if i was anymore domestic, i'd be livestock

jeebie chreesie it's hot

2010-08-23T09:18:00.003-05:00

it's august in texas which means it's quite normal for it there to be entire weeks in the triple digits. upper triple digits. high of 105, heat index of 111. thankfully the humidity has only been in the 40% range or it would be truly miserable. everything looks like death warmed over. warmed well over.

im counting the days until fall. ive always been partial to fall - it's when my birthday is, when sulla's birthday is, when halloween is, when, at least growing up in the midwest, the weather gets crisp and it's sweater and jeans weather.

my love of fall has grown in the last 5 years of living in DFW simply because i can finally get to projects that have been utterly ignored for the last two+ months because i dont want to die from heat stroke - and folks who hire others to do their lawn care because they dont want to sweat are assholes. there i said it. plants and flowers get their second wind and it's almost like spring again. jeans and sweater weather usually comes in november, but i can wear colours darker than a deep blue without turning into a walking solar oven.

it is also back to school time which means i will have more time to do things. sad but true. this fall the plan to:

continue to mulch the backyard. Mr. R from next door continues to give me cardboard and i also found out the local petsmart doesnt use a trash compacter and has an entire dumpster for cardboard. theyve got large thick boxes for their live fish deliveres and then the smaller flats for canned food that are perfect for laying against the fence or over gaps and along seams.
build mini pergallas or archways for living awnings around the south and west windows come next spring.
take out the walkway stones
burn the piles of wood from the last storms
weatherise and insulate the metal awning over the back of the house that makes the back porch a sweat box and not as usuable as it should be.

dirt in places you can't even imagine

2010-07-01T08:28:00.018-05:00

i borrowed the urban homestead from the library. some of the content was stuff i already know/have, but it contained a few inspirational gems that really got me thinking about what i want to do and where i would like to go with my own sub-"urban homestead." one particularly nice underlying factor is that the authors/blog owners live in L.A., California. They are zone 10, while I am zone 8a and colder, but their ideas work for areas prone to droughts and extreme and extended heat.

They have five "essential projects."

build a compost bin
vermiculture - a worm compost bin
"mulch your yard"
build a raised bed
build a self-watering container

I've already built my rolling compost bin and im not sure im ready for a worming bin. building a raised bed is out of my budget right now and i havent had good luck with container gardening. it's been my experience that in the summer, when most stuff looks like death anyway, you need the ground and lots of mulch to keep the soil as cool as possible. pots and containers turn into little dirt ovens regardless of constant watering. or you can shuffle them around to shadier parts during the day but that's just a pain.

While thumbing through I found their page on Lawn Facts - lawns require 2 to 4 times more water than shrubs and trees, the average home owner spends more than 40 hours mowing the lawn. Ive had my own conflicting ideas about what to do with my own 1/4 acre backyard. I want to put in native buffalo grass but then i like it in it's feral, overgrown state. Then i hit this paragraph.

Kids and dogs are often held up as reason why any decent family would keep a
lawn in their yard. The truth is...that kids love hunting for food in vegetable gardens...and playing in little pockets of wildness....Kids and dogs alike benefit from the sensory stimulation provided by permaculteral yard. A lawn is a flat void. A little jungle is a whole world to explore.

That was the sticking point. As it stands, the boys dont play much in the back yard, despite much effort on my part. It just doesnt hold their interest. They prefer going to parks where there are other kids or paved areas where they can ride bikes. In the spring it has some cooler weather weeds that die back in the hotter summer, only to then be replaced with grass burrs - horrible spikey seed that have microscopic reverse spines that hurt just as much being pulled out as they do when you step on them. All those weeds, especially the grass burrs, are a sign the soil is extremely devoid to nutrients. Even if we had money to sod it with buffalo grass, it would require truckloads of mulch and topsoil to create a medium the grass could grow on successfully.

It's one of those weird moments when all signs point to a certain outcome, but you just didnt realise it until it's given a name. I've already made the conclusion I will probably have to take a year off to build up the soil after having a less than stellar year with the summer garden and focus on vital landscaping projects. I've also been trying to kill back bermuda grass in the front of the house, a yard so small and exposed to the hot western sun, mowing is tedious to the point of utterly annoying.

So yes, I'm going to "mulch the yard." In one fell swoop I can: get rid of the useless patches of invasive grass (i dont have sidewalks but i do have devilstrips), build the soil for future garden beds, and create a surface the boys might actually play on. Who knew doing one thing would solve all those problems.

And best part, i can do it on the cheap. I'm lucky enough to live 1.2 miles from a free, constantly refreshed, pile of native and partially composted wood chips and 4 miles from a horse stable where i can get unfinished horse manure. in theory, you should never used uncomposted herbivore manure - unless it's rabbit poop and just the poop as urine in bedding will burn - because the nitrogen overload burn up plants. but if what you want to burn and kill is weeds, then it fits the bill. it's called lasagna mulching. first on is a layer of compost/composted manure, than a compostable weed barrier - newspaper, cardboard, cotton sheets or towels, then you put more layers of mulch and compostable material on top. I also live next door to a business which will give me their cardboard boxes (lower the trash bill). And one of the employees said i could borrow his pickup truck to bring in mulch. The only cost to me will be time, which i have plenty of for at least one more year, and gas.

I put this into into affect yesterday.

This is the south side of my house. Ive got a black berry in the foreground and towards the back, there is a blueberry bush with some heirloom tomato plants. You can see the patches of grass taking over and bare dirt from some spring peas that died back in the heat.

I threw down a car load of raw horse manure over a particularly pernition patch of bermuda grass and then put mulch over that.

Four hours and six or seven trips to the wood chip pile and one trip to the stables - which was only possible due to weather cooled by two days of rain and an overcast morning. Here is the finished product:

The wood chips go to the property line and it feels very pleasant to walk on the soft ground. After this breaks down some more i will probably put a week barrier down to put down more mulch and inundation of leaves that blow down the street in the fall.

holy shite, im posting something

2010-06-18T13:57:00.003-05:00

the agrippa and sulla are taking their yearly summer trip to Poppy and Putzie's house for 2 plus weeks and i am Uberhausfrau-ing it up. yesterday i cleaned out and switched around the pantry and baking implement cabinet. i also washed the dining nook's walls as well as some of the cabinets and the outside of the fridge.

today i met a lady who will be my rabbit poop connection and made a composting barrel. now it is mid-afternoon and too friggin' hot to be outside so i need to find something inside to do. i wanted to rehang the bedroom/laundry room door, but i need to head to the hardware store to buy a chisel to imbed the hinge in the door frame.

i made a video about my compost barrel. this is my first video ive made. please excuse the amateurish nature. i tried to keep the hems, haws and ums to a minimum but i dont think i succeeded. a transcript will be up soon.

yes, i totally need that broken coffee maker

2010-05-08T23:11:00.001-05:00

it's that time of year again. the school year is winding down and im itchy for summer to start (or just itching because the humidity, pollen and mold are way up). that means it's college graduation time! the time of year when hordes of late teen/early twenty-somethings with more money than sense realise 9 months worth of college life is not going to fit in the back of mom and dad's sedan, or pick-up truck or the minivan. so it all goes into huge dumpsters.

there are only a few places i allow myself to really splurge. one is the library, the others are thrift town during their super earth day week-long specials and Town Talk, a super cheap deep discount grocer. Truly, it is the grocery store equivalent of diving. my favourite splurge place happens to be private college dumpsters. a good friend and i spent a truly lovely (thank you weather for co-operating) friday night knee-deep "turning your trash gold." among some of the better things we found were:

a working floor lamp
those really popular polka dot wellies in friend's size (i have been blessed with an unpopular shoe size so i almost always have to pay full retail for my footwear)
various appliances that, if they dont work, will be perfect for the little people to take apart
a huge CD collection - someone must have done college radio
a neoprene laptop cozy and *crosses fingers* a working cordless laptop mouse
sheets, blankets, egg crate foam bed pads, etc.
other random stuff that kids go batshit over like silly string and mardi gras beads
there would have been more stuff if some jerks hadnt gone through our hard earned separated treasure while we were getting the van

so here's my little ode to and why you should go dumpster diving.

It's fun! - really, it is. besides the joy of finding something really valuable - like a 50dollar modular cube shelf unit - or something you really need - like laundry detergent - you do get to eavesdrop on people's lives. ive discovered college kids really like easy mac, capri suns, and throwing away entire garbage bags of clean, folded clothes. they also lose a lot of shoes as evident by the multitude of single shoes found.

This is the cleanest trash I've ever seen - Yes, you will come across a used condom or two, a jock strap and used paper towels, but this isnt lunch room trash. most of it is, like i said, is whatever crap was left in the dorm room during finals week and could not fit in the car. there will be food and cleaning supply murm on your hands but it's easily remedied by baby wipes and hand sanitiser. hell, you could even wear work gloves if you're that squidged out by touching weird things. sturdy shoes and jeans will keep any goo,and glass, from touching your lower body as you wade through the gold mine.

If they didnt want it, why should I? - some colleges have partnered with aid organisations to get students to donate unwanted things before they head to the dumpster, but there will always be those that are too busy or just want to go home and say Ef' it. here's a short list of common items found in the dumpsters and what you can do with them. Of course, any items in decent shape you find can be donated - like towels, clothes, appliances, housewares, shoes, etc.

shower caddies - i picked up several of these last year. they usually have crud on them from being used to hold toiletries but a little elbow grease and a trip through the dishwasher and they come out fine. they make great holders for paint and arts supplies, gardening tools, and cleaning supply buckets.
notebooks, hand outs and worksheets - rip out the used pages and there will probably still be tons of usable sheets of lined paper. one-sided printouts can be flipped over and used as printer or scrap paper, especially if, like me you print out a lot of recipes, coupons or print-outs for the kiddos.
box tops, soup labels and pull tabs - again, because this garbage is fairly clean, it is easy to get into real trash without getting that dirty. many schools or charitable organisations collect box tops, soup labels or the pull tabs from aluminum cans. they can make an otherwise underwhelming bag worthwhile.
recyclables in general - recycling cans or shampoo and laundry bottles would be a worthy cause if you reach an already well picked over dumpster.
food - the trash in the dumpster is likely to be only a week old and not have moldering foodstuffs. it will probably have single serving chips, granola bars, or other shelf stable things. as long as the package is relatively clean and unopened, it's safe in my book.
shoe boxes and magazine - the boxes are good for storage and the magazines are good for crafts if not for their content.
textbooks - chances are, if a book is in the dumpster, it have very little resale value. you know, they changed the caption of the picture on page 375 (not like you even got that far)so they need a new addition and that $80 book is now worth a buck o' five. donate it to an adult literacy or prison book program.

Are you sold? I hope so. You've got another week or two before you have to wait another year. Wear solid shoes and pants. Put your hair up and out of your face. Have a backpack with baby wipes and hand sanitizers and large garbage bags. Make sure your keys and other important things are secured - you wanna be looking for good stuff not your keys. wheeled hand carts or wagons are handy if you cant pull the car up next to the dumpster, but they're not necessary.

Now get diving.

Defending Ms. Jackson

2010-03-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

This may be a day late and a dollar short, but that's only because it's been rattling around in my head for several weeks. In certain blogs I follow there has been a certain story about a certain woman talking openly and honestly about a certain medical procedure.

And probably the worst commentary - screeds of "dumb murdering bitch should have kept her legs closed" do not count - comes from "with friends like these..." former Planned Parenthood director Mary Ann Sorrentino. She states:

But the right we were fighting so hard for -- which was granted only a
short 37 years ago -- was based on what the Supreme Court called 'privacy.'

We wanted a woman to be able to make personal decisions about their
pregnancies in the privacy of their most intimate circles -- her partner,
family, closest friends, physician and religious advisors, if she so chose. Or,
she could decide as a panel of one and discuss it with no one.

Angie Jackson has the right to choose to take RU-486 and then write
about her cramps, her bleeding, and the eventual expulsion of the products of
conception on the Internet. But many of us who have spent our lives on the front
lines of the abortion debate also have the right to hate the fact that she chose
to do this.

The right to privacy regarding medical conditions and treatment does not mean one has to remain silent or "discuss it with no one," if that is not their choice. I dont think it's particularly helpful or healthy not to discuss something if you think it is important. I've been on the listening end of several things that could be considered, on the lighter side, disgusting/Too Much Information, or more seriously, disturbing, disheartening or uncomfortable. However, I would think the fact those people choose to tell me meant that it was something they needed to say for their own selves AND, just as importantly, they trusted me with their truths. Why is someone who is open and honest about their experiences is worthy of "hate" by seeming allies is repugnant.

I'm reminded of the I had an abortion project and subsequent tee-shirt that was released several years ago. There were conflicting opinions then about the nature of the shirt - was it brave? tacky? aggressive? If anything, it put a real living face and body on the topic. One that would be difficult to ignore or forget. Wasnt that the point?

In an interview Ms. Jackson gave to CNN, she stated she read Imnotsorry.net, one of the more popular abortion story websites, but certainly not the only. I found the abortion page of the experience project - where it appears one can discuss just about any "experience" one has. There's also the forums of afterabortion.com and the "abortioninfo" community on Livejournal. But these are all in the relative anonimity of the internet.

Does anonmity make it easier to tell an abortion story? I would think yes. The written word on a blog or forum is a mostly one-way form of communication. It can be done over a longer period of time with plenty of room for editting and re-writes. There's greater control over the dialogue, either by choosing where/to whom one discloses or disabling comments. One can cathartically purge, or give a more rational "review." Both can be very helpful to the experiencer as well as the reader. Again, that's the point. And that was the point of Ms. Jackson's tweeting and video (And hell a tweet is something like 140 characters, the videos are a few minutes long. this damned post has taken me several days to hammer out.) Why Ms. Sorrentino thinks we should "hate" her for here media choice is beyond me.

Another thing stuck in my craw is this idea that one on the "front lines of the...debate" is somehow more worthy than the person actually living the experience. Wasn't and isn't the whole point of the vast history of sharing abortion stories to humanise abortion that is often relegated to abstract theory and hypotheticals. You can debate until the cows come home, but eventually those words turn into actions for, or mostly against, real living women and their families.

As I come to a close of this very long, and long time coming, post, I have to think of other stories I've experienced -- birth stories, conception stories, videos of births, pictures in the various stages of labour or post-delivery, babies nursing. These are acceptable themes for women's experience-sharing. They may make some segments of the audience uncomfortable or squeamish, but I know of no woman who would want to discuss her birthing who would be shunned or hated for it, with the exception of a snark/humour blog.

