does the gate keep people out, or keep you in

yet another reason, while i may live in a rube part of town, im glad i dont live in a subdivision.

You missed your dues, out to the curb.

editted: to insert obligatory malvina reynolds

another interesting developement

im outside enjoying the relatively mild june weather, reading a book about bugs to the kiddos and i read about the atlas moth and what does this moth's caterpillar eat? according to the book, ailanthus or tree of bane of my existence. but they live in the tropics and subtropics of china and india.

google also gave me tree of heaven silk moths. the scientific name is completely different though they look very similar. actually the above gal's website looks like a good resource. she's from the UK and it appears she rears her moths inside. we've got enough non-human animals in the house, im not really interested in mothing.

but, as im already on a beneficial bug kick - im anxiously waiting for my preying mantids to hatch and hope the trichogramma wasps hatched - i need to find out if these moths are safe to release into the wild. from the looks of it, the tree and it's moth was already released in the US hoping for silk production so that gives me hope. the next step would be calling Texas A&M or some other extension.

god, i suck at bloggin

been on a reading tear and have a lot of things to catch up on. and while it's a day late and a dollar short


THANK YOU, DR. TILLER. YOU WILL BE MISSED.

an interesting development

several months ago, i blogged about pelleted pine bedding as cat litter. (for the record a 40 bag lasted 3 and a half months. for a little over 2 dollars a month).

with three boxes, ive run into the "problem" of what to do with it because i dont want to add it to my food compost bin. ive added it to my acid loving hydrageas without any burn out and noticed it was killing some weedy vines. interesting. on a whim i dumped some on a sucker of this motherplucking tree. someone on teh interwebs told me they thrive in horrible conditions so if you baby them, or dump tons of fresh manure, they will burn themselves out. i forgot about it for a few days, and then noticed the sucker was all wilted away.

hey. i might be on to something. i think the combination of cat urine and pine is just too much and maybe it will kill off some of the kudzu-esque vines growing there. i wacked away at a few trees along the fence with the neighbours (reminder to ask them/the landlord about digging on their side) and started dumping the boxes on a few suckers to experiment. we will see what happens.

sadly im going to have to stay on top of it forever because the only thing between our living room and the western sun is a huge mature tree of heaven. i had thought it was a pecan when we bought the house.

stop the ride, i want off!

husband is on day 5 of a nasty URI. he got sick right as this whole swine flu thing came out - that's a fun feeling. tomorrow, if he's still out of it, it's a trip to the ER. he tried work today, but he might have had a bad reaction to the medication they gave him - or he could just be getting worse.

so it was a crazy past few days with the busted car and trying to explain to the boys that just because daddy is home doesnt mean he can play. and then we had a case of the crazies because of the rain today.

it's a good thing i dont drink cause this week has been up there.

woohoo! two months since a post

im back from a long hiatus of illness and vacation. ive got lots of stuff to post about and tons of pictures to put up eventually.

in the meantime, today was one of those super awesome productive days. i:

• took husband to work cause the car is in the shop
• went to target and got said husband socks, teeshirts and a new lunch bag for buddytwo
• also got anti-bug stuff so we wont get eaten alive when we go for after dinner walks
• took the kids to school and renewed our public radio membership
• got a boat load of work shirts, again for said husband, at thrift town for an insanely low price
• found fan blades, also on sale at thrift town, and replaced the broken one in the boys' room so now they have a working fan, just in time for "summer"
• went grocery shopping
• went to braum's and used 5 dollars in coupons
• am doing laundry as we speak and emptied the dish washer.

later im picking of the boys, going to the park and picking husband up from work. and after i hit publish post, im cleaning out the fridge.

go me!

finally something good this weekend

im so tired of sickness. the four of us have been swapping germs for the last two weeks. first a cold, then a stomach bug, and then another cold/respiratory infection thingee. my voice is gone and agrippa is on the nebuliser again and is hardly eating or sleeping and is just in a nasty disposition.

but!! we finally sold the diamante that had been sitting in the driveway for almost a year. ive got 300 bucks to play with. oooh, the projects i can finally start. whee! at this point, im mostly thinking gardening, but i might get some stuff for the house too. yeay for money.