maintenance

Things have been getting a little run down Where the Fur Flies.  I haven't been able to use the sink or tub in my master bath for over a month because of clogs.  I'd cleaned out as much as I could, but no go...  Those drains were blocked.

I wasn't going to use Draino, so I've been using the main bathroom while I mulled over the more eco-friendly solutions.  Then, the exhaust fan in the main bathroom bit the dust and suddenly, I didn't have anywhere to have a shower.

So, today I hit the Mecca (aka Home Depot).  I invested in a $9 plumber's snake and a $33 exhaust fan replacement motor.    The exhaust fan was dead easy...  all it took was un/screwing a screw and un/plugging a plug.  The hardest part was climbing the ladder.    The drains were a little less pleasant. You shove the snake in, twist it around and pull it back out.   It seems easy enough, but the challenge in this project was in not ejecting the contents of my stomach while pulling the clog out of the drain.  Hair is gross, folks!

Anywho... it's done now.  Exhaust fan has been repaired, drains are unclogged.  I'm out $42, but I suspect it could have been 10 times that if I'd called in the professionals.  So, as far as I'm concerned, I just earned myself a $360 treat from Italy.

Homemade Enzyme Cleaning Products

I'm going to geek out for a bit... sorry.  I can't help but get excited when I find a way to be more eco conscious and save money at the same time.

I have loved this cleaner for the last 5 years or so, but it's been discontinued in Canada.  I was OK for a while, but eventually my stash dried up.  I've tried other eco friendly cleaning products, but never liked anything as much as TKO.

And, then, I discovered instructions on Pinterest to make it at home.  Because I'm me, I ended up doing something of a blend of a few sets of instructions that I read and then doubling the recipe I came up with.   That was a few weeks ago.  My little experiment was finally done late this week.  I haven't tried it on everything that the claims say it can do, but it's worked well on basic bathroom and kitchen cleaning.  It's particularly good at cutting through grease.

I started with a pineapple and a bag of lemons.  I cut the pineapple according to the instructions found here and saved the peel, the eyes and the bits of pineapple that came with the eyes.  I also threw in some of the core as well.... so basically I used the waste from the pineapple.   The pineapple fruit is still good - I set that aside to eat later.  Then I squeezed the lemons to make fresh lemonade so that I'd have all the rinds for this.

I chopped up the pineapple and lemon waste into pieces small enough to fit through the top of an old 4L (1 gallon)  milk jug, and shoved about 600g or 4 cups of the pieces in.  I added a cup of brown sugar, 2 tsp of yeast and 2 litres ( 8 cups) of water and stirred until the sugar was dissolved, then I poured it all into the milk jug.    I labelled the jug with the date and put it in the fridge.

For two weeks (14 days), I opened the lid to release the gas created by the fermentation and gave the jug a swirl every day.  Two weeks later, I poured the liquid out of the jug, filtered it through a coffee filter to get rid of the bits of fruit or yeast, and poured it into a jar.

(I don't think there's any worry of people drinking it at this stage, but you might want to label it as a science experiment or something if anybody but you goes into the fridge)

That sieve didn't do a good enough job to filter it.  I had to pour it through a coffee filter to get the gunk out later.

I'd label it at this point, so that nobody mistakes it for juice.

So far, I've used it to clean the bathroom and the kitchen.  I tried using a small amount to clear a seriously, seriously clogged drain in the bathroom sink - I think it helped, but I didn't want to use it all up on this one thing so haven't really tested it out thoroughly on that.  Next, I plan to use it in the laundry, and to spray some on the dog pen to help prevent the eau de dog pee smell that crops up on humid days.

Some tips:

• Don't use a jar with too tight of a lid when you're making it.  I think the milk jug lid was about right, but have read that people who do this in pop bottles have had explosions.  Either way, open it daily to release any gas that builds up from the fermentation.
• The yeast speeds up the process.  Without it, you need to leave the fruit and sugar 3 months to ferment before it's done.
• Most of the sites that I found for this recommended only lemons or citrus rinds.  Only one mentioned the pineapple, but it made sense to me and seemed to work.  Mostly, you're looking for acidic fruit.
• I don't know if the results need to be refrigerated once it's done, nor do I know how long it'll last. I'm keeping it in the fridge for now.