Pregnancy, for all the privacy surrounding it - the act that got it started was probably private, the medical care a woman receives is a private matter - is very much out in the public. Truly, have a huge belly is its own message shirt that practically screams "I had sex with my partner/had anonomous sperm shot up in me/had stressful fertility treatment." It's an open topic for discussion either to the joy or annoyance of the woman.

In the majority of abortion cases, the pregnancy doesn't enter the public discussion awareness sphere. However, it is completely false to assume no one wants to hear it, no one should hear it and, without a doubt, it should never be spoken of.

belated friday fill-in

2010-02-20T11:50:00.000-06:00

we've all been sick and sulla has been home from school. as always, i have lots of back blogging to do. let's start with the fill-ins

1. Johnny Weir is who??
2. I havent watched any of the 2010 Olympics.
3. And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud...im not touchin' that one.
4. Eating chocolate is perfectly acceptable if you get an urge.
5. Having sweet dreams means i probably had some wine the night before. Otherwise i dont recall dreaming or have really bizarre ones.
6. What does it take to get my carrot seeds to sprout? or keep my other seedling alive, for that matter.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching Sneaker, tomorrow my plans include cost-co and Sunday, I want to finally finish the children's book and go to church!

more to come, hopefully.

Friday Fill-ins

2010-02-12T09:12:00.000-06:00

ah. writing prompts.

1. Pickles should not contain blue #4
2. We are playing in the snow at home
3. Snow is awesome and reminds me of home
4. It's fun to watch my kids playing in nature.
5. It's 5:16 PM; that means I'm going to be standing by the stove.
6. In Texas, decent winter wear is hard to find.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finish reading "the Children's Book", tomorrow my plans include leaving the house and Sunday, I want to go to church!

im a sucker for bulk

2010-02-06T22:51:00.000-06:00

husband and sulla went fishing today so agrippa and i finally went to Costco and got a membership. oh boy. i tend to have horrid buyer's remorse so i had put this off long enough, usually going with a friend who has a membership. like the majority of women in partnered relationships, i do the majority of shopping (there's an actual statistic out there but i cant find it) for the family and, well, the more money you spend, the more likely you are to maybe spend more than you need. anyway. so im in the land of buying way more than you need 'cause, oh my gourd, the cost per unit price is slightly less than you could get at your average grocery store. yes, i do need 152 ziploc bags! shoot, it's a recovering alcoholic going to Oktoberfest "just to hear the music."

So I went in with cash and was very specific about what i was buying. I knew my prices Again, nothing pre-prepared, food basics, etc. I bought raisins, cranberries, pears, lettuce, way more breakfast sausage than i would usually want to buy, but again better per unit price and it had no preservatives. im thinking it should last us for the year. And a soaker hose. Two of them actually. it was a very good price and ive been wanting to get some since last year and they will save money come summer when im watering several times a day.

there was nothing i bought that wasnt purposeful or necessary. i bought pears instead of apples because i didn't like the packaging the apples came in- plastic clamshells i could not recycle vs. plastic bags i could; a large jar of organic almond butter, because agrippa cant have peanut butter at his school for the price of a regular sunflower butter. i walked away from the britta pitcher filters and the electric pencil shapener (both things we do need eventually, but not now) but, still, as i checked out had the "holy crap! i spent how much on food!?" shock and it boiled down to "a fridge full of condiments and no food." i still need to go to the regular grocery store and some stuff i was really hoping they'd have - cocoa powder, non-nestle chocolate chips, regular soymilk - they didnt.

what did i just do? did i start a supersized bulk obsession? will i re-coup my membership fee in actual savings? remorse and guilt are kicking in big time. we use quicken to track our finances and will be looking closely at my spending at this store.

just a little update

2010-01-26T13:30:00.000-06:00

"Spring" gardening in DFW starts in january with another push in early february and then one last big one in march. oy. ive been busy and am soooo hoping to make back the money ive already invested. Time to start picking up more horse poop again, me thinks.

I'm crossing my fingers for potatoes, salad greens, spinach and two types of carrots. Next week i start with broccoli and some other stuff i cant think of off the top of my head. I've got seeds sitting on the top of my fridge that im fretting over like a methed out mother hen. And there's still more i need to do!! AAAAHHH! Not enough hours in the day!!! And when I have them, im puttering on the interweb!!

And now that im talking more food stuff, the google ads are finally getting away from binkie and formula adverts. hurray!

Week two and three

2010-01-21T11:51:00.000-06:00

There was not much to report from the last two weeks. Dinner was made, groceries were bought, cookbooks were much perused with a serious desire to buy. We did eat lunch at a local hamburger eatery last week when husband was off, and mac and cheese and ramen noodles were made but they are gone. I can't recall anything particular i made, but have figured out:

I need to seriously need to stock up on the basics. Besides running out this last week of just about every staple - ketchup, freezer bags, flour - I was honestly surprised by the variety of food I could make without going grocery shopping several times because of monetary restrictions. Captain Obvious, I know.
I need (well, maybe more of a want but still a highly functional want) a food dehydrator. I borrowed two Raw cookbooks from the library and was intrigued by a few recipes. Plus, I would be able to preserve more food. Woot! for homemade fruit leather.
a deep freezer would be awesome, if we could figure out a place to put it. But that is dreaming really, really big.

Week one of the new year

2010-01-07T12:13:00.000-06:00

I semi-successfully negotiated my home-made resolution. With the exception of a single last minute trip to Chick-fil-a to meet friends and play, I managed to make breakfast, lunch and dinner this first week of the new year. Even the leftovers got eaten and only the barest of scraps were fed to the feral kittehs. The menu items included:

Meat-based

turkey breast with collard greens and box potatoes found in the pantry
meatloaf, garlic potatoes and broccoli
pot roast, leftover garlic potatoes and corn
ground turkey helper with corn

Veg*n

black bean and polenta casserole
Singapore Spicy Noodles with seitan (recipe below)

I'm adding some new recipes sites to my blog-roll so I can get away from expensive meat-intensive weekly meals. If there was one use of the money spent at Chick-fil-a, the restaurant we went to was right next to Central Market, a grocery store I've avoided based on financial necessity and anti-principals. But, I will have to admit, they do have a very nice produce and bulk food selection. I think I can afford it if I go once a month and stock up and not take the kids - Sulla had his eye on a 15dollar bottle of extra virgin olive oil. I don't care how tasty it might be, generic will do us just fine.

Singapore Spicy Noodles with Seitan
I found this recipe with some others I must have collected when I first went vegan and never actually made. The seitan was added to make it a more substantial meal. Meat and taters loving husband gave it a thumbs up. I found it a little bland, but will make it again since husband and the kids liked it so much and will fuddle with the spices. Here it is, as I made it.

1 1/4 cup water
2 TBSP ketchup
2 1/2 tsp packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp fresh chopped cilantro (or like me, you can add as much as you have handy)
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic granules
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 chopped green onions
3 TBSP chunky peanut butter, natural
8 oz spaghetti, cooked and drained
8oz seitan, thinly sliced
1 tsp minced garlic (or more, never can have too much garlic)

In medium saucepan, combine water, ketchup, sugar, cilanto, cornstarch and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; summer uncovered. Meanwhile cook pasta and sautee garlic and seitan. Add green onions and peanut butter to sauce. Mix well. Then toss seitan, sauce and noodles together and serve warm.

Happy Consualia!

2009-12-15T12:11:00.000-06:00

I'm a total nerd, right? In researching some things for Saturnalia, I discovered two other holidays that book end that Roman festival. December 15th is Consualia, the feast day of Consus, the God of the Storage Bins. It's one in a long line of harvest holidays.

It's a fun little holiday considering Roman holidays work good for texas because the seasons allign better than those of colder climates. My last harvest was two weeks ago when we finally got a hard freeze. I'm celebrating by putting some seed money in the silos and cleaning and refilling my flour/sugar/bean jars.

Always being one for a project, I've decided on my new year's resolution. 2009's resolution was a mixed bag. We wanted to save a lot of money. That was a mixed bag. We saved as much a we could before various things happened - major car repairs done only to have a car crap out completely. Then sulla started school. We had to replace a water heater and the windshield wiper motor on my car died while taking the boys to school during a rain storm. There went 400bucks.

So this year, rather than just saving money, I'm looking for something more holistic. It's going to be a DIY year, mostly based on home cooking. I've started reading ahead to get a jump on spring. There's been a lot of news and articles lately about food politics as well as "back to the land" recession reaction. This is nothing new to me, I'm just now feeling the fire. Lake Worth still does not have recycling and the white person in me hates throwing out all that trash from pre-packaged foods. So here's the plan of action:

Grow more of our own food - always always
No eating out at all! - this one is going to be a toughy, especially with the kids. when the weather is crappy, it's just easy to go to the local fast food place to play. But with many of the establishments still using STYROFOAM!? i cant stand it anymore.
Staying away from packaged foods - this has lots of benefits. No artificial flavours/preservatives, less waste, no spooky plastic chemicals. I haven't decided about what to do about town talk - I can find decent food there.
Crack out the sewing machine and knit more
Reduce, reuse, blahblahblah
Learn more about basic home repair and do it myself where safety and skill isnt an issue - like the damned fence in the back yard. Build a chicken coop so we can get chickens and guinea hens. And building that damned solar oven I've been wanting to do for the last two summers.

I'm even looking into recipes for condiments and basics like crackers - these will probably be more for fun than practicality. But what's life if you can't make it fun.

We will see how far I can take this.

dreams (or nightmares) only gardeners have

2009-11-28T11:57:00.000-06:00

last night i had the worst dream that tobacco hornworms had started attacking my tomato plants. this late in the season! It's getting down into the 50s at night so most pests are gone (with the exception of the army worms and cabbage worms noming on my collard greens, though the later are mostly gone. ive been letting the boys pick them up and step on them.) and my tomato plants have about 10 fruits on them and are growing like crazy ever since the temperature dropped and we had several months of consistant rain. ive been telling myself i need to harvest my basil before i lose all of it to an early frost - besides, it's crowding out my broccoli - so my brain must have picked that little point to focus on.

in my dream im going out to harvest the basil and i notice the typical signs of hornworms - nubby little stumps where there used to be lush foliage. i bend over and these suckers are HUGE! the length of texas brown snakes! fat like leopard geckos! cabbage worms were like green garter snakes with nubby little feet hanging out just for a change of scenery.

so im taking the hint and making boat loads of pesto. guess what we're going to be eating a lot the rest of the year.

thank gourd october is over

2009-11-02T07:32:00.000-06:00

october was one hella busy month. ive dedicated november to staying home and nesting for the winter. also, im working on a new project for the new year and need to start getting into the swing of things now. and now that october is over, time to start freaking out about christmas. every year i say i will go simple, but then say "fark it" and go overboard.

i'z sorry

2009-10-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

i need to get my butt back into blogging - been reading, garage saleing, birthdaying and a lot of sleeping.

but i did add some new blogs on the side - check them out.

try doing that with miracle-gro!

2009-09-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

another plus for organic gardening.

i spread and watered 50 pounds of hort. molasses in the front yard and now it smells like ginger snaps.

more behaviourist creep-tasticness

2009-09-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

while i was researching my last post i googled "token economy" and the first link after the wiki article was for the website kidsmakingchange.com. i cant get there banner picture to show so you might as well click over so you have an idea what im talking about.

the egg family (kinda looks like a veggie-tale knock-off) and what is in their eyes. for the mother, it's a heart. the father, a star. the child, a dollar sign. the site is not very easy to navigate. it mostly regurgitates the same thing imploring the visitor to sign up for all the secrets.

but back to the egg family's focus. the heart - is the mother acting with love as her intention? or is she looking for "good behaviour" as a sign of love? how many times have you heard "if you really loved me, you'd do...?" is she only willing to love if the behaviour warrants it? the start - does the father see the child's potential, their inner strengths? or does the father see a "good" child as a "star" and the only way to be popular/successful is through "good" behaviour?

in kohn's other book unconditional parenting, he states the use of "time outs" (the short cut of "time out from positive reinforcement") is conditional parenting. the parents' love/time/attention is all based on child's behaviour and whether it is up to snuff. his major complaint about time outs are they often arent used in a constructive way to talk about actions or their repercussions. a child who hits another may need a break to cool down and to keep from further harming themselves or others. the parent may need a break to comfort the victim and to get their own head level, but ultimately it's foolish to think a child in the heat of the moment is going to "think about what they did" simply because they were told head to the naughty mat. a more productive and longer lasting, and longer to achieve, method would be to talk about what lead to the altercation and then talk about why the current actions were not appropriate and what can be done differently next time.

this can be hard to see when one is in the mists of an angry child, a hurt child and a frustrated adult but the main point is children are not trees you can prune to grow against a wall, or dog to train or blank slates to imprint with whatever notions you have about the word. and they certainly arent wild horses that need to be broken by sticker charts and tickets and the parental cold-shoulder to get used to the yoke of civility. they are human beings worthy of respect (and one can give boundaries and regulations with respect) and dignity. eventually, given the proper amount of time and teaching, children will learn to be respectful citizens to whatever degree they possibly can.

but regardless of the parent's motivations, the egg-child's focus is plain and ultimately the most disturbing. the reward. whether it's literally money, or a prize, or parental approval and affection. whether the child has learned life is better when we are nice to others or sharing chores makes us self-reliant and leaves more free time for us all, or sometimes you just have to do things even if they arent all that fun, is left to be said.

book pairings

2009-09-04T00:47:00.000-05:00

ive been reading a lot lately and have been meaning to put together a little list of books that really should be read together:

homage to catilona/1984 - george orwell. written roughly about the same time. orwell's hatred of communism comes from his experiences with the anarchists during the spanish civil war.

black boy/native son - richard wright. if i remember correctly native son was written directly after wright finished black boy.

gravity's rainbow - thomas pinchon/the kindly ones - jonathan littel. insanely long, graphic, complicated books about nazis/WWII. not for the faint of heart or those not wanting to marry a book for several months.

those are the ones i can think of right now. look for more.

alfie kohn was right

2009-09-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

buddyone has not been extremely open with what he does in school. he says "it just fell out of my brain" whenever i ask at pick up time. eventually a few little stories will bubble out during the evening. husband and i have to exchange notes because he rarely tells us the same events.

last week was the start of school and either the first or second day, the only thing he could tell me was he got 5 tickets for "being good." red flag. usually "being good" in children means being complacient/quiet/convienent automatons. and if he got 15 by friday he could get a treasure out of the treasure box. oh lord. but i said "oh. ok" and dropped it for more important school day activities.

then friday rolls around. buddyone was very excited to get his treasure - a blue jelly pencil grip. he got 21 tickets and husband asked if he got to keep them. no. that's not fair, husband exclaims. drop it, i tell husband. to buddyone, that's a really neat treasure; im glad you like it. and off we go out to jumping party for one last time on our summer pass.

later that evening, buddyone's going to the bathroom and im talking to him, trying to get a few more details about this token economy system. the following paraphrased exchange ensues. i have omitted repeated paths of inquiry.

me: do you like your pencil grip?
buddyone (b1): yep

me: did everyone get to pick a treasure?
b1: no, M (a little girl) didnt get enough tickets

me: she didnt get enough?
b1: yeah. she didnt listen.

me: oh. that's sad. you had extras, could you have shared yours?
b1: but then i wouldn't get a treasure

me: was she sad she didnt get a treasure?
b1: no (comment: maybe she's just a resilient gal, or didnt show her dissapointment but i personally know of no child that is fine being left out while everyone around them is getting something.)

me: but you had 6 extra (break for mini math lesson).
b1: we can't. that's against the rules.

me: (trying a new path) could you help M to listen
b1: but then i wont get any tickets

me: when does M not listen?
b1: she wiggles during nap time.

