the Son of Man, the sons of the kingdom, the world, the Devil, the sons of the evil one, the angels, and the furnace of fire. All these things combine are what the KoH is being compared to, not just the man.

However, this interpretation seems a little awkward. When I first think of Heaven neither this world nor the furnace of fire comes to mind. I think most Christian (and probably non-Christians) would agree. Another way to think about this is found in other gospel accounts. For instance, some of the same parables are used in Mark and Luke, the only real difference is that they say the Kingdom of God, rather than the Kingdom of Heaven. I will discuss the significance of this in my next blog. It is not such dangerous theology to call all of this the Kingdom of God, especially when we understand that Matthew probably used the word “Heaven” as a replacement word for God – remember he was writing to Jews and they did pretty much all they could to avoid using (i.e. taking in vain) God’s name. Matthew did use the phrase “Kingdom of God” four times in his gospel account. It may or may not be significant, but three of those times Jesus was speaking to Pharisees, Sadducees, and Priests and the other time he was speaking to his disciples.

The conclusion I have drawn from this parable is that the Kingdom of Heaven has been started by Jesus, there are sons of the kingdom (Christians) and sons of the Devil (the Lost) who live in this kingdom. When it is time to harvest the Christians, the Lost will be gathered up and thrown into “the furnace of fire” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The Christian will be gathered up and will “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

God Bless

P.S. I believe this parable has been used in the past as evidence for a post-tribulation rapture. It is not the intent of this entry to discuss the tribulation or the rapture, but I thought I should mention it. I personally lean towards a post-trib view, however, I am not sure I would use a parable to defend my position. Parables have a tendency to break down when they are stretched too far from their main point.