Claimed Uses:

• mix 1/2 cup of enzyme cleaner with 1 litre (4 cups) of water in a jar for an all purpose spray cleaner.
• for dishes and laundry (use 1/4 cup of enzyme)
• for washing bathrooms and toilets. grime comes off easily (1 part enzyme to 10 parts water)
• for removing stubborn stains and odours (coloured fabrics and floors) (use undiluted)
• to clean vegetables and fruits (1 part enzyme to 10 parts water)
• clear blockages in kitchen sinks and drains (use concentrated or blended pulp/sludge of enzyme)
• as a natural insect repellent (use undiluted) for ants, cockroaches.
• for mopping floors (1 part enzyme to 20 parts water)
• as fertilizer for plants (use 1 part enzyme to 20 parts water, or use the leftover mop water)
• as a skincare product, e.g. facial cleanser or toner (1 part enzyme to 2 parts water)
• wash cars – cars will look as if they have just been polished! (1 part enzyme to 20 parts water)

The Farm Tour

We took the girls out to a farm tour yesterday, so that they could get an idea of what agriculture is like in Alberta. I suspect that a lot of the talks went over their heads, but we tried to explain the basics to them and I think just the sights were something for them to experience.  And, they got to taste local produce at each stop, which they seemed to like.

Last year, when I went on this tour, I didn't think to bring my camera.  This year, I did bring it but I inadvertently left the telephoto lens instead of the usual one.  I took loads of pictures, but most of them were of the girls from a distance (telephoto lens) when they were unaware.

So - some shots of what we saw...


Cherry tomatoes, growing in the greenhouse

They're already ~20 feet tall, and will keep growing taller until November.  You can kind of see supports along the ceiling between the rows in this shot - the plants are tied to lines that hang from the supports.  As they grow taller, the tomatoes are more productive near the tops of the plants, to the lines that support them are lengthened and the bases of the plants are stripped of leaves and wrapped around the pots.  By fall, there won't be any space to walk between the pots.

This is brussels sprouts, I think, although the truth is that the plants looked exactly like cabbage to me.

This is definitely cabbage in this shot.  There are four different kinds, but I mostly took this shot for the girls because of the derrick. We have derricks all over oil-rich Alberta ... Except, now that I look at it again, I don't think that's a derrick.  I think it's farm equipment of some sort.

Asparagus.  So pretty, I might just grow it in my gardens next year for its aesthetics.

We actually got the girls to use a pitch fork and then dig around in the dirt with their hands for potatoes.
I'll bet they never expected that they'd be doing that on this visit.

Artichokes!  In Alberta.  The last farm we went to is expanding its horizons, and trying new techniques to grow produce that until now has been considered impossible for our weather.  They had rows of artichokes and celery to show off their success.

Then there are about 50 shots of the girls in the fields. We spent quite a bit of time in the strawberry fields, in particular.  Strawberries are a special treat in Japan, so it was just great to watch them skip around the field, filling up on something they clearly love.

Both girls are so pretty and graceful to watch, I wished I had a video camera.   I felt almost like a stalker, as I snapped shot after shot of them tip toeing through the fields or bending to pick produce, but I was very open about it.   They looked up periodically and saw me with my camera pointed at them, and didn't seem to mind.  I got some great shots that I'll pass on to them and their families, but but since they are only 16 with limited ability to communicate, it wouldn't be right for me to share them publicly.  I am actually kind of sad that I can't post them here.

Captain Obvious

This is an excerpt from an article I found online about plants that repel mosquitoes:

Catnip is a natural mosquito repellent. In August 2010, entomologists at Iowa State University  reported to the American Chemical Society that catnip is ten times more effective than DEET, the chemical found in most commercial insect repellents. According to Iowa State researcher Chris Peterson, the reason for its effectiveness is still unknown. “It might simply be acting as an irritant or they don’t like the smell. But nobody really knows why insect repellents work.”