(this part is extremely ironic because buddyone is an insufferable wiggler in general, but especially at bedtime. talks a lot, too.)

me: maybe she's not tired
b1: no. she just wont listen and then everyone will start talking and wiggling.

me: did you fall asleep?
b1: yes
me: did other people start talking?
b1: no
me: than she didnt disrupt anyone.
b1: augh! i dont wanna talk about this anymore.

there was more, but it was of the "second verse, same as the first" variety.

M and buddyone seem cut from the same cloth. they could be best of friends.

ok, you are saying. what the heck was the point of that and who the heck is alfie kohn? in a nutshell, the exchange i had with my son is the quintessential example of why rewards, praise, token economies, and other crap doesnt work. and alfie kohn is an educator and writer and formally trained in psychology. he writes about education and parenting in his fabulous book Punished by Rewards he takes a hard look at what is considered vital parenting (and adult management) practices.

in the most basic form, rewards/praise/bribes take kids in a classroom and turn them into pigeons in a skinner box. do this, get that. dont do this, dont get that. i swear, when i here parents saying "good job/boy/girl" it sounds like they are talking to a pet. and big affectionate responses work. for animals. you wanna train your dog to stop barking at the mail carrier, by all means whip out the treats and belly rubs. but for your kids? come on! have a little more respect for yourself and your child.

in PbR, kohn gives five main reasons why rewards dont work (in any meaningful way). they are:

Rewards Punish
Rewards Rupture Relationships
Rewards Ignore Reasons
Rewards Discourage Risk-taking
Rewards change how people feel about what they are doing

Rewards Punish - This boils down to basic control. do this, get that. dont do this, dont get that. Kohn also shows evidence of people who use rewards often also show a greater tendency to use punishments.

Rewards rupture Relationships - rewards rarely lead to collaboration and instead foster jealousy and strife between parties as they work for a single prize or "if we are all good" prize and inevitably some one isnt. Later in the book Kohn also mentions that rewards can polarise a person's view about their abilities, based on rewards received, and other's abilities, based on rewards received.

Rewards Ignore Reasons - Some people are not good test takers, other's arent interested in the topic at hand, other's have a higher energy level. (i would hate to think i couldnt have gotten my job several years ago because i had a horrible sinus infection and couldnt type "Egyptian" at 80wpm) this doesnt make them stupid, ill-tempered, hyper-active. but when rewards are based only for limited parameters, those who cant obtain them for whatever reason, are left out.

Rewards Discourage Risk-Taking - Kohn finds study after study showing that people will do exactly the "this" to get "that" and little more. people will often go out of their way to find the easiest "this" to get "that."

And lastly rewards ultimately kill any joy in doing the "this." Study after study has shown the more people are rewarded for doing something, the less actual interest they have in it. way to take learning and being a good citizen and strangling all meaning out of it.

really, the book is fascinating. It's a scholarly read but well worth plugging through. highly recommended if you are a parent, work with children or "manage" adults.

So let's recap. Can you spot all the "reward fail" in the exchange between me and my son?

because of the token economy, the tickets/rewards were some of the most enthusiastic things i heard from my son about his first week of school. not friends names or what he did at recess.
he was unwilling to help a friend for fear of losing rewards/was not able to help a friend with his extra tickets.
a child was forced to sleep/punished for inability to sleep simply because it was naptime and they werent tired
he "assumed the worst" based on M's inability to sleep during the scheduled time and couldnt think of a reason why she wouldnt be sleepy.

quickie post

2009-08-29T08:10:00.000-05:00

i may get my wish of a new water heater. our maude-knows-how-old one has cracked or rusted through. and of course it's leaking in a really akward spot so we cant put a drip pan under it. so im posting quickly before i research how to drain a gas water heater.

i love saturdays.

some new mama-related stuff

2009-08-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

as opposed to new-mama related stuff. nope, none of that in this house.

i found a new blog i really like - it's all about the hat - found her on feministing - she's an AP mama who also does no 'poo.

and it's weird, now that the little people are getting older, a lot of the trappings of AP arent so obvious anymore - im not nursing constantly, i dont wear agrippa anymore. it's not like i can bring up crunchy pregnancy/birth much anymore. but it's fun to read about it.

and speaking crunchy, or anti-crunchy, stuff here's some new crap in a can being sold.

there is no mention on enfamil's website about what this thickening agent is. all i can think is that it is supposed to curdle in the stomach and react. yuck!! and what about choking hazards? both boys were pukers and having to hork up this murm, i cant even imagine. and what about malnutrition issues with the "feeling" of being full, but not calorically full? im sorry enfamil, the "natural way to help keep your baby feeling satisfied" would be to feed your child when they are hungry, no matter what hour. there is also the notion that an infant's restlessness at night is a protective measure against SIDS. but fuck that, get yourself the binkie-buddy and never have parent your child between the hours of 9pm-9am again!!

sulla survived kindergarten

2009-08-24T15:24:00.000-05:00

just came home from school. im slowly coming to realise besides tuition there's also going to be "opportunity" costs. unless i can find someone to carpool with, i'm going to use up the same amount of gas in one week that would usually last me two. that's not counting if i have to go somewhere outside the direct to and from route - like to the fort worth library or to the park. and there's a sonic on bryant irving - when it's hot, like today, and my ass is dragging, there's 2bucks for beverages (i wonder why their "happy hour" is during school pick-up time.)

but im making the most of the trips by picking up mulch/manure every time.

a freebie

2009-08-11T14:20:00.001-05:00

i lucked out and got one more day alone yesterday.

it was productive and i made cookies. yeah! and read and knitted. im going to put of a picture post later.

i ran around to 4 different stores (though i did find a pair of kahkis for husband and two shirts for agrippa and a new bathingsuit) looking for more shirts for sulla for school before finally settling on target. i only got two. they might even be to big so i will have to return them - im going to keep looking though.

it had to come to an end

2009-08-10T09:07:00.001-05:00

today is my last full day without sulla and agrippa. so im:

getting stamps
going to two libraries
going to green mama's (i found a coupon!)
getting a hair cut
thrift town - for a toaster oven and shirts for sulla

last friday, husband and i went to his co-worker's house for a party thing. they just bought it and it festooned with BUTLPs (pronounced butt-lips. kinda unattractive, right? that's the point, keep reading) - Boring, Unimaginative Texas Landscape Plants - crepe myrtles, boxwoods, youpon holly, photinia. the only thing they were missing was asiatic jasmine. plus they had some lantana that's taking over. one plus is their beautiful vitex (chaste tree). it was late and there was alcohol involved (diet coke for me!) but i told them i would love to be their landscaper - i thrilled everyone with my plant knowledge. i told husband to get on them about it. maybe that could pay for agrippa's school.

selling out, part 2

2009-08-10T07:12:00.000-05:00

the ads are now up. you know what to do.

baby's first ball-gag

2009-08-07T16:01:00.000-05:00

there seems to be a glut (yukyuk) of stupid child products ive have the pleasure of learning about in the last few days.

first one is the binky buddy. the general idea is, if your baby cries because it's binky fell out of it's mouth, make the fuck sure that sucker stays right in there. because there's nothing a baby couldnt be crying about that isnt worth getting something artificial shoved in it's mouth. with the exception of the use in the baby bjorn (in video) the whole point of this product seems to be to keep the baby quiet and "happy" with minimal parental involvement.

in the "about us," we are informed the binky buddy was originally designed by NICU nurses, in an attempt, i suppose, to give it some legitimacy. but think about it. nicu babies, with all their wires and tubes and machines, with no other comfort than a binkie. a few nurses in charge of several babies without the time to give them the personal touch and comfort. it is heartbreaking (i dont suggest doing a google image search without a box of tissues). and that's the tenor you want to give to your parenting? this, besides the fact kangaroo care has been show to give better outcomes for premie babies and their parents. but why attach, when you can detach, eh?

from the site, bolded for emphasis:

It provides a soft and cuddly extension to the pacifier which helps the baby independently retrieve the pacifier. The Binky Buddy keeps the pacifier from falling away when not in use which allows the baby to retrieve the pacifier without parental assistance when wanted. Both parent and baby feel proud when baby maneuvers their head in order to retrieve pacifier all on their own.

hell, why not get your 3 month old a job at the local fast food joint while you're at it, they can start paying rent. the only "soft and cuddly extension" a young baby needs is it's parents' arms and mom's boob. but why do that when you can strap on junior's ball-gag, close the door and VOILA, your baby is "sleeping through the night" and you can pat yourself on the back for being such a doubleplus good parent.

and RLY? you're "proud" when your baby moves zur head to reach the pacifer? proud of what? your laziness? proud your child has realised mom and dad cant be buggered to do the most minor task of retrieving an errent binkie? and the baby is proud? really? i call BS. my boys, for all their high suck needs, gave me nothing but looks of incredulity when i had the gall to attempt using an artificial nipple (there's a reason some countries call them "dummies.") on them. and if youtube is any proof, and it will be for me, crying babies dont want to be pacified, they want to be held and loved and fed. but nope, it's shut up time for you!

the next piece, is spain's bebe gluton, a mechanical doll specifically for nursing play. im not going to get into the whole "boobies are gross unless they are selling beer" and "this will sexualise young girls" or "this puts feminism back 150 years" wank.

sorry for the image cut off. click to see full.

im going to pick some nits instead. what's that in the baby's hand? why is a breastfeeding baby given a pacifier (does it need a binkie buddy?), which can cause nipple confusion and can otherwise hamper a breastfeeding relationship? and the picture second from the left (next to the one where the girl is holding two. hell, i gotta give some props for tandem/twin nursing), is that a bottle? that's the classic holding something to the baby's mouth pose. so nursing is good, but only with supplementation? argh!!!!!!

for children who with play nurse their dolls, do they need one specifically for it? this doll is a one-way, one-use, one-function. what's with companies sticking batteries in things that otherwise dont need them? it's not the baby that's the glutton, it's toy companies, alway looking for something to separate parents from their money by creating some useless piece of trash that will be forgotten in a month. let your child nurse their teddy bears, trains, cars, buzz lightyears or baby dolls. if you want to promote breastfeeding, nurse your children early and often. point out nursing when you see it, even if it's other animals - we like looking for nursing at the zoo or the local farm. read nursing-friendly picture books. i particularly get a kick out of finding birth-positive, pro-nursing passages in adult fiction.

selling out

2009-08-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

i was on my way to town talk this morning and heard a commercial for google ads for "mommy bloggers" *vomit. i hate that term* but hey! money right? at this point any little bit will be helpful. just today i was mulling over markers and glue and the 20 odd cents difference between crayola and elmer's and whatever cheaper generic wal-mart carried. i stuck with crayola crayons and fiskar's for scissors because they are better, but for everything else, my desire for brand purity and to buy american just couldnt compare to the money i would save. also, the school supply list had some communal products on it that i would never normally buy - namely anti-bacterial crud and paper towels. buying more, there wasnt extra money for "the real thing."

so come on google, gimmee gimmee gimmee. (ads should be up in a few weeks or so. i will try to keep anything objectionable off the list - namely formula, weight loss, adoption crap.)

childless day...what is it now?

2009-08-06T10:41:00.000-05:00

i think it's day five. they are all blending in with each other at this point.

the shrubs are gone - except for the last one being guarded by some hornets
playroom, living room and boys' bedroom cleaned (just leaving the computer room and kitchen)
legos organised
did some minor toy weeding, there's not much left that the boys dont play with consistantly
slept a lot, yesterday i was feeling particularly out of it
reading a lot
later im going to the library
tomorrow is pay day and i will do grocery and school supply shopping maybe go to green mama's to get some ideas for the spring
fed some hornworms to my two resident preying mantises (mantisae?)
unsuccessfully tried to feed some leafhoppers to a banana spider i found in my rosemary

childless day 2

2009-08-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

4 loads of laundry
mopped bedroom
set up sewing table
mopped bathroom
went to St. Peter's PTO meeting and got to talk to adults

childless day 1

2009-08-02T23:44:00.000-05:00

today was the first full day ive had without the kiddos. hurz wat i did:

slept till 9am
mowed the backyard
took down and cleaned the pool
started attacking the wood pile
read over 145 pages in a single sitting
put up the mail box post in the ground (technically i helped husband do it). tomorrow i finish it - i had to wait for the cement to cure
went out to dinner with said husband
took a shower

topical gardening post

2009-07-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

it's july in texas so while everything is dying around you (or at least looks like 13 shades of death) you start thinking about next year. and as gardening is a constantly evolving learning process, this is what i learned this year.

mulch, mulch, mulch - didnt do near enough of it. the leaves from last fall and the wood chips put down from the previous owner have pretty much all but decomposed into the soil.
fertilizer - again, didnt do near enough. besides some soil ammendments in march and watering with fish tank water and menstrual blood (yep, im that crunchy and now you all know it) i havent added much new stuff.
compost - gotta get a better handle on composting. im hoping to get a better composting set-up if we can swing it and find a new location for it.
dont wait until you see bugs eating your plants to get the beneficial ones - i waited until May to get preying mantids and tric wasps and by then, my greens and squash were toast
better place for carrots - i made the mistake of putting my carrots right next to the dirt patch where sulla and agrippa play. they took to pulling them all out to see how they were growing. well, they didnt grow much.

does the gate keep people out, or keep you in

2009-06-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

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

2009-06-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

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

2009-06-05T08:27:00.001-05:00

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

2009-05-13T12:23:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-04-27T22:03:00.000-05:00

