ningwut5000

Not OP, but maybe add one or two courses or decking the are parallel to the house and attached with screws, you could then pull them up for inspection and treatment every couple of years.

You mentioned drought tolerant grasses for texas- what about zones 22-24 in Socal?

Anything you recommend that would stay green in a mild winter but not dry up with our average of 11in precip per year?

Meta/cognitive questions;

Tell me about your thought process within your turn... Intuitive? Brute force or guided what-if scenarios?

I ask because I play intuitively (this "seems" to progress my goal etc) and not exhaustively contemplate potential moves and counter moves. How many moves do you think ahead? Or is it a question of pattern recognition/ memorization of layouts?

Lastly are you in an attacking or defending mindset?

Can you talk about how you clean e.g. the chairs, the lights and how you avoid forgetting a surface? When I clean my bathroom I'm always forgetting something.

That's the thing that I face- I think it's a question of intuiting which moves to be considering that result in favorable situations? Or how else can you ever generate a good fork?

Or if playing defensively is it about keeping all of your pieces guarded and stacking up for trades?