In the laboratory, Peterson put groups of 20 mosquitoes in a two-foot glass tube, half of which was treated with nepetalactone, a biologically active characteristic constituent of catnip. After 10 minutes, only an average of 20 percent – about four mosquitoes – remained on the side of the tube treated with a high dose (1.0%) of the oil. In the low dose test (0.1%) an average of 25% – five mosquitoes – stayed on the treated side. When the same tests were conducted using DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide), approximately 40 to 45% – eight to nine mosquitoes – remained on the treated side. A ten-fold higher concentration of DEET was required to obtain results similar to those of the Catnip.

Catnip is very easy to grow. This perennial herb is related to mint, and grows readily both as a weed and a commercially cultivated plant in most areas of the US. While catnip will repel mosquitoes in close proximity to the plant, some people apply crushed catnip leaves or catnip oil for more robust protection. Bear in mind, however, that cats will respond to you similarly as they would respond to the plant itself. Cat owners may want to choose an alternative plant for repelling mosquitoes.

Making progress

I've spent the last week working in the basement.  Having an unfinished basement leads to the very strong temptation to store 'stuff', and I'm determined to get rid of it.  I thought that I'd done a pretty good job of cutting back when my basement flooded, but there's a long way to go.  I want to pare down until everything is put away and organized, so I've been going through a lot of boxes.  I'm being brutal and getting rid of a lot, and it hasn't been easy.

One good thing about taking the time to go through all the boxes is that I've found a whack of books.  I had (and lost in the flood) quite a few boxes that were specifically for storing books, but it seems that I had a bad habit that's now paying off.  Rather than putting books where they belonged, I often tossed them into piles and random boxes; I'm finding them now.

I also cashed in a couple of gift cards by scooping up any classics that I could find in the discount sections at book stores, and adding those to the newly 'found' books means that my Library is starting to have a fairly good selection.  I've got them sorted by gendre for now - mysteries, classics, romance, general fiction, comedy, language, gardening, art and children's books each have a section.   The library has a ways to go before it's full, but it doesn't look empty anymore.

I still need a table, console or something to go in front of the window.  I also need a file cabinet, so I'll be heading over to the Habitat for Humanity's RE store.  I'm hoping that I can find something with a little bit of history to clean up or maybe refinish and then put to good use.

Then I'm going to start saving up for a new closet door.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Wanna see my new table???

I don't think that I can say I made it, but I put it together.

The base is from an old singer sewing machine table base.  I cleaned it up and spray painted it black.

You can't see this, but I raised the top a bit by making a 'spacer' between the iron base and the granite.  Basically, I screwed a couple of two by fours together to make the top higher.

Finally, the top came from a 'Bone Yard' for the local granite and tile shop.  It's a leftover piece from somebody's kitchen counter, and they considered it waste.  They didn't charge me for the granite, only to polish and smooth the edges.

So, nothing I used to put it together was new, but it's all got a whole new purpose.  Pretty cool, eh?

Pets are stinky

I love my pets, I really do.  But it's a fact of life that where there are animals, there will be stink.

My area rug has been out of commission for some time now.   It had been smelling doggy for a while, and none of my attempts to get it clean would clear up the scent.  Long story short, it's been rolled up in a corner of my basement for a while, as I mulled over possible plans of action.

I ended up finding a recipe online this weekend for a carpet deodorizer powder.   I tried it out Saturday, thinking I had nothing to lose.  

I mixed up the powder, sprinkled it around on top of the rug and left it for 24 hours.  When I vacuumed it up the next day, the doggy smell went with it.

Seriously - the stink is gone.  I lay down on the rug, and moved around with my nose to the ground.  I sniffed all over that rug, and I don't smell dogs anymore.

Since most of you who read my blog have pets, kids, husbands or other forms of stink, I thought I'd pass this on.  It doesn't remove stains, just smells.  But it does a really good job at what it does.

Carpet Deodorizer

1 cup baking soda
1/4 corn starch
1 tsp ground cloves
3 bay leaves, crumbled

Mix well, sprinkle over affected area and leave to sit for 24 hours.  Vacuum to remove.
It couldn't be much easier or much cheaper.