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

2009-04-22T12:32:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-21T21:43:00.000-06:00

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.

in which i live up to my uberhausfrau name

2009-02-10T07:38:00.000-06:00

it may be rather embarrassing to say, seeing as we are trying to save money, but up until yesterday husband bought his breakfast.

so i now get up when he gets up and make breakfast - that should be a savings of at least 15 a week.

also, i planted some carrots - it's still fairly early, but i covered them with some hay i found on the curb.

and i made dinner every night last week. it may have been leftovers or something from the freezer, but we didnt make a taco bueno run cause i didnt feel like it.

i'm still here, if anyone gives a darn

2009-02-03T19:48:00.000-06:00

im on a huge reading kick so ive been wanting to finish all the books i have out from three different libraries (great in theory, not in practice). the blog has been very low on the list.

so here's so more thrifty stuff, in no particular order.

cat litter - just like the diapering continuum, where you go from using disposables diaper and wipes up through complete potty training, cloth diapers and wipes or elimination communication, there are different ways of going about dealing with the issues of kitty litter. the cheapest and easiest would be having your cat go outside. but then you also deal with a whole mess of other potentially costly situations - like injury/illness, monthly parasite treatment, yearly vaccines to protect your cat from the myriad other animals they will encounter in the big bad world. indoors is best for cats, plain and simple so lets not even think of that option.

the other no cost would be toilet training your cat - which again, might be great in theory, not in practice. honestly, after dealing with training the bowels of two little people, the last thing i want to do is train my three cats and any of the other random cats i will probably have in the future.

so the other option is cheap clay litter or more expensive natural litters. (now the analysis will depend greatly on the number of cats and boxes in the house).

you average large bucket bag of scoop-able clay cat litter will cost between 9.99 and 16.99. with multiple cats, this will probably last about a month, maybe two.

the natural litters - newspaper, pine, wheat or corn will be 15.99-35.99. again, the bag will last a month, but you can compost the waste (though i would only use it on non-food crops, personally).

so what's a thrifty person to do? your money or your environment?

of course, the answer is neither! feline pine and world's best cat litter are two of the most popular natural litters, and the most expensive. but they are pressed pine pellets and cracked corn. all one needs to do is go to the local feed store and look for kiln-fired pine pellet horse bedding and chicken scratch. 40 to 50 pound bags of this will cost you under 10 dollars. (though feline pine currently has a rebate program where the first bag is free, so by all means get some if you are intrigued.)

now there is a lot of concern in the pet world about pine for any sort of bedding. generally, pine/cedar with small animals is a big fucking no-no because of the phenols in that lovely pine smell humans love so much. if your cats are prone you any sort of upper respiratory issues, it would probably be best to stay away. apparently there are non-pine pellets for wood burning stoves, but then you also have to worry about what wood is being used, as it can also be poisonous depending on the woods used.

as for corn, i havent used it but ive been told it's prone to mold if you dont clean it out often enough, but i clean the box everyday so it's no big deal. if you are one of those people who only want to clean the box once a month (and i known a few like that) this option will not work for you.

ive got three cats, plus a stray and three boxes. i purchased a 40lb bag of horse bedding two weeks ago for 8.99. ive got more than half the bag yet. even if it lasts the same time as the litter i was using before, that's still more that half the money i was spending a month for a savings of almost $200 a year. i noticed the smell is more "pine-y" than feline pine, but it's not overbearing. kinda like new pressboard ikea furniture.

cat food - just like people food, you can really sacrifice quality when you go cheap and then you are open to a lot of other, often costly, repercussions. i raw feed my babies and i highly recommend it to others. for under 20 dollars a month i can get enough food to feed my brood. they get a variety of chicken portions, chicken feet, livers, pork and beef neck bones, turkey wings, tails, drumsticks, gizzards, and lamb and buffalo when i can find it. they've also gotten raw shrimp and salmon when it was really really on sale. and even though i can spit into farm country, ive yet to find a local contact for rabbit and other exotic meat. i buy bulk trays and bags when they are on sale and am able to find a lot of "scrap" meat at grocery stores like sack n' save and fiesta which caters to latinos, though "white" grocery stores have started carrying more stuff like pigs feet and the like. among the cost effective benefits of raw feeding are: less offensive smelling poop which means less need for heavily fragranced litter or other odor-controlling additives, naturally "brushed" teeth so no messing with tooth brushes and pastes, and over all healthier cats.

books - this is going to be like lent but a billion times worse. last year, we spent over $200 on books, and that's not counting stuff i paid in cash. generally, i only buy keeper books anyway, but for the year, ive decided to hold off any purchases of reading materials and utilise any and all available libraries and inter-library loan privileges. of course the more i read, the long my wishlist grows, but im trying to follow the principle of delayed gratification, and if i can survive a year or so without it, do i really need it? but i already know of a few books that will be purchased for gift giving reasons. and those i will attempt to get as cheaply as possible.

screw the dryer - so far for this year, i think ive only thrown a load or two in the dryer. seeing as we've hardly gotten any rain, the weather's been fairly decent and it's dry as fuck in the house, ive been air drying just about everything - even socks which i used to consider too much a pain in the ass to hang. the only downside the limited space for drying which keeps me from doing more than one load a day, which just doesnt work for me. all it takes is needing to do diapers, or the sheets or needing to split a colour load and im scrounging for socks or work clothes for husband. i might break down and buy some drying racks from lehman's on the principle that i would use my dryer even less and with our electricity rates going up, they would pay for themselves in a year. and this summer, i WILL make a solar oven but that's another post all together.

finally, a post

2009-01-07T20:43:00.000-06:00

now that the holidays are over, agrippa is healing from surgery, and stomach bug and the cold, kinda, and both are back in "school" ive got time to sit and think about posting.

the number one resolution husband and i made was to save roughly 23% of our income. so this year will be all about being uber-fucking-thrifty.

my first thrifty tip is going "no 'poo." holy cow, people. ive been intrigued by it for a while but now i am a true believer. i was going to try it once what we've got ran out our current stuff, but screw that. it's going on freecycle.

for the record, i usually only take a shower 3 times a week, my hair gets pretty grungy and my scalp flakes during the dry months. ive also have really thick hair. i had been using tresseme's hair repair shampoo with extra murm in it to help "damaged" hair and the "dry" formula for conditioner. my hair would always feel blah out of the shower and would puff up into that 'i air dried my hair' poof and then would deflate the next day. it's also that length where it's sitting right on my shoulders and would tangle at the drop of a hat. i was constantly running my fingers through it and pulling out snarl after snarl of hair.

this time i did 2 tablespoons of baking soda (in a little bowl) i made a thin paste and focused around my forehead, temple and back of ears and what i had left over went on the crown of my head and worked down from there on my scalp. after rinsing, my hair felt a kinda brittle and 'stripped.' it was still tangley and i wasnt sure what to think. then i did a rinse with diluted apple cider vinegar. it went soft and smooth and it even made my face feel nice when some dripped down my temples. and it sure tastes better than soap suds. combing was a breeze. my hair dried with a lot less poof and hasnt tangled near as much for the rest of the day. there is a very very very faint smell of vinegar but that's it. my scalp is still a bit flakey but not near as much.

im hoping the boys might like this better than shampooing, too. i lurve the way the burt's bees shampoo smells, but it's "no tears" isnt really true and both of them hate me washing their hair.

i havent done the complete break down of costs but stuff ive read online puts it at pennies a wash. we really dont spend a lot of hair products anyway but if it saves us 50bucks, that's a start. which reminds me, i have to get my hair cut, and ive got a coupon. woot!

more info on no 'poo there is tons and tons of info over there. it's kinda like clothe diapering. it seems really overwhelming at first, but it's ridiculously simple once you get through it.

day 18 -24

2008-12-19T16:21:00.000-06:00

agrippa had his hernia surgery this afternoon and my folks are coming to town so here's something i did when i was young - opening all the windows of the advent calendar and pretending to be surprised.

day 18 - new fall out boy!! squee. video probably not safe for work or little people. can't embed. sorry.

day 19 - more humour. crummy church signs

day 20 - grammar freaks unity. apostrophe abuse

day 21 - stuff white people like. ive referenced them at least once.

day 22 - tube-y!!!

day 23 - japanese trains. the music is so catchy.

day 24 - a song ive been totally digging for a while.

yeay! happy holidays.

day 17 - happy saturnalia

2008-12-17T07:40:00.000-06:00

advent calendar 14,15,16 - youtube goodies

2008-12-16T04:11:00.000-06:00

day 14 - cause the stars actually beat the red wings. too bad we didnt do it in the play-offs last year. an oldie, but a goodie.

day 15 - in honour of the really awesome train show we went to on sunday

day 16 - with the exception of austin city limits, i just know of no other place on tv to just listen to awesome musicians jam away. i really think i was born in the wrong time.

advent calendar 11,12,13 - random bag

2008-12-13T16:44:00.001-06:00

day 11 -

i totes meant to post this on thursday when it happened. one of the cool things about living within strike distance of a joint naval air station is that it's the air show everyday. one of the crappy things is that it's the air show, everyday, often at 11 at night. but the other day i really thought lack of caffeine was making me see things. nope. the space shuttle's trip home included a path directly over our house. i guess the last time that happened was 1997.

day 12 -
i have a twin in jersey. they even used "rub two brain cells together" - i use that all the time. i would totally write a note like this. and passive-aggressive notes kicks so much more ass than post secret. i remember reading an article in the city paper in DC when they guy first started doing it - sounded interesting and cathartic. now everyone just seems to be out-emoing themselves. if i wrote a post secret it would be "im only doing this to get interwebs attention." id do it in sharpie on some wistful sunset picture. then id throw glitterglue on it.

day 13 - ugly christmas sweater generator sorry no photos. dont feel like it.

advent calendar day 10 - can we call it a recession yet

2008-12-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

this one's in honour of partner's occupation. financial collapse can be funny, too!!

advent calendar day 9 - wow wow wubbzy

2008-12-09T19:27:00.000-06:00

ive been meaning to blog about my love for wow wow wubbzy and now ive got a perfect excuse.

i love wubbzy cause:

wubbzy is gender neutral. ze's yellow and while i guess technically male, they really dont make a big deal about it.
walden is done by carlos alazraqui from reno 911, which makes me giggle.
widget (the girl character) loves tools and building
the songs are awesome. even buddytwo has started singing "dont lie." they're the only words he knows but oh well.
the picture above. that little boy's parents are totally awesome for making their son that costume

advent calendar day 7 and 8

2008-12-08T20:46:00.000-06:00

sundays have turned into "screen-free" day (besides very basic e-mail checking and if we need to find something) so i didnt get to do the advent calendar. kinda forgot to do the boys' real life ones as well. whoops. so you folks get a two-fer.

i remember seeing these when i was pregnant with buddyone. i think they only had 6 or 7 of them at the time. they've really expanded.

who thought mono could be so cute?

advent calendar day 6 - cake wrecks

2008-12-06T16:52:00.000-06:00

ive never linked over to cake wrecks, often because i usually forget it's there for months at a time. check out the christmas wrecks as well as the archives. guaranteed to make spit out your coffee at your 'puter screen.

advent calendar catch-up, kitty edition

2008-12-05T20:57:00.000-06:00

day one - meet crassus.

last saturday morning we discovered this guy sleeping on our patio furniture. unlike the other ferals, he brushed us off when we tapped on the glass. when he finally got up just before sun set, i noticed he was incredibly skinny - even for the possible siamese in him. his hips looked stiff and his coat just hung on him. with all the empty rentals and houses that have been for sale for months, i have to wonder if he was a "foreclosure"- somebody rented a house only to find a half starved cat left in it and let it go to whatever fate it had in store. ive never seen him before and even the ferals im not feeding have plenty of fat on them (see the next picture for comparison).

day two - meet marius.

i took this picture from our bedroom window - the first time i saw him there, he must have heard us and ran off. he's sitting on our patio furniture - must be very popular. buddytwo (who i wanted to name marius) loves him. even now, he goes to the window and says "mar-is. mar-is." this is one of the resident cats in the colony.

day three. my babies.

i finally caught them being snuggly and the camera was charged/had space.

enjoy the warm fuzzies.

advent calendar day five - chung chung

2008-12-05T20:23:00.000-06:00

on a sesame street kick.

advent calendar day 4 - i'll be in my office

2008-12-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

i meant to start this on monday but got sidetracked. every day before christmas there will be some sort of "gift" post.

enjoy

i'm thankful for...

2008-11-28T20:51:00.000-06:00

(taken from melissa)I'm really friggin' thankful for Raffi. I grew up listening to Raffi and now the boys are listening - on my old cassettes, too, though ive only got one surviving one now. Buddytwo asks for "rassi" the second he wakes up. he even prefers it to fall out boy! and i can listen to raffi all day and not want to shoot myself - which is quite an accomplishment for "children's" music.

and in the hopes of upping my visitors im going to post the translated lyrics to les zombis et les loups-garous (zombies and werewolves) 'cause ive googled and gotten nothing! i borrowed corner grocery store from the library and wasnt really paying attention until i caught some words with my super e-l33t high school french. there were no liner notes. so here we go, things in parentheses are only guesses, bold type is the call, regular type is the response, and i cant remember how to type the accent marks. i dont know if this is a french-french song, or a french-canadian song.

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x4)
les zombis et les loups-garous

Madame Zombi est (les) mechant
Madame Zombi est (les) mechant
Mais sa soeur est plus mechant.
Mais sa soeur est plus mechant.
Oui, sa soeur est plus mechant
Oui, sa soeur est plus mechant
mais sa mere est la plus mechant!

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x4)
les zombis et les loups-garous

les loups-garous etes (les savage*)
les loups-garous etes (les savage)
mais son frere est plus savage.
mais son frere est plus savage.
oui, son frere est plus savage
oui, son frere est plus savage
mais son pere est la plus savage!
mais son pere est la plus savage!

Croyez-vous que les zombis (la)? (x8)
les zombis et les loups-garous

Translation:

Do you believe in zombies?
Zombies and werewolves

Mrs. Zombie is bad/naughty,
but her sister is worse/naughtier.
Yes, her sister is worse/naughtier
but her mother is the worst/naugthiest!

Do you believe in zombies?
Zombies and werewolves

Werewolves are savage/wild
but his brother is savager/wilder.
Yes, his brother is savager/wilder
but his father is savagest/the wildest!