This came from the David Suzuki Foundation Website.  I suspect that David Suzuki is known mostly amongst Canadians, but his foundation website is a great database for natural, earth friendly solutions like this.

New Old Desk

Working from home as presented to me a new problem.  My work computer and monitors have taken over the desk, so my personal computer has had to move to the kitchen.

I hate having the Mac on the kitchen counter.  I can't comfortably sit there, and the mouse and the keyboard keep getting gummed up with cat hair and kibble crumbs.  (Winter's feeing station is directly above the computer.)

I've been looking for a small desk to use, without much luck.  Either they are too big, or their prices are too high.  I thought I was going to have to keep the computer in the kitchen for a while, but yesterday I had an idea.

Yesterday was Dump Day.  When my parents moved about a year ago, I took a lot of their stuff that was otherwise headed for the dump.  Over the last year, I've given away or sold most if the stuff, but not all.  I asked my dad to come over and haul the few left overs to the dump, and that's when we found an old iron table base again, hidden in the back corner of the garage.  I'm not sure where it came from, but I suspect that it used to be at my great-grandfather's farm.

It's been painted many, many times.  Paint chips were flaking off and rust was starting to show in a few places.  I washed and sanded it down, and then sprayed it black with a can of paint.

I forgot to take the before picture.  It used to be white.  

I thought of stripping off all the previous layers of paint, but the truth is, I suspect that this is so old, the paint may be holding it together.  And, I kind of like the idea of keeping the existing lumps and bumps, and celebrating its age.  Especially if I can find the top I'm thinking of.

Depending on the price, I'm hoping to get an end cut of granite or corian for the table table top.  (Something small - max 2x3'.)  Or if that's too expensive, maybe I'll sand and varnish a nice piece of wood.  Either way, I'm hoping to have a new computer desk soon.

Cast Iron is Forever

I've wanted an enamelled cast iron Le Creuset pot for ages, but can't bring myself to spend the money.  They cost over $300 each, so I suspect I'll never have one.  Luckily, I came upon a knockoff at Costco that cost ten percent that amount about a year ago.  I snapped it up, and have loved it ever since.  My only complaint has been that the large size.  More often than not, it's way more pot than I need.

Jump forward to a happy day last week, when I made a rare appearance at Costco again and found a skillet version of the not-a-real Le Crueset.  I was there to replace an electric fry pan that was at the end of its lifespan, and decided that this would do just the the trick.  It's better actually because, unlike electric fry pans, it doesn't have any teflon.  I've looked high and low, and I'll be darned if I can find an electric fry pan that isn't coated in the stuff.  (Teflon off-gases, scratches and eventually peels off.  It doesn't last.  Enamelled or well seasoned cast iron will last forever and is so much better for the environment.)

I've been cooking with my new skillet regularly since it came home, and all I can say is that you need one.   Everybody needs one.   Every kitchen should have these things.  Food is better (crispier) coming out of it, with less oil... although, that might be the cooking with gas vs electric.   It can take high temperatures without smoking.  It's super easy to clean.  And, as a bonus, it weighs a tonne and will double as a weapon, in case of intruders.

Get thee to Costco.  You need a Not-a-real Le Crueset skillet.  And a not-a-real Le Crueset pot wouldn't hurt you either.


PS - Don't judge my splatters.  This is a working kitchen.

Second Home

is a term that means something else entirely on my street.

Objects in picture are larger than they appear.

Used to be, most of my neighbours had small trailers, a little bigger than their vans.  Then one of these monstrosities showed up in the spring.  Now everybody has to keep up with the Jones and trailers are as long and tall as a city bus.  

To go camping.    

Huh.

Farm Tour

The local farmers co-op that I like to get my produce from had a customer appreciation day yesterday.   Not knowing what to expect, a bunch of friends and I went out.  We knew there were five farms involved, but not what would happen.  What we expected to last a couple of hours ended up lasting most of a very informative and enjoyable day.  I was beat by the time we got home - but it was a good 'out all day in the sun' kind of tired.

I didn't think to bring my camera with me.  I had my blackberry, but it didn't seem to want to take more than 25 pictures (which almost felt like I was back to using film.  Man, it's been a long time since I've been restricted to how many pictures I could take.)  Anywho, before I ran out of pictures, I took these:

The first farm was the only stop where they used green houses.  Everything else was grown in the fields.    In this case, their tomato plants are seeded in January, and by November when they shut the place down, will be 23' long.    They tie them to the ceiling, and as they get longer and longer, lower the string holding them up, and wrap the base of the plant around the pot.  Eventually, it gets so that there is no floor space between the rows.

The next stop was at the farm where I love to buy baby carrots.  Little did I know that they grow other things too.

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Cabbage

*other* kind of cabbage

 and kale, parsnips, kohlrabi & peas too.

The third farm does mostly peas, but they grow asparagus too.  These are asparagus plants, after the picking season, when they are allowed to go to fern to build up their root system.

They took us out on a hay ride to one of their pea fields, and gave us a few minutes to pick peas.  I was the only one in my group (or, apparently among anybody on the tour at the time) who grew up in the country with a huge vegetable garden.   Without thinking, I hopped off the wagon, grabbed my bag and started picking.    It turns out, I am without a doubt the undefeated pea picking champion.  When we were done and it was time to head back, I was pretty embarrassed to see that I was the only one among the group of twenty or so whose bag was even close to being full.    Everybody else had a small handful.  But I kept my peas.  (The farmer said they'd be hard to sell at the market because of the damage from the recent hail storm.)

This family also has humanely raised, antibiotic-free cattle, so we picked up some fresh meat there too.

And some asparagus relish that's to die for.  YUM.

After that, I couldn't take pictures.  Our next stop was at a potato farm, where they took us out to the field to dig up some baby red potatoes.  

Finally, we went to a strawberry farm, which was the only U-pick farm of the bunch.  I think I might go back there tomorrow and get some more.  I think there's some homemade strawberry jam in my future.

Don't judge me for all those peas.

Also, please pretend that I remembered to include the orange tomatoes and the beefsteak tomatoes I took home.  I also suspect that there will be fresh tomato sauce in my near future.

I want...

...a macro lens

Right before the sun went down last night, I spent about fifteen minutes following this little guy around the lamb's ears with my camera.  He was very tolerant, but I think I could have done him a lot more justice with a better lens.

Too bad camera gear won't be in the budget any time soon.

For the record, I've got two bee's nests in my yard.  We coexist quite happily, and I often prune or deadhead the same plants where they are collecting pollen.  I've never been stung.  (The fuzzy bees are less territorial, and so unlikely to attack.)  I actually took a class on urban bee keeping last winter, which I found absolutely fascinating.    Unfortunately, finances reared its ugly head and stopped me from going any further with it.  So, I enjoy the bees who came to my yard on their own and encourage them to stay by trying to have something blooming for them all summer long.

What a Waste

This is going to sound like I'm whining... maybe I am but I'm really torn.

On one hand, I've been really impressed with the crew that the insurance company sent out.  Heck - I was even impressed that the insurance company did the hiring... I thought I had to find/hire them.  They arrived the next day, after the insurance adjuster was out, and they worked really hard.   It sounds like they'll be here every day for the next week or so.  It's a big job, and I'm happy that I don't have to do it. That's not what's bothering me.

What bugs me is the waste.  They're throwing everything out, even things I had thought to save.  A metal filing cabinet, which I'd cleaned and dried (they say it will rust).  Two steamer trunks, luggage, purses and bags that I think can be cleaned.  They're making zero effort to clean things, and are saying that they'll be stained or mildewed.  I went down a few times to see them at work.  I explained that I'm granola that way, and that so much waste bothers me.  I even offered to try to clean some things to see if they can be salvaged.  They very politely told me to leave things alone.  3/4 of what I set aside to be salvaged has been thrown in the garbage pile, or already taken to the dump.

Not to worry, though.  My insurance policy covers the replacement value of everything that's been damaged.