* personally i do not hear a soft "a." it sounds more like "sew-vage" but all the french interweb dictionaries are giving me bupkiss and "savage" fits the context.

going for a third

2008-11-22T13:08:00.000-06:00

a third cat, that is. blossom is now inside. she's currently relegated to the crate in the laundry room, but at least it's not outside any more. she had started planting herself at the door rain or shine so i had put a box with a blanket inside for her to sleep in now that the temperature has dropped.

and im done with major gift-mas shopping. i still need to get cards, copies of pictures and ingredients for baking, but other than that, im done. woot!

we've got a birthday party to go to today and are going to attempt the zoo tomorrow. if it doesnt rain.

good hausfrau, badparent

2008-11-14T07:37:00.000-06:00

yesterday i

did a load of laundry and hung it to dry
mopped the kitchen
cleaned the bathroom
cleaned and re-orged the laundry room
took down outdoor halloween decorations
fished toy bits out from under the entertainment center in the play room (im kicking myself for forgetting the tv in there for the garage sale over the weekend.)

to do all this, i let buddyone play on the computer from 7:30am until past noon.

speaking of buddyone, here's another story about him from yesterday.

after bathtime, i was swabbing buddyone's ears (usually husband does it) and i saw something. thought it was a big ear booger. im sure you know where this is going. nope there is a "foreign body" in there. when i asked buddyone if he putting something in his ear, he answered "im not telling" which almost always means "yes." and when he finally agreed he put something there, he said he did it "a long long time ago when i was three." and it was "a sticky from the red box. this long (hands held out 6+inches)." i havent a blooming clue what he's talking about. so he's not going to school tomorrow, potentially, so we can go to the doctor and fish that thing out.

im fairly sure it's the hand thingee to a lego person. gawd only knows how long it's actually been in there.

and on the buddytwo front: he was super awesome yesterday. i would not have been able to get all that done if he wasnt in a great mood. he played by himself a lot of the day and otherwise "helped" me. he's also doing the cutest shit lately. he says "geh goo" (thank you) all the time and loves listening to raffi and "yeah yeahs" (yeah yeah yeahs). and he says "o-kay" it's adorable. i think he is growing out of his rapid cycling baby bipolar-ness. and the other day he sat on the little potty of his own volition and peed.

squee for election day -belated post

2008-11-04T15:00:00.000-06:00

I'm finally getting around to posting and if I didnt post on election day, that would be bad of me.

I voted early last week so I don't really have an election day story. When i went, there were a lot of people considering I'm in such a tiny town. We didnt have any interesting propositions to vote for, unlike California. There was a bunch of stuff about changing the city charter.
.........

that was election day afternoon.

wow. i cant believe obama won. and i am so fucking proud to be an ex-pat Hoosier. we stayed up until 2am for the results to come in.

I'm heartsick about prop 8, though. there's got to be something they can do. Usually when there is some major change in rules, there's the grandfather clause. but how do you say this marriage is legally binding cause it's from this date, but this one isnt? and if there is no grandfathering, how do you void all those marriages? ugh.

that's the political. here's the personal - im selling some of my baby carriers, doing a garage sale this weekend and finding someway to sell the other car. woot for money!

and i finally "broke up" with church. We are too far away to be involved in the weekday stuff and sundays are an exercise in frustration. i spend service in the nursery and the adult classes baby wrestling and/or wandering the halls with buddytwo. just not worth it at this juncture. there's a UU church in fort worth i might check out but right now im enjoying "lazy" sunday mornings.

"intellectual curiosity"

2008-10-19T17:45:00.001-05:00

im seeing this phrase being used a lot lately especially when it comes to republicans not having it. Scott McClellan accused Bush of not having any in his book. Just this morning Colin Powell said Barack Obama had it, and the Eagle of College Station, Tx said Sarah Palin has little. This paper, which hasnt endorsed a Democrat in 50 years, is endorsing Obama.

But back to "intellectual curiousity," I really like that phrase. It means you dont have all the answers, but you are willing to look for them. You are interested in expanding your own view of things. Maybe im just elitist that way, but that means to dont cling to guns and religion and are a one (cough*abortion*cough) issue voter. You look at the big picture. And it has nothing to do with intelligence, just a willingness to acknowledge you arent the end all, be all of the known world. And you dont try to act smarter than you are (cough*i read 'all of them' when asked what media publications you follow*cough)

and in one of my self-induced crack attack moods, i just reorganised the boys' legos. i should post a picture of it. all the pieces are separated by type, size, use. aahh....letting my anal retentive freak flag fly.

And I found four kitten, probably 5ish weeks old, they still had some of the newborn blue to their eyes in the backyard. damn, they were cute. there were two grey tabbies, a solid grey, and a tuxedo.

happy birthday to meee!

2008-10-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

first the bad news, I seem to have misplaced my grocery money envelope. granted it only had 20 dollars left in it, but im still pissed. so i had to take from my gas money. kroger had fuji apples for 97cents a pound and they had a bag of bananas for 50cents. there's nothing wrong with them. one i had wasnt even ripe. and strawberries were cheap so we now have lots of fruit in the house, if nothing else.

saturday was my birthday. husband took the boys to the air show with grandpa. i stayed home and puttered in the front yard. i trimmed the hedges, raked leaves, mulched with said leaves and hedge trimmings, put my butterfly bush (that i started from a cutting) and lemon balm in the ground, did some decorative edging with stones around the yard. and i even cut down two of the weed trees along the property line. one had grown through the chain link fence so getting it out is going to be a pain in the dupa. and i put down some buffalo grass seed in a bare spot. then husband and i went out to medi cafe, ate good middle eastern food and shared a hookah. and before that we got a bottle of wine (it's a B.Y.O.B. establishment) and i found a thomas DVD for only 5 dollars - one more present down for buddytwo (the other one i got at a garage sale for 50cents!) then we came home and watched the bourne ultimatum that i borrowed from the library.

when husband gets his bonus, im getting my bike fixed. and i found a double burley on craigslist. i just hope it's still available.

buddytwo said his first sentence this last week. "hi, kitty." and he knows a lot more of his body parts than i thought. i was "type a" with buddyone to get him to learn vocab. lately he has been pointing to his eyes and saying "eye-eeee" so on a whim i asked him where his head was, and he points to his head. mouth, mouth. leg, leg. ears, ears. and just tonight buddyone used the word "delicate." i dont think ive ever really used it. fragile, yes. delicate, not so much. maybe he learned it from word girl or martha speaks.

veep debate post

2008-10-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

so here it is. ive got PBS on to watch the debate. a friend from DC went to school at washington U. in St. Louis.

"revelation made aware"

her response on climate change is utter crap.

and in other news, today is the one year anniversery of...oh shit she just said "drill baby drill"... of us living in the house. so here is a break-down of what we've done:

new furnace
new sections the roof
radiant barrier and more insulation in the attic
TNR 4 cats and adopted 2
garden less than successful, but ive started another bed. i know ocra will do well.
new fence for half the yard
window film in the playroom
new door knob for the bedroom
bought a crock pot, toaster oven, bread machine. all at thrift town - total, i think, was 20 bucks.
cleaned out some of the crap left in the backyard by previous owner
new shower head

plans for the next year and beyond

put down buffalo grass seed in the back yard
restore knotty pine panelling in the living room.
put window film in south side windows until we can get all the windows replaced with low-e double paned windows
take down weed trees along driveway
pave driveway
tear down "garage/shed"
replace other fence
have trees "serviced"

and here's a picture of "awesome" blossom

on a very special blossom

2008-09-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

kitten season is fast approaching and the cats are coming back to the yard. and recently there is one that has decided to make the shed home. she (thats only a wild guess. i havent been able to catch a peek at any bits) is consistantly there and allows me get pretty close to her. the last two times ive left out food, ze's come out to eat it while we are still playing in the backyard. i wonder if ze is a recently dumped cat. that might explain why ze would pick a "home" so close to people and doesnt instantly run away when we appear. and augustus decided to name the cat blossom, not after the eccentrically dress television character, but after ruff ruffman's cat. ze isnt black, but is grey tabby and white with what i could only describe as white "tears" on zur's face.

ive got a list of potentials i need to fax in so i can start trapping again. and a few weeks ago, i trapped another cat. he didnt really strike me as a cat with much personality so i didnt really name him. and when i picked him up from the vet's, the tech said she didnt think i was feral. he seemed pissed off enough to not like people (although being in a small trap wasnt all the fun either) but i figure if i happen to catch an unaltered, untagged animal on my property, you're pretty lucky he didnt go the way of poison or bb gun which i can only imagine would be some of the other animal control options in texas. and it's dipshits that dont fix their outside male cats, cause it's not like they will have to worry about finding homes for unwanted kittens, that impregnate my feral females and make more cats for me to trap.

And regarding Sarah Palin, Feministing, link on the side, has been covering the issue quite well so there's really nothing more i can say on the subject. But one thing i will add is that Sarah Palin fired a Wasila librarian over censorship issues, only to reinstate her after the public protested. In honour of upcoming Banned Book Week, i suggest donate a copy or two of some of the many challenged books to your local library in Sarah Palin's name. Apparently, there is also a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in the same vein, because PP will send a thank you card to the person.

harriet miers 2.0

2008-08-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

apparently i wasnt the first to think it but it makes me feel kinda good to know andrew sullivan and i think on the same wave length.

in case i need to spell it out, back in the day bush nominated harriet miers for the supreme court because sandra day oconner was retiring. it seemed like the only reasons were because she was the closest vagina-owner with appropriate political leanings. her nomination was later pulled when bush realised he wasnt fooling anybody and a good 'ol white boy was found. on npr they quoted some people at the rally and it seemed the only thing going for palin was that she was anti-choice. when that's your only qualification, any jack-ass will fit the bill.

and, in some unsubtle move to be historic and non-bush lite, palin is the anti-cheney. she can smile without making babies cry. she's mom, and what person wouldnt want to vote for mom? (oh yeah, those with a brain who can pick apart her policy positions. argh. too much alliteration.) what's next mccain? baseball for sec. of the interior? apple pie for the head of the Dept. of Agriculture? this is base pandering at it's most obvious. this quote sums it up.

"I'm not sure what she brings to the ticket other than she's a woman and a conservative. Well, she's a better speaker than McCain," - Faye Palin, Sarah Palin's mother-in-law, laughing. Faye may vote for Obama.

honestly, im hoping this crashes and burns similarly as miers's nomination. obama and biden have been given the presidency on a fucking platter. lets hope they dont fuck it up.

im calling it

2008-08-30T08:42:00.001-05:00

i thought of this last night and am making claim to it.

sarah palin = harriet meyers.

you heard it here first. ill flush it out later. back to pancakes.

my house is cool!

2008-08-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

the folks came to do the attic. for the first time this summer, the AC wasnt running all day long. at 4:30pm the house was 80 degrees, not 84. woot!! they sprayed the radiant barrier and blew in more insulation. lets hope we see a big difference the the electricity bill.

and to be more confusing, im doing a name change. buddytwo has always had ears that stick out. it's really cute. octavian augustus had jug handle ears. suetonius said his ears were of "moderate size" but colleen mccollough made a big deal of them.

as for buddyone, maybe sulla. just forget the mental break-down at the end and proscription.

speaking of, sulla's birthday is soon. we want to hold the party at the house. one, i hope it doesnt rain, cause the house is not big enough. two, ive got tons of stuff to work to do in the backyard. and speaking of the backyard, i want a wood chipper and a sod ripper cause im sick of the big pile of random wood by the "garage" and i want to put down buffalo grass. the stickers are driving me fucking insane.

and i want to put texas sage and rosemary on the south side of the house. i wouldnt have to mow and both can be neglected and still come out fine. id like to make it a raised bed, too. but i dont think ill have the money for that.

someone at abcnews.com reads my blog

2008-08-26T11:58:00.001-05:00

thats not me, but thats exactly what im doing.

and i promise ill update soon.

cars, cats, and the cashless control grid

2008-07-13T19:15:00.000-05:00

ive discovered my 97 mitsubishi montero can get 21 miles to the gallon if i stick to lots of highway miles and drive under 60 mph. and sometimes it's better to waste gas. the other day i had to take a cat to get fixed (more about that later). the closest vet who will do feral cats for feral friends is 15 miles away and you have to drop off by 9am and pick up is some time in the late afternoon. with a 16mo and an almost 4yo, that makes for a very long day. naps are missed, lunch, snacks and random shopping is done. like the other day i spent over $20 - granted some of it was planned but we got some lunch and "ice cream" at mcdonald's while waiting. plus i made up some of the mileage driving around to get the boys to sleep and looking for some place to go. or i could have just put 30 miles (roughly $6 in gas), eaten at home and gone to the library. live and learn.

and after i complain about not catching any cats, i caught 3. one was dash, the little tuxedo i got fixed a while ago. she was in the trap with jack jack laying right there watching. the next day, i got this picture:

there he is. right outside my kitchen window. the trap is full of food.

here he is telling me where to shove that trap and food. he's big and well fed. for all i know, he could be someone's pet, but he's really skiddish around me.

and then i caught this little guy. his name is octavian. he might have been one of the kittens i saw way back before i caught antonia. it was cute because he had violet, and two other cats watching over him.

i was very happy i caught him because i wanted to get antonia a friend. assuming he is the same age as antonia, he was a month older (and probably out of the good range for socialising feral kittens) and still took wonderfully to taming. by day 3 he was roaming the house. i named him octavian because in those first days he was so quiet. when i was holding him, he wouldnt purr and every now and then would slowly turn his head around and just stare at me. it was quite unnerving. since then he's gotten really chatty though usually it's when he's hungry and now that his comfortable and playing, it's mostly stopped.

then i caught helios

he was not happy about getting caught. i was taking buddyone to mother's day out and thought, what the hell, let's see if i got anything. good thing i did because the trap was placed in a spot that would be in the sun and i was planning to stay out all day running errands. i did see a completely grey kitten in the batch, but he seemed much older than antonia or octavian. he got fixed on thursday, and then i got him again today. he was pretty pissed off at me about that.

and i saw dash again with three different kittens eating out of the compost bin. at least im pretty sure it was her - they were various black and white which could make them her's, but she was fixed. i dont know enough about extended cat families to know if non-mothers would babysit a litter. and she was sitting facing the back door while the kittens played. like she knew i might come out. that was wednesday night, i think, and i havent seen them since. there's also an adult tom that looks like octavian. if only i could get him, jack jack and octavia fixed, i might be able to keep the colony under control. the vet does ear tip the cat's that get fixed, but it's very subtle and it can be hard to tell when they are bouncing all around the trap. i wish they would punch the ear like they do with livestock. there would be no mistaking that.