I'm also bothered to see such financial waste.  While I do like nice stuff, I'm all about the deals.  I shop sales and try to get as much for my money as I can.  Chances of replacing things that I bought on the cheap earlier for the same price is slim to none.  The Liz Claiborne luggage set that I got from Winners will cost me at least double what they cost the first time around, because chances are that Winners won't have Liz Claiborne luggage again.  (I'm not stuck to a name brands per se, but for things like luggage that you really don't want coming off the airplane in 3 pieces, I tend to go with brands that I trust.)

Then there's the things that I've had for 20+ years... Steamer trunks, which cost me about $40 each in university now cost about $300 each.  The Ikea furniture that put me through college is now triple the cost.  I don't feel comfortable spending all that money, even if it isn't my own.  It feels like I'm taking advantage.

The insurance lady kept saying that I need to get need and want out of my head.  When I said that I don't need most of these things, she reminded me that if I owned them, I must have wanted them; and insurance isn't about need or want.  She keeps reminding me that I've paid into insurance for years, so I should take advantage of the assistance that they'll give me.  That's what it feels like - taking advantage.

On the flip side, I'm afraid not to replace these things.  I could ask insurance to pay a settlement for what they deem items to be worth.  They've said very clearly that the settlement for items will be significantly less than what I would have to pay to replace them.  So, I don't know what to do.  Much of the "stuff" that was damaged was in the basement because I wasn't using it.   I used to be all about the "stuff".  I surrounded myself with things, and bought indiscriminately so I had a lot more than I needed.

But, the more environmentally aware that I've become, the more I've realized that excessive consumerism is a waste.  It hasn't been easy, but I've tried really hard to only buy what I need, or at least what I'll use.  So, do I let it go and hope I don't need (or want) it down the road... knowing that if I do, it'll come out of my pocket?   Or, should I do like everybody else seems to think I should do, and go to town shopping for thousands of dollars in stuff that I'm not even sure I'll use?

This Means War.

FYI - I'm typing this with a cat between my eyes and the monitor.  Please excuse the typos.

I have had lots of peony plants.  I don't have as many as I used to, because some ants moved in and  built a ginormous ant hill along the side of my house.  They killed three plants, and are wrecking havoc on the others.  Now, I know that if you have peonies, ants will come.  But.  There's a limit, folks.

If you've been reading this blog long, you know I'm going to avoid the chemical route.  I tried the Diatomaceous Earth.  I tried a mixture of borax and sugar, in liquid form and powder.  I tried spraying the bejeepers out of the ant hill with water, many nights in a row.  They won't go away.


And so, tonight I stopped off at the nursery.  They have a counter there where they keep a guy who is all-knowing about the garden.  He knows all about natural deterrents: the plants to buy, or the insects to introduce.  He also knows when to give up and to spray the living crap out of the buggers.


And so, I'm going to take his advice.  I bought ant spray, which I will use tonight.  Following his instructions, I'll wait about 5 days before I dig out the hill and replace my peonies.  THEN, I'll go back to the natural route and surround those baby plants with Penny Royal.    If that doesn't work, I think I'll invest in a blow torch.

Eat Your Heart Out, Birders

Look who has been hanging out Where the Fur Flies!

I can't find a nest, but I hear somebody tweeting and singing most of the time.  This guy tends to spend a fair amount of time yanking worms out of my gardens, or surveying the land from the corner of my roof.

It's time to dust off the telephoto lens, because I HAVE BIRDS!

Butter is a food group

Margarine grosses me out.  It's made out of petroleum products, so when you slather margarine on your bread or or use it in your baking, you might as well be eating plastic.  Yuck.

But.  It's convenient.  I haven't eaten it for years, but I understand the attraction.  I keeps in your fridge - forever.  Even better, it stays soft, so you can spread it on your toast, straight out of the fridge.

A few years ago, I happened upon a new-to-me solution online, but couldn't bring myself to pay to have it shipped across the world.  I've kept my eyes open every since, and today I found one.  It's called a Butter Bell.  Basically, you fill one dish (or bell) with butter, and the other with water.  You tip the first bell upside down, into the water of the second dish, et Voilà!

The water from the bottom dish blocks the butter in the top dish from being exposed to air, and you get a safe way to preserve butter outside of the fridge.  Even better, the butter stays soft.  No more tearing your bread apart, just to have butter.

True, I'm a gadget girl.  Even more, I love low-tech solutions to every day problems.  Really, I think these are cool; but it may be that everybody else knew about them before me.  If that's the case, just carry on... I need a moment to enjoy my latest find.

Then I need to find an excuse to make butter a regular part of my diet again.

Good and Bad

Bad cat

Good eggs

I buy these eggs from the lady who grooms my dogs.  She has what she calls a "Happy Hen" setup, where she keeps chickens from egg to chick to old age out on her farm.   They're kept in condo-sized coops where they have lots of room to move around, get a chance to go outside in good weather, and are fed organic produce.    They only cost about 50 cents a carton more than the factory produced egg, and I'm happy to support a small business that focuses on raising her chickens so humanely.  Even better that the eggs taste so good.

I think it's the breed of chicken that determines the colour of the shells, but I always like opening the carton to see the rainbow of colours.  
But I have to admit that it does weird me out a little to eat the blue eggs.

Good Food

The plan today was to get a bunch of yard work done, but it's been raining all day.  We really need the water (a small city north of here burned down last week), so I don't begrudge the day inside.  Having planned a busy day, however, I needed something else to do.

First I baked Banana Flax Date Bread, and then I tried making Carmelita Bars.  The Banana bread is actually a fairly healthy a favorite that I make quite often, but the Carmelita Bars are new to me.  I've never made or eaten them before... they turned out something like the crisp in fruit crisp deserts, only instead of fruit there is a mixture of caramel and chocolate.  I had intended to bring those to work, but I don't think I will.  So far, they taste OK, but they're not the solid squares that I expected.  The bite that I tried had to be removed from the pan by a spoon, which doesn't exactly make for easy sharing.
Oh well - more for me!

Bad Food


After baking some and then cleaning out the kitchen a few times, I couldn't find the energy to make a good dinner.  I was tempted to order pizza, which is something that I've been known to do every year or so, but I didn't want to spend all that  money.  Instead, I drove to a grocery store downtown that makes great take-and-bake pizzas and got one from them.  It's in the oven now.    I know from experience that it'll taste great, but it's a long ways from the healthy, fresh (local) food diet that I've been aiming towards lately.

Bad, Bad Neighbours


I like my neighbourhood.  I really do.  However, there's nothing like the first long weekend of the camping season to drive home that I live in Red Neck Central.  Case in point... the family three doors down, who bought a Semi to haul a gas-guzzling train of their obscenely massive four-wheeler dune buggy thingamajig and their full sized trailer that houses 6 people.  It's classy all the way, I tell you.... it boggles my mind that they aren't embarrassed to be seen with that thing.   Then, there's the other neighbour who has parked their truck and trailer along the side of my house (I'm on a corner).  This trailer - I kid you not - is two stories high and as long as my house is deep.  I can't do anything about the first neighbour's lack of good taste, but I'm going to give the massive structure parked beside my house another day before I call the city to complain.  If you can't fit your toys on your own property, you shouldn't be imposing them on others.  (City bylaw says you can only park on the street for one night before moving it.)

That's enough cranking... I'm going to go eat my overly processed, non-local, definitely not healthy but oh-so-good pizza.

Gardening thoughts - Roses

This has not been the Year of the Roses.  Walking around my yard today, I came to a sad realization... most of my rose bushes did not survive the winter.

I had decided last year to stop spraying the Winnipeg Parks along the side of the driveway (there were 11 on each side, until now) and to not replace them if they didn't survive.  They were planted as a linear shrub, and I suspect their proximity resulted in a fungal problem.  I didn't like having to spray them with chemicals every week to deal with it, so I stopped last year.  It seems as though the roses on the north side lived, but the south side is all gone.  Since my neighbour and I will be planting a row of dwarf lilacs along the property line, I don't think the survivors will last a whole lot longer.