back when husband stayed home with buddyone, he got really into alex jones. for the most part i think he's complete bullshit. im just too skeptical to accept conspiracy theories, but i think he got it right during his screed of the cashless control grid. while driving to get helios fixed i heard a story about gas stations charging more for gas to cover the costs of credit card purchases. like those fuckers (the credit card companies, that is) havent been making money hand over fist and all those commercials about what a loser you are for using cash or checks. be a happy brainless consume-bot and use plastic for everything!!!

so in the spirit of dissent, ive decided to use paper over plastic. and i think it will help me stay on budget, too. i remember seeing something in tightwad gazette about the envelope system of budgeting and thats what im doing. ive allotted certain amounts for the main things i spend money on during the week - groceries, gas, household, dining, entertainment. this money has to last me during the pay period. when it's gone, it's gone. i will be forced to make smarter purchases - no brainless shopping sprees at thrift town, nor will i buy more because i cant justify debiting a buck o' five. any money i have left over will go to making some of the bigger, household need purchases - like im on the hunt for a good end table or chest for all our afghans and blankets and more bookshelves. i will keep the debit card for emergencies purchases - like tomorrow the kitties have to go to the vet, but it's not those things that make us go over budget, it's trips to the mall and sonic and "im bored, let's go to home depot." im hoping it works.

and i told husband i wanted an h2o steam mop for christmas.

my updating-fu sucks

2008-07-01T20:48:00.000-05:00

im going to do another bulleted post because theres two weeks worth of crud to talk about. lets see. breaking down by topic

chillins

agrippa had a nasty ear and sinus infection last week. i really need to talk to the ped about getting stronger ABXs or something. giving him 10 days, twice a day is just too much work. he screams and pukes it all back up.
we went to the zoo yesterday because it was a "cool" 93 degrees and the train and carosel rides were free. i try to stay away from parenting drive-bys but im always amazed at the number of parents who take their kids somewhere really exciting and fun and then expect perfect behaviour. we go to the zoo, ride the train, look at the tree frogs and play in the sand box. thats about it. oh, and play in the kid barn. but the number of parents who wont let their kids play in the sandbox or keep asking "dont you want to see the animals/get something to eat?" when they want to keep playing. or parents who make their kids stay in the stroller went they want to get out and walk. honestly, isnt the whole point to hang out and have a good time with your kids? it cant be that fun when you are dragging your kid kicking and screaming around so you can get your money's worth of animal viewing and "fun family time?"

aminals

murphy's law of feral cat trapping - "if you set it, they will not come." i went through my quota of gas and could not justify the 40mile round trip to take any cats to the vet so i didnt set the traps. and suddenly they are everywhere. cats i havent seen before or in a really long time. jack-jack has made an appearance the last few nights but i think he's "too smart" for it. last night when i was putting faramir to sleep i saw him hanging out on the patio. and then tonight i went walking around and he was behind the big tree. saw dash too.
antonia's doing good. i need to start treatment for ear mites though. i dont know why it took me so long to figure it out, especially with the inlaw's dog, roxie, and her chronic ear problems. that should have been the first thing i looked at.

thrifty

sam's puppy robeez are getting worn out so i used up my credit at kid 2 kid and got some knock-offs with trains on them for 1.99. also got the complete curious george.

thats all i can thhink of for now.

this week proves why i dont want to homeschool

2008-06-14T20:38:00.000-05:00

back when i was pregnant with buddyone and was thinking about how superawesomecrunchy i was going to be, homeschooling was high on the list. this has been seriously reassessed.

ive fallen into a "im going to read all the kid psych books and be a k-rad el33t parent" kick and i found a few that really helped. it's nice when you read a book and think "holy shit they are talking about my kid(s)." that book would be raising your spirited child.

so lets do a break down.

frodo puts the extra in extrovert. he's intense, though not easily frustrated. extremely persistant (i think this insulates him from frustration to a degree. if at first you dont succeed, try try again.) - just today we were at thrift town and he wanted a bubble blowing machine - we werent getting it and he just kept saying "but it only needs batteries (the boy is OBSESSED with batteries), mom." a lady told me she was getting a good laugh out of his insistence. we need to start saving for law school, me thinks. hes not very sensitive - just the usual toddler quirks - salsa is too spicy but he loves frank's red hot sauce but pretty perceptive - he once got "woken up" from a nap because he noticed a string hanging off a ratty towel that was hanging on our bed. he's fairly regular - wakes up and sleeps almost the same time every day.

and for the bonuses - energy. haha! he broke the mold when it comes to energy. jumps right in to most activities - i still get the "i dont like..." when it comes to dinner and then two seconds later he's licking the plate clean. and he's a positive kid. easy to smile (which is great cause i can show off his dimples like i had something to do with them.)

sam - take everything i said and flip it. look up introvert in the dictionary and there he is. ok well dont flip everything. sam is also extremely intense. when he cries he WAILS. at nine months old, he was having full-blown-throw-down-on-the-floor-heaving-shoulders cry-fests if the fridge closed without him being allowed to play in it first. easily frustrated. very tender-hearted. where frodo might cry (though very infrequently) if he fell because he hurt himself or surprised by the fall, sam will cry simply because he fell. and he's persistent - again with the fridge incident. unlike frodo, sam will go into a room and play with a toy. it's refreshing to watch him play with something the way it was "meant to" instead of just carrying a toy car around.

here's where they are different. sam is sensitive. it actually bothered me i couldnt just nurse him where ever and whenever. we did need to find a quiet place to nurse. he is a picky eater - presentation is very important. and i would assume he feeds off others' emotions - ill find out a bit more once he's gets more language skills. perceptive - he stays "on task" a lot more than frodo. so less "perception."

adaptive - not so much. this might fall in the "sensitivity" column but activities like changing diapers, getting dressed, getting in the car are all very very very hard for him. these activities are hard on frodo, but it seems more like he hates getting dressed (and before diapers) because he has to stop what he's doing or stand still for a certain amount of time and follow directions - but he's laughing and smiling. sam, you would think you were physically harming him the way he screams and screams. though he does like putting his shoes on.

regularity - nope. frodo was an attached to the boob baby. sam was more lackadaisical about nursing as a baby. i never know what he is going to nap and then getting to sleep is a struggle. eats when he's hungry, but i never know when that will be.

energy - no where near as much as frodo. sam is currently sick and mopey. frodo, on the other hand, never loses energy when he's sick. actually, the one time i knew he was really really sick was when he actually sat in one place all day - a trip to the ER confirmed pneumonia - the next day, though, he was bouncing around again.

first reaction - very very very slow to warm up. waves good-bye only after they are in their car. back to food presentation - often time he wont take the first spoonful if i try to feed him. he's got to do it himself.

mood - he smiles and laughs enough, but is mellower and more melancholy. emo is a good word.

so here we go. ive got two very high-maintenance, spirited kids. for different reasons. frodo needs people. he needs to run around. staying home, not a good option. sam, needs me and thats about it. half the time, if we go out, sam wants to leave, frodo doesnt. or frodo is getting a bit overstimulated and boisterous and we need to go, but sam is good and wants to stay. sam needs a nap and a hug. frodo wants me to build some big ass thousand plus lego thing. again, this is why church with them sucks. im tugged in 8o gazillion emotional/physical directions everyday right now without trying to give them book learnin'. of course, i knew all this stuff before reading this book. but now it's all laid out so nicely and i can write a tl;dr blog post about it.

this is another reason why "two and im through!"

"kitty at my foot and i wanna touch it"

2008-06-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

ok. i thought and still think the above song was dumb but it's fitting. caught yet another opossum last night - quite possibly the same one from the other day. later this morning i was changing sam's butt and happened to look outside, and lo' and behold - there's octavia with three kittens. i rush outside to reset the trap and saw another juvenile cat with similar colouring to octavia.

i go and check a little bit later and looky who i got! dammit, she's cute.

i think im going to name her antonia. hopefully i can tame her.

and i need to start keeping a price book. i regularly shop at 4 different stores (5 if you count the bread outlet) and food prices are change so often i cant remember what's a good deal anymore.

and i really like my car. i had a coupon for 50cents off per gallon of gas and was about to fill the tank for less than fourty (my planned expenditure). if the trip meter was right, the gas mileage was about what my old car was so that encouraging.

and i ditched church yesterday. it was nice to spend a lazy day at home and watch meet the press. church is just so far away and ends up taking much of the day - plus im never "in" church. im negotiating potty breaks, diaper changes, melancholy attitudes, and boundless energy. it's just not that fun anymore. id still like to find people or something to do, but closer or if i could just go alone. i started going when husband was working weekends so it was nice to go be with people. also, he had four days off. now weve got only two to spend as a family and do things im otherwise unable to do by myself with the boys around.

busy week

2008-05-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

i thought i caught octavia last night, but it was violet instead. it was dusky and ive slept with my contacts in the last few nights so i cant see for crap. i let her go then reset the trap. this morning there was a baby opposum. sucker was really cute in weird sort of way.

drove up to denton today to get an xl dog carrier - if i ever can catch those kittens, now ive got something to keep them in. and when we get a dog, we will have a crate for it. then we visited husband at work for lunch. after that it was a resale shop in keller - where i got a litter box and and haba sheep wall lamp for 3.99. then we played at bear creek park for a little while. it was hot so i wanted to get ice cream so it was off to sonic. it was a long day.

and i have my new car now. husbands sister was getting rid of her car and asked if we wanted it. it's a 97 mistubishi montero. the gas mileage sucks but i dont drive a whole lot of places anymore and i could take husbands car to church - my longest trip. but it's big enough for any "treasure" and, above all, as A/C. i had two crispy fried kids in the back seat this afternoon. and it was cheap. it's gotta last me at least 4 more years and by then hybrid technology should be better and i can get something i really want.

i really need to mow the lawn again and thin out some pumpkin vines. this weekend it's off to home depot to get more round-up - i really hate it but it's the most effective thing against the bain-of-my-existance trees - and to price insulation for the attic.

and as soon as photobucket stops being so picky, im going to upload some pictures.

octavia

2008-05-23T21:46:00.000-05:00

ive decided to name the queen octavia. husband got a giggle out of that one. im going to set the trap monday night because the shelter isnt open over the weekend.

here's some pictures of my previous "catches"

Dash (it was a girl, though)

violet

jack-jack. i havent caught him yet - and i do know it's a male because i watched him mark all over various objects in my yard. thinking about it, he might be the sire of the current litter. the colouring is right. and i think dash and violet might be from octavia's previous litters.

kittens

2008-05-22T22:24:00.000-05:00

while putting buddytwo to bed tonight, i noticed a cat on our patio. ive seen her a couple of times before. she was playing with a piece of pita bread i left on out there, then she walked towards the back of the yard and i saw a kitten run after her from the fence, then another, and another. there are about 4 or 5. *squeeeee* i went out there and was able to look at them. i think they are weaned, so im not too concerned about catching the mama and not the babies. damn they were cute. there was a grey and white, a pure grey, and a "marbled" one. if i can get one of the babies, husband might let me keep it!! i need to see if SIL still has a cat box from gizmo. im contacting feral friends about getting numbers for them and maybe i can find foster homes for the rest.

husband finished the fence with our neighbour and did habitat for humanity for work and is feeling really handy so he said he would put up a real clothes line for me. aahhh!! he's so sweet.

i made a quick second vegetable bed and am trying roma tomatoes, basil, green onions, carrots, more broccoli and artichokes. i also moved my zuccini because the pumpkins are taking over. but i do have two nice sized yellow squash.

for dinner last night, we had 'white girl does middle eastern.' i made falafel from a box - it was 50cents (love town talk), wheat pita from the day old rack for 1.29, home made hummus - it's hard to figure the exact cost because i did it all by sight/taste, and tabouli - probably 3dollars all told and will feed people all week.

summer is here

2008-05-19T21:41:00.000-05:00

i finally broke down and turned on the air-conditioning today. but only for a coupla hours. i kept putting it off and then husband was due home so i put it on, and then by the time the house cooled off some, the temp dropped outside. so off it went.

im going to use the LoTR theme. i finished all the redwall books and anthony and cleopatra and needed something to read, so it was back to fellowship. im zipping right along and really wanna watch the movies again. it's been a really long time since we've watched them. also makes me wanna write something. might as well use my english major, eh?

faramir is 80/20 walking now. it's still kinda zombie-like, but is starting to prefer to walk, crawling only when he just wants to speed things up a bit. and he's in his helpful OCD phase. we went to a party given by husband's co-worker and he was going around grabbing trash and putting it in the garbage.

boromir is getting better, but is still a three year old. i read this feminist sci-fi series a few years back and there is this element where the children run wild for a time in a little herd until they are ready to come back into society. at the time it seemed really odd, but currently it seems like a really good idea. the feral version of getting put on a raft and being sent to "saint mary's on the river." (my mom reads this and will get a chuckle.)

other than that. not much going on. learning the hard way spacing guidelines on vegetable seeds arent kind, little, "if you feel like it" suggestions. my pumpkins are taking over. also, they are flowering, but not fruiting. and my summer squash isnt getting very big before it starts rotting on the vine. and it's not too late, i think im going to make another bed and retry some other seeds.

and we need a wood chipper.

random stuff

2008-04-30T22:26:00.000-05:00

i love town talk (FW discount grocery store) more on that later
considering the current controversy of feminism/race issues in blog-land (fuck the word "blogosphere") im feeling really weird discussing AIDS within the african american community with my 99.99% white church
holy crap buddytwo is kinda walking. it's random and only about 4 steps at a time, but it's a start. he's also playing peek-a-boo. it's really cute.
buddyoneandtwo had dentist appointments today and, besides being all clear, did really well.

i cant think of anything witty at all

2008-04-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

i realised i havent posted in forever. so since my last post, hail has destroyed a good chunk of stuff. right now the only things that survived are: the jack-o-lantern and pie pumpkins, broccoli and maybe the yellow squash. the canteloupe and zuccinni are having a tough time. the front yard plots also seem to be struggling. the wildflowers are finally sprouting and my butterfly bush should start blooming soon.

ive started some different herbs and whatnot in pots because of the kurfuffle of the front yard. i need to do some serious bed-prep for next year. i also cut away all the vines and crud along the fence - i think next year i might try beans there. and speaking of next year, im going to make the garden plot a whole lot bigger. last weekend we borrowed In-Laws' power mower and weed-wacker and now the yard looks a whole heck of lot bigger. definately room for a bigger garden - hopefully one that wont suck.

so there's this thing about being green - i have a hard time "buying" it, ya know? i mean, ive been recycling since our town picked it up in 1990. in college, i was neurotic about going through the trash and putting bottles and cans in the recycling bins. and all of a sudden, now, we are being told that we need to recycle and be "green." it seems to me, the only reason why it's being bandied about now is so companies can sell shit. there are organic "green" pet clothes. for fuck sake people - dogs come with their own clothing. you are not helping!!! i actually saw a book at the library the other day about green baby-raising. here's an idea - don't go buy all the shit everyone says you need to raise your kid! baby doesnt need organic cotton crib sheets and a crib made from responsibly forested wood. co-sleep or get a crib thats already on the planet! maybe i just dont need to be "sold" on being green and all. i hate throwing things away and am cheap. husband called me a ludite the other day - i told him he was being sweet. but apparently, here in "ill water my lawn at high noon on a 100 degree day even though it's going to rain tomorrow cause i want to and you cant make me" texas, people need to be told that conserving resources is a good thing.

the new thing now is all the evil plastic sippy cups. i have a hard time justifying 27bucks on a kleenkanteen or similar product when ive got tons of glass jars from spaghetti and jelly lying around. i just wish i could figure out a way to make a "sippy" spout for them. yesterday faramir dumped a jar of water on himself in his carseat. i am going to make felted jar coozies for them once im done with this baby blanket (5 more inches!!). and then there's the whole thing about what to do with the plastic ones. i guess they are still good - if you dont care about phalates and BPA and all. or do i recycle them? my inner white person is just reeling. and how, exactly do i explain to boromir his favourite wiggly-cup is going to kill him?

in other news, i really think new car is going to happen this weekend.

herb, bud, weed, and other drug references

2008-03-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

so the mass-tastic amounts of rain we've finally gotten has been like crack for my plants. went to home depot over the weekend and got a huge 32 gallon garbage can for a water barrel. just putting it under the drippy part of the porch, it filled in two hours.

the spinach and mesclun (husband thought i said mescaline) has done really well. the wildflower seeds are coming out gang-busters. my purple double-bloomed datura is finally showing life. the backyard vegetables are going great - the cantaloupe seeds i thought were dead actually were alive. i need to check the seed packet, it must have just have a long germination time. i lost the carrots and broccoli, but threw some new seeds in the ground. the raspberry bush might not be completely dead.

i also transplanted some morning glories along the chain link fence; hopefully they will work. i just need to clear away all the kudzu/viney weed crap. and speaking of weeds, rather than put done chemicals, ive been clearing away all the chickweed and other stuff in the backyard by hand. slowly but surely, it's looking more like a yard, and less like a vacant lot. ive now got a huge pile of crud lying on a pallet to die before i add it to the compost bin.

AND!!! And!!....i have a redbud tree!!!! the tree next to the pecan on the property line between us and the business is a redbud!!! theres a beautiful redbud at the end of the street ive been coveting and then, the other day, we were riding bikes in the parking lot and so some purplish petals were on the ground. i look up and see more on the branches. i was so excited. it's not in full bloom like a lot of the others ive seen around so im hoping it's healthy. all this rain should give it a kick in the butt.

whatelse... finished reading the world without us. not as completely depressing as i thought it would be, though the section on plastic made me want to never buy a non-wooden toy again. now, im dividing my reading between corpse, rackkety tam, lord brocktree, and taggerung (book on tape).

and i tried the lentil and rice casserole from tightwad gazette II. i had to season some cast iron grates for the grill we bought i figured if i was going to have the stove on for 2 hours, i might as well have something to show for it. i would make again, just tweak it a bit. the stock i use doesnt have much salt so it needed a bit, i also put a bunch of ritz crackers in it and that made it quite tasty.

spinach and gazingus pins

2008-03-04T21:33:00.000-06:00

it would figure that when i put my hydrangeas and lavender in the ground, we get snow. but a tarp and a rubbermaid container later, and we are safe. i took a cue from the cooler weather and planted spinach and mesculen blend. im really hoping we wont have any other frosts - i really want to get the pumpkin and broccoli in the ground.

i also have morning glories, sunflowers, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, carrots, zuccinni, and pie pumpkin sprouting in egg crates in the kitchen. my blueberry bush looks like it's starting to do something. the raspberry cutting, not so much. i found two thorny vines in the back of the yard but im not sure what it could be.

and my mom bought the three tightwad gazettes. a few hours before they showed up i was about to ask jeremy if i could go ahead and order it from amazon after unsuccessfully looking for at resale outlets. it doesnt have some of the articles the complete one does, but if i need those, i can get it from the library.

husband and i looked at the budget and while we did well in many categories we still spend too much dining out. i used to be so happy about steering clear of a lot of the more expensive convience foods, but then we would spend even more money ordering pizza or getting bueno on the days i just didnt feel like cooking or didnt start dinner "on time" from activities from the day, or because i just didnt feel like cooking. so it makes sense to to have a $5.00 bag of nuggets in the fridge than spend 15.00 on pizza.

and i have a bad habit of buying something because it's cheap. like these two thermoses (thermosi?) that were in the clearance cart at the grocery store. ive used them twice. and i got two because gawd forbid agrippa use octavian's thermos. theres other stuff, but ill be damned if i can think of it. the other day i had a chance to go to goodwill sans kiddos and grabbed 10 shirts and then realised i really didnt need them.

and i splurge. it was something my mom did. it was nothing to go get ice cream, just because. or get candy at the grocery store. or just go buy something, just because. octavian gets something almost everytime we go somewhere.

i should probably get my AP card taken away, but i really like sonic and chick-fil-a. i appreciate that their kid's meals toys are thinking toys and not just the lastest movie or kid crap tie-in. and i really like that chick-fil-a gives plastic placemats that stick to the table and bendy straws. just little stuff that only a parent would think about.

so ive given myself $20 dollars every pay period on taking the boys out for lunch or a treat. it's cash and went it's gone, it's gone. what i dont spend goes in their bank.

my gazingus pin is everything. i just need to not be places where i spend money because i inevitably end up spending more than i wanted.

and this week is "eat out of the freezer" week. i had veggie fajitas and they were awesome.

"got me a pretty, pretty garden, a pretty garden, yes"

2008-02-18T22:00:00.000-06:00

with my front yard semi torn up, i finally decided to throw down some seeds for my butterfly/wildflower bed. it's supposed to be nice this week and im really hoping we are done with frost for the year. if not, whats another bad or two of wildflower seeds? buddy one had fun dumping them in the ground and playing with the hose. buddy two was eating dirt, again.

and i finally figured out what to plant in the front part shade bed. a pizza garden of sorts. the full sun is way too hot for tomatoes but the shrubs will protect them from the hottest time of the day. and tomatoes and basil grow well together some im planting regular and thai basil (from seeds i took from a plant i found when taking a walk. i took them from a portion of the plant that had gotten broken and was dried. so it's not like i butchered a random person's plant.) and if i have room, some spinach or other lettuce.

my blueberry bush is in the ground. just need to drive to azle to get the raspberry bushes. and start breaking ground on my garden. im a bit disappointed because the pomegranate i put in the ground didnt sprout last fall. all the baby leaves i saw were weeds. dammit.

also have to return the huge as bag of weed and feed to home depot. i dont have the receipt anymore so im probably just going to get store credit. what a shame. wonder if ill have enough for a roto-tiller.

FFWPs

2008-02-12T21:52:00.001-06:00

or Fucking Fort Worth People.

i stole it from my family who live in northwest indiana and southwest michigan. they have to deal with FIPs - Fucking Illinois People - who like to slum it in New Buffalo and St. Joseph and act like (or have the gall to even say) those towns only exist because they come to spend money there.

anyway. back to my FFWPs. i have this favourite spot i like to drive on the way home that's way high up. and you can look over the lake and the surrounding area. it's beautiful. i would see hawks flying all around. it's on the border of my little town and fort worth. well, fort worth decided to develop on it. there's going to be a 24hour fitness, a movie theater (even though there is already one less than a mile away, but in our town limits) and an industrial park (i smell a strip club.) i talked to a neighbour last week and he said residents closer to the land that's getting all torn up are having major problems with native creatures on their property that are getting pushed out.

i fucking hate fort worth. i drive down jacksboro and camp bowie and there are tons of store fronts and retail space already established they dont need to fuck up every green space squeezing every little tax dollar they can from tarrant county.

cheap thrills

2008-02-12T21:34:00.000-06:00

yesterday day i got:

a mini cast iron frying pan, perfect for a single egg or grilled sandwich.
a toaster oven that was the half price sticker colour of the day
a cool workbook for octavian once he gets much older
a blueberry baby bush
an axe
5 very new looking garbage can lids and a rubbermaid container that i can use as a wheelbarrow from the trash trailer next door
someone to come and take out all the plants i cant stand from my front yard
someone to give me some wild raspberry cuttings.

i think we are going to do a year moritorium on toys this year. (lets see if i can convince family members to comply - set up a "send the kids to college" fund or something.) my mom sent all the boys's xmas presents and it was like xmas all over again. and with agrippa's birthday coming next month, i just cant justify spending money on yet another thing - though he will be getting a "the king" car because he loves the other "kings" we have. im going to find a kindermusik class for him - i just need to find something agrippa and octavian can do together.

congratulations...it's a griddle

2008-02-10T20:47:00.000-06:00

we took a trip to weatherford this weekend. it was a gorgeous day and a fun drive. towards the end of the day, we went into an antique store and i found a cast iron griddle. and a dutch oven. im in heaven. ive been trying to replace my cheap stainless steel cookware and was giddy when i saw all the cast iron. i havent been very successful at the local thrift stores.

but i was able to finally find a crock pot. sweet!!!

i love tighwad gazette. just flipping through i got and implimented (or will soon) a few ideas

- a friend and i will be dumpster diving when the local college lets out. ive never been so im hoping to get some good stuff from rich, entitled college students with too much stuff.
- there was a letter about a woman who contacted owners of local abandoned properties looking for plants. well, across the street there is an abandoned house with a swing set in the backyard that looks like it's in decent condition. i want to find the owner so i can see about getting it, if it's worth it.
- the business next door left and i talked to the owners and got some pallets - i now have a wood pallet compost bin.
- and just other stuff. i need to own it. im just going to keep looking for it at half-price books. until then, ill keep borrowing it from the library.

and tomorrow im doing a home depot run. i started attacking the stump in the back yard and most of it was rotted but there is still a part thats alive. i need an ax and dirt to fill the hole. i also need to start preparing the dirt for my garden. we started some seeds (the brocolli has already sprouted) but it's still going to be a while until i can put it in the ground.

money, or a lack there of

2008-01-26T16:01:00.000-06:00

so we have a certain amount of money in the bank and three things will probably happen in the next 12-18 months. 1 - that i want to go back to school. 2 - we are looking into private school for frodo and eventually sam. and 3 - my car will probably need replacing. 4. and some crazy expensive act of god will happen to the house - like we will need to replace the roof or something.

it really is this crappy death spiral of circumstances. im going to need a car to get to school. but if i buy a car, i cant pay for school. i need to go to school so i can get a job doing something meaningful to help pay for kiddos to go to school. and until then, i will need to cover some sort of day-care costs for kiddos, which costs money, so i need a job - and one that will make enough for it to be worth it. ARGH!! i remember reading the price of motherhood back when buddy one was first born and i was working full time and while i read it and understood it, i never really grasped the feeling of helplessness when one leaves the workforce/looks to reenter because of kids.

plus im dealing with some feelings of inadequacy about changing careers. i can see it now...

MLIS choosing people: ok. you were an english major...good. then you were a secretary for 2 years? and havingnt been working for 2+. and now you want to be a librarian...rrriiigght. and why should we let you in?

me: cause i like books?

looking at the requirements for applying requires 3 personal/professional references and a personal statement. oy. im already freaking out about it. but im determined to make it work - i will rehash my bosses - i kept sending them christmas cards for a reason!! - and find some time to volunteer/work at the libraries i frequent. plus maybe work at starbucks.

in lighter notes, ive gotten back in the super thrifty mode. i borrowed the complete tightwad gazette from the library again and got some good ideas for stuff. every time i get it, i think i should buy it, but even amy says to borrow it from the library to save money.

so heres some of the ways im stretching our money:

method laundry detergent: when we were in the market for a new washer and dryer, i really wanted to bite the bullet and get the more expensive front loaders because they use less water - very important in drought prone areas. i like method because it is bio-degradable, crunchy-approved, and super HE concentrated. for 12.99, the bottle says i get 64 loads of laundry.

i bought a jug of it when we moved in early september. i just now bought a new bottle. now give or take a few weeks when i was out of town, thats over three months of laundry. i did the math and i do about 8 loads of laundry a week. 3 of those are "heavy" - diapers. 12 weeks times 8 loads equals 96 loads of laundry. well over what the bottle said. that works out to 13ish cents a load. granted tide or some other generic detergent is cheaper, but they arent as concentrated, i hate the smell, plus have all those crappy chemicals im trying to avoid. now i just cant wait until spring when i can start line drying again.

baking more: it figures that with the weeks of blah weather, i should have been a baking fool. but i didnt. i need to do more.

gardening: one nice thing about living in a southern part of the country is that spring starts in february. im reading up on canning from TwG cause i wanna grow lots of tomatoes. and there are two fence posts left in the backyard that im going to use as a latice for climbing plants.

it's an action...adventure...porno

2007-12-21T21:07:00.000-06:00

not really. but i love orgazmo.

with the kiddos being sick i missed the monthly meeting for 1919 hemphill. they are looking for a librarian to help with the lending library and i totally wanna be an anarcha...feminist....librarian...doula. im so hungry for activist connection and stuff. im a libra, which means i can be extremely indecisive. im still not sure what i wanna be when i grow up. i could totally see myself going to law school. or being a librarian. next summer im going to start training to be a post-partum doula, eventually a birth doula, but for the next few years, i need steady hours. and after that, i think i will go get my MSW. and ive been really obsessing lately about my previous job as a secretary/paralegal. why cant i do it all!?!?!?!

and in case you are interested, here are boromir's favourite youtubes:

monkey fall out boy
kittycat fall out boy
foo fighters
toadies - i come from the water
dinosaur pearl jam

and this post is going to be all over the place

found an article about breastfeeding research over at hathor. after a whole bunch of hemming and hawing comes this:

Dr. Wendy Slusser, a pediatrician and director of the UCLA Breastfeeding Resource Program, said she didn't understand the need for a 400-page report on breast-feeding and health. "Breast-feeding is better than formula . . . isn't that enough?" she asked. She questioned whether it really mattered that breast-feeding "does prevent this or doesn't prevent that."

you'd think, right?

plumbing is for wusses

2007-12-18T20:39:00.000-06:00

this weekend. our washing machine started backing up into the kitchen sink. and then the dish washer didnt drain. thankfully we have the front loading kind that doesnt use lots of water, or the kitchen would have been swamped.

so out came rescue roover. thank jebus for our home warranty. i think it has already "paid for itself" with these two repairs.

so now i can do laundry! yeay??

tuck may have asthma. it's still too early to get a real diagnosis but his snoring, the "forgetting to breath," frequent and pretty severe colds could be attributed to it. my mom said i needed breathing treatments when i was younger and outgrew it, so ive got my fingers crossed.

ming ming is being bizarre. he's been asking to take naps. i think the cold he had, that tuck got and is in it's current nasty form, has gotten a second wind. blah!!

and christmas is a week away. im getting really excited. we bought a real tree this year and it smells wonderfully. and it looks oh so pretty with the three ornaments we have! my folks have been having gifts sent here and ming ming keeps wanting to open them, but i have to say santa is dropping them off and if he sees them, he will come back and take them. tuck seems to understand whats going on, too. he's not very happy that ming ming gets to open his lego advent calendar every day, and he gets nothing. im a bad mama. but he's getting awesome presents so i hope i can make up for it.

i must be getting old

2007-12-03T21:06:00.000-06:00

we now have heat. and the guys who put it in didnt look a day past 18.

im not religious but there are a few things i love about christmas.