There also used to be three Winnipeg parks behind the deck.  They're in a location that is too shady, and they're crowded by a trio of cedars planted behind them.  They look like they might come back, but I don't think they'll do very well.   I suspect that if the last winter didn't do them in, being crowded out by the cedars will.

The year that Oliver died, I planted a Mordan Blush in his memory.  It has struggled for the last few years, and this year it looks like it's gone.    I'm thinking of planting an apple tree in it's place.  Oliver used to love to climb the apple trees at my parents' place, and that way I can block the view between my deck and the neighbour's hot tub.

I've also got a couple of Mordan Blush on either side of the front garden in the corner.  I *might* be able to save them if I cut them way back, but it'll be iffy.  I'll probably give them a shot, but suspect I'll be planting something new in their place late-season.

The William Baffins, which have always stood guard on either side of the dog pen gate, went from being aggressively large bushes that needed to be whacked back periodically to suddenly being firewood.  Not a single leaf has sprouted from their branches.  I'm not sure what I'll plant in their place.  It needs to be something tall and substantial, but maybe something that doesn't grow so fast.

Long story short, I think I'll probably be rose-free after this year.  I love roses, but they're too high maintenance.  Roses were the one plant in the gardens that were holding me back from having completely natural, chemical free gardens.  I'm hoping that if I stick to planting more native plants, it'll look just as pretty but take a lot less work.

Garbage and Green Stuff

This city has an "event" each year where it asks for volunteers to pick an area of town, then go there to pick up litter and leave it better than they found it.  I had asked the community association for my area (of which I belong) if they'd participate.  The response was not overwhelming, but I signed us up anyway.   I thought at the time that it might be only me with one friend, and even then we had to cancel and reschedule a bunch of times.  Friday night, we decided to just get it done and declared yesterday as the day.  We put out one final futile call, and got ready to head out.

Not only was I surprised to see unexpected volunteers, one of them had gone to the trouble of making us long handled pickup sticks with nails on the end to skewer the garbage.    We went out to a field not far from our houses.  It's got paved paths running through it, as well as a few copses of trees -AKA Garbage Traps- and a slew.  From the road the area didn't look too bad, but there was a lot.  Within a few hours, we filled the back of a truck... and I still have to call the city to pick up some items that were too big for us to take away.

Did I mention that the wind is blowing at 60km an hour?  Fun times.

But.  It actually wasn't that bad.  It was a great group of people, and I hope it makes a difference.  I'd rather not have to pick up after others, but somebody's got to do it.  We got some good exercise, and we left our walking trails a lot better off than they were.  

AND, I earned some very serious bonus points when I stood up and accidentally skewered my head on a dead tree branch.  
I  did  not drop the F Bomb within hearing of the young kids who were helping out, which was a mirale in and of itself.  
Excuse me while I pat myself on the back for that.

On another note, I got a happy surprise today.  Last year, I planted a number of ferns in two of my shadier gardens.  They didn't do very well, and by the end of the season, I declared the fern experiment to be a failure.  It turns out, I was wrong:

   I love ferns.  I particularly love their little fiddle heads, when they pop out of the ground.

Also, the daffodils are blooming.  

I think that daffodils could quite possibly be the most cheerful flowers around.

ps - Cotton's still not doing very well.  He's crying any time he tries to move around so we'll be going to see the vet as soon as we can get in.

My Latest Toy

You guessed right.

Sam gets truckloads of poop.  I get a composter.   I wonder what it says about me that I'm still jealous of her?

I was going to build a basic wood and chicken wire frame for a compost pile and then plant climbers all around it.  The problem is, I've said I'd do that for at least 5 summers and I still don't have a place for compost.  So, a few weeks ago, when I found myself wandering through the garden equipment section at Costco and saw compost tumblers at a really good price, I decided I had to have one.  Little did I know that it'd take over 6 hours to put together or that it'd be big enough to second as a bomb shelter.

Either way, my dad and I spent the afternoon doing yard work and loading it up with everything we could think of.  There's a long way's to go to get this thing even close to full, but it's a step in the right direction.

Let the composting begin!