1 - i love the scent of pine trees
2 - i celebrated saint nick day and the epiphany when i was little and we are doing the same for the boys
3 - advent calendars! my mom made some for the boys and lego made an advent calendar. it's so awesome!! i bought it mostly for myself.

ive been wanting to blog a bunch of stuff but never got a chance to so here's a quickie.

- the new kroger i shop at had a whole shopping cart of earth's best sesame street kid snacks on sale for a buck a box. they are usually 3+ dollars. i bought 25 boxes.

heat is for wusses

2007-11-23T15:07:00.000-06:00

day two of no furnace. last week i finally got around to calling someone to light the piloy light only to discover the furnace is old and the heat exchanger is cracked and unsafe to run. and because of the holiday weekend, we probably wont get the new one installed until next week. it's a whopping 38 degrees outside. but inside im sure it's no colder than what my parents house is usually set at. honestly i should have my midwestern's card taken from me for thinking a high of 50 is freezing. of all the days to really need to go shopping. we are currently borrowing a space heater from the in-laws.

so instead im making fruit leather. ive been waiting for it to be cold enough to run my stove for 5+ hours. and here it is. and the review actually suggests keep the stove door open!!

fred spent last night and this night with the grandparents so i have my first 24+ hours without him. in the three years he's been born, ive never had a full day without him. so atleast i only have to worry about george in this cold. i was going to spend the day keepng warm by doing some aerobic cleaning but i think id rather spend it in bundled under the blankets in bed reading, knitting or interwebbing.

and i was right. there are cats squatting in our crawlspace. there have been a couple times ive gone out to the back yard and seen them run away - theres a black and white one, a tabby with white markings and a long haired one i havent seen in a while. im pretty sure they are feral. and i would go outside and the board covering the crawl space would be knocked over. our bedroom window is right over it and last night there was one fighting or something. i went to check this afternoon and it appears the only "fight" was with the plywood and metal folding chair used to cover the opening to the crawlspace. they were both knocked over. considering the noise, that cat was PISSSED. it was yhoaling and doing that "MMMRRRGGG" noise cats do when they are really angry. ive freecycled for some live traps or i might just get some. there is a dallas-based feral cat group and one up in denton. i need to call to see if there is something out this way. i think this is going to be my pet (harhar) project. there are way too many animals running around and i dont have a problem with feral cats. i have a problem with feral cat colonies not being managed. and im all for natural birth but i dont want my crawlspace being used as a birth centre.

childbirth education of a feminist

2007-11-17T19:35:00.000-06:00

ive been meaning to post this for about a week now but have been busy. so the day after i post "birth of a feminist" i read this article in mothers movement online e-letter:

What Women Aren't Told About Childbirth

(and here comes the pertinent part - well actually the whole article is damn good - and by good i mean scary - for anyone interested in women's reproductive health and/or women currently or considering becoming pregnant)

Popular media outlets and advertisers would have women believe that labor and delivery happen in only one context: hospitals. When television shows, health magazines and films depict birth as a highly medicalized phenomenon that involves lots of screaming, a command to push and a baby before the next commercial break, it is no wonder that so few women in labor think to ask for more information when they are offered medical interventions. Or that so few are educated about natural childbirth.

back in college i wrote a paper about how crappy the medical establishment was surrounding menstruation. i briefly touched upon pregnancy and birth. i consider myself a relatively smart woman, knew i wanted a natural, hippy, midwive-assisted, keep your patriarchal medical establishment ass away from my vagina, -type birth experience. but still was confused about when my water was supposed to break. you mean i'm not just going to magickally explode and labour will be off and running? and whats this about the baby turning? i didnt really know what that meant but i think it was in a movie and it sounded good.

so much of what we know about pregnancy and birth (and life in general) is what we see in the images bouncing around us. fuck, if every birth played out like they do on ER, the human species would be screwed. childbirth and breastfeeding are a state of mind as much as they are a physical process. when every one around you questions your abilities to birth and feed your children, when movies and tv shows only show worst case "weneedthatbabyoutnoworyouwillbothDIE!!!!!!" scenarios, you get sent formula in the mail the second you pee on a stick, how do we NOT expect women's self-esteem to be affected.

so, yes, we owe it to ourseves to be educated and informed - and inform the hell out of everyone around us. but we also deserve some honesty and respect from the image makers.

woohoo! im live-bloggin' it

2007-11-13T16:01:00.000-06:00

having wifi in the house and a laptop means i can look up recipes from recipezaar without having to print them off or run back and forth from the computer room to the kitchen.

so for your enjoyment, here's my live-blog of southern fried tofu and chicken-fried steak, mash potatos and collard greens.

ok im not exactly sure how one live-blogs (take a drink everytime i say it). so im just making this shit up everytime i put my knife down.

boromir and faramir are so emo. boromir likes the 'fall out boys' songs they play on the radio so i got infinity on high for him. and he loves it - it's hilarious to hear him sing 'thanks for memris.' and the other day faramir was kicking his legs in time to the music when we were listening in the car.

ok. this isnt working. time to extricate children from the dishwasher.

the birth of a feminist

2007-11-06T21:16:00.000-06:00

it bares repeating several times that mothers can be feminists.

reproductive choice doesnt end in birth control and abortion.

judgement of women's bodies isn't ok because you think breastfeeding is icky.

all too many times pregnancy, birth and mothering issues are simply practices in rhetoric on internet feminists communities or devolve into some pissing contest between childfree and childed posters.

as miriam pérez has written, there is a disconnect between pro-choice activists and birth activists even though the two are closer than one would think. actually, i personally dont think it's that much of a stretch, but some feminists need to unlearn thoughts about pregnancy and birth. mothering isnt rhetoric, it's my life. it's women's lives. birth is a feminist issue.

the same society that says women arent smart enough to determine whether to give birth is the same society that says women arent smart enough to determine when, where, with whom and how to give birth. the same society that preys on women's fears of not being pretty, skinny, etc. enough, is the same society that preys on womens insecurities about their ability to birth and feed their babies. it's not feminist to say "i dont want to be/am not a mother, so mothering isn't a feminist issue." that blatant dismissal would not fly if it were exchanged with race or gender identity, body type. this is not to say women of colour or trans-women have not just as equally and oftenly - dont think thats a word - felt the sting of closemindedness and safespace violation. but just as we learned the first day in feminism 101 - all this shit is interrelated. i hate having to reiterate this in my feminist communities. i hate having to align with people who want to destroy a woman's right to choose whether to give birth because i support a woman's right to give birth the way she wants.

as such, if feminists are going to demand less stereotypes of women, less degrading, more diverse images in media, accurate and empowering images of birth and breastfeeding are also necessary. its about creating a woman-positive culture via that culture's images. and just for shits and giggles, can a woman get an abortion on tv with being a victim of murder or the episode turning into some "the more you know" hallmark after school special?

there is a saying in natural birth/women centred birth circles that "We have a secret in our culture, and it's not that birth is painful. It's that women are strong." birth has the potential to be a very empowering event in women's lives. seeing nothing but medicalised images of birth are just as damaging to women's self-confidence as seeing only white women or skinny women plastered everywhere.

zen and art of household maintainence

2007-10-29T19:12:00.000-05:00

i had a fantastic day. made homemade seitan and then used the simmering broth to make creamy chicken and wild rice with leftover roitesserie chicken from the freezer.

tomorow is bread day and im trying english muffins for the first time.

teeheehee

2007-10-28T17:31:00.000-05:00

i have a laptop now. in theory, i should be able to update more - with pictures, too. ive got some musings i have floating in my head ive been wanting to get out so now i should be able to. im so hip now it hurts.

and all the cardboard boxes are gone. we also installed the elfa shelving stuff this weekend in the master bedroom closet. it's finally a house. my hausfrau-fu has been a bit off lately so i havent been mastering too many projects. but i do have some post christmas knitting projects lined up.

until then, i need to weather strip. cant wait until the spring so i can roto-till the backyard and get the garden going. and the in-laws got us some power tools. yeay!

niftiness catalog choice

2007-10-13T08:05:00.000-05:00

saw this on yahoo this morning. catalog choice lets you opt out of recieving catelogs. awesome! im all for not recieve junk mail but also a big part of not spend money isnot being tempted by the shinies that come in the mail. magic cabin is my poison. not only do they send a catelog practically every month, but they also own hearthsongs which has almost the same thing and they add 2 new things to their catelog and send you another. one step ahead is just as bad.

we dont have recycling where i live so anything to simply reduce the amount of trash we make is good by me.

and while you're at it dont forget to stop your other junk mail, too.

product review: smart spin

2007-10-13T07:34:00.000-05:00

i have always been a sucker for those "seen on tv" household products. i dont know what it is. i remember seeing them because they were to only things on sunday morning when my mom would braid my hair. i walked into bed, bath and beyond yesterday and they had a whole wall of the stuff so im going to make this a regular segment.

so paterfamilias bought the smart spin while on his last run to get stuff for the house. it's a smart (harhar!) idea seeing as you always seem to lose the lid for the container you have. i believe gladware even redesigned they containers to you might even have the same brand lid and container, but they wont fit. thanks, jerks. and because of copyright/patent/trademark/jebus, every brand has to be slightly different so there are infinate possiblities to be standing there in front of your cabinets wondering where the fuck the lid for this one is.

the one complaint i have so far is the containers are very small and a bit oldly shaped. the smallest is one cup. it's rare i have leftovers in only that amount. and it seems it is exactly one cup, not wiggle room left for air or liquid to slosh around. the largest size (4 cups, i believe) is still not large enought for your average leftover. and it's oldly shaped, to fit the caddy and the "only 1 square foot of space" that it advertises on the box. image storing your leftover southern fried tofu in an iced tea tumbler.

havent had the chance to run them through the dishwasher/microwave though it says they are safe.

so my rating (1-5)

on paper: 5 - whats not to love? universal lids, compact, it's fool-proof
in my house: 4 - weird size means im still going to have to go out and get more containers, though the small size makes it a good option for packing lunch and/or smaller portions for smaller people.

on this episode of this old house

2007-10-09T09:29:00.000-05:00

*cries oh so many tears* my lovely washing machine is not working. i can only get super hot water. damnit. so maytag is coming friday, which means it's back to gramma and grandpa's to do laundry. and i have to get a whole bunch of odds and ends stuff - like a sponge holder for the kitchen, a step stool. so it's thrift store time.

and here is a list of stuff that i want to do to the house. some is just a pipe dream and may not get done any time soon but, in no particular order:

put in pocket doors between bedrooms
build a shelving unit around the fish take
make/knit curtains for the windows
replace the locks
replace the shower fixture, and redo the bathroom in general.
build my compost bin
have the orginal (1940s) cedar panelling in the living room refinished
replace weather stripping around front and back door
get rid of all the weed trees and trash in the back yard.

and i finally have enough kitchen items unpacked to make a proper dinner. i think moving every now and then is good. in the process of going through the community pantry, i found three bags of lentils, two boxes of orechetti pasta and more tea than we could drink in a year. i need to talk to chef deb at vegsource to see what she can mcguyver out of our current stock

happy hausfrau

2007-10-05T15:51:00.001-05:00

squuee!!! i have had wetdreams about getting a front-loader ever since they started getting big on the market a few years ago. and they finally came this morning. actually, i had this great witty post all planned out because i was convinced today was just going to suck major ass, but things worked out quite nicely.

last night i got the call that the washer/dryer was set to arrive between 7-11am. which is early as it is, but seeing as we arent living in the house just yet, and i would have to contend with rush-hour traffic on a notoriously crappy road, i was thinking i was going to have to pack the kids in the car at 5:30am and THEN sit around a house with no food or running water for the next four hours. this on top of the simple fact buddyone has been sleeping like shit and buddytwo is working on teeth, allergies, and an ear infection - if i didnt hate beer so much, id be well on my way to alcoholism this week.

husband stepped in and manned the house the first two hours and i came in later after going to city hall to get the water turned on, but ill get to that later. as im in the car, telling him im coming, the delivery folk call saying they will be at the house in 20-10 mins. somebody alert the media, home service people actually showing up between the hours they allotted you!

and then while im filling out the form to get water, he calls again to tell me it's done and there was a tiny dent in the back of the dryer and we will be getting $75 back on it! yeay, somebody loves me. i head to the house, and not twenty minutes later there's a city worker in my front yard and i can now flush the toilet! well not really, for some reason the tank isnt filling. called my dad but he hasnt called me back about it.

so my washer/dryer is so pretty. i cant wait to do laundry. now i just need to hang my line in the back. and now i can run the hose and get rid of some of the ugly shrubs in my front yard.

2007-09-30T08:36:00.000-05:00

so a first time post. here's where i get to set the tone, i guess.

ill try to keep the cast of characters under george eliot length (or thomas pinchon, if thats more your style).

jillian - me, but i dont think i would ever refer to myself by my name, this is just for clarity's sake.
paterfamilias - spouse, husband, partner, babydaddy, whatever, but i will never refer to him as DH. blech!
the boys - for their own protection and my own, im not giving their names but they will be referred to as buddy one and buddy two, fred and george or whatever the flavour of the day is.
gramma and grampa - jeremy's folks
granny - jeremy's grandmother
ma'maw and poppy - my parents

theres more people, obviously but these are main folks.

soo...what else...ah yes. we get the keys later today, so let the good times